As of this past weekend, the beginning of the International Book Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), means that the Fringe is no longer going it alone.
The Book Festival brings in world-renowned authors such as feminist Andrea Dworkin, Norman Mailer and J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame.
With the International Festival comes not only domestic talent, but also 22 foreign performing companies, from the New York City Ballet to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
The EIFF brings with it hundreds of films, from every genre and from all over the world. A few stars have also been dropping into town, such as Robert Carlisle, who attended Sunday’s EIFF opening show, ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (its star, Bjork, was unable to make it to Edinburgh, however).
The EIFF is also renowned for its all-inclusiveness, from Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange in ‘Titus,’ a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’; to the Iranian ‘Zamani Baraye Masti Ashba’ (A Time for Drunken Horses).
While not an awards festival like Sundance or Cannes, the EIFF is the world’s longest-running such festival (this is the 54th). All films screened are either UK, European or World Premieres, and more than a few future box office smashes first showed here, such as last year’s ‘The Blair Witch Project.’
This year, too, has a ‘Blair Witch Project,’ and it is the Japanese ‘Ring’ cycle: ‘Ring,’ ‘Ring 2’ and ‘Ring 0: Birthday’ (the prequel).
Ring
Despite massive success in Southeast Asia box offices, Ring’s UK landing has been somewhat obscure, except for a buzz amongst festival aficionado’s that led to a sold-out performance of ‘Ring,’ and nearly full houses for both ‘Ring 2’ and ‘Ring 0.’ Considering that I saw these films on Monday and Tuesday night – during a full moon, which I suspect was planned by the EIFF schedulers, the sadistic bastards – this review should seem tardy. Do forgive me, though; I was suffering from a pair of nearly broken hands.
I have seen plenty of horror films, from classics old and new to straight-to-video bloodfest sillinesses. Yet the only horror film to so much as significantly raise my heart-rate was ‘The Blair Witch Project’, yet I still saw it twice, and my main memory of the second viewing was my girlfriend, who kept crushing my hand during the jumpy bits.
Ring, however, scared the shite out of me – and my girlfriend (and I swear I am not exaggerating) nearly broke my hands.
These are some of horror’s finest hours, an acme of the ‘saiko horra’ film, as the Japanese have phonetically dubbed the genre. The ‘Ring’ cycle is – in adapting it from the stories of Koji Suzuki, Japan’s answer to Stephen King – ingeniously simple and infinitely terrifying.
The plot is simple: a ghost story/urban myth spreads about a videotape that, if watched, means the viewer will die exactly one week later. The only way to save yourself from the curse is to make a copy and show it to someone else – therefore saving your life by damning another’s, and ensuring that the tape continues to spread.
And that’s all I’m going to tell you. Anyone spoiling these films should, well, be forced to watch said videotape.
Hope that Ring is released to your home cinema. If you see it with your partner, however, I suggest plate-armor gloves. Especially if you’re a writer.
Girlfight
One of the US’ contributions to this year’s EIFF, ‘Girlfight’ has also proven one of its best films overall – as it also did in both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.
Debut director Karyn Kusama has found a female (and Latino) Brando in newcomer Michelle Rodriguez. She plays Diana, a tough New York girl who finds her niche – and an aggression outlet – in the boxing ring.
Don’t let the title fool you. ‘Girlfight’ or not, there is no hair-pulling or face-clawing.
Rodriguez’s Diana has a smoldering ferocity and aggression that Mike Tyson probably took notes on; combined with the months of boxing training that prepared Rodriguez for her role (her trainers even wanted her to turn pro), her Diana kicks your ass all the way from the screen to the back row.
For the betterment of U.S. cinema, Kusama and Rodriguez hopefully will not be retiring any time soon. ‘Girlfight’ is a winner-by a knock-out.
Me & Isaac Newton
Ah, a documentary about seven scientists: yawn?
Not at all, and especially when the scientists – from theoretical and environmental physicists to a primatologist to a cancer medicine researcher – are so engaging, personable and illuminating. Course, it also helps when the director is Michael Apted, of The World Is Not Enough fame.
Though the first of the four sections, Beginnings (the others are The Work, Eureka and The Future), is a little slow, Apted introduces the scientists and what initially interested them in science.
The primatologist, for example, bought a pet owl monkey, had to go to the rainforest to find a mate and then wound up spending the past 12 years in Madagascar, studying lemurs. She went on to discover a new species and, when loggers threatened the lemurs’ habitat, she used a $250,000 award to turn the land into a national park.
Going back and forth between each scientist, they discuss their takes on science’s responsibilities, and their hopes for each person’s individual field, from ‘being able to read the mind of God’, the result of the theoretical physics Superstring Theory; to using UV light as a cheaper, more efficient way to purify water in India, thus reducing the number of deaths of children by water-related diseases (as it stands, the death rate is about 400 children every hour).
‘Me & Isaac Newton’ is no brainiac flick, but a down-to-earth conversation with prominent scientists, that reminds us that not only are they just as human and normal and hard-working as others, but that they also are seeking various and better ways to improve life for all.