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The full programme will launch 10 July. Here are some of the highlights.
ALL OR NOTHING UK Premiere
Directed by Mike Leigh, UK 2002
Starring Timothy Spall, Alison Garland & Lesley Manville
All or Nothing is set on a London working-class housing estate over
the course of a long weekend. Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver
Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy, and she works
on the checkout at a supermarket. The joy has gone out of Phil's and
Penny's life ”but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, they are
brought together to rediscover their love.
Mike Leigh will be in Edinburgh in August for the premiere of All of
Nothing.
TADPOLE European Premiere
Directed by Gary Winick, USA 2002
Starring Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter & Bebe Neuwirth
A teenage boy gets an unexpected initiation into the world of (older)
women in this smart, unexpectedly sweet sex comedy, the hit of this
year's Sundance Film Festival. Poised somewhere between Rushmore and
Whit Stilman's Metropolitan, this hilarious tale of misdirected lust
centres on precocious young Oscar - hopelessly in love with his step-mother
(Sigourney Weaver), but seduced by her best friend (a superb, sexy Bebe
Neuwirth). With its razor-sharp, elegant dialogue (imagine The Graduate
as scripted by Billy Wilder), and fine ensemble cast, this sophisticated
comedy of manners is a pure delight.
CHANGING LANES UK Premiere
Directed by Roger Michel, USA 2002
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Affleck & Toni Collette
An urban thriller, from the director of Notting Hill, starring Oscar
nominees Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck. Another day in New York
City - but for two very different men, a chance encounter in a traffic
accident sends their lives spiralling out of control. A brash young
attorney (Affleck) speeds away from the scene of the crime, leaving
not only case notes essential for his trial, but an aggrieved motorist
(Jackson) with a burning desire for revenge. The stakes are raised,
ethics are re-examined, and neither man's life will ever be the same
again ...
THE GURU World Premiere
Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer, UK & US 2001
Starring Heather Graham, Jimmy Mistry & Maria Tomei
A young Indian dance teacher named Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry) embarks
for New York City in pursuit of fame and fortune only to find himself
working as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. Through an encounter with
Sharonna (Heather Graham), a beautiful adult-film star, the shy inexperienced
Ramu is mistaken for a spiritual leader the Guru of Sex
and becomes an overnight celebrity. Fame comes at a price, however,
and Ramu must choose between his newfound fame and his growing love
for the beautiful Sharonna.
RABBIT-PROOF FENCE European Premiere
Directed by Philip Noyce, Australia & UK 2002
Starring Kenneth Branagh
A landmark drama and homecoming for Australian expat director Noyce
(Dead Calm, Clear And Present Danger). Based on a true story, it follows
the journey of three young aboriginal girls, taken from their family
and forced to assimilate into white society. Revisiting one of the darkest
chapters of Australian history ”the "Stolen Generation"
of Koori children it stars Kenneth Branagh as the misguided "Chief
Protector of Aborigines". With the luminous cinematography of Christopher
(In The Mood for Love) Doyle, and an original score by Peter Gabriel,
this is unforgettable viewing.
8 WOMEN UK Premiere
Directed by Francois Ozon, France 2002
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart &
Fanny Ardant
An awsome array of French actresses in this genre-bending comedy/mystery/musical
”from the maker of Sitcom and Water Drops On Burning Rocks. Somewhere
in the French countryside, a murder most foul has been committed”
but which of the eight glamorous women is the guilty party? Part whodunnit,
part musical and always bitchy fun, Ozon's latest is an witty, affectionate
homage to Hollywood˜s Golden Age”from its lavish costumes
and faux-Technicolor, to the awesome array of French divas he˜s
assembled.
THE SON OF THE BRIDE (Hijo de la novia, El)
UK Premiere Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina 2001
A 42-year-old Buenos Aires workaholic discovers that his family means
more than his business, in this contemporary comedy, nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, 2002. Stuck in a mid-life crisis,
abandoned by his wife and facing the closure of his restaurant, Nino
must also contend with his father's wish to remarry his ageing, Alzheimer's-stricken
mother in the church service they never had the first in an escalating
series of events that provokes change, including a heart attack, the
sale of the eatery and a rougher road to the altar than anyone anticipated.
DECASIA UK Premiere
Directed by Bill Morrison
A kind of anti-Koyaanisqatsi, Bill Morrison˜s experimental epic
an assemblage of decaying, turn-of-the-century film footage, set to
an original score by Bang On A Can's Michael Gordon”is one of
the key events of this years EIFF. Abstract psychedelia? Ethnographic
documentary? Argument for the benefits of film preservation? Whatever
your response, this exercise in visual overload dazzles with its beauty
even as it assaults through the force of Gordon's thunderous orchestral
score as played by the 55 members of the Basel Sinfonietta.
RETROSPECTIVE PROGRAMME KON ICHIKAWA
Along with his contemporaries Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Ozu, Ichikawa
is one of the grand masters of Japanese cinema. Given his extraordinary
prolificity (with more than 75 feature films to his credit), the focus
will be on one decade of his work ranging from his early satirical comedies,
wittily exploring the bleakness of post-war Japan, to the desolate beauty
and humanist concern of later. One of the great craftsmen of the screen,
his films are visually ravishing, quietly subversive and emotionally
wrenching.
Retrospective highlights include: The Harp Of Burma (1956), Conflagration
(1958), Fires On The Plain (1959) & An Actor˜s Revenge (1963).
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