Intruders at the EIFF

To boldly go where no man has gone before - a phrase that remains inextricable from a certain sci-fi telly series, and one with limited application to anyone other than James T. Kirk. On the surface, it seems incongruous to veteran B-movie auteur, Roger Corman, and his defiantly practical approach to film making. However, as the his Edinburgh International Film Festival retrospective illustrates, one of the few movies that he took a punt on also turned out to be one of his most pioneering. The Intruder (screening at the Filmhouse on 20th June), perhaps Corman’s boldest and most disconcerting work, features a pre-Star Trek William Shatner giving one of his most lucid and grandiose performances as racist firebrand Adam Cramer; an assured, well dressed figure who visits a small town in the deep south of America and sets about stirring racial tensions among the townsfolk. The Intruder’s themes not only defy their age by remaining depressingly relevant, but they also show that Corman’s skills behind the camera were not restricted to exploitation flicks and managing budgets - in fact, The Intruder was one of the few films he made that failed to turn a profit.

Michael Bay will have no such worries to contend with as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen struts its expensive CGI stuff to all and sundry this week. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen represents the latest in a series of franchises that subversively omit numerical suffixes in favour of fancier titles. We’re not fooled though. Transformers proved to be an improbably competent crowd-pleaser, for sure, but the promise of bigger and better can only mean inevitable disappointment. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox reprise their roles as Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes as they take on the Decepticons, voiced by perennially evil sods Hugo Weaving and Tony Todd.

Willem Dafoe, himself no stranger to playing the baddie, gives another tour de force of malevolent gurning alongside Charlotte Gainsborough in Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, screening exclusively at the EIFF on 24th June. Dafoe and Gainsborough are a grieving couple simply known as 'He' and 'She', who escape to the solitary wilderness of their forest cabin, Eden. As the accidental death of their son continues to haunt them, their deep psychological wounds begin to manifest outward onto each other. By all accounts, Antichrist is either a mercurial meditation on the psychology of pain and loss, or a resolutely offensive piece of torture porn a la Saw, but either way it’s unequivocally intriguing.

Although less generous with its lashings of gore, Fermat’s Room, screening at The Belmont in Aberdeen from this Friday, should also provide the requisite twists, turns, and torture to entertain your inner sadist. Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena combine to direct this Spanish horror thriller that conspires to trap four mathematicians in a room seemingly destined to crush them, as its four walls slowly close in on them. They are challenged by the mysterious Fermat (Federico Luppi) to escape the room by solving the mathematical riddles he presents, so prepare to feel smug if algebra means more to you than a bunch of arbitrary letters.

However, even for the mathematically disenchanted, Q & A are two letters that should spark your interest as the EIFF host a glut of them over the coming fortnight. Of particular note this week will be Darren Aronofsky’s visit to the EIFF on 22nd June to discuss everything from the success of The Wrestler to his forthcoming film, Robocop.

Finally, of the other highlights on release this week, the Glasgow Film Theatre screen Gigantic, Matt Aselton’s quirky indie flick that features Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel and John Goodman. Meanwhile, The Dundee Contemporary Arts screen Helen, a visually sparse and emotionally taut feature directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy that follows Helen (Annie Townsend), a girl asked by the police to act in a reconstruction detailing the last movements of a missing girl. As she immerses herself in the role, she realises that the missing girl has a lived life far more fulfilling than her own, and so that gap between two lives threatens to be crossed.