EIFF unveil Future Is History retrospective

Today the retrospective for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (21 Jun-2 Jul) has been announced, with a programme of films that are said to "nod to the festival’s rich 70-year history". Niall Greig Fulton, the retrospective’s curator, said: “Inspired by Britain’s decision to leave the EU during our last edition, and touching on the Festival’s long held passion for debate and discovery, The Future is History turns the clock back to the 1970s and 1980s to explore the vital question of identity in a world undergoing seismic political and cultural change.”

The retrospective will be split into three parts, Great Britain, The Western World of the Future and Scotland, which will be presented as a special cross-arts exploration of identity, featuring performance and theatre as well as film.

HandMade Films and THE THE film

The Great Britain section will focus on the eclectic films that emerged from HandMade Films, the production company formed by former Beatle George Harrison in 1978 to finance the Life of Brian. That Monty Python film doesn’t feature in the EIFF lineup, but there is room for Terry Gilliam's 1981 fantasy feature Time Bandits, two brilliant gangster films featuring Bob Hoskins (Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa and John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday) and cult classic Withnail & I, from Bruce Robinson.

Less well known HandMade Films also feature: Scrubbers (Mai Zetterling, 1982), A Private Function (Malcolm Mowbray, 1984), Bellman and True (Richard Loncraine, 1987) and another Bruce Robinson title, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, which, like Withnail & I, features a knockout performance from Richard E Grant. There’s also a special screening of the original Scottish language version of John Mackenzie’s 1979 film A Sense of Freedom, which tells the story of Scottish gangster Jimmy Boyle.

The Great Britain section also includes a rare screening of THE THE: Infected – The Movie, the visual accompaniment to THE THE’s seminal 1986 album of the same name. In addition, there’s an interactive exhibition, Radio Cineola: The Inertia Variations, based on the film. You'll also find a collection of rare satirical animations with a British theme, including films by Bob Godfrey, Chris Shepherd, and Marcus Armitage.

Early 80s Sci-Fi

The Western World of the Future strand is said to be “designed to turn attention to the future of the western world via the science fiction cinema of the past, and in the process, continue the review of EIFF’s own rich history.” Many of the films in this strand, such as Bertrand Tavernier’s Glasgow-set Death Watch, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, the Sean Connery-starring Outland, Lizzie Borden’s feminist milestone Born in Flames, and Alex Cox's scuzzy masterpiece Repo Man, all premiered at EIFF in the early 80s.

Other titles in the strand include The Last Battle (Luc Besson, 1983), Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983), The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984), The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984), Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985), The Element of Crime (Lars von Trier, 1984) and The Quiet Earth (Geoffrey Murphy, 1985).

Iconic French director René Laloux, whose imaginative work consistently explored themes of communication and identity, will be remembered with two screenings of his cult animated feature films La Planète Sauvage (1973) and Gandahar (1988).

A celebration of Tom McGrath

The third strand, titled Scotland, acts as a celebration of visionary Scottish playwright, poet and jazz musician Tom McGrath.

To mark McGrath’s immense influence on jazz in Scotland, Edinburgh-born jazz saxophonist Tommy Smith will lead the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra in a musical tribute at the Queens Hall featuring the music of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Freddie Redd and other jazz greats. This performance will be complemented by readings of McGrath’s poetry by actor and performer Tam Dean Burn.

Burn will also direct two live stage readings of two ground-breaking plays by McGrath: The Hard Man (1977) and The Android Circuit (1978). Intriguingly, this interpretation of The Hard Man promises to put a new spin on the famously masculine play by casting Kate Dickie in the central role.

There’s also a rare screening of McGrath’s sci-fi The Nuclear Family, which was broadcast in the BBC’s Play for Tomorrow series. The film selection also includes a trip back to McGrath’s roots in the beat era with Wholly Communion (1965) and The Connection (1961).

As an accompaniment to The Future is History, EIFF will host a series of free lectures by leading academics from Edinburgh University and Stirling University who will discuss some of the subjects raised in the retrospectives.