Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) today announced that this year’s two retrospectives will be Look Again: A Celebration of Cinéma Du Look, a cinematic exploration of the unforgettable ‘Cinéma du Look’ wave of 1980 and early 1990s French filmmaking and POW!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations: The First Generation, delving into the evolution of the live-action comic strip adaptation in cinema.
Mark Adams, EIFF Artistic Director said: “The ‘Cinéma du Look’ retrospective marks 30 years since EIFF opened with the UK premiere of Jean Jaques Beineix’s iconic Betty Blue, so it is a real thrill to be able to screen this selection of iconic films.”
The programme features powerful, provocative and poignant tales told from daring new perspectives, invested with a bold, colourful escapism and haunting style. These visually stunning films imbued French cinema of the time with exciting new directions and possibilities, showcasing performances by French stars such as Jean Reno, Christophe Lambert, Michel Piccoli, Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche, Jeanne Moreau, Dominique Pinon and Julie Delpy, becoming a cinematic influence that is still clearly apparent today. A number of these iconic stars are expected to attend this year’s festival.
Focusing on the work of Jean Jaques Beineix, Luc Besson, and Leos Carax, the three directors around which this seminal movement revolved, titles in this strand will include Beineix’s Betty Blue (1986) and Diva (1981), Besson’s Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988) and La Femme Nikita (1990) and Carax’s Mauvais Sang (1986) and Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf (1991).
POW!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations: The First Generation will offer 2016 festival-goers the chance to explore the cinematic roots of the current tidal wave of superhero blockbusters, taking an international retrospective journey through cult genre in dynamic style, to explore in full the colourful evolution of the live-action comic strip adaptation in cinema. The retrospective explores the best of the genre from explosive martial arts to chic ‘60s espionage via funky blaxploitation and far-out science fiction.
Titles will include Jean Jaques Vierne’s TinTin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (France/Belgium 1961), Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise(UK 1966), Leslie H. Martinson’s Batman: The Movie (USA 1966), Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik (Italy 1968), Roger Vadim’s Barbarella (France/Italy 1968), Junya Sato’s Golgo 13 (Japan 1973), Kenji Misumi’sLone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Japan 1972), Corrado Farina’sBaba Yaga (Italy/France 1973), Arthur Marks’ Friday Foster (USA 1975) and Robert Altman’s Popeye (USA 1980).
The screenings will be supplemented by Origin Story, an event tracing the birth of the live action comic strip adaptation in cinema from the 1960s back to the silent era and detailing the earliest attempts to translate the frames on the page into frames on the big screen.
Senior Programmer Niall Fulton commented: “With superhero cinema dominating the international box office, the time is right for EIFF to take an affectionate look back at the weird, wild, and wonderful world of the big screen comic strip adaptation. It’s a unique and exciting opportunity to see a selection of rare, iconic cult classics the way they should be seen, and provides a highly entertaining insight into the provenance of this current global phenomenon.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
