EIFF 2008 round-up, the overview

Well, the end credits have finally rolled on the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Over 130 films have been and gone while directors, actors, producers, writers and maybe even a gaffer and best boy or two from around the globe have jetted back home.

For those of us who spent time trying to sift through the programme to find some gems, it’s been exhausting but fun. Man wasn’t made for sitting watching films in a darkened room all day while the real world goes on outside, though there are worse ways to spend a wet Friday.

Out of the twenty-five or so films that I watched, my favourite by far was Tarsem Singh’s 2006 movie, The Fall. Starting off in a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s, stuntman Roy (Lee Pace) is paralysed after he falls from his horse. Befriended by young Alexandria (Catinca Untara), Roy tries to convince her to steal him some morphine so he can commit suicide. He starts to tell her a fairytale of epic proportions, with thieves, swordsmen, evil overlords and brave adventurers. Gorgeous to watch and with an unaffected performance from the young Untara, this is a cult classic in the making.

Of Time and the City was a bit of an acquired taste, consisting entirely of footage of Liverpool from the last 60-or-so years as remembered by director Trevor Davies. Humour and nostalgia make for a potent mix as the city’s fortunes change over the decades and the viewer is left wondering if change is always for the better.

WALL-E was the biggie of the Festival and as such stood out from the many smaller budget films on offer. It also stood out because of the sheer scale of the story and the simplicity of the opening 20 minutes or so as WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class) trundles through a desolated city while the human race spins away through space while it waits for an ecologically-knackered Earth to replenish itself. WALL-E is truly one for viewers of all ages and should be seen on the big screen rather than on DVD in a few months time.

From Sweden came Let the Right One In, the everyday story about boy-meets-vampire that won the Rottentomatoes.com Critical Consensus Award, and you can see why. Dark (it always seems to be night time) and cold (it always seems to be snowing), the film somehow manages to have a lot of warmth, mainly in the tender relationship between young Oskar and Eli.

Also on offer this year were a number of “in-person” interviews with such luminaries as cinematographer Roger Deakins, director Shane Meadows, actor Brian Cox and, best of all, SFX legend Ray Harryhausen. The man behind the stop motion sequences in films such as Mighty Joe Young and Jason and the Argonauts, to hear him talk about his decades in the movies was a real honour.

Dud of the EIFF for me was closing night film, Faintheart. Dull and uninspiring, this story of a Viking re-enactor (Eddie Marsan) trying to reunite with his wife (Spaced’s Jessica Hynes) and son was painful to sit through, despite the best efforts of the cast.

2008 saw another fantastic range of films screened, with ticket sales apparently up on 2007. Roll on 2009!