Last week I went along to a screening of The Raid, the new Indonesian-set action film from Welsh director Gareth Evans.
Much as I enjoy an intelligent and well-scripted piece of cinematic art, I also have the occasional craving for a piece of slam-bang nonsense that gives Die Hard a run for its money.
Here’s my piece in this week’s Edinburgh Evening News on The Raid.
Tags: Edinburgh Evening News, The Raid
I was granted some time with French film director Bertrand Tavernier during this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, ahead of the re-release of his 1980 sci-fi, Death Watch.
The film’s being released by Glasgow-based Park Circus Films, who I recently worked with to create their blog.
Here’s the result of the interview:
I may not be heading to Cannes in person this year but some of my work will be premiering there as part of the Highlands of Scotland Film Commission’s impressive new iPad brochure.
I’ve been working with the team on various projects for the last few months and the brochure is one of the most exciting ones. I’ll have a few interviews in there, one of which is with the director of Disney Pixar’s Brave, carried out at the recent London press screening.
The Creative Scotland website has more on the brochure, which will be launched at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June as an app, along with a gallery of images:
My column from this week’s Edinburgh Evening News has slipped through the cracks in the digitial floorboards and not made it to the website is now on the website. I’ve also published it here instead, so if classic cartoons are for you then please read on:
There’s a chance to relive your youth this weekend at the Filmhouse as the cinema screens a series of classic cartoons featuring the exploits of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and my favourite, Daffy Duck.
Created as a result of Warner Bros needing to promote their music back catalogue, the first Looney Tunes short was 1930′s Sinkin’ in the Bathtub starring the long-forgotten Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid.
Continuing with characters such as Buddy and Beans the Cat, Porky Pig became the series’ first major star following his first appearance in 1935′s I Haven’t Got a Hat. Porky started out as a young child in this cartoon and it’s interesting to see how minor a role he has among characters such as Ham and Ex and Oliver Owl.
Of the ten shorts being shown on Saturday and Sunday, perhaps the most famous is 1953′s Duck Amuck, directed by Chuck Jones. In this one, Daffy Duck is tormented by an unseen animator who keeps changing the background and his own image as our hero becomes increasingly exasperated.
It’s bizarre even by Looney Tunes standards, making Daffy and the viewer question his existence, something we don’t usually see in cartoons. Duck Amuck has remained popular over the years and in 1999 it was selected by the US Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry.
Daffy’s back with Porky in 1941′s in The Henpecked Duck, where the pair go to court as Daffy tries to save his marriage.
It’s not only Looney Tunes represented in the line-up, with the Merrie Melody A Corny Concerto (1943) and MGM’s Bad Luck Blackie (1949) also showing.
The cartoons can be seen from 1pm on Saturday and 11am on Sunday.
Tags: Filmhouse
I was in London a few weeks ago to attend a screening of the first 30-minutes of Disney-Pixar’s upcoming animated movie, Brave, a film that Scottish tourism bosses hope will repeat the success of Braveheart in the mid-90s.
I wrote about the film’s European premiere in Edinburgh this June for the Evening News but had an opportunity to write a feature for my own site, ReelScotland, this week. I’ve also added a clip of my question to director Mark Andrews that has been repeated on many other sites, that of what other Scottish films the animators at Pixar watched while making the film.
Brave is out in the UK on 17 August.
Last month I made my way to the Isle of Mull with Scotland’s mobile cinema, the Screen Machine, to capture its arrival on video at the small ferry of Fishnish and hear what local residents had to say about its regular visits.
Tags: Mull, Screen Machine
It was just under year ago that I wrote about my visit to the TCM Classic Film Festival, something of a mecca for classic film fans around the globe.
Guest appearances from Kirk Douglas, Warren Beatty, Peter O’Toole and Eva Marie Saint were just the icing on the cake of a four day event which saw some of the finest films ever made screened in the heart of Hollywood on LA’s most historic screens.
I enjoyed the Festival so much that I’ve decided to head back again next week, this time covering it for the esteemed classic film magazine, Cinema Retro, who have commissioned me to see as many films as possible in the alloted time.
This year the decisions are as difficult as they were in 2011, with screenings of Rio Bravo and The Pink Panther (introduced by Angie Dickinson and Robert Wagner respectively) clashing, while Casablanca is shown at the same time as the 50th Anniversary screening of Dr No.
You can see a list of the full line-up on the TCM website and there’s more from my interview with TCM host, Robert Osborne, on my classic film blog, Holyrood or Bust.
I’ll be tweeting about my trip and recording my thoughts for Cinema Retro while trying to arrange a few interviews along the way.
Tags: Hollywood, Robert Osborne, TCM, Twitter
Jonathan Melville is a freelance multimedia editor, writer and journalist, helping clients communicate in print and online. More.
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