Cork Film Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary with a rich, wide-ranging international programme, preceded by a symposium on the art of the short film, its history and aesthetics, which runs from October 6th to 8th. Here are just some of the highlights from the main programme.
MEMORIES AND DREAMS
The festival opens with a gala evening celebrating its history with various guests, archival film and shorts, and then looks to the future with The Eye of the Pilot, a live cinema performance project from audiovisual group Addictive TV with French guitarist Alejandro de Valera. Oct 9, 8.30pm
FACTOTUM
Matt Dillon (below right) plays an aimless, hard-drinking drifter in this Charles Bukowski adaptation from Norwegian director Bent Hamer. Oct 10, 9pm
TICKETS
Three veteran directors - Abbas Kiarostami, Ermanno Olmi and Ken Loach - contribute episodes to an omnibus film set aboard a train en route to Rome. Oct 11, 6pm
THE MAGICAL WORLD OF GEORGES MÉLIÈS
The late 19th-century classic, A Trip to the Moon, is featured in this very special programme of work by pioneering French film-maker Méliès, to be introduced by his granddaughter with her son providing piano accompaniment. Oct 12, 6pm
THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
Imaginative French director Jacques Audiard remakes James Toback's 1978 Fingers with Romain Duris in the Harvey Keitel role, as an aspirant concert pianist drawn into his father's underworld life. Oct 12, 8.30pm
SUGAR
An experimental study in alienation co-directed by Paddy Jolley and Reynold Reynolds. Oct 12, 9pm
BELOVED ENEMY
Showing in a restored print with its original ending, HC Potter's 1936 film dramatises the alleged love affair between Michael Collins and Lady Lavery, and stars Merle Oberon, Brian Ahearne and David Niven. Oct 13, 6pm
WALK THE LINE
Joaquin Phoenix impressively plays the young Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon sparkles as June Carter, the singer he married, and both actors do all their own singing. Oct 13, 8.30pm
ISOLATION
Billy O'Brien's first feature is an unsettling dark tale of genetic experiments on a remote Irish farm. With John Lynch and Ruth Negga. Oct 14, 7pm
STONED
Producer Steve Woolley, the subject of a retrospective at Cork this year, turns director with a movie exploring the death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. Oct 14, 8.30pm
THE PROPOSITION
The festival closes with John Hillcoat's western set in 19th-century Australia, scripted by singer Nick Cave, and featuring Guy Pearce, Emily Watson and John Hurt. Oct 16, 8.30pm
Special events include a tribute to accomplished Irish documentary-maker Louis Marcus, a programme of new gay and lesbian cinema, and a wealth of shorts and documentaries from around the world.
Advance booking opens from 2pm tomorrow at Kelly's Post Office, Grand Parade, Cork. Tel: (021) 427-2763. The full programme is online at www.corkfilmfest.org
