|
|
The Real Dancer Takes A Bow
Everybody's talking about Billy
Elliot. This uplifting tale about a teenage boy who wants to become a
dancer has become the hit of the festival and is top of the Audience Awards
at the halfway point. The director and cast were at the premiere, including
young Jamie Bell, the star of the film.
Also superb, was the party held afterwards at Indigo Yard. Ballet dancing
was, luckily, not compulsory, and you didn't need Yorkshire grit to
persevere in the queue at the bar. All in all it was a superb day for the
film and hopefully it'll do well in the cinemas.
Never Work With Children or Eels
The other big British film of the day was Hotel
Splendide, described aptly by one of the audience as "a Brit cross
between Delicatessen, Gormenghast and Psycho". Practically the whole cast
and crew turned up to the screening (apart from Toni Collette), and Stephen
Tompkinson showed himself to be in a slightly different league by arriving
separately in a personal limo.
During the discussion afterwards, directpr
Terence Gross revealed that the most difficult part of the film was working
with the many eels needed to produce the meals served up in the kitchen.
Apparently they were going to get Daniel Craig to skin a whole eel but
after finding that no chef in London was willing to teach him, the
production team discovered why: eels can still move around after they've
been frozen for a year. Ugh!
Beaver Trilogy Gets A Grilling
The director of Beaver
Trilogy came under fire for apparently exploiting Larry, the inspiration behind
the films. This was not surprising as he's had the same response at a New
York screening except that the audience weren't quite as restrained - they
booed him off stage.
Tartan Shorts Slated
Finally, in a slightly darker note for British filmmaking, the new set of
Tartan Shorts were described as lacklustre by many of the people at their
premiere. With all the moeny being poured into Scottish film production, is
this the best we can do. What we want are more people like Peter Mullan and
Lynne Ramsey, both graduates of the tartan Shorts scheme, who can shallenge
the conventions of filmmaking. Budding filmmakers take note.
Trinity
|
|
