IF the week has been dragging and you’re looking for something a bit unusual, tonight is your lucky night at the Edinburgh International Film Festival - The Surprise Movie is on at the Filmhouse and Cineworld at 6.05pm.
Last year they chose the impressive Lawless, starring Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy, and this year it could be anything unreleased that’s two hours long or less..
Tomorrow at the Filmhouse I’d recommend Stephen Finnigan’s Hawking, a documentary about the world’s most famous living scientist, Stephen Hawking, narrated by the man himself.
Covering his early years through to his rise to fame and obsession with being a public figure, this is an interesting portrait of a complex man which isn’t stuffed with complex science.
On Saturday afternoon at the Filmhouse there’s a chance to hear legendary animator, Richard Williams in conversation on his 80th birthday. Williams worked on The Pink Panther and Who Framed Roger Rabbit and will share his animation secrets with the audience.
Local filmmakers take centre stage on Saturday, with Mark Cousins’ A Story of Children and Film coming to the Filmhouse at 6.15pm and David Cairns’ Natan at the same venue at 8.30pm, looking at the career of filmmaker Bernard Natan, who founded film studio Pathé.
The EIFF comes to an end on Sunday with two very different films worth checking out.
The Filmhouse will screen American sci-fi, Upstream Colour, from Primer director, Shane Carruth, at 7.05pm, a tale of genetics, love and human evolution. At least that’s what I think it’s about, I’m still not 100 per cent certain three days after I saw it...
Finally, the closing night film is Karen Gillan’s latest, Not Another Happy Ending, which comes to the Festival Theatre at 8.45 and is sure to appeal to rom-com fans. Get there early enough to walk down the red carpet and hear Ms Gillan introduce the film.
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