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| Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel was this year's opening film |
By Neil Smith
Entertainment
reporter, BBC News, at the Glasgow Film Festiva
The referendum that will decide Scotland's future is seven months away, yet it is hard to get away from it at this year's Glasgow Film Festival.
The subject
seems to have even made it to Beverly Hills 90210, if comments made by actor
turned director Jason Priestley after a screening of his latest film are
anything to go by.
Asked how he
might follow Cas and Dylan, a road movie starring Hollywood veteran Richard
Dreyfuss and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany, the former TV star joked that he
might consider something on "the proposed secession of Scotland".
His
light-hearted remarks followed David Bowie's more earnest plea for unity at
this week's Brits, an episode that led some to ponder the wisdom of celebrities involving themselves in political affairs.
Scottish
comedian John Sessions, in town to give a highly entertaining talk on his life
and career, says it can be "a bit toe-curling and "luvvie-ish"
to hear actors like himself pontificating on weighty matters of state.
That does
not prevent him, however, from insisting a Yes vote in September "would be
one of the biggest disasters to ever befall this wonderful country".
There are
some, though, who opt to keep their counsel, amongst them The IT Crowd's
Richard Ayoade.
"I feel
the expectation is not there for my pronouncements," says the comedian
turned director, in town to present his dystopian black comedy The Double.
"I haven't been asked to lob my tuppence into the political
fray, and I'm not sure my particular brand of banality will be called upon."I haven't been asked to lob my tuppence into the
political fray, and I'm not sure my particular brand of banality will be called
upon."
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| Richard Dreyfuss stars as an ageing surgeon with a terminal brain tumour in Cas and Dylan |
Whatever the people decide later
this year, the Glasgow Film Festival can at least be confident in its own
future.
Now marking its 10th
anniversary, the event has grown to be the third biggest in the UK (after
London and Edinburgh) while retaining its reputation for accessibility and
inclusivity.
"A person has the right to end their life as he or she wishes, and no one has the right to take that away”….Richard Dreyfuss
This year's opening night film
for example - The Grand Budapest Hotel, the newest star-laden oddity from US
auteur Wes Anderson - was followed by a party to which all the audience were
invited.
The festival has also continued
its policy of finding unusual places to hold screenings, encouraging its
audiences to discover parts
of the city they
might not know existed.
Celebrity guests, meanwhile,
are gently encouraged to interact with patrons in a way that would be
unthinkable at the likes of Cannes or Venice.
Yet accessibility only goes so
far. Richard Dreyfuss, for example, had his every move on Saturday shadowed by
a pair of burly security guards, who were in no mood to let his adoring public
get too close.
Dreyfuss, incidentally, was
also eager to sound off on a potentially divisive subject. In his case,
however, that subject was euthanasia and the right of an individual to choose
the time and manner of their passing.
It is a topic raised by Cas and
Dylan, in which an ageing surgeon with a terminal brain tumour contemplates
suicide with the help of a free-spirited would-be authoress.
"I personally think that
anyone who tries to interfere with the most important decision a person could
possibly make, how one chooses to exit one's life, is terrible, intrusive and
cruel," the 66-year-old declared.
"A person has the right to
end their life as he or she wishes, and no one has the right to take that
away."
The Glasgow Film Festival
continues until 2 March.
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