Resumen de Edinburgh 2007: Written on the rooftops
These are bright days for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Its new artistic director is Hannah McGill, a sometime contributor to this magazine and therfore a faultless choice. Debutting in the year after the event's 60th anniversary, she has made it a priority to consolidate Edinburgh's long-help position as a major international talent-magnet in an ever more competitive festival scene. She has brought youthful zest to the August event with an eclectic programme likely to please all comers, and with a suitably Scottish opening-night winner in Hallam Foe (right). Others standouts are covered overleaf, including Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, a portrait of a skater boy in trouble shot by the inimitable Christopher Doyle. 'Cinema and the Written Word' is a strand dedicated to the craft of the screenwriter, not least among whom is Anita Loos, the subject of this year's retrospective. Loos is best known as the author of the flapper novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but she was also a prolific writer of screenplays in the silent era. On this form, McGill will soon find her own place on high in Halam Foe's city.
