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Glasgow Film Festival · 2014

Glasgow Film Festival 2014

Eurovisions

Programme

36 films · 19 reviews

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The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared

A man escapes from an old folks' home and goes on an unlikely adventure.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2013; Director: Felix Herngren; Writer: Felix Herngren, Hans Ingemansson, Jonas Jonasson; Stars: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, Jens Hultén, Bianca Cruzeiro, Alan Ford, Sven Lönn, David Shackleton, Georg Nikoloff, Simon Säppenen, Manuel Dubra, Cory Peterson, Kerry Shale, Philip Rosch)

Borgman

Review preview for Borgman

The director's uncompromising approach and rigour pulls us along at least until the half way point when the pace begins to falter and its lack of obvious intentions starts to grate.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
The Devil moves into a suburban street and turns the lives of its inhabitants upside-down.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2013; Director: Alex van Warmerdam; Writer: Alex van Warmerdam; Stars: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis, Jeroen Perceval)

Full review

Cannibal (Caníbal)

Review preview for Cannibal

Worth seeing for its gripping central performances and Cuenca's impressive camerawork - signposting better films from him to come - even though the story lacks killer instinct.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A serial killer finds himself falliing for a potential victim.

(Country: Spain, Romania, Russia, France; Year: 2013; Director: Manuel Martín Cuenca; Writer: Rafael de la Uz, Alejandro Hernández; Stars: Antonio de la Torre, María Alfonsa Rosso, Joaquín Núñez, Olimpia Melinte, Gregory Brossard)

Full review

For Those Who Can Tell No Tales

Review preview for For Those Who Can Tell No Tales

While there is no doubting the admirable intentions of Vercoe's idea, the end result feels far too focused on her response to what happened than on the more universal impact of the events themselves.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
An Australian tourist finds a trip to Bosnia changes her life forever.

(Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Year: 2013; Director: Jasmila Žbanić; Writer: Zoran Solomun, Kym Vercoe, Jasmila Zbanic; Stars: Kym Vercoe, Branko Cvejic, Jasna Djuricic, Boris Isakovic, Damir Kustura, Leon Lucev, Simon McBurney, Sasa Orucevic, Pamela Rabe)

Full review

The Gilded Cage

Life becomes complicated for Portuguese immigrants living happily in France when one of them inherits a winery in the old country.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Ruben Alves; Stars: Rita Blanco, Joaquim de Almeida, Roland Giraud)

The Girl From The Wardrobe (Dziewczyna Z Szafy)

Review preview for The Girl From The Wardrobe

An extraordinary piece of imaginative cinema.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A young man leaves his mentally disabled brother in the care of an eccentric neighbour.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2013; Director: Bodo Kox; Writer: Bodo Kox; Stars: Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Piotr Glowacki, Magdalena Rózanska, Eryk Lubos)

Full review

Grand Central

Review preview for Grand Central

Although the actors acquit themselves with some distinction the performances cannot quite disguise the one dimensional aspect of the characters.

Richard Mowe · 2 out of 5
A complex romance set against the backdrop of the nuclear power industry.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Rebecca Zlotowski; Writer: Gaëlle Macé, Rebecca Zlotowski; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Tahar Rahim, Denis Ménochet)

Full review

The Hour Of The Lynx (I lodjurets timma, I lossens time)

Psychological thriller about a priest, a researcher and a disturbed young man.

(Country: Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2013; Director: Søren Kragh-Jacobsen; Writer: Jonas T Bengtsson, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Tobias Lindholm, based on the novel by Per Olov Enquist; Stars: Søren Malling, Sofie Gråbøl, Signe Egholm Olsen, Lia Boysen, Börje Ahlstedt, Frederik Christian Johansen, Jens Jørn Spottag, Julie Carlsen, Nis Bank-Mikkelsen, Donald Högberg, Henrik Birch, Barbro Enberg, Jakob Ulrik Lohmann, Rasmus Elton, Susan Olsen)

Ida

Review preview for Ida

A still, painterly vision in silvery monochrome - capturing the quiet contemplation of the two women and simultaneously encouraging the same on the part of the viewer.

Rebecca Naughten · 4.5 out of 5
A novice nun comes face-to-face with her family’s past in 1960s Poland.

(Country: Poland, Denmark; Year: 2013; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Agata Kulesza, Joanna Kulig, Dawid Ogrodnik, Adam Szyszkowski, Agata Trzebuchowska)

Full review See: Pawel Pawlikowski in conversation on Ida

The Italian Pastry Chef (Il Pasticciere)

A pastry chef whose diabetes means he cannot taste his own creations is inadvertently caught up in a murder plot.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Luigi Sardiello; Stars: Antonio Catania, Rosaria Russo, Ennio Fantastichin)

Lasting

An emotional love story about two Polish students who fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare interrupts their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos.

(Country: Poland, Spain; Year: 2013; Director: Jacek Borcuch; Writer: Jacek Borcuch; Stars: Jakub Gierszal, Magdalena Berus, Angela Molina)

LFO

An unhappy sound technician discovers a frequency that lets him control other people's minds.

