Glasgow Film News: June 2006

The annual West End Festival is the main event in the city this month, and while its film arm is always a bit of a gamble, this year sees quite a strong line-up, mainly taking place at Ashton Lane's plush little Grosvenor Cinema. The highlight is two screenings of the classic visionary tale 'The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari', a haunting and highly influential piece of early cinema. The 1920 silent production will be given an extra dimension by a live piano accompaniment by Karen McIver, who is also playing at the 'Silent Movies of the West End' event, showcasing archive films of the city's history.

The Grosvenor also has some late night screenings over the three weekends of the festival. Comprising 'Trainspotting', Terry Gilliam's drug-fuelled hotchpotch 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', and this year's Nick Cave-penned Aussie Western 'The Proposition', it's an interesting, if random, selection; with the latter particularly worth seeing if you missed its brief run a few months ago.

Gilmorehill's June screenings also come under the Festival banner, and are grouped with the heading 'Eight Movies Around The World'. As usual, the Gilmorehill programmers have put together a great set of films, with Scotland represented by Bill Forsyth's ice-cream wars comedy 'Comfort And Joy'. Other screenings range from the harrowing Beirut hostage drama 'Blind Flight' - telling the story of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy - to the magical fantasies of 'Spirited Away' and 'Belleville Rendezvous', two very different but equally entertaining animations (see p. 21 for more). Many of the screenings have post-viewing speakers or discussions scheduled, so it should make for a very worthwhile series.

Last, but by no means least, June sees the return of the much-missed film quiz to the GFT. Seeing this void in the lives of Glasgow cinema-goers (or should that be cinema-geeks?), we at the Skinny have taken the bull by the horns and volunteered to bring the magic back, commissioning our film writers (definitely geeks) to come up with a quiz worthy of the name. If you're up for the challenge, and the chance to win some actual prizes (we hope), get a team together and we'll see you there.