The numbers are in for Edinburgh International Film Festival following its historic move from August to June. As The Herald reported on Monday, the number of tickets sold was up by 3% and box office income by 5%. How big a part two-for-one offers, and higher ticket prices, played in those increases is not known.


The press screenings were well attended, particularly for the major releases such as Wall.E and Somers Town. While the media play an important role in the success of any festival - filmmakers want and need the publicity, after all - these events are really about the audiences. Did they discover anything new and wonderful, or was it a case of great expectations followed by disappointment?


There was certainly dismay over the opening and closing movies. The Edge of Love was lovely but dull, while Faintheart was a bland British comedy that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Bank Holiday telly. That’s the trouble with the festival taking a best of British angle: if the quality isn’t there it soon shows.


There were some good British films, however. Robert Carlyle was brilliant in Summer. Since he’s just been named a festival patron, it might have been fitting to put his best performance in years into the closing slot. So a gritty film about death and friendship wouldn’t have sent the festival out with a hop, skip and a jump, but the leaden comedy of Faintheart didn’t exactly manage that either.


Documentaries featured heavily among the word of mouth hits. Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, Man on Wire, about the crossing of the Twin Towers, and Standard Operating Procedure, an account of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, were all outstanding. In the drama category there was The Visitor (out on general release this week),The Wackness , starring Ben Kingsley, Transsiberian (Kingsley again), The Fall, The Wave, and the seriously disturbing Let the Right One In. Landing Pixar’s Wall.E for the family gala was a coup for the organisers.


Among the turkeys were Stone of Destiny (embarrassing), Trail of the Screaming Forehead (unfunny) and A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (both embarrassing and unfunny).


The stars were obvious by their absence. Keira,Sienna,Sean and a few others turned up, but the red carpet did not take a lot of pounding. Shallow as it may seem, that’s one area Edinburgh must work on. If the stars don’t come out at night, why should the audiences?


Since film critics are honour bound to give a star rating to everything, I’d have to give this year’s festival a three - half way to paradise, with a fair way to go yet.


Pay attention Bond fans
The film is out on October 31, but if you can’t wait to see what Daniel Craig as 007 does next, the trailer for Quantum of Solace is at Quantum of Solace


Coming soon
Next week: Jules Verne’s classic gets another reworking, by my reckoning the third, in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
July 18: One lonely little robot tries to find love, and clear up after an environmental catastrophe, in Pixar’s stunning WALL.E
July 25: Batman swoops in the name of justice again in The Dark Knight.
August 1: Football hooliganism takes a kicking in Cass.
August 8: Penelope Cruz gets up close and personal with Ben Kingsley in Elegy, an adaptation of Roth’s The Dying Animal.


Pick of the week
The Visitor - lovely performances abound in this wise and tender tale of strangers meeting in a strange land.

Forrest grump
On the home stretch of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and by Spielberg if my feet aren’t killing me. You expect to do some walking at these gigs, but Edinburgh involves a Forrest Gump-like trek between the main venues and the press centre. While the Cameo and Filmhouse are a couple of streets away from each other, Cineworld at Fountain Park is a 15 minute hike down the road. Try doing that half hour round trip three times a day with a ten ton laptop on your back. I have now asked the press office for a sedan chair with four willing helpers to transport me in the style to which I’m unaccustomed. Someone will get back to me, apparently.


It’s been a weird old week so far. Moving the festival to June was supposed to bring in more crowds. Until precise ticket sale figures are released we won’t know if that has happened. The place is quiet though, too quiet. While it makes a pleasant change from August, when the thirty-three ring circus of the main festival and Fringe make the capital a madhouse, there’s a noticeable lack of buzz. Or maybe I’ve been sitting by the side of the road weeping over my weeping blisters when all the thrilling stuff has been happening.


The festival opened with a whimper with the gorgeous but slightly disappointing Edge of Love, but there have been some finds since, The Wackness, The Visitor and Man on Wire being favourites so far. All three go on general release during the coming months.


Tomorrow is the big event - the press show for Pixar’s Wall. E. The public screening is on Saturday, and should bring in the kind of crowd that will help justify the move from August. As for my feet, they might just have recovered in time for next year’s bash.