(Country: Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2013; Director: Antonio Tublén; Stars: Patrik Karlson, Izabella Jo Tschig, Per Löfberg)

Love Is Not What It Used to Be (El Amor No Es Lo Que Era)

Review preview for Love Is Not What It Used to Be

Sweet-natured and sometimes charming.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Couples at different stages of their relationships experience the different forms and directions love can take.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2013; Director: Gabriel Ochoa; Writer: Ada Hernández, Gabriel Ochoa, Rafael Cobos; Stars: Alberto San Juan, Aida Folch, Petra Martínez)

Full review

Love Is The Perfect Crime (L'amour est un crime parfait)

A professor forms a realtionship with one of his student's mothers after her daughter disappears

(Year: 2013; Director: Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu; Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Maïwenn, Karin Viard)

Mary, Queen Of Scots

Review preview for Mary, Queen Of Scots

Imbach’s production eschews costume drama clichés for a spare and taut account.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
A biopic of the ill-fated Scottish monarch.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2013; Director: Thomas Imbach; Writer: Thomas Imbach, based on the book by Stefan Zweig.; Stars: Camille Rutherford, Sean Biggerstaff, Aneurin Barnard, Ian Hanmore)

Full review See: Interview with Camille Rutherford about Mary Queen Of Scots

Miss Violence

The death of an 11-year-old leads to the unravelling of ugly family secrets.

(Country: Greece; Year: 2013; Director: Alexandros Avranas; Stars: Themis Panou, Kostas Antalopoulos, Chloe Bolota)

Mood Indigo

Review preview for Mood Indigo

The overkill threatens to bludgeon the much-loved book into an over-wrought exercise in style.

Richard Mowe · 2 out of 5
This dreamlike story of two pairs of lovers, a cook and a kitchen mouse is an adaptation of the cult novel by French writer Boris Vian.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2013; Director: Michel Gondry; Writer: Luc Bossi, based on the novel by Boris Vian; Stars: Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Omar Sy, Michel Gondry)

Full review See: Michel Gondry and Audrey Tautou in conversation on Mood Indigo

Mr Morgan's Last Love

Review preview for Mr Morgan's Last Love

Caine makes the most of the material on offer.

Richard Mowe · 2 out of 5
A retired philosophy professor falls for a young Parisian woman.

(Country: Germany, Belgium, USA, France; Year: 2013; Director: Sandra Nettelbeck; Writer: Sandra Nettelbeck, based on the book by Françoise Dorner.; Stars: Gillian Anderson, Michael Caine, Clémence Poésy)

Full review

Northwest (Nordvest)

Review preview for Northwest

A well-shot and occasionally sweaty run around the same old block.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A teenager gets sucked into a turf war.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2013; Director: Michael Noer; Writer: Rasmus Heisterberg, Michael Noer; Stars: Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Hamza Al.Jaburi, Oliver Altman, Kevin Andersen, Irina V Babenko, Jelena Bundalovic, Lene Maria Christensen, Sandra El-Hussein, Nick Philip Engel, Monika Paula Fasula, Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Oscar Dyekjær Giese, Jacob Wagner Guldager, Carsten Hartmann, Nicholas Westwood Kidd)

Full review

The Notebook (A nagy füzet)

Twins try to cope after they are left with their alcoholic gran in wartime Hungary.

(Country: Germany, France, Hungary, Austria; Year: 2013; Director: János Szász; Writer: Tom Abrams, Agota Kristof, András Szekér, János Szász; Stars: András Gyémánt, László Gyémánt, Gyöngyvér Bognár, Piroska Molnár, András Réthelyi, Ulrich Thomsen, Orsolya Tóth, János Derzsi, Péter Andorai, Miklós Székely B., Krisztián Kovács, Ákos Köszegi, Ulrich Matthes, Gyula Kovács, Diána Kiss)

Of Horses and Men (Hross í oss)

Review preview for Of Horses and Men

Cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson captures Iceland at its wildest and yet this is also a tale of intimacy without romanticism.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human.

(Country: Iceland; Year: 2013; Director: Benedikt Erlingsson; Writer: Benedikt Erlingsson; Stars: Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Maria Ellingsen, Helgi Björnsson, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Atli Rafn Sigurðsson, Steinn Ármann Magnússon, Charlotte Bøving, Kjartan Ragnarsson, Sigríður María Egilsdóttir, Juan Camillo Roman Estrada, Erlingur Gíslason)

Full review See: Benedikt Erlingsson interview about Of Horses And Men

Papusza

Review preview for Papusza

Managing for the most part to avoid the clichés of portraying the gypsy milieu, it has the stamp of authenticity.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
The story of the famous Romany poet.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2013; Director: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze; Writer: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze; Stars: Jowita Budnik, Joanna Niemirska, Antoni Pawlicki)

Full review

Pioneer (Pionér)

Conspiracy thriller, can a man turn whistleblower and preserve his slice of Norwegian Oil Bubble riches?

