Category: General chat and trailers

Can’t believe it’s almost that time of year again! The GFF programme launches this Wednesday and I am super psyched. Already got my tickets to the Opening Gala – woohoo! This year it’s Girl, the first feature by Adura Onashile, who did the excellent short Expensive Shit, and starring Deborah Lukumuena, from the The Braves and Robust. Can’t wait! Plus, the Opening Gala soiree is back, and I’m gonna put my hands to those canapes like old friends I haven’t seen since the pandemic.

Frightfest is back too, and the line-up promises weirdness. The trailer Smoking Causes Coughing opens on a repulsive and tatty rat puppet in the type of superhero outfit you’d see from the 70s, and it only gets stranger from there. The members of Tobacco Force are sent away on a team-building retreat, to mixed results. All star cast, with Gilles Lellouche from Kompromat, Vincent Lacoste from The Green Perfume and Lost Illusions, Anais Demoustier from Anais In Love, and Belgian national treasure Benoit Poelvoorde, from My Father’s Stories and The Brand New Testament.

Irati also looks amazing. An atmospheric folktale from the director of The Devil and the Blacksmith, Irati tells the story of an early Christian nobleman seeking the help of the pagan peasant girl who was his childhood friend, and going a journey that is action, adventure, fantasy and myth all wrapped into one. Looks ace!

Mother Superior sees a woman take the job as nurse to an elderly lady tucked away in an old manor house as a pretext to getting at the birth records she believes are stored in her archives. Marrying Nazi occultism to their eugenics breeding program, the film gives strong Lovecraft vibes of fearing what lies in your bloodline.

Plus a whole host more of nunsploitation, splatstick, slashers, possessions, and die-for-internet foot footage goodies! So excited!

So, I guess you can’t help but notice there was a drop-off in reviews towards the end of the year. To be frank, I experienced a total collapse of spoons, and that still hasn’t changed. My energy levels have not bounced back and reviews that I was able to just batter out now seem to come at a trickle.

Not gonna let it stop me, will still be attending GFF23 and other film festivals in Glasgow, just have to be a bit more mindful of how much I do. Hopefully you will still find plenty on here to get you itching for the cinema!

Some news that went under the radar during the great Covid contraction/spoon collapse of October, was the first films of the GFF were announced – yaldi!

Country Focus for ’23 will be Spain, with a really nice selection of new movies. There’s On The Fringe, starring Luis Tosar, who gave that spectular performance in Maixabel, playing opposite Penelope Cruz, telling the story of an activist lawyer trying to stop ordinary people from being evicted from their homes, only for his own life to start to fray and unravel under the strain. Prison 77 looks at prison reform in the aftermath of Franco’s fascist rule. And Lullaby, dealing with the a young mother’s personal journey.

2023’s Retrospective strand will be In The Driving Seat, focusing on women’s voyages of self-discovery. There’s The Piano, the absolutely smouldering classic starring Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. A great chance to see the timeless romance Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Also showing is It Happened One Night, with Colette Colbert starring opposite Clark Gable in Frank Capra’s odd-couple rom-com about a headstrong heiress. And the original ride-or-die story, Bonnie and Clyde.

GFF is also running a strand shining a light on the works of Lee Grant, a socially conscious actor/director who was blacklisted in Hollywood in the era of McCarthyism. The strand will feature the documentaries she made under Regan’s tenure as President, like Down and Out in America, exposing the lie of the economic resurgence, by examining the recession leaving folk destitute and homeless in a time when the motto was Greed Is Good. In The Willmar 8, she follows the strike of a group of women workers at a bank in a small Minnesota town, who persist despite the decidely tepid support from the rest of their tightknit community. Her film Battered laid bare the reality of millions of women experiencing domestic abuse behind the closed doors. She made What Sex Am I? in 1985, giving a platform to the stories of trans people, and questioning why acceptance in society should be based on how closely one adheres to their assigned gender. Looks fascinating.

The sad news though is that Allan Hunter is retiring, so this will be his last GFF. Pure scunnered, him and Allison have been like the twin pillars of the festival every year I’ve been going, and it just won’t be the same without him. I loved hearing him giving his film recommendations during introductions in that gentle, soft-spoken voice of his. I loved his enthusiasm for the free films and classics. I remember him fondly saying that seeing us all lined up at 10am to come see Tarkovsky’s Stalker had warmed his heart. I loved his friendly rivalry with Allison over whose pics for the line-up would prove most popular. It just won’t the same.

Either way, GFF23 looks set to be a memorable festival, cannae wait!

Going into Foragers, the opening film of the Take One Action Film Festival here in Glasgow, and got given a lovely piece of Palestinian flatbread. So delicious I took a bite out of it before I even took the picture. Om nom nom nom nom!

To see us out, the GYFF closed with Moulin Rouge, and to get us ready for the film, a trio of can-can dancers put on a performance. They came down the aisles handing out flowers and I got this bad boy, before kicking their legs in the air. GYFF and the GFT really know how to make a night of it

Getting my favourite seat nice and early, super excited for the start of the festival! Got myself one of the GSFF’s own beers, Short Hops, a wee bit of free splishy splashy, don’t mind if I do.

Also got a smashing new tote bag, packed with goodies, including a cheeky wee caramel wafer.

Oh my god, I am so tired.

I beat my personal best, seeing 64 films and 2 shorts. This is what a press pass gets you.

I decided to change things up this year, and instead of ending the festival ill, started it ill. A totally foul cold that got me sent home from work and made me lose my voice. Spent the first days of the festival getting the GFT bar staff to make me hot toddies. Drank 2 bottles of Buttercup cough syrup. Ate 4 packets of Lockets.

It also didn’t help I got no sleep. I must have been too wired for the festival coz I had 4 hours sleep for the 3 nights running up to it, and continued to get between 4-6 hours each night, as I tried to post up reviews last thing, before rising for my first film in the morning.

Worth it though. Such a good festival. Such great movies.

Just wish I wasn’t allergic to caffeine. This would be so much easier on caffeine.

The Hermit of Treig won the Audience Award, which I am delighted with. Director Lizzie McKenzie seems a real sweetheart.

And we already have the dates for next year’s festival – 1st to the 12th March 2023. It’ll be round sooner than you know it.

I’m away to sleep for 24 hours.

This year’s gonna be a close call. I reckon it’s tied between Olga and La Civil. Olga might just pip it.

Personally I’ll be happy with whoever wins so long as it’s not Anais In Love.

Man, can’t believe that’s the first week of the festival gone. It feels like it’s flown in. Some festivals feel long, not this one. Whoosh!

So cool to get the chance to see Alan Cumming and Lulu and the director and star of My Old School in person!