Extreme Orient

That's the title of this year's Chinon Film Festival. Starts tomorrow and runs every day up to and including Monday 30 September. They are for the most part art house films, the most famous being The Seven Samurai which until now we've only ever seen on a DVD, at home. Really looking forward to it. Can't believe it's nearly sixty years old - 1954. The John Sturgess western-style remake, The Magnificent Seven which I also love is itself fifty three years old. They are at least for me, two classic films that remain timeless and which I know by heart - frame by frame. 

The music for T.M.S. was composed by I think, one of the best ever - Elmer Bernstein. No relation to Leonard Bernstein. His other  popular works include To Kill A Mockingbird, Ghostbusters and The Great Escape. An extraordinary individual who performed professionally as a dancer and an actor, including playing the role of Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway.  Elmer Bernstein was also a painter and as if that wasn't enough, was awarded a scholarship to Juillard for the piano. Talk about multi-talented.  While at Juillard he was taken to meet Aaron Copeland for whom he played some of his improvisations. One of my all time important and favourite musical moments was at the Royal Albert Hall with the National Youth Orchestra playing Billy the Kid and being conducted by the composer - Aaron Copeland. Can't remember what year, but I remember the concert very clearly. Stunning.  Both men could interpret vast landscapes as well as intimate moments, as in the music here - the theme tune for To Kill A Mockingbird, conducted by Elmer Bernstein and played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

As for Extreme Orient, it's into the deep-end to watch  films from Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, France/Combodia and China. All will be sub-titled in French.  Most have been released this year. There is one that was made in 1996, but the oldest film to be shown comes from Japan and was made in 1936  - Le Fils Unique. An interesting time for a film to be made, particularly one that focusses on the family and the tensions between tradition and modernity.

There's a key-note speaker from the Cannes Film Festival - a critic and a cinema historian - a slightly older and possibly a more academic version of our own Mark Kermode. We'll see. Fontevraud are partnering the film festival this year and each of the main features is preceeded by an animation, which is something Fontevraud began to specialise in a few year ago.

So an exciting week ahead.