Chignon Director Meets Chaplin Family
Yesterday French director Jérome Bonnell was taking part in a Question and Answer session on his film fest entry, Le Chignon D’Olga when he noticed that two of his hero Charlie Chaplin’s children were sitting in the audience! Geraldine and Michael Chaplin caught up with Bonnell after the Q & A in the Filmhouse foyer – no doubt to discuss the figure known affectionately to the French as ‘Charlot’; their father and Bonnell’s childhood hero. Bonnell’s film, Olga’s Chignon, features a Chaplin fanatic who watches a video of The Circus over and over, and manages to get his young nephew hooked too.
Rolling in the aisles
Terence Davies had a captive audience this afternoon as he chatted with Shane Danielson for the annual BAFTA sponsored interview. The EIFF programme had billed him as being ‘funny, candid and clever’ and he sure as heck did not disappoint. The audience listened enthralled as he discussed his films (with real passion – this man eats, sleeps, walks and talks film), as well as talking very frankly about his family life, (sister Maisie sat in the audience), his religion and his sexuality.
Besides cracking up the sell out audience with his wicked and often camp sense of humour, Davies had selected a clip from Carry On Nurse for the audience to enjoy.
Extracts from his own films, The House of Mirth and The Long Day Closes, were shown and EIFF artistic director (and big softy) Shane Danielson admitted to having a tear in his eye as he watched a montage of classroom, church, and street scenes from The Long Day Closes which he said, never fails to make him cry. Danielson is obviously a huge personal fan of Davies career, attributing him as ‘an immaculate story-teller’ and ‘a British director probably without peer’.
Director's Cuts
Some comments made by Terence Davies this afternoon:
On a colleague who said she ‘loathed’ one of his scripts: "Yes, I had her killed."
On his therapist: "He and I have really bonded – even he hates my father now!"
On Los Angeles: "With all those people walking around who’ve had plastic surgery, it really does look like the Village of the Damned."
On an actress who tried to change some of her lines in a film of his: "When filming finished I arranged for her to attend a military boot camp."
A comment he overheard from a woman in Dublin: "Let’s just say she’s so nasty she would turn an apricot into a lemon just by looking at it."
Teachings From a Master
Aidan Quinn was spotted slipping away discreetly from the UGC after giving a Reel Life Masterclass on acting. He had been discussing his career, his favourite films and his professional influences in front of a live audience this afternoon.
Macauley Camps It Up
The response was fantastic at the press preview of Party Monster this afternoon. Fenton Bailey’s feature film starring Macauley Culkin and Seth Green as two attention-seeking lycra-loving party animals in 1980s New York was met with raucous laughter during the screening and plenty positive feedback after. Besides a visually stunning colour-fest of images, there are some show-stopping performances from the two drug popping male leads and their side-kick Chloe Sevigny.
To coin a term from the film’s cross-dressing character, James St James, this film is ‘just so fabulous!’.
Before Afterlife
The cast and director turned up for a red carpet call this evening before the first screening of Alison Peebles latest film, Afterlife ("a beautifully crafted, delightfully scripted film," says Keith Hennessey Brown). After posing outside the cinema for photos, they headed for the UGC bar where they were joined by a select few for celebratory drinks to celebrate the film’s premiere.
The things these actors have to do in the name of their craft….
Until tomorrow,
Claire x