Coming soon
Next week: Grown up story, grown up ideas in New York-set immigration drama .
July 11: Make a return visit to Billy Wilder’s classic The Apartment.
July 18: Eddie Murphy plays a man possessed by aliens in the comedy Meet Dave.
July 25: Merchant Ivory tries to make hearts flutter in the period romance Before the Rains.
August 1: A tale of human daring and ingenuity in the documentary Man on Wire.


Pick of the week
Wanted - McAvoy, Jolie, and a whole lot of SFX.

One film sure to be a talking point at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and on a wider stage when it goes on general release a week later, is the documentary A Complete History of My Sexual Failures.


After being dumped for the umpteenth time, Chris Waitt decided to turn the cameras on himself to find out where he was going wrong. So he calls old girlfriends and asks to interview them, does pieces to camera musing about his romantic woes, talks to his mum, and strangers on the street. Some will find his emotional navel-gazing touching and funny, others wildly annoying. Whatever else Waitt is doing, he’s taking the “me documentary” to its logical extreme.


When Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield first put themselves in the frame it was a novel and daring move. Getting the story, particularly in Moore’s case with Roger & Me, meant becoming part of the story. Moore and Broomfield had the right personalities for the job. They have proven to be hard acts to live up to, in part because publicity agents have become wise to the rebel documentary makers’ way of working. To be granted “access all areas” around stars today you usually have to be on the payroll or have a personal connection to the subject.


Without access to big names, the me documentarist is going for the ultra personal angle. Waitt certainly doesn’t spare his own blushes, or those of his exes. After seeing the film twice, I’m still not sure whether discretion wouldn’t have been the better part of valour in his case. See it and see what you think.


Coming soon:
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures. Showing at the Edinburgh Film Festival at 8.30pm tonight and 8.15pm Saturday (Cameo). On wider release from June 27.
July 4: Squatters at large in NYC in The Visitor.
July 11: Meryl Streep sings for her supper in Mammia Mia.
July 18: The goings on at Abu Ghraib are picked apart in Errol Morris’s documentary Standard Operating Procedure. Also showing at the EFF, Saturday 7.30pm, Sunday 5.30pm, Cineworld.
July 25: Career woman goes maybe baby crazy in the comedy Baby Mama.


Pick of the week
Summer Hours at the film festival, and on wider release next month.

FILM festival organisers expect a few sleepless nights in the run-up to opening day. Is the programme mix right, will the stars and audiences turn up, and who’s picking that hotshot new director up from the airport?

Those in charge of the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year have added reason to be waking at 3am. Opening in June for the first time in its 60-year history, the world’s oldest, continually running film bash is going it alone.

No longer will it nestle among the other festivals that take over the capital in August. How much of a good, or bad, thing that will be we’ll soon discover.

The move to June 18-29 is meant to boost ticket sales (which make up a third of the festival’s budget), attract big name stars and movies, and make Edinburgh stand out in a crowded film festival market. Squeezed between Cannes, Venice and London, Edinburgh has always had it tough. But will two months make much of a difference?

Being even closer to Cannes has already brought its difficulties. Cannes had the world premiere of Indiana Jones 4, plus half of Hollywood turning out to sell their movies. Acts like that are tough to follow. Edinburgh’s big opener is The Edge of Love, with Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller due to attend the gala premiere next Wednesday.

The big hope is that cinemagoers, not suffering the distractions of the Fringe or main festival, will turn out in huge numbers to catch a first glimpse of forthcoming releases. Obvious crowd pleasers, such as Pixar’s Wall.E, should attract big audiences. As for the rest, that will depend on cinemagoers’ willingness to take a punt on the new and the different.

Ultimately, the success of the June move could depend on the G (for Glasgow) factor. Glasgow has a worldwide reputation as a great cinemagoing city. Audiences will queue round the block and in the rain to see a picture, but will they get on the train, or into the car, to see a film in Edinburgh?

What do you think? Let us know if you’re planning to attend the EIFF, what you’ve seen and, most importantly, what you thought of the movies. The Herald will be reviewing three films a day throughout the festival, in addition to the regular movie coverage in Thursday's Going Out.

Coming soon
Next week: A stellar British cast including Brian Cox and Joseph Fiennes do hard time in prison break drama The Escapist.
June 27: Courage above and beyond the call of duty in wartime thriller Female Agents.
July 4: There’s something out there in The Mist, taken from the Stephen King novel.
July 11: A reissue for Billy Wilder’s sublime The Apartment.
July 18: A real-life amour fou laid bare in the documentary Crazy Love.

