Gone to the Movies

There are no coincidences. Our Internet connection here at home has been down for a week, which, with all of the great stuff going on in Budapest, combined with the wonderful weather we've been promised, means it's time to get outside. And go to the movies. Click 'read more' for more.

This year Budapest's Titanic Film Festival promises ccary animation and an Academy Award winning documentary.

The 16th Titanic International Film Festival starts on 26 March. It's quite a lineup of international film with a wide variety of genres and subject matter.

The organizers tell us the following:

Animation enthusiasts are recommended to watch Fear(s) of the Dark, a French film in which the best of today's illustrators and comic-strip artists take out their imagination on the theme of fear. The film, which is at times definitely frightening, combines the features of anime and horror, and exposes fear as it is in abstract, black-and-white forms and shapes.

Edison and Leo, a stop-motion animated Canadian feature tells the story of a far from average family in a bizarre, gothic and surreal tale, where motifs of love, theft, and revenge become intertwined.

Five Centimeters per Second is a Japanese anime centered around emotions: it depicts human relationships through a highly elaborated visualization and with great sensibility.

Those who like documentaries might be interested in James Marsh's Man on Wire, which reveals the careful planning and difficult circumstances surrounding Philippe Petit's unbelievable - and totally illegal - trip between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. The film presenting "the greatest artistic crime of the century" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2009.

Another multiple award-winning documentary film will be Up the Yangtze, which shows how the building of Three Gorges Dam, a symbol of China's economic growth, affects the lives of everyday people.

Music fans might enjoy Berlin Calling, a film starring Paul Kalkbrenner, the internationally renowned DJ, which reveals Berlin's musical underground.

Most of the films to be presented at Titanic can only be seen in during the festival's 11 days, so don't miss out.

The complete schedule and detailed descriptions of the films can be found at Titanic Film Festival