Hi Edd fans. It’s me, Edd. Welcome to TakeOne at The 34th Cambridge Film Festival’s first Editors’ Blog. Have you ever read a TakeOne facebook status or twitter tweet and thought, ‘Yeah this is interesting, but I really want to know more about the thoughts and opinions of the people who wrote these remarks.’ No? Me neither. But you’ve started reading now, so you might as well keep going.
The Editors’ Blog is a chance to feel a bit of what it’s like to be an insider at the greatest festival of them all. No, not Cannes, Toronto or Venice. The Cambridge Film Festival. Every day we will be producing some side-notes from behind the scenes at TakeOne. In the words of Marty DiBergi, the faux director of Spinal Tap, we hope to give you ‘the sights, the sounds and the smells’ of a working film review magazine. Who said what, who kissed who, who sat on the office photocopier, we’ll have it all – along with the odd film recommendation here and there as well. Think of it as a little bit of chutney to go alongside the bread, meat and cheese in TakeOne’s daily meal of Festival sustenance.
As the festival is in its infancy, we thought it might be a good time for us to give you our Top 5 to look forward to at the festival. Each editor will have a chance to give their own picks, but, as is tradition, since I sorted out the feng-shui of the office, I get first dibs. So here are my 5-To-Find at The 34th Cambridge Film Festival.
AMOUR FOU
The Premier League Season has come round and, as anyone who has played Fantasy Football will know, you pick your players on form – and there are fewer directors with better film form than Jessica Hausner. Having transitioned from the unnervingly tense HOTEL to beautifully moving LOURDES, Hausner now dresses up for the period piece AMOUR FOU. Both comic and unsettling, any film that is described as dealing with suicide pacts with ‘levity and humour’ deserves a watch.
THE CANAL
I don’t need to guess with this choice – I’ve seen it and it’s excellent. THE CANAL follows film archivist, David (Rupert Evans), as he is haunted by the ghost of a murderer and former occupier of his home. As distress heightens, reality and fiction become blurred leaving nothing certain. Ivan Kavanagh shows off all his directorial accomplishment in this compact and taut thriller. Pay special attention to the strange and versatile use of a soundscape.
NEKROMANTIK
NEKROMANTIK follows the quiet and often shy Robert (Bernd Daktari Lorenz), who just so happens to also have a strong leaning towards necrophilia. Losing his girlfriend, Betty (Beatrice Manowski), and his job in the same day sends our protagonists into a depressive spiral that eventually ends in tears … and blood … and (cough) sperm. Heavily criticised by the censors and banned from numerous countries upon release, you’ll be surprised how light-hearted Jorg Buttgereit’s 1987 picture actually is.
CONTEMPORARY GERMAN SHORTS
Short films are one of the delights sadly too often confined to festivals. Three years ago, two German shorts, CHILD’S PLAY and THE ROAR OF THE SEA, caused me to fall in love with the format. Hopefully the selection of five films screening this year will do the same for you.
THE LIDO PICTURE SHOW
You know it’s the same film. You’ve probably seen O, BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? a thousand times. But there is something irrationally enticing about outdoor screenings – let alone anything in a swimming pool! The fear of falling in can only add to the drama of the Cohen Brother’s modern myth.