How can you have a glamorous red carpet event when the rain lashes down? The star of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof is arriving any minute in an authentic Dodge Challenger. The same car used for death-defying stunts in the film.
Two minutes to go. Staff have a routine choreographed. A phone call. They roll up the plastic sheets covering the carpet. Stunt-girl turned Hollywood star, Zoe Bell revs the engine of the coolest four-wheeler on the block a couple of times (this is a sound Jeremy Clarkson would lose an arm for).
Then she steps out, teetering on transparent high heels, as if floating on the sea of red. Tall, glamorous, full of Kiwi punch, Zoe makes a striking entrance. She might be a martial arts expert who can kick her way out of any situation, but she exudes feminine charm enough to bring guys to their knees. "I usually have Kurt and Quentin's arms to hang on to!" she tells me.
We have a quick chat about the reality of the hair-raising scenes. "There's no CGI," she says. The violent car chase scenes are for real. "Are you a dangerous date?" She laughs. (In the film, Kurt's characters calls the girls he kills his 'girlfriends'.) "I don't want to say - it might put people off," she smiles. She assures me that Kurt is not dead (Phew!). For all her star appeal, Zoe comes across as a regular girl, you can imagine having a few beers and a laugh with her in her hometown of Auckland.
The Red Carpet is cut short as the rain starts to hammer down with a vengeance. The audience piles in for the preview. A short by famous Danish director Lars Von Trier is on first. A guy insists on chatting in a movie, mostly about his work and how to make money. He eventually lets the unfortunate recipient get a word in edgeways. "So what do you do?" The guy trying to watch the film turns to him and says, "I kill people," and caves his head in with a hammer. Everyone goes back to watching the movie in peace. It's called Occupations. And if we tell people to turn their mobiles off, why don't we tell them not to talk? Then again, I remember one festival where the organiser told a chattering little old lady to shut the f*ck up. It turns out to be the director's mum. Ooops!
Zoe does a quick Q&A after the well-received premiere. "The hardest part for me," she says, "was acting scared."
(Eye For Film will be bringing you a full review and analysis of this kick-ass film as soon as we can get it typed up and feel sober enough to click on 'spellchecker'.)
The earlier part of my day was a more temperate experience, even if was in the Filmhouse Bar. Experimental Director Jennifer Fox had agreed to meet me to chat about her new film, Flying: Confessions Of A Free Woman. I felt honoured that she had come almost directly from the airport, stopping only to replace essential items after The World's (Least) Favourite Airline had played Lose Her Luggage at Heathrow.
Jennifer's technique, and one she teaches her students, is to carefully open herself emotionally to create bridges. "It's like using myself as a metaphor," she tells me. In her film, Jennifer shares the most personal of experiences and then uses the emotion as a link to the traumas of women that she meets in developing countries. She's very good at it - you feel an instant connection with her. But hearing how she does it in more academic terms is fascinating. I wanted to sit for hours discussing questions of gender, documentary making, women's rights and the psychology of communication. But rather than me tell you - watch her film and see it in action. It's on this Sunday in two parts, or on 25th and 26th in two parts.
One of the challenging things is that it is six hours long. People are not used to thinking of a film in terms of that amount of time. But the experience is something different - and very worth while. (You can also see the Director at a photo call at the Filmhouse on Tuesday 21st at 10am - or at the Q&A's after her screenings).
A friend of mine joins us briefly, Nesta Morgan, who is an artist, storyboarder, cartoonist and production designer for motion pictures. Her endeavour is very original. At film festivals, gala screenings and photo calls, with pen on paper, she sketches a cartoon. The images are her on-the-spot inspiration, weaving into a single drawing features of the film and the celebrity at its heart. (UK Film Festival Magazine called her media sketches "a silent movie but captured into one shot; a live storyboard"). If you are a celeb and she starts holding a conversation with you and drawing at the same time, you may well be asked to autograph her finished product.
Talk about charm! Today I've met three very distinctive and very unusual women, all with unique and very special styles of communication. And that even before we do movies.
Getting home on Saturday night is not always easy. Fortunately a cabbie feels compassion for me, cancels his current booking and runs me home.
Some Sunday highlights for your viewing pleasure:
1pm Filmhouse - Flying, Confessions of a Free Woman (see above) 9.15pm Cineworld - Phantom Love (high quality surreal art) 10pm Cameo - I'm a Cyborg, but that's Ok (quirky Edward Scissorhands style comedy from Park Chan Wook, director of classics like Old Boy and Lady Vengeance. You may hate it. I loved it!)
More mainstream offerings this Sunday include A Mighty Heart, Control, Sugarhouse (get there early to snap some photos of the celebs) and Razzle Dazzle. If you enjoyed 40 Year Old Virgin you may also want to be at the Red Carpet for that team's latest offering: it's called Knocked Up. Take your cameras and brollies and get to Cineworld by 6pm.
