Sometimes these diary articles serve a dual function - to let readers know what happened at an event like the GFF, and to remind those who were there at the time but so overworked, inebriated or just generally exhausted that they've lost track of it all. As this year's GFF wound to a close more and more people found themselves in that sort of situation. It may sound like a fabulous party but it's tough to keep going for 11 days. I'd already fought off a throat infection and a fever, and as the weather turned bitterly cold I had to summon all my reserves of strength to make it to those last few films and events.
There were still a lot of films to see. Saturday saw a screening of one of the most controversial films of the festival, Stolen, in which a planned documentary about family reunions in a refugee camp in Algeria turns into something quite different. The filmmakers, including Violeta Ayala, who attended the festival, say that they uncovered evidence of slavery amongst the Western Saharan people. Representatives of the Western Saharans say that they invented the scandal to try and make a name for themselves, and that they were possibly tools of the Moroccan government. With clarifying information difficult to track down, audiences are left to make up their own minds. The festival organisers clarified that the film doesn't represent the views of the festival but "whilst the film is not subject to any legal proceedings we feel that is acceptable to screen it." We hope to bring you further news about this controversial work at a future date.
Also political, though less controversial, is Kandahar Break, which screened that evening and was followed by a Q&A with director David Whitney. Based on real life stories from Afghanistan, it follows an English engineer whose love for an Afghani woman in a Taliban-controlled region endangers both their lives. Unfortunately its low production values and clumsy scripting undermine the strength of the story, but it makes important points about the history of the area which will be a revelation to many viewers.
After Kandahar Break, I hurried down to Cineworld to see the List Surprise Movie. This is an event I always look forward to and it was also my only chance to watch something with Stuart - people always tell us how nice it must be that we get to work together, but the fact is that we're always busy working in different areas and during a festival like this we hardly see each other. Stuart was the official photographer for the event but still had to go through a lot of rigmarole to get his camera into the screening, which was under intensive security. I found this bizarre. What could be such a big deal? In the lift on the way up, festival director Allison Gardner had been telling everyone that they would never guess what the film was going to be (everyone there was on their way to it, except for one young couple heading to a screening of From Paris With Love, who received our sympathies - "Enjoy your rubbish movie," Allison said). My money was on Valhalla Rising as I knew from producer Karen Smyth that it had been considered for the festival, but it wouldn't have attracted so much security. Was this something really big?
You can imagine the audience reaction when the projector rolled and up came the title Greenberg. A Noah Baumbach film. Starring Ben Stiller. It was like looking forward to an exciting-looking Christmas present and then unwrapping it to find a box of chocolates - not that chocolates can't be nice, but as a surprise, they leave something to be desired. There was something about it that recalled last year's Edinburgh festival with its much-hyped premiere of Away We Go, where everyone was relieved when it away and went. Not that Greenberg is a bad film, and it has some laugh-out-loud moments, it's just not a very strong film. "There's only one Woody Allen," said Stuart. "This was trying. It just lacked that something extra that makes Woody Allen's films work."
"Yes," I said. "The jokes."
When the credits rolled, the polite silence in the auditorium was deafening. We made our excuses and left. Outside we caught Susanna, who had been watching The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls. Apparently that was a great success, lots of fun and really popular with the audience, who were laughing all the way through. She said it had also taught her quite a bit about New Zealand's history. UK distributors take note - it hasn't been picked up yet and it looks like a winner.
Donald, meanwhile, spent the evening - and much of the day - taking in five horror films, several shorts, trailers and other treats at Frightfest. This included a screening of all the collected fragments of giallo masterpiece Lizard In A Woman's Skin, though he recommends catching the DVD release which will see them arranged in a better way - this rough version included material as originally recorded in English, other material dubbed into Italian with no subtitles, and still more segments dubbed back into English, with little effort at lip-synching. Still, he reckons it should be great when it's fixed, and he also loved new film Amer, which uses the tropes of giallo to muse on the female form in a way which has more to do with art than conventional horror.
Also screening at Frightfest was one of this year's likely big horror hits, genetic-experiment-gone-wrong shocker Splice, which audience members generally either disliked or found hilarious. [Rec] 2 was there - not as good as the original but much better than anyone had expected (Donald likens it to the relationship between Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens); and finally there was Rejkjavik Whale Watching Massacre, gleefully offensive, bloody and unashamedly OTT. There was also a special appearance by director Dan Schaffer who talked about his recent film Doghouse, taking the opportunity to explain how unhappy he was with the final cut, which had turned his critique of laddish behaviour and modern male fears into a comedy about beating up women. We'll aim to bring you more on that story at a later date.
The last day of the festival saw a special anniversary screening of one of Scotland's all time biggest cinematic successes, the much-loved comedy Gregory's Girl. It was the first time for more than a decade that the whole cast had reunited. Dee Hepburn, who played footballer heroine Dorothy, had proven elusive when festival organisers tried to track her down, but was eventually found via her son, who happens to work in Cineworld. The assembled cast had a great time talking to a crowd of devoted fans, plus a few people who were seeing it for the first time, and it made a fantastic final day event.
I spent that final day on rather less spectacular activities, taking in the French film The Girl On The Train and the Egyptian film Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story. The former is based on a real life case of a girl who falsely claimed to have been racially attacked, and is interesting but a little too lightweight for its own good, despite using that approach to try and understand its heroine's apparent flippancy. The latter has interesting points to make as it tells the story of a TV show host who compromises her career for her husband's by moving from politics into 'soft' women's stories, but ends up discovering inflammatory material in the process - the trouble is that these stories aren't really as daring as they pretend to be, and much of what is really problematic for modern Egyptian women is glossed over in precisely the TV show style that the film is trying to critique.
Stuart spent Sunday afternoon at Burning, a film about Glasgow band Mogwai, which was apparently pretty dull, though fans seemed to like it. Almost entirely composed of unimaginatively-shot concert footage, it's fun for those who can't get to an actual gig but perhaps not very interesting otherwise. It was followed by a live DJ set featuring Mogwai members at a 'secret venue' that turned out to be Mono (big surprise, guys), but he had to miss that so he could cover the red carpet opening of the evening's closing gala, the world premiere of Legacy. Director Thomas Ikimi and several members of the film's production team arrived, and it was the first time some of them had seen the completed work, so there was much excitement all round.
My reviewing schedule finally complete, I was just about ready to collapse, but I had a restorative cup of tea and hauled myself out to Mama San for the evening's party. These occasions are always fun as everybody finally gets to let their hair down. Stuart had already done quite a bit of that by the time I arrived; having consumed several glasses of white wine, he was on to the beer, and hurling abuse at Sean Biggerstaff because of the latter's professed dislike of David Lynch and because "he likes Ghostbusters 2 just as much as Ghostbusters, which is just not right." Fortunately Sean seemed more amused than annoyed; it's difficult to worry too much about criticism from someone who then runs off to dance to Journey.
Having been unsure whether or not I'd find the energy to attend, I ended up staying at the party well into the small hours, catching up with other journalists and with staff, congratulations being passed around on a job well done. With over 30,000 tickets sold in total, I think the festival team has a right to be pleased with itself. I also chatted to the producers of Legacy, who were in a great mood, saying that they felt the premiere had gone really well. Being a Glasgow-based company it was particularly special for them to get to open their film in front of a home crowd.
So that's it until next year. Overall, I think my favourite films were Hidden Diary and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the latter of which you can soon catch on general release. Others loved Eyes Wide Open, No One Knows About Persian Cats, and Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans; and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo was universally acclaimed as a brilliant documentary. Here's to next year, and if it's half as good as this, we have a lot to look forward to!
