EIFF 2010 - The Film Part

A Spanking in Paradise (Feature)

Now paradise this was not! An Edinburgh based film, the story of a brothel owner who employs his newly qualified lawyer nephew to work for him while he waits for his American Visa to be processed. I believe the tone was confused - it was supposed to be a comedy, however the subject matter was too serious to be funny yet it was too light hearted to be serious. The script, in my opinion, was badly written, full of constant swearing and one-sided phonecalls. It was also visually poor, bad camerawork and average lighting, and what can I say about the performances - altogether, not great with a few, again, average performances.

All in all, not a film I would recommend.

International Shorts 2: Little Earthquakes

This was a collection of international short films - to my surprise - I enjoyed every one of these films - however one in particular stood out.

A film called Echo by the Polish Film School told the story of a boy who descended from cold control into madness after he murders a young girl. I felt everything was right about this film, the pace, the tone, the writing, the cinematography, the performances - a really strong piece of work! The cinematography was bleak, mirroring the bleak landscape and situation of the film, it was paced slowly, no quick, fashionably dramatic cuts made popular by American cinema - it fitted the film, long, drawn out thoughts. The writing and the performances were terrific, the script was truly captured the destruction of the boy's mind - his descent. The performances are also truly worthy of special mention, in particular the final scene where the boy must confront the parents of the murdered girl. There is a deadly silence, unspoken shock between the boy and the girl's mother - no reaction from either until the boy releases all of his feelings in one uncontrolled scream.