Five to see at GFF, 19 Feb: Goodnight Mommy

Feature by Film Team | 19 Feb 2016

What do the cinema gods offer up today at GFF? There's a Palme d'Or winner (Dheepan), a new film from a master filmmaker (Peter Greenaway), a great comeback (Michael Caton-Jones with Urban Hymn) and a nerve-shredding horror (Goodnight Mommy).

Today's hottest GFF ticket is for the world premiere of Paul Fegan’s Where You’re Meant to Be, which follows Aidan Moffat on a trip around Scotland and its folk song history. What makes this screening even more special is that it's taking place in the Barrowland Ballroom and the Arab Strap frontman will be bringing together a number of traditional and contemporary musicians from the film for a post-screening gig. Tickets, as you might expect, are like gold dust. We interviewed Moffat about the film and he spoke elequently about its very specific sensibility:

“It’s quite Scottish in tone. It has quite a dark sense of humour, and a humility to it that’s very Scottish. Scots aren’t very good at shouting about how brilliant they are, so it is quite self-deprecating in that respect. But hopefully it shows the roots of the music."

Read our full interview with Aidan Moffat

Today's Highlights

Dheepan

GFT, 5.45pm

This fine-grained immigration drama won the Palme d’Or at Cannes eight months ago, but feels even more vital now. Plus it's from from Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone), who's about as close as you get to a sure thing in terms of rousing mainstream filmmaking.

Eisenstein in Guanajuato

GFT, 6.45pm

A typically raucous affair from Peter Greenaway here, telling of legendary Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein’s sexual awakening in Mexico, aged 33. Be sure to catch Greenaway's In Person event tomorrow too, where he'll be talking through his colourful career, from The Draughtsman's Contract to The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover to The Pillow Book.

Urban Hymn

GFT, 8.20pm

This one caught our eye for two reasons. First, great Scottish actor Shirley Henderson gets her hands on a rare meaty role as a middle-class Londoner who tries to mentor a teenage girl with a rough background and likely rougher future. Second, it marks a return for Scottish filmmaker Michael Caton-Jones, who had a string of great films in the 90s, including ace swashbuckler Rob Roy, but hit the skids with uber flop Basic Insticts 2 – it's good to have him back. Both Henderson and Caton-Jones will be at the screeing for a Q&A.

The Club

GFT, 9pm

This latest film from Pablo Larraín (Tony Manero, No) sounds like a sinister twist on Father Ted, centring on a household of disgraced priests who’ve been banished to a perennially overcast coastal village. This darkly comic study in guilt and punishment might be the Chilean filmmaker's finest work yet.

We spoke to Larraín ahead of GFF's screening, and he had some interesting things to say about the use of dark humour in The Club and his other films:

“There are some ideas that you can’t say with a straight face because you can sound preachy. It’s as if you’re trying to make a statement instead of telling a story. Humour is the best tool to hide something that can be interesting and smart and it can maybe be even more sophisticated if you can put it in a joke... It can be threatening for the audience when they realise they are laughing about something that they shouldn't be laughing at, however. It’s a moral conflict inside any of us if we laugh at something that maybe we shouldn’t and when that happens, it’s amazing.” 

Read out full interview with Pablo Larraín

Goodnight Mommy

GFT, 11pm

We love this nerve-shredding premise: a woman returns home from surgery with her face swaddled in bandages and her twin sons begin to suspect she might be an imposter. For more parent-child strife, catch Carrie on Imax (7.30pm).

Notes from the Twitterati

So, the Con Air secret screening happened, and it looked awesome. Here are some of the tweets from those lucky enough to get hold of tickets.

Win tickets to Évolution through Instagram

We've got a pair of tickets to the Sat 20 Feb (8.15pm) screening of Cronenbergian horror Évolution (read our 5 star review), which will be followed by a Q&A with director Lucile Hadžihalilović, to give away. To be in with a chance of winning tickets to this uncanny horror gem, follow the instructions below.

Glasgow Film Festival: runs until 28 Feb. Keep up to date with what's going on at Glasgow Film Festival in The CineSkinny – in print at Glasgow Film Festival venues and online at theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny

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