The Glasshouse Hotel

It is part of the Eton Group which has hotels elsewhere in England.

The luxury hotel has the largest roof terrace in Edinburgh, and although it has spectacular rooms and public areas there is no restaurant or bar for non-residents.

KPMG are running the hotel until they can assess the position.

Trams & Forth Ports

The body owns Leith Docks, Rosyth dockyard and Grangemouth docks in Scotland along with other commercial interests. Their website explains that they also own 400 acres of land available for development which forms the major part of Edinburgh’s waterfront, just 10 minutes from the city centre.”

The company was valued at around £640m on the latest offer by shareholders to take over the business.

The offer was however rejected by the board headed by Charles Hammond on the basis that it fell short of the true value of the company.

So the question is that if the company is worth so much then why can they only offer £3.2m towards the cost of the trams instead of the £34m which was apparently a condition of their redevelopment of Leith Docks?

It is partly due to this that the price of the trams may have to be funded by additional borrowing of around £45m or of course the tramline will not extend to Leith at all…..will it?

Youth Issues Forum

by Ali George

The aim of the event was to engage with young people in the south of Edinburgh and find out about their quality of life. Groups from Gracemount High School, Liberton Kirk, Moredun Library and the Liberton/Gilmerton Youth Forum presented videos to an audience of adults who can help effect change in the area.

A lot of young people felt that they have a bad reputation because of the way they are portrayed in the media. Nobody wants to cover stories about the youth group helping out at a church coffee morning, or Gracemount High School loving the Channel 4 show Glee so much that they have started their own Glee club. Instead adults have a perception of young people hanging around drinking and smoking and committing petty crimes.

“I like wearing a hoody,” said one member of the pupil council at Gracemount High School, “it’s comfy and it keeps my neck warm. But the head teacher banned us from wearing them because of the negative image they’ve been given by the media.”

Meanwhile young people from Moredun wanted to get fit and have fun by organizing monthly visits from a mobile roller disco, but are being told by community centres that they won’t be allowed in case they damage the floors. Even though mobile companies bring their own floor with them.

It seemed that whilst young people present had lots of good ideas, they were hampered by the fact that the event was aimed at adults. Some younger people commented they did not understand all the words used, and the way that adults would talk for ten minutes and then say ‘and what do you think’ almost as an afterthought was condescending at best.

It didn’t help either that the only councilor present, Tom Buchanan, opened proceedings by announcing his intention to leave straight away for a more important meeting in the city. This speech gave the impression that the event was more of a box-ticking effort by the council than a genuine commitment to effecting change in the South.

Hopefully the pledge cards everyone was required to fill out at the end of the event will remind those in charge of all the positive themes that came out of the discussion.

Gravity

Gravity is the tale of a German banker (Fabian Hinricks) facially similar to Jimmy Carr, who is deeply dissatisfied with his lot. He is still in love with an ex from seven years ago, he has no real friends, and his job is so crap that when a client shoots himself right in front of Frederick’s face, nobody even asks him if he’s OK.

He therefore embarks upon a crime spree in order to spice things up a bit, enlisting the help of an ex-con he knew at school. This gives him a greater sense of self-confidence, in a very intense and brooding kind of way. But all he really wants is for someone to go see psychobilly band The Electric Snakes with him.

These forays into the underworld of crime take their toll, and eventually our anti-hero is close to unraveling completely. You should definitely go and see it to find out how that resolves itself. Beautifully shot, and with lots of laugh-out-loud moments, this is one of my picks of the festival.

The Good Heart

That said, it’s not designed to be a pant-wetting, nail-biting thriller. This is more of a character study, where the focus lies not on the plot or its sense of inevitability, but in seeing how the actors reach their final destination. And it’s an engrossing journey.

The screening was briefly introduced by one of its stars, Brian Cox. He described it as “An Icelandic interpretation of a downtown New York bar… so it’s a little eccentric to say the least! But I think it’s really a very interesting movie.”

