» Lights, camera, festival!
Roll out the red carpet as Brighton film festival Cinecity returns for its seventh year with a celluloid something for everyone
This week Cinecity, the South Coast’s leading annual film festival, returns to the Duke Of York’s and other venues around Brighton for the seventh year, bringing over 18 days’ worth of the very best in international cinema.
Between 19 November and 6 December there’ll be premieres and previews, artists’ cinema and installations, treasures from the archive, retrospectives, free schools’ screenings, education events and talks and debates with industry names and specialists.
Festival Director Tim Brown says, “This year we are continuing the great Cinecity tradition of screening films from both big name international directors, such as John Hillcoat’s eagerly awaited The Road starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, to a day showcasing shorts and features made in and around Brighton by local filmmakers over the last 12 months.” The latter event takes place on Sunday 6 December.
Other highlights include a lecture by renowned film historian Ian Christie on ‘Nevermades’, a look at the great unrealised film projects by directors including Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam, Nicolas Roeg, and Mike Hodges, which, for a variety of frustrating reasons were rejected, uncompleted, or thwarted.
This year the festival retrospective explores the cinema of Wojciech Has (1925 – 2000). The multi-award winning Polish director is known for works such as the cult classic The Saragossa Manuscript and The Hourglass Sanitorium. He has had a major influence on directors such as David Lynch, and was embraced by other high profile admirers including Luis Bunuel, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Cinecity will present five newly restored prints, giving audiences an opportunity to rediscover this key director.
Cinecity are also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the rarely seen 1969 cult classic British movie Bronco Bullfrog with the UK premiere of a new digital print, and a post screening discussion with its director, Barney Platts-Mills.
www.cine-city.co.uk
Cinecity Highlights
• Opening Night film Micmacs, from Amelie and Delicatessen director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Thursday 19 November, 6.30pm, Duke Of York’s.
• Gerardo Naranjo’s multi award-winning Mexican, young couple-on-the-run drama, I’m Going To Explode (Voy A Explotar). Saturday 21 November, 6.30pm, Duke Of York’s.
• A special preview of Festival Patron John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, The Road. Wednesday 25 November, 6.15pm, Duke Of York’s.
• Ponyo, the latest magical Japanese animation for children (and adults) from Spirited Away director Hayao Miyuzaki. Saturday 28 November, 1.30pm, Duke Of York’s.
• Closing night screening A Prophet (Un Prophete), Jacques Audiard’s gripping prison drama, winner of the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Cannes. Sunday 6 December, 6.30pm, Duke Of York’s.
Candid Canada
At the heart of this year’s Festival is a major exhibition (20 November – 12 December, University of Brighton Gallery, Grand Parade) from Canadian-born artist Mark Lewis, who will present three moving image works including the World Premiere of Hendon, FC and the UK premiere of Nathan Phillips Square, A Winter’s Night Skating. Mark represented Canada at the recent Venice Biennale and is one of the world’s leading moving image artists. Another artists’ cinema highlight this year is the Figuring Landscapes strand – five packages of Artists’ Moving Image from Australia and the UK complemented by a panel discussion.
