Hi Edd fans, it’s your best bud Edd here. One editors’ blog out of the way, another one straight on the factory floor. The work never stops here in the Take One office. All hands to the pump, say I!
So in this blog we are going to explore the fun conjoined world of Festival Pairs – not to be confused with Festival Pears, my ode to the The Picturehouse bar’s delicious selection of Anjous. No, quite the opposite, in fact. This blog is designed to take you away from the well-worn fruits, and get you tasting some cinematic guava!
I know you. Don’t try and pretend I don’t. I know you come to The Cambridge Film Festival so you can tell all your friends you’ve been “cultural”, when really all you want to do is watch the latest Woody Allen film a few days before release. Oh yes, I’ve got your number, editors’ blog reader. So take this as my forlorn plea to dust you down, shake you up and get you travelling to some stranger isles, with a little game I like to call “Festival Pairs”.
The concept is simple. I take a big hitter from the line-up of the Cambridge Film Festival, and then I pair it with a smaller film that has similar ideas and themes, but which isn’t going to get as much press. So let’s give it a try! What do you say, old friend?
Far From The Madding Crowd -> The Marina Cafe
Women in distress, labouring under the weight of the inert cultural outlook of conservative rural society – yes, that does whiff of Thomas Hardy. FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD screened at Movies On The Meadows on Monday 31st August. Thomas Vinterberg adapted the Dorset-born writer’s third novel in a rendering frequently praised by critics as “classical”.
You can’t go too wrong with Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen. But who wants to be safe?! Why not try THE MARINA CAFÉ (EL CAFÉ DE LA MARINA)? Silvia Munt’s adaptation of Josep Maria Sagarra’s 1933 play is one of the highlights of the Catalan Strand. Caterina’s passing affair leads to exclusion from her small town community. Her father, meddling behind the scenes, arranges marriage as an escape route. The determined Caterina, however, refuses to give herself up to a man she does not love. It’s almost more Hardy than Hardy, and with impressive central performances, THE MARINA CAFÉ is a worthy alternative to any Victorian adaptation.
Irrational Man -> Pretend We’re Kissing
“A central character having a neurotic existential crisis. Check. Vague insights into the nature of love. Check. Inappropriate age gap between the male protagonist and his romantic interest… Definitely check. Yes, another early autumn, another Woody Allen film featuring famous actors traipsing around exotic locations.”
These were the opening lines I wrote for last year’s MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT review. Some things never change. Yes, lo and behold, Woody Allen is back at the Cambridge Film Festival. This year, we have IRRATIONAL MAN, the tale of existential (check) college professor Abe’s romance (check) with the one of his young students (check). In the words of my former self, “If we keep going to see them, he’s going to keep making them.”
If you’d like to spend your dollar on something other than the prolonged cultural shadow of one of New York’s finest, why not try PRETEND WE’RE KISSING? Here we also have a neurotic, self-involved protagonist. And look, he’s on the search for love. What could go wrong? Matt Sadowski’s Canadian rom-com has enough kooky charm to fill the whole festival, and is well worth searching out.
A Walk in the Woods -> By Our Selves
So I’m going to level with you, Edd fans – I’ve never read a Bill Bryson novel. I have no idea if he’s good or bad. Is a trip with him through the Appalachian Trail a one-way hike to success? I couldn’t say. I can say, however, that there is another off-road canter on the programme that strays more than a few paces from the path. BY OUR SELVES is a homegrown jaunt through companionship, and provides perhaps the most confusing blurb of the brochure. “John Clare’s journey from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire accompanied by a straw bear … Andrew Kotting, hyperkinetic camper-van captain of Gallivant, sets out in hot pursuit … The writer Iain Sinclair watches from the Shadows. Alan Moore waits, like a bearded figure of fate, in Northampton.” … ? Hell yes!!
The Harder They Come -> May Allah Bless France
THE HARDER THEY COME, Perry Henzell’s cult creation of one man’s troubled attempts to reach the top of the reggae charts, screens Saturday 5th September at The Light. Jimmy Cliff’s performance has been held by many to epitomise everything that was good, bad and unique about the Jamaican music scene in the early 1970s. More contemporary fare comes from MAY ALLAH BLESS FRANCE (QU’ALLAH BENISSE LA FRANCE). Brass and bass switched for beats, Abd al Malik’s autobiographical account of success in the fertile French hip-hop scene provides grit and lyricism in equal measure. A unique look at urban life across the pond, MAY ALLAH BLESS FRANCE could equally be a counterpart to the American hype-train STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, and is a must for any music fan.
Dope -> As We Were Dreaming
You can’t move in the Cambridge Film Festival these days without getting a strong whiff of DOPE… wait, that came out wrong. Yes, Rick Famuyiwa’s coming of age drama has been named by such local notables as Cambridge Arts Picturehouse Marketing Manager Jack Toye as one of the big hits to come this year.
DOPE may well be the perfect, easy-going remedy, but there is another teenage drama to sit back and inhale. From Germany, AS WE WERE DREAMING charts the first bright days of post-wall Leipzig through the eyes of a group of wild young adults. Sex, drugs and neo-Nazis. It worked for THE BIG LEBOWSKI, it can work here. Fury abounds as our protagonists come of age in a time of anarchy.
Legend -> Tokyo Tribe
“Look at me, I’m Tom Hardy. I’m playing two people at once. Look at me, everybody. LOOK AT ME!!!!” Alright, pipe down Tom! You’ve had too much fizzy pop. It was impressive in DEAD RINGERS when Jeremy Irons did it. And two Armie Hammers in THE SOCIAL NETWORK was kinda funny. But now it’s just old news, buddy. Go back to playing with big trucks in the desert.
I jest. LEGEND opens at both the Arts Picturehouse and The Light Cinema on Saturday 5th September. Brian Helgeland’s odyssey through the London underworld with the Kray twins will almost certainly be a hit with those who like a bit of British cold meat and ‘taters. But if, like me, you want something a bit spicier, check out TOKYO TRIBE. Director Sion Sono is best known for producing the maddest trailer of all time for his previous film WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? And he’s at it again with TOKYO TRIBE. A dystopic future Tokyo is ruled by gangs of youths who just like to drink, party and throw some bullets around. Sound fun? Yeah, sounds fun to me. See below for (mad mad mad) trailer.
httpvh://youtu.be/cMU4YkUzp98