The best film events in Scotland in November

1) French Film Festival

Lover for a Day

It looks to have been a pretty good year in cinema for our neighbours across the channel, as evidenced by the lively line-up for the upcoming French Film Festival, which turns 25 this year. It’s a packed programme, but for starters we’d recommend the new films from Philippe Garrel (Lover for a Day), Laurent Cantet (The Workshop) and François Ozon (The Double Lover); Before Summer Ends is the pick of the Documentary strand; and in Classics, don’t miss the festival’s tribute to the late Jeanne Moreau, which includes a double bill at GFT of two great films she made with Louis Malle: The Lovers and The Fire Within. For more info, see our highlights.

French Film Festival UK runs 2 Nov-17 Dec in Edinburgh, Glasgow and various other cities across Scotland and the rest of the UK. For full programme details, head to frenchfilmfestival.org.uk

2) Young Fathers: House Guests

Young Fathers – image: Mihaela Bodlovic

Edinburgh hip-hop trio Young Fathers are the latest of Filmhouse's House Guests – guest curators from creative fields outside of cinema who've programmed a season of films that have been important in their life and work. Young Fathers’ eclectic line-up is particularly vibrant, ranging from Peter Watkins' extraordinary 1967 study of celebrity Privilege, to Alain Gomis' day-in-a-life of a dying man Tey, to joyous lycanthrope anime Wolf Children. Find out more here.

6 Nov to 14 Dec, Filmhouse, Edinburgh. More details at filmhousecinema.com

3) Coen Brothers: CineMasters

Arguably the finest American filmmakers working today, the Coens are the latest to be crowned CineMasters by GFT. The five-film programme that’s been cooked up includes Oscar-winning western No Country For Old Men (showing on 35mm), drum-tight noir debut Blood Simple, breakneck screwball comedy Raising Arizona, knockabout Odyssey riff O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and perhaps their most-loved and influential film, blackly comic crime flick Fargo.

3 Nov-4 Dec, GFT, Glasgow – more info here. 

4) Who Can You Trust? Thrillers Season

A tantalising line-up of nail-biters comes to GFT as part of BFI’s national thriller season. There’s a pleasingly international flavour to GFT's selection, with films from Italy (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion), Sweden (Man on the Roof), Germany (The Flight) and The Netherlands (The Vanishing) on the menu. For celluloid nuts, there are a few unmissable 35mm screenings, including Eloy de la Iglesia’s rarely-screened queer political thriller The Deputy, Bong Joon-ho’s Freudian headfuck Mother and Jane Campion’s much misunderstood In the Cut. Also be sure to catch Best Foreign Language Oscar-winner Z, with an intro from Andy Willis.

5 Nov-12 Dec, GFT, Glasgow – full programme at glasgowfilm.org/shows/thriller-who-can-you-trust

5) Artists’ Moving Image Festival 2017

According to their website, this year’s Artists’ Moving Image Festival “comprises a constellation of screenings, readings and workshops extending from an invitation made by writer and researcher Laura Guy and artist Cara Tolmie to artists Mia Edelgart, Deirdre J. Humphrys and Alberta Whittle.” Highlights look to be the first Scottish screening of Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki’s mid-70s piece Double Labyrinthe, considered a touchstone in French feminist experimental film, and The Work That We Do, which is described as “reconstruction of a polyamorous lesbian relationship in which the work of emotional labour meets with the genre of melodrama.”

11-12 Nov, Tramway, Glasgow; luxscotland.org.uk/event/artists-moving-image-festival-2017

6) Gloria Grahame: In a Lonely Place & The Big Heat

In a Lonely Place

In a sharp bit of programming, GFT screen two classic noirs featuring knockout performances from Gloria Grahame to coincide with the release of Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, the bitter-sweet true-life tale of how this Hollywood starlet found love late in life with an aspiring young Liverpudlian actor. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is a fine film, but it’s sure to become a richer experience by seeing it alongside these two wonderful noirs, which sees Grahame at the height of her powers.

In a Lonely Place: 24-25 Nov; The Big Heat: 26-27 Nov, GFT, Glasgow

7) Havana Glasgow Film Festival

Esteban

The Havana Glasgow Film Festival returns for its third edition with a programme that “aims to celebrate the cultures of the twin cities Glasgow and Havana, through their passion for cinema, politics and music.” A highlight of this year’s event looks to be a celebration of Che Guevara built around a screening of San Ernesto Born in Higuera to mark the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary's death, which Guevara’s daughter, Aleida Guevara, will attend. Opening film Esteban, also looks promising; it follows a ten year old who dreams of being a professional piano player and has been dubbed the Cuban Billy Elliot.

9-12 Nov, CCA & GFT, Glasgow – full programme at www.hgfilmfest.com

8) Wages of Fear & Sorcerer double-bill

Sorcerer

Sorcerer – William Friedkin's 1977 existential thriller about four men who drive two truckloads of unstable nitroglycerine across uneven jungle – is back in cinemas on a spruced up digital print. Filmhouse has taken this opportunity to pair it with Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear, the film Friedkin was remaking. It will be fascinating to watch the same stories told very differently in one sitting.

26 Nov, Filmhouse, Edinburgh

9) Fokus

Marija

This mini-celebration of German cinema is back for its third year with a snapshot of the contemporary film coming out of the country. We’ve heard great things about Marija, a character study following a Ukrainian migrant worker trying to get by on the mean streets of Dortmund. You’ll find other films dealing with immigration, race and religion in modern Germany in the Fokus programme in the form of House Without Roof, Hördur and Brother Jakob. Also a must see is Sign of Life, the rarely-screened debut feature from Werner Herzog, which also plays as part of Filmhouse’s Herzog of the Month.

23-27 Nov, Filmhouse, Edinburgh

10) London Symphony

Talented young filmmaker Alex Barrett takes us on a journey in this black and white paean to London, exploring its diversity of culture, architecture and religion. Barrett will be at Filmhouse for the screening to explain what inspired him to make this modern-day take on the city symphony.

3 Nov, Filmhouse, Edinburgh