The fascinating reinvention of the Edinburgh Film Festival continues apace. Once among the most delightful film events in Europe, the jamboree has lost some glister since moving from August, when it shared space with that city’s legendary multi-disciplinary Arts Festival, to a quieter spot in June.
The latest radical move is to ditch the notion of a single director and bring in a series of distinguished curators. Such luminaries as Isabella Rossellini, Gus Van Sant and Jim Jarmusch are to programme screenings and events for this year’s relaunch.
James Mullighan, the festival’s producer (sort of), explained: “The effect could be a bit like the surrealist ‘exquisite corpse’ technique – one person draws a line, then folds over the paper, then the next continues the line without knowing what went before.”
It could well work. If nothing else, the policy will clearly distinguish Edinburgh from more traditional festivals.
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