stival
conquered London’s West End, garnering rave reviews for her role in Richard Eyres’ production of Noël Coward’s aforementioned Private Lives. Nevertheless, since Sex and the City debuted in 1998, Cattrall has been indelibly identified with Samantha Jones. It’s taken a low-budget independent film with a first-time writer-director to give her the opportunity to play a part that’s now ‘out-of-character’. But although Velour and Jones might seem worlds apart, both roles have allowed Cattrall to challenge perceptions of women and beauty. ‘Monica Velour allowed me to do that,’ Cattrall explains. ‘This is what 50 looks like. There was no make-up, apart from some to make my neck look older. I’ve been objectified a lot as an actor, some of which I embraced for survival, so this was a letting-go. And gaining the weight was strangely freeing. I thought, “I have to be truthful here, otherwise everything I do will look false.” And that involved everything including the protruding stomach.’
Cattrall’s savvy enough to know it’s difficult for independent films to compete with blockbusters. But she has high hopes for Monica Velour, which is why she’s bringing it to Edinburgh. ‘I’m coming to the Film Festival,’ she says. ‘Wouldn’t miss it. It’s a lovely city. And I really think audiences will take this film to heart.’
Filmhouse 1, Wed 22 Jun, 7.50pm & Fri 24 Jun, 7pm.
EIFF
ESSENTIAL INFO The times they are a-changin’ at the EIFF. Here are the ten facts you need to know
1 The festival has a new artistic director, James Mullighan (pictured), who is from Adelaide. Previously he ran the independent filmmakers’ network Shooting People and was a journalist. He says: ‘Throughout its history [the
Festival] has been provocative, controversial, a little dangerous often, a debate leader and a culture setter, but not
lately. We want to get back to that . . .’
2 Former festival directors Mark Cousins and Lynda Myles and festival patron Tilda Swinton have been giving some friendly advice but have not been curating the Festival. ‘A few emails to friends cannot, in any light, be construed as the curatorship of a major international film festival,’ Swinton clarified in April.
3 The Festival hub has been moved from Lothian Road to the Teviot building at Bristo Square, named
Festivalhouse@Teviot for June. Here, delegates will be encouraged to rub shoulders with the great unwashed at screenings, club nights and talks, including a daily ‘Filmmakers in Focus’ talk at 5.15pm.
4 There will be no awards at this year’s festival. Red carpets and premieres have been scaled back as
part of a shift in ethos towards inclusion and innovation. Expect to hear the word ‘pop-up’ quite a lot.
5 Films will be shown in more places, including a pop-up public screen in St Andrew Square.
Filmhouse, Cameo, Dominion, the Festival Theatre, and the George Square Theatre will all be venues. Cineworld will not (although you could go there to see Kung Fu Panda 2).
6 The opening film is Irish crime caper The Guard, a kind of cross between In Bruges and 1960s policier
In the Heat of the Night with Brendan Gleeson as a corrupt cop and Don Cheadle as an uptight CIA officer. There will be no closing night film this year.
7 EIFF will be collaborating with the Sheffield Documentary Festival, meaning that a third of the
total programme will comprise new documentaries, among them James ‘Man on Wire’ Marsh’s Project Nim and Sundance winner Hell and Back Again.
8 Various filmmakers, musicians and writers have acted as guest artistic advisors this year. Among them are Gus Van Sant, Alan Warner, Jim Jarmusch, Mike Skinner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Bela Tarr.
9 Beyond the movies there are plenty of ‘Behind the Camera’ workshops for aspiring filmmaker types, including a BAFTA- organised Q&A with Bill Nighy (pictured) on Sun 19 Jun, 5.30pm at Festivalhouse@Teviot. Some of these events are still to be confirmed at the time of going to press, so keep an eye on edfilmfest.org.uk for further programming.
10 Do say: ‘The Festival has made up for a smaller budget through some innovative ideas, and is boldly putting the punters’ interests above its own prestige.’ Don’t say: ‘All a bit risky, isn’t it?’
26 May–23 June 2011 THE LIST 43