Does the world really need another blaxploitation spoof?

Imagine a darker version of Walk the Line, perhaps as directed by David Lynch, and you begin to get an idea of what to expect from this imaginary biopic.

This new documentary from Kirby Dick seeks to do for closeted Republican politicians what his earlier This Film is Not Yet Rated did for the MPAA, namely expose hypocrisy and a self-serving agenda.

As someone who grew up watching Hammer horror and who regretted that new British horror films were few and far between at the time, I never thought I’d find myself responding to a film like

In 1966 Jean Luc Godard made Two or Three Things I Know About Her, a film about a Parisian housewife who prostituted herself in order to enjoy the fruits of consumer capitalism. Appearing on television to promote the film and further explain its message, that capitalism = prostitution, Godard would be accompanied by an actual prostitute.

Or Emmanuelle [Beart] and the Last Cannibals?

Horror films have never been that big in the Francophone world. One suspects that the reason, besides the competing discourse of the fantastique, is that they are seen as somewhat déclassé, not serious enough.

The title Giallo refers, generically, to a distinctive kind of Italian horror-thriller film, of which writer-director Dario Argento has been a leading exponent since his 1970 debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

First things first: I must confess to being a fan of Christian Petzold’s work, such that the semi-annual appearance of his latest film usually represents one of the highlights of the EIFF for me.

Katalin Varga: it’s the kind of title that, beyond telling you its subject is a woman, gives nothing away and encourages you to look more closely at the

Duncan Jones's low-budget sci-fi Moon has won the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film

The Edinburgh International Film Festival gives out a number of awards at the end of the festival run. The top award is generally considered to be the Michael Powell Award which carries a cash prize of £20,000 and which is decided by a jury of film experts and industry professionals.

The closing film of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is suitably light in tone. A romcom with a twist, it's a tale of a beautiful girl meets boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that is a mild form of autism.

Times were always hard for the British Arthouse film-maker and never more so than right now. British directors, those wishing to pursue more enlightened ideals than cockney gangster geezer pastiches or clapped out movie vehicles for overexposed TV stars, are increasingly looking abroad for funding.

I'm old enough to remember Bill Forsyth's first films Gregory's Girl and That Sinking Feeling resonating with me as a teenager when, in the early Eighties, I first watched them during half-term breaks in the North of Scotland. We thought they were great. The dark, understated comedies were familiar and strange at the same time - it seemed like some local kids had just strolled into the film, yet there was nothing else like these out there. Scottish feature films were few and far between back then.

I can tell you this year's EIFF has nearly taken it out of me. I decided to go for a swim this morning to try and remember what its like to not be in a cinema and to feel...well just to feel anything to be honest. In the last two weeks, my muscles for doing anything physical have atrophied into a sitting half awake position and consequently I sank to the bottom of the pool like a stone the second I jumped in.

I can’t hear anything this morning. My ears are bleeding thanks to Scotland’s premier psychedelic post rock band who didn’t just play very loudly last night at the HMV Picture House but played through speakers that were actually 747 aircraft engines. Well, it seemed that way to me.

It's quite possible you've never heard of Boris Ryzhy, a young Russian poet who committed suicide in 2001 aged just 26. It's equally possible that, having watched this beautifully made documentary eulogy to Ryzhy and his work, you may well feel you still know very little about him as a person.

We're now past the half-way mark at the Edinburgh Film Festival (it finishes this Sunday, with the B

The EIFF have announced the "Best of the Fest" line-up for Sunday 28 June.

A couple of hours after seeing Spread (see previous blog) I went to see what is probably the most anticipated film of the EIFF, a film that couldn't be further removed from the charming warm breeze of Ashton Kutcher if it tried. I have folks, survived the ordeal that is Antichrist.