The Edinburgh International Film Festival opens this evening and runs to the 29th of June, its first time in its controversial new slot (for the rest of its history it has been part of the massive Edinburgh Festival period in August, the world’s biggest cultural event). As usual the EIFF team have assembled a pretty diverse array of films from around the world, from features to documentaries and short works. Of special interest to me are screenings of two fascinating-looking animations which we’ve mentioned here on the blog before – Bill Plympton’s new movie Idiots and Angels (“you’ll believe a man can fly – and pull his own wings off”) and the animation anthology Peur (s) du Noir (Fear of the Dark), which counts some very gifted comics artists among its contributors: Charles ‘Black Hole’ Burns, Richard McGuire and one of my personal favourites, the astonishing Lorenzo Mattotti (yes, I have my ticket booked).
(a scene by Richard McGuire for Peur (s) du Noir/Fear of the Dark, (c) Prime Linea and Richard McGuire)
And staying with the animation theme, the legendary Ray Harryhausen will be giving a talk, along with a screening of the classic Jason and the Argonauts, which showcases his amazing stop-motion work, not least in the brilliant sequence pitting live actors against fighting skeletons, still, for my money, one of the best fantasy scenes ever committed to celluloid. Sure it could be done today more smoothly and more realistically with CGI but I doubt the movie magic would be recaptured with it. There are also some science fiction works (such as Alex Rivera’s Mexican SF film Sleep Dealer) and author Harlan Ellison is the subject of Erik Nelson’s documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth (and, presumably, lawyers). The EIFF launches this evening; for full details of screenings, workshops and lectures check out the official site.
(the famous fighting skeletons by Ray Harryhausen in Jason and the Argonauts)
Wed, Jun 18, 2008
Art and animation, Film, TV and radio