Theatre adds its magic to Edinburgh film festival

Published on Wednesday 16 June 2010 23:09

THE Edinburgh International Film Festival returned to the heart of the city last night in one of its most glamorous opening galas in years with the world premiere of The Illusionist, an animated masterpiece described as a "love song to Edinburgh and Scotland".

• Ugly Betty star America Ferrera greets fans outside the Festival Theatre last night as she takes to the red carpet for the gala opening of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Picture: Jane Barlow

Celebrity guests arriving at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre ranged from festival patron Sir Sean Connery, to Ugly Betty star America Ferrera.

Sir Patrick Stewart, chairman of this year's jury for the Michael Powell award for British film, actress Britt Ekland – who is also on the jury panel – and Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs were also on the red carpet.

• In pictures: Glamourous gala opens EIFF

• Alistair Harkness reviews The Illusionist

The Illusionist is a 14 million animated tale by French director Sylvain Chomet which tells the story of a struggling magician who tries to revive his career by travelling from Paris to the Western Isles, before trying his luck in Edinburgh, accompanied by a young Scottish girl.

Set in the late 1950s and based on an unrealised Jacques Tati script, it features many well-known locations around the city, including Arthur's Seat and Princes Street.

Chomet said the city's changeable climate had inspired him to set the film in Edinburgh.

"It's the weather, the way the light changes in the sky and the clouds cast shadows. Edinburgh, and Scotland, is a very difficult place to make light (for film], because it is so changing. The best way to do it is animation; you can make it all night and you are not under the rain."

But he said Scotland needed its own film agency – Scottish Screen ceases work this month, to be amalgamated into Creative Scotland. Although he said the film received little money from Scottish Screen, he added: "I think it needs a film agency. There is an originality about Scotland; it is very different from England and Wales, and people don't know much about Scotland from films. Every time there is a film about Scotland it is done in New Zealand or Ireland."

Chomet, speaking from the stage, said: "This festival for me, it is better than Cannes."

The director also spoke about the "immediate sense of welcome from the city, his two Scottish children and about the five years of his life he spent in Edinburgh.

Ms Ferrera, who stars in The Dry Land , a film about American soldiers returning to a small town in Texas after a tour in Iraq said: "Film festivals like this are so important because they are the one vehicle independent and first-time film-makers have to be showcased."

She said The Dry Land, was about finding a connection after a life-changing experience. "The US is going to have so many soldiers coming home, it needs to begin a conversation about how we are going to deal with it."

Ms Ekland said she was enjoying her role as a film jury judge: "It's a relief for me to be able to judge films, rather than be judged in films."

When asked to reveal which of the James Bond stars she had worked with was "the best", she said: "It's not a question of 'best', but who fitted me best. Roger Moore fitted me best."

The Festival Theatre has recently been upgraded to show films, and the film festival's director, Hannah McGill, said: "It's a new venue, a film that really fits the venue and an audience that's enthusiastic."

"We have wanted to do something like this for a long time. I really hope we can stay and keep doing it."

Scottish film industry 'has to maintain its profile'

THE Scottish producer of The Illusionist has called for Scotland to urgently establish a "shop window" to keep its profile in the film industry after the demise of the national film agency, Scottish Screen.

Bob Last, who helped raise the film's 14 million budget, said Scotland would be almost alone among Europe's nations or regions without a film body.

The Illusionist did not rely on funding from Scottish Screen. But he warned he could be forced to take his next planned project, an animated feature called Kings out of Colosseum, out of Scotland if there was no infrastructure of support.

Creative Scotland, the country's new arts body, replaces two quangoes, Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council, in July.

Mr Last said Creative Scotland had to take a real leadership role across Scotland's creative industries sector.

Many figures in the Scottish film industry have spoken out against the end of a separate film agency.

Mr Last said film-makers looking at possible productions in Scotland would be confused by dealing with a body like Creative Scotland with cross-arts resp- onsibility.