Ian Rankin to curate Filmhouse film season
The crime novel author is the first in Filmhouse’s new House Guests series, which sees guest programmers come in to curate a personal film series for the indie cinema
From July, Filmhouse in Edinburgh will be inviting different guest curators into their programming team as part of the cinema’s new series House Guests. The new programming initiative will see a range of Scotland’s leading lights across music, writing, film, and the arts converge on the indie cinema over the coming years to chip in with programming ideas.
The first in a rotating cavalcade of guest curators is Edinburgh-based crime writer Ian Rankin, who picks a pleasingly on-brand selection of noirs and gritty crime movies for his season.
Rankin’s line-up kicks off with Mike Hodges’ misanthropic thriller Get Carter, in which Michael Caine’s title character heads to Newcastle to clear up some family business. The season then switches from north-east England to the Sunshine State for Roman Polanski’s stylish whodunit Chinatown.
Get Carter trailer
The crime is less insidious in That Sinking Feeling, Bill Forsyth’s endlessly endearing first feature in which a rag-tag of unemployed Glaswegian teens plan a heist of stainless steel kitchen sinks. Shot in 16mm, it's wonderfully lo-fi. When we interviewed Whit Stillman last year, he revealed his admiration for the film. “I love That Sinking Feeling," he told us. "I think That Sinking Feeling is the best terrible looking film that’s ever been made; it’s a really good movie, but gosh it looks bad."
We stay in Scotland for The 39 Steps, Hitchcock’s riotous romantic comedy disguised as a chase thriller. And there’s a Scottish connection too to the final film in the series: The Long Good Friday, the great 1980's London gangster movie starring Bob Hoskins, from the sorely underappreciated Scottish director John Mackenzie.
The Long Good Friday trailer
By inviting in guest curators from various backgrounds, Filmhouse hope to bring a new flavour to its programme. “Filmhouse is strongly aware of cinema's capacity to inform and inspire artistic work across many art forms,” said Rod White, Filmhouse's head of programming. “Our goal with House Guests is to give an informal platform for practitioners in a wide range of fields, to share with an audience those films that have in some way helped them develop their own artistic vision.
“In so doing we hope to broaden the audience for artistically serious cinema, while also fostering conversation between film audiences and leading artistic practitioners in Scotland. We believe that many people across Scottish arts and letters have something important to say about cinema, and we’d like to include their voices in our programme.”
Filmhouse’s second House Guest will be the kickass trio Young Fathers, who are set to present a diverse programme of inspiring cinema later in 2017. Further down the line, other film seasons will be curated by the likes of playwright and actor Jo Clifford, jazz musician Tommy Smith and actor Tam Dean Burn.
Ian Rankin’s House Guests line-up:
Get Carter: Wed 19 Jul, 6.05pm
Chinatown: Wed 26 Jul, 3.20pm & 8.25pm
That Sinking Feeling: Wed 2 Aug, 6.15pm
The 39 Steps: Wed 9 Aug, 6.10pm
The Long Good Friday: Wed 16 Aug, 6pm
For more information and to purchase tickets, head to www.filmhousecinema.com