Noticeboard NewsGossipOpinion Peter Cook in The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, screening as part of the After the Wave retrospective

The reel deal The Edinburgh International Film Festival launches its programme Words: Anna Millar

T his year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival will showcase over 133 features from 34 countries and include appearances from Patrick

Stewart and Sir Sean Connery.

Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist will open the festival, while the closing night gala will be BAFTA-winning filmmaker Hattie Dalton’s feature debut, Third Star. The festival will also host the international premiere of Toy Story 3 the day after it is first screened in the US. Other highlights include Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Chris D’Arienzo’s Barry Munday and American Splendor directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s The Extra Man. Steven Soderbergh’s biopic of writer and performer Spalding Gray, And Everything is Going Fine, will be

showing in the Document strand. British Gala screenings include Brit comedy Huge from comedian Ben Miller, and Rupert Friend starring in Nick Moran’s The Kid, while this year’s Retrospective is After the Wave: Lost and Forgotten British Cinema 1967–1979. Marking his 80th birthday, Sir Sean Connery will be watching one of his best performances at a special Gala screening of John Huston’s colonial adventure story The Man Who Would Be King. EIFF artistic director, Hannah McGill said of this year’s programme: ‘We’re looking forward to spreading our excitement about current and classic cinema to our loyal attenders and to new audiences alike.’

EIFF, 16–27 June. See features, pages 22–28.

HAUTE CUISINE Edinburgh Festivals endeavour to take their audience to new heights: and this year they look set to take that idea further still, as diners are invited to eat at a table suspended 100ft above the city. The 22-seat dinner table will be suspended over West Princes Street Garden by a crane, as part of a Festival in the Sky event that has already proved popular in over 30 countries. Each sitting, whether breakfast,

lunch or dinner, will last half an hour and promise extraordinary views of the city, including the Castle and Pronces Street Gardens. City of Edinburgh Councillor Steve Cardownie said: ‘It’s been a huge hit all over the world, so it’s very exciting for us to be giving the event its Scottish debut. Dining in the sky will be memorable enough, but, with this stunning backdrop, this will surely be an unforgettable experience.’

5 Things. . . UNINAMES Just for fun: portmanteau names for celebrity couples

1 Shellack The prefered uniname

for Barack and Michelle Obama (Not Barchelle or

Michack, thanks). Also a nice Steve Albini/Shellac reference.

2 Dick Clameron Favoured

portmanteau of Nick Clegg and David Cameron detractors

following the collapse of a Begg/ Clown (Clegg and Brown) deal.

3 Gaimanda Sums up author Neil Gaiman and singer Amanda Palmer’s togetherness nicely,

though they prefer to be known collectively as ‘Steve’.

4 Filliam H. Muffman US satirical comedian Stephen Colbert christened this

striking uniname for William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman.

5 Jedward Edward is

planning to donate the first half of his name to John (or Jed

as he’ll be known Edward will be Ard). They’ll each share half the ‘w’. WWW.LIST.CO.UK Visit us daily for arts & entertainment news

JAZZ BAR HITS A HIGH NOTE Congratulations to Edinburgh Jazz Bar for winning the UK Jazz Bar of the Year award. The distinction marks the third major award for the venue in under a year, having been voted Scotland’s Jazz Venue of the Year at the Scottish Jazz Awards last June, then taking the Scotland’s Music Pub of the Year title at the Scottish Licensed Trade News awards last October.

10–24 Jun 2010 THE LIST 7