Scorsese to curate Cornish film festival

28.03.11

A Cornish film festival has announced producer and director Martin Scorsese will be its guest curator this summer.

The Mean Streets director has selected films that will be played on an outdoor, drive-in style cinema at the Port Eliot Festival in July.

"Getting Scorsese to do something for this tiny corner of Cornwall is truly fantastic," Cathy St Germans, co-founder of the festival, said. "We did it the way we got Sarah Waters to come here and many others – we wrote him a nice proper letter, and he said yes."

"We could not have dreamt of a more illustrious programmer."

The contact with Scorsese came through his long-term colleague, the British costume designer Sandy Powell, who was nominated for an Oscar for her astounding costumes for Gangs of New York, and won one for The Aviator. She came first to the festival as a visitor, and returned last year as a performer, presenting a show-and-tell session which included her Oscar statuette – at the special request of Lord St Germans.

The festival organisers are working hard to create an environment which lives up to Scorsese's vision: the Paradiso will have a cocktail bar in an Airstream campervan, some seats in cardboard Cadillacs designed by the Ballet Rambert designer Michael Howells, and will also be serving hot chocolate and privding blankets and umbrellas just in case.

The Director's Cut: Michael Scorsese's Open Air Film Festival
Trains: Murder on the Orient Express/North by Northwest
Books: The Leopard/The River
Noir: The Narrow Margin/Human Desire
Musicals: The Red Shoes/All About Eve

Now in its ninth year, the Port Eliot Festival showcases and celebrates literature, music, art, food, fashion and film, as well as a flower show.

For more information and for tickets please see http://www.porteliotfestival.com