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Dundee’s Ignite Festival is just one of the attention- grabbing visual art events taking place across Scotland this month As if the launch of the Edinburgh Art Festival programme (see page 9) was not sufficient this issue, visual art innovations are going on right across the country. Internet megalith Google has launched a partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland to bring 150 works of art to the public through Google Art. Works by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Titian and more can now be viewed in intricate detail from the comfort of art lovers’ own homes, as part of Google’s ever-expanding Art Project. Street View now boasts 46 museums with more than 30,000 high resolution objects available around the world. See googleartproject.com for more. In Fife and Tayside, meanwhile, May’s Ignite 2012 is encouraging creative types to make their way to Dundee and the surrounding areas. Running from 17–27 May, the festival provides a showcase of theatre, contemporary art, museums and dance. Highlights of the 10-day festival include Dundee’s Brightest: the DJCAD Degree Show; Man Booker prize nominee Jon McGregor doing an hour-long performance of his work; the first major UK solo show for the Dundee-born and educated artist Scott Myles, marking 15 years since he graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design; and an exhibition of Boris Gerrets’ award-winning experimental documentary, People I Could Have Been and Maybe Am, as well as performances at Dundee Rep. ■ See facebook.com/ VandAatDundee, twitter.com/VADundee #VAD, or ignitedundee.co.uk for more information.
10 THE LIST 26 Apr–24 May 2012
Cannes line-up revealed
The annual celebration of all things cinematic is set to be even more star-studded than usual, as Gail Tolley discovers
C annes Film Festival has never been short on big names but this year’s event looks set to be positively swimming with stars after it unveiled a competition brimming with famous faces and with a heavy representation of American cinema. Of the 21 films competing for the Palme D’Or, the most anticipated include David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, a future-set thriller based on Don DeLillo’s novel about 24 hours in the life of a Wall Street banker (played by Robert Pattinson) and his encounters with an array of characters, including Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti. Other Stateside offerings to look out for include Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road featuring Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart and Kirstin Dunst; The Paperboy by Lee Daniels (who unexpectedly knocked audiences for six when he was at the festival three years ago with Precious); and Mud by Jeff Nichols, the story of two teenagers who attempt to help a fugitive escape from a Mississippi Island. Nichols returns a year after the premiere of Take Shelter with a sparkly cast including Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon.
Even some revered European directors are, perhaps uncharacteristically, working with actors well used to the sight of a red carpet. Marion Cotillard, who can be seen later this year in The Dark Knight Rises, stars in Rust & Bone, Jacques Audiard’s follow up to his brilliantly crafted film The Prophet, while French fantasist Leos Carax comes to the festival with Holy Motors starring Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue. And Michael Haneke, winner of the Palme D’Or in 2009 for The White Ribbon, is again working with Isabelle Huppert for Amour, the story of a couple dealing with life after the wife suffers a stroke. There’s one solitary British offering: Ken Loach will be visiting la Croisette for his latest film The Angels’ Share. In contrast to the glamour of the rest of the competition, the film offers some Glasgow-style grit; filmed in the city last summer, it follows four friends who meet while carrying out community service and are inspired to improve their lives after a visit to a whisky distillery.
Cannes Film Festival takes place from Thu 16–Sun 27 May.
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MIRROR MIRROR OUT NOW ON
GENERAL RELEASE
WHAT WE SAID: ‘Singh drops in a few visual flourishes, but he’s weighed down by a script that relies heavily on Shrek-like modern snarkiness in period garb for its laughs, without any Shrek- like jokes.’ THE LIST WHAT THEY SAID: ‘To borrow a line Roberts spits at Collins, there’s something about Mirror that’s incredibly irritating.’ TOTAL FILM
‘The film sleepwalks along confidently enough in its numb, semi-unfunny, semi-unserious way. But the tale’s passion and subversion have been removed.’ THE GUARDIAN ‘Mirror Mirror is the opposite of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland: Here, the artistry of the cast and crew leaps off the screen, not 3D computer graphics.’ THE TELEGRAPH