This is a fair assessment. What Cox neglected to say is that a huge part of what make it interesting is the fact he plays a blinder. He is by turns bitter, angry, inappropriate, paternal and hilarious. Supporting actor Paul Dano is brilliant too, with his awkward mannerisms and total warmth tinged with underlying sadness. But the slightly unhinged, coffee loving curmudgeon who brings his Alsatian to hospital with him is the one to watch.

Huge

As a fan of the Armstrong and Miller shows, I was interested to see Ben Miller’s first film, Huge, which is about a pair of comedians trying to make it. If nothing else the director/co-writer has the research under his belt.

Unfortunately, the film is a little bit flat. The main problem is that there is no evidence that the comedians, Warren (Johnny Harris) and Clark (Noel Clarke) are funny. In any way. We hear the same three lines of their material over and over again, which is of symbolic relevance in terms of different stages of their relationship – but the bit isn’t that funny and certainly doesn’t stand up to constant repetition.

For some reason Warren and Clark think they are hilarious. Whilst Russell Tovey is brilliant as Clark’s horrible manager, and Thandie Newton does a hilarious coke-addled talent agent, and nice guy Darren (Oliver Chris) is very funny when he finally stops being nice, the so-called comedians are just a bit sad. If anything, having so many very strong moments courtesy of the supporting cast adds to the feeling of unfulfilled potential of the main protagonists.

If we found out more about Warren’s wristbands, or saw a conclusion to Clark’s unrequited love, maybe there would have been some emotional resonance. If we had seen some more of their material, maybe we’d have got behind them more in the knowledge that they genuinely deserved to be huge.

Instead this was a film about two fairly average blokes, both of whom are desperate to escape the drudgery of daily life. They might be funny or they might not, it’s hard to tell. And they argue a lot, which is probably realistic if nothing else. It’s not terrible by any means, but neither is it the one thing you need to rush out and buy tickets for before the festival ends. Do watch it when it comes on telly, if only for the numerous cameos, but don’t expect the likes of the RAF Airmen sketch, because Warren and Clark are no Armstrong and Miller.

Animation at EIFF

There has been a lot of hype about animation at the Film Festival, with premieres of Toy Story 3, The Illusionist, and the insanely brilliant Jackboots On Whitehall.

But I have read less about the international animation shorts, which is a shame because there were some gems available.

Particularly beautiful was Cages, a Mexican film where magical realism is made visual. Sinister and sad, it makes a statement about child exploitation in Mexico using visuals that would not be out of place in a Tim Burton film. Another very pretty film was the German Lebensader, in which a little girl discovers the world inside a leaf. You can watch a clip here

Two emotionally gripping stories were the Swedish Tussilago, about the girlfriend of West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher who planned to kidnap the Swedish politician Anna-Great Leijon in 1977; and the American Prayers for Peace which is the honest and moving testimony of a man who lost his brother in Iraq.

There have been many more shorts shown at the festival, and hopefully some of them will be made into full-length features, which is how the Michael Powell Award nominated Skeletons came into being. There are the seeds of some great things in there.

Skeletons

As the blurb will tell you, this is the tale of two emotional exorcists who traipse around Derbyshire removing guilty secrets from people’s lives. Exorcising the metaphorical skeletons in their closets, you might say. And watching them do so is a lovely experience.

EIFF literature points to the obvious comedy of their physical differences. Bennett (Andrew Buckley) is very tall with an untidy mop of red hair whilst Davis (Ed Gaughan) is short and dark with a well-clipped moustache. Oh ho ho, One is big and one is small, that’ll have folk rolling in the aisles.

Frankly, to concentrate on the opposite sizes belies the fact that they have brilliant chemistry and really work well together. This is particularly evident during arguments about moral ambiguity.

In terms of characterization, Bennett is the gentle giant, who worries about how clients will cope with the aftermath of hearing dark secrets about their partners. Davis, meanwhile, professes not to care. But on an assignment that could lead to promotion he begins to change his tune, for a variety of reasons both comic and sad.

One of the most refreshing things about the film is its treatment of the supernatural. You don’t physically see any ghosts or ghouls, so the aura of magic is created purely by good camera work and direction. Half the time Bennett and Davis are either doubting their ability to do the job, bickering about the other’s ability to do the job, or discussing the fact that the clients probably don’t really believe they can do the job. This makes a welcome change to expensive, time-consuming special effects.