Pick of the week
Doesn’t live up to the pre-release excitement, but Ed Norton in The Incredible Hulk is worth a look.

The numbers are in. It might have been thought that everyone and their dancing dog was watching either Britain’s Got Talent or I’d Do Anything on the small screen last weekend, but there were still millions ready to ditch the sofa for the cinema. Last weekend, as figures from the Film Distributors Association show, 3.25 million of us headed out to see a movie. The biggest draws were the obvious ones - Indy and sex, or Sex and the City to be exact. For every ten tickets sold, eight were for one of those two titles. So far the scores on the doors are five million viewers for Mr Jones and two million for Carrie and her gang.


To date this year, there have been 48 million cinema visits, with the top five films being I Am Legend, Sweeney Todd, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Step Up 2: The Streets, and Juno.


By the book
Ben Affleck made a lot of smart choices when it came to his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, out this week. First, he cast brother Casey in the lead part of a young, streetwise detective. With his stock riding high after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Affleck junior’s appearance on the posters will prove a real box office draw. Next, Ben Affleck opted for a Dennis Lehane novel as his source. Lehane’s Mystic River was turned into a double Oscar winner by Clint Eastwood, and as fans of his books will know, he’s one of the slickest thriller writers around. We have three copies of Gone Baby Gone, the novel, to give away. To win one, name the character played by Casey Affleck in the film. Please send the answer with your name and address to Sam Boyd, The Herald, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB. First correct entries out of the special top hat she keeps in the cupboard for such an occasion will win the books.


Coming soon
Next week: he’s big, green, and you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Ed Norton plays Dr Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. incrediblehulk.marvel.com
June 20: The youth of 2005’s Kidulthood are older in the sequel Adulthood, but are they any wiser?
June 27: Humiliation and rejection played for laughs and insight in Chris Waitt’s documentary A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, a complete smash at Sundance.
July 4: Jack Black gives voice to a placid, cuddly type forced to change his ways in animated comedy Kung Fu Panda. www.kungfupanda.com
July 11: A wealthy family disintegrates in gruesome style in Savage Grace. Julianne Moore stars.


Pick of the week
Gone Baby Gone - great story, fine acting, polished delivery. The Affleck boys have arrived.

One of the remarkable things about the otherwise so-so Sex and the City is the way its secrets have stayed hidden. Sarah Jessica Parker appeared at the London premiere with a plea for everyone present not to divulge too much of what they were about to see to others. The same happened at the British press screening this week, although the message wasn’t delivered by SJP in person this time. A pity: some of us would like to have seen what the well-dressed girl about town wears on a dreich Tuesday in London.


Apart from a few internet spoilers, everyone seems to have played the game with SATC - largely because it’s one worth playing. There are few things less annoying than reading a review of a movie and being told every detail of the story and how it pans out. It is the first rule of reviewing, and those who break it rightfully earn the wrath of readers.


You’d be amazed how often it happens, though not usually among critics. Some bloggers take a perverse delight in being the first to tell all, even if what they are punting is not entirely accurate. The rumour business has become so big studios now actively exploit it as a cheap way of generating hype about a film. Viral marketing for Cloverfield managed to make it seem like the scariest thing since The Exorcist. As it turned out, Matt Reeves’ schlocker was about as terrifying as Enchanted.


The best kept movie secret of recent years was the one at the heart of The Sixth Sense. M Night Shyamalan’s film was a genuine word of mouth hit, but those who recommended it to others were careful, almost to the point of paranoia, not to reveal the twist in the tale. Spookily enough, a similar buzz has started to form around Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening, starring Mark Wahlberg. Whether that’s because it’s a genuine jaw-dropper or an out and out stinker along the lines of Lady in the Water, we shall see.


Coming soon
Next week: the Affleck boys, Ben and Casey, come of age in the compelling crime drama Gone Baby Gone.
June 13: The Happening. All will be revealed. Or will it?
June 20: horror on the tourist trail in Mexico in action-adventure The Ruins.
June 27: David Walliams, Eddie Izzard and Liam Neeson are among the stellar voice cast turning out for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia
July 4: Will Smith returns as a less than perfect superhero in Hancock.


Pick of the week
Terror’s Advocate: not the paciest documentary ever made, but it has a fascinating subject in French lawyer Jacques Verges.