(Country: Norway; Year: 2013; Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg; Writer: Nikolaj Frobenius, Hans Gunnarsson, Cathinka Nicolaysen, Erik Skjoldbjærg, Kathrine Valen; Stars: Wes Bentley, Stephen Lang, Jonathan LaPaglia, Stephanie Sigman, Aksel Hennie, Jørgen Langhelle, Ane Dahl Torp, André Eriksen, David A. Jørgensen, Jerker Fahlström, Arne Lindtner Næss, Endre Hellestveit, Janne Heltberg, Eirik Stubø, Laurents Rørvik)

Playing Dead (Je Fais Le Mort)

A struggling actor helps out with a police reenactment and finds himself caught up in the search pf a killer.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Jean-Paul Salomé; Stars: François Damiens, Geraldine Nakache, Lucien Jean-Baptiste)

Quai d'Orsay

Satire about a speechwriter hired to work for the French Foreign Minister.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Bertrand Tavernier; Stars: Thierry Lhermitte, Raphael Personnaz, Niels Arestrup)

The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears (L'étrange Couleur Des Larmes De Ton Corps, The Strange Color Of Your Body's Tears)

Review preview for The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears

For all that its often said "they don't make them like they used to" this is very, very close.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A woman's disappearance forms the central mystery in this visually stylish neo-giallo.

(Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg; Year: 2013; Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani; Writer: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani; Stars: Klaus Tange, Jean-Michel Vovk, Sylvia Camarda, Sam Louwyck, Anna D'annunzio, Manon Beuchot)

Full review

The Stag (The Bachelor Weekend)

The presence of an obnoxious soon-to-be brother in law complicates a stag do.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2013; Director: John Butler; Stars: Andrew Scott, Hugh O'Conor, Peter McDonald)

A Street In Palermo

The chaos caused when two cars meet in side street in Palermo and neither will budge to let the other pass.

(Country: Italy, Switzerland, France; Year: 2013; Director: Emma Dante; Writer: Emma Dante, Giorgio Vasta; Stars: Emma Dante, Alba Rohrwacher, Elena Cotta, Renato Malfatti, Dario Casarolo)

Suzanne

The close relationship between two sisters and their widowed father becomes complicated when one of them falls pregnant.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Katell Quillévéré; Stars: Sara Forestier, Adèle Haenel, François Damiens)

Tangerines (Mandariinid)

Review preview for Tangerines

The film is a great example of how powerful and universal small but well-crafted stories can be.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
As the Abkhazian War in Georgia approaches, two villagers are the only ones who haven’t left.

(Country: Estonia, Georgia; Year: 2013; Director: Zaza Urushadze; Writer: Zaza Urushadze; Stars: Lembit Ulfsak, Elmo Nüganen, Giorgi Nakashidze, Misha Meskhi, Raivo Trass)

Full review See: Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival preview

A Thousand Times Good Night (Tusen ganger god natt)

Semi-autobiographical story of a photojournalist forced to choose between family and her career.

(Country: Norway, Ireland, Sweden; Year: 2013; Director: Erik Poppe; Writer: Erik Poppe, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, Kirsten Sheridan; Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Juliette Binoche, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Eve Macklin, Larry Mullen Jr., Chloë Annett, Lauryn Canny, Denise McCormack, Mads Ousdal, Carl Shaaban, Anna Leah Thorseth Poppe, Stephen Mullan, Larry Mullen, Bush Moukarzel)

Two Lives

Family lives are complicated by dark secrets buried in the past and Norway's occupation by the Nazis.

(Country: Germany, Norway; Year: 2013; Director: Georg Maas, Judith Kaufmann; Stars: Juliane Köhler, Ken Duken, Liv Ullmann)

Witching And Bitching (Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi)

Review preview for Witching And Bitching

A messy but highly enjoyable romp that takes a sideswipe at modern Spanish attitudes and the country's economic turmoil.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
When three men go on the run after a heist goes bad, they run into a coven of witches.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2013; Director: Álex de la Iglesia; Writer: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia; Stars: Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carmen Maura, Gabriel Delgado, Carlos Areces, Carolina Bang, Macarena Gómez, Pepón Nieto, Secun de la Rosa, María Barranco, Jaime Ordóñez, Enrique Villén, Terele Pávez, Beatriz Urzáiz, Julián Valcárcel-Carbonell)

Full review See: London Spanish Film Festival preview

You'll Be A Man

Review preview for You'll Be A Man

You'll Be A Man goes a long way on the strength of its strong script and capable cast.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A ten-year-old boy and the 20-year-old hired to look after him become best friends.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Benoît Cohen; Stars: Aurelio Cohen, Jules Sagot, Eleonore Pourriat)

Full review

Yves Saint Laurent

Review preview for Yves Saint Laurent

The actors have great chemistry and potently communicate things about human behavior in relationships, universal and specific, self-destructive and kind.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
Biopic of the French fashion designer.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Jalil Lespert; Writer: Jacques Fieschi, Jérémie Guez, Marie-Pierre Huster, Jalil Lespert; Stars: Pierre Niney, Charlotte Le Bon, Guillaume Gallienne, Judi Beecher, Nikolai Kinski, Ruben Alves, Laura Smet, Janicke Askevold, Xavier Lafitte, Anne Alvaro, Xavier Alcan, Marianne Basler, Jeanne Dandoy, Astrid Whettnall, Rani Bheemuck)

Full review