FME
g . AL, the funny, an hOCkl was on the cover of The List during the
.5 - - lidinburgh Festival once.‘ recalls Annie 7 .h Of hope' egos and IS rg (iriffin with a smile. ‘Was it 1989‘? r gust. looks set to be the Of summers- l‘)‘)(l)\. ultayl'be'.’ You ld have tolask sontteone who r r: . . __ . . wor 'et Here at tie time. t was or a one- DaVld V if woman show called Almost P’I'.S‘ll(l(/(’(l. which I
V I} was putting on at the Traverse.‘ As creator of i ' l' ('hannel 4's The Book Group and now a debutante feature film writer/director with the surprisingly daring and evocative Festival (set during our capital city‘s very same August melee). it‘s heartening to know that Griffin knows her subject matter. The idea of any film being set during the Fringe might send a chill down the spine. given that true originality and resonant iconoclasm are often buried in August beneath the jokes-for-a-ftver format and shock- and-awe amateur theatrics of a bunch of kids from Bristol. or wherever.
('ynics of such a mind. take heart now: this is no cheeky hour-and-a-half advert for \’isitScotlaiid. but a sad. funny. intelligent and liberally shocking rumination on the effects of fame and its quest upon the human soul. Not that either (iriflin or I knew how the finished film was going to turn out when I spoke to her. although she obviously had the much better idea. It’s August 2004. the height of last year’s festival. and we‘re sitting at the back of the crew bus on liast Market Street. where she has kindly given up ten minutes of her day‘s lunch break to talk to me amidst shooting the climactic ‘(‘omedy Awards' sequence (a Perrier by any other name) at City Nightclub.
‘\\'hy did I want to make a film about the l‘estiv'al'." she ponders. ‘I think becaUse it is just such a dramatic situation in itself. Even if] come here as a punter rather than as a performer I‘m always struck by how I get caught up in the intensity of the experience: it‘s like everything matters more in that one month. Having said that. you don‘t need to have been
Playing the Fringe (from above left): Lyndsey Marshal; Raquel Cassidy and Stephen Mangan; Chris O’Dowd and Deirdre O’Kane; O’Dowd with Daniela Nardini; Annie Griffin directs; Nardini and Jimmy Chisholm
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