Yellow and red

 I always like to wander round Lochend Park before I teach my writing class at the nearby Ripple Project. The park is looking particularly pretty at the moment with all the yellow flag irises that are out. These two photos are from Thursday, when I taught the last class in the current term.

 Yesterday I walked along the Water of Leith as I do every week. I was delighted to see this lovely moth (a Brimstone moth I think, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!) in the gloomy long tunnel on the old railway line (now cyclepath) at Colinton. I was even more delighted to find out that the photo came out!

Meanwhile today, we were delighted to see a whole hive's worth of red tailed bumble bees in the flowers in Princes Street Gardens, No photos unfortunately, the busy bees were busily buzzing too fast for my camera!

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Edinburgh International Film Festival - my reviews

Well the Edinburgh International Film Festival is drawing to a close for another year, I've seen a lot of excellent films and you can read my reviews by following the links below:

I Catch a Terrible Cat.

Penumbra and The Last Time I Saw Macao.

Noche.

Leviathan.

A Play for Freedom and Emperor Visits the Hell.

Blackbird.

Big Boy.

Kiss the Water.

Cycle.

Taboor, Yumen and Breathing Earth.

The East, Dark Matter and Mushrooming.

Die Welt.

Lilou's Adventure.

From Tehran to London.

***
The Best of the Fest films have been announced, to be screened on Sunday.

And the Awards have been awarded, see which films won!

As ever, red text contains hypoelinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Disclaimer, I had a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended free press screenings for all these films.

Cats on Film

One of the runaway successes of last years Edinburgh International Film Festival was Rentaneko (Rentacat - which I reviewed here). It was notable for starring an adorable array of cats.

This year one of the Japanese films in the festival is Keppidoi Neko (I Catch a Terrible Cat). However, before you rush to the cinema expecting a cute sequel to Rentaneko, you'll be disapppointed. There are no cats in this film!

The film is billed as a romantic comedy, though it didn't really become funny until past half way through. Takada, a successful novelist, has suffered writers block since his wife died and only now that a beautiful young waitress seems to be interested in him, can he see himself writing again. The plot is full of twists and turns in the relationships of the main characters, which lead to all sorts of misunderstandings culminating in a funny and embarrassing party for Takada's 60th birthday party.

This is a slow moving film (too slow to really be a comedy apart from a few scenes) but thoughtful and insightful about family and romantic relationships.

I Catch a Terrible Cat has already been screened twice at Edinburgh International Film Festival and there are no more screeinings! Meanwhile:

The Best of the Fest films have been announced.

The Award Winning Films of the festival have been announced. 

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the festival and attended a free press screening of this film.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Roses and a miscellany

 The wild roses are beautiful just now.....

I've just finished making another chopstick bag, in a sort of rose colour, with a silver 'Hello Kitty' charm, made as ever with entirely repurposed materials:

it's now for sale in my Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

Meanwhile I'm delighted to have a poem in the new Busker e-book from What the Dickens.

I'll be posting my final two film reviews from the Edinburgh International Film Festival tomorrow.

Today at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Penumbra takes the viewer to a remote rural area of Mexico to spend a few days with an ageing couple. Adelelmo sets off into the forests to hunt for food, while his wife stays at home and cooks, does the laundry and other domestic tasks.

It is obvious that Adelelmo knows the forest intimately, he gathers medical herbs and follows the tracks of a deer, which he finally traps and kills. Later he and his wife eat the deer.

This is a beautiful, meditative film about living close to nature.

****

The unnamed narrator of The Last Time I Saw Macao is also on the hunt, but this time for his friend, Candy, who is in trouble in the crowded city of Macao, former Portuguese colony and the 'Las Vegas of the East'. The plot of the film fades away half way through and we find outselves on a tour of the city, which certainly has its beautiful areas. It's surrounded by mountains where kites perform their aerobatics and there's a lovely wetlands area, with kingfishers and other birds. Meanwhile the city itself is full of feral cats and dogs who seem almost to be overseeing on the search for Candy.

These two films are showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

Penumbra: 2045, 28 June and 2115, 29 June both at Filmhouse.

The Last Time I Saw Macao: 1830, 28 June (Filmhouse) and 1424, 30 June (Cineworld)

Earlier today I saw Die Welt, which I reviewed here.

Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and I attended free press screenings for these films.

Noche

Noche (Night) is a film full of sound. The natural sounds of rural Argentina and the sounds in the last recordings made by Miguel, a young sound recordist who has recently committed suicide. These recordings form the backdrop for the gathering of Miguel's friends as they pack away his belongings and mourn for him, while staying effectively isolated from each other most of the time.

The action largely takes place outside in the beautiful woods around Miguel's old house, but most of the recordings are of interiors and dreams. This gives the film a real sense of mystery, are the recordings a form of archive of Miguel's work? Do they offer clues as to his state of mind before his suicide? Are they an intriguing game he wanted to play on his friends? Whatever the recordings actually are, the friends can't leave the house until the recordings end, just as they can't move on from their grief until they've processed their memories of Miguel.

An atmospheric and intriguing film, Noche is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival: 

2035, 27 June (Filmhouse) and 1200, 29 June (Cineworld)

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film festival and attended a free press screening of this film

Leviathan

Filmed in the seas off new England (the very seas that inspired Moby Dick) Leviathan is a film that gives the viewer a unique insight into the world of commercial fishing.

Rather than being a conventional documentary, Leviathan immerses the viewer in the mostly nightime world of the fishing vessel. Fish blood and guts, heaving oceans, tattoed arms of fishermen slashing knives through fish, clanking nets, dying fish, tossing waves, ghostly white gulls screaming in the dark of night. The immersion is so effective that you'd be advised not to see the film if you get seasick.

You may also want to avoid the film if you want to continue enjoying eating fish. Although there is no explicit environmental or animal rights message in the film, it is none the less very effective in conveying the brutality of the slaughter of the fish and the implicit toll taken on the ocean.

It's a film that will be remembered long after the closing credits have ended (credits that list not only all the crew members of the boat but all the species of bird and fish that appear).

Leviathan is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2040, 27 June and 1440, 29 June both at Cineworld.

Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.