I’m sure that other reviews of this film will be jam packed with adjectives like ‘quirky’ and ‘charming’, and I would hesitate to overuse such phrases… if it weren’t for the fact that Skeletons is quirky and charming. And worth it just for the mad, staring eyes of Jason Isaacs.

The Crab

The hero of the piece is Levi Taylor, a nihilistic academic who suffers from ectrodactyly or ‘Lobster Claw’ syndrome. Essentially his fingers are all joined together so his hands look a bit like claws. Near the start he explains,

“If I were in the circus, they’d call me lobster boy. Although I prefer to think of myself as a crab. I prefer pubic hair to fancy restaurants.”

This is a good signpost for what is to come, certainly in terms of dialogue. Levi is on a mission to be deliberately crass in an effort to upset people, so if you’re easily offended, I’d give this one a miss. If not, read on.

Our hero (Guy Whitney), is almost entirely unlikeable, although as his friend’s girlfriend Jane (Cass Bugge) points out “you’re kinda funny in a mean, drunk, nasty kind of way.” He mistreats his girlfriend, picks fights with strangers, takes too many drugs and refuses to do anything constructive with his life. But in a terribly witty and acerbic manner.

His search for validation leads to engaging encounters with a female-to-male transsexual known as Transman and a karaoke singing hooker, as well as staging a campaign to steal his best friend’s girlfriend. Clearly this is not your traditional rom-com, and his methods for finding love are a little bit weird.

The film lurches about in an unsettling way in order to convey Levi’s bi-polar tendencies, careening from moments of laugh out loud comedy to graphically depicting various sexual encounters imbued with an acute sense of misery. It can be hard to watch in places, but consistently compelling.

So, we have a main character who is utterly furious with the world, frank depictions of sex, drug use and disability, and plenty of off-colour humour. This probably isn’t the pick of the festival for your granny, but it’s definitely worth a watch.

Four Lions

Hosted by Charlie Brooker, the interview took place at Brixton’s Ritzy Picturehouse and was shown live at the Cameo and fifteen other cinemas across the UK. Members of the London audience asked questions directly, whilst those viewing from afar had the option to email from their phone or pass questions to ushers who emailed them to London. Very social media friendly!

For those who have not come across it, Four Lions is a comedy about jihadism from the controversial writer of Brass Eye and Jam. It has had mixed reviews, with some fans of Morris’s visceral comedy style feeling that it was too much of a ‘straight’ comedy.

Asked why this was, Morris responded,

“Form creates a ceiling. The point here was not to make fun of a mechanism [eg the overly long credits to Brass Eye poked fun at over the top graphics being used by television news stations at the time] – that isn’t any good, it limits what you can do.”

He went on to explain that with this project he wanted to create believable characters, which is why he enlisted Peep Show writers Jesse Armstrong and Simon Bain to help write the script. He also conducted four years of research into the Muslim world.

Oddly he found that people he approached were happier to talk to him when they found out who he was.

“They seemed comforted by the idea that I would be mocking them, rather than making a very serious piece that would end up missing the point.”

When asked, ‘do you ever feel you’ve crossed the line?’ he said,

“The line is like, 100 miles thick. If you cross the line, you run out of material, that’s boring. What makes an interesting project is something that will go off in lots of different directions.”

The film does this admirably, following the five central characters through the minutiae of daily life, watching them bicker and getting glimpses into their hopes and fears. By the end it is impossible not to be completely on the side of the bombers, even though they are idiots and what they are planning to do is morally reprehensible.

The final audience question came from Anne in Edinburgh, who asked ‘what do you hope to achieve with this film?’

Morris, feeling he had already explained this pretty well via the film itself, handed this over to the cast.

Kayvan Novak (Waj, the daft one) replied “adoration,” Riz Ahmed (Omar, the leader) responded, “laughs,” and Adeel Akhtar (Fessel, the one who blows up a crow) said simply, “a date. Just to be held.”

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