Glasgow Film Festival: What's Still Coming Up!

We are now well and truly over halfway through the 2020 Film Festival. If Morning Breath X The Film Festival were a rom-com itself, we would probably be somewhere between The Second Turning Point, and The Dark Moment, or Crisis Climax (See Bill Mernit, Writing The Romantic Comedy). Luckily, as an authentic unscripted tale of romance, we are not heading for a crisis, quite the opposite in fact. In this weird little love triangle between the two of us and Glasgow Film Festival, our plotline remains permanently at Meet Cute - A very long, but enjoyable, first kiss!

So, as the passion kicks in and that kiss starts to ver on the side of 15+, let’s have a look at what’s coming up in the final half of our GFF2020 programme.

First up, on Friday Afternoon at 13:15, we have Crossing Delancey. True to the very genre of Romantic Comedy, this film is set in New York. It features an interfering grandmother (Reizl Bozyk) in a matchmaking plotline between her intellectual New York granddaughter (Amy Irving) and Peter Riegert as a downtown pickle maker (yes, this film will probably make you crave gherkins). It smashed box offices in 1988 and is set to smash our hearts this Friday afternoon. Furthermore, it is also the first Romantic Comedy directed by the ever-inspiring Joan Micklin Silver, and - as far as a quick google search suggests - the first hit Romantic Comedy directed by a woman. Written by Susan Sandler, this film is a pioneering powerhouse of female storytelling, with a strong female character at its core. The film subtly subverts the traditional masculine approach to romantic comedies, with women holding down powerful positions both onscreen and off, whilst keeping the best bits of the genre - cheesy music and gooey love scenes - that make us hopelessly melt.

Romantic Comedy (+Live Score) - Saturday 18:00. Oran Mor

If you - like us and the director of this film, Elizabeth Sankey - are hopelessly in love with romantic comedies, then this is the event for you! Sankey’s essay-film, Romantic Comedy, both celebrates and critiques the genre we all hate to love, pointing out its shortcomings, whilst also celebrating it. She argues that nobody should feel ashamed of their love for Romcoms… we hear you Elizabeth! An expert in the genre, Sankey has managed to fit clips from over 200 Romantic Comedies into this film, some as huge as Bridget Jones, and some more independent, lesser-known Romantic Comedies. She uses these to discuss both the great and the bad in the genre of Romantic Comedies. Like an answer to prayer squared, Elizabeth not only created this film, but also - alongside her band partner, and life partner Jeremy Warmsley - soundtracked it. Elizabeth and Jeremy (collectively known as Summer Camp, musically) will be playing the film score live at this very special screening at the Oran Mor.

You can catch our interview with Elizabeth here: https://subcity.org/shows/morningbreath/855f4

Dolly Kitty & Those Twinkling Stars:

With the end of the film festival this year falling on International Women’s Day, a day sanctified by Morning Breath, what better way to celebrate than with an utterly fearless Hindi chick-flick! Directed by previous GFF audience award winner, Alankrita Shrivastava, Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars boldly confronts a wide range of social taboos, whilst also upholding the chick-flick essentials - female empowerment and romantic let-downs. This film is part of the all-female closing day line-up at this year’s festival, so pick up your phone, message your girls' group chat & book yourself in for a fun-filled day of female cinema!

And thus concludes our little two-week fling with the Glasgow Film Festival, it’s been fun and it’s been steamy! But, fear not! We still have the credits & some more content to bring you as Natalie Crow belts Everlasting Love. Tune in for our final radio show this coming Monday at 9 am (the 7th of March), and keep your eyes peeled for some more, fun, written content.