Edinburgh – Day 4

So, what do you suppose was the first film here to sell out its pair of public screenings? A long-awaited drama with an A-list Hollywood star? The latest masterwork in the oeuvre of a European auteur? Nope, it was the futuristic kung fu flick set in Glasgow. The Purifiers isn't exactly what most people expected from Richard Jobson after the poetic intensity of 16 Years Of Alcohol or from Dominic Monaghan after The Lord Of The Rings. Blithely ripping off The Warriors, it's the slight story of a virtuous gang of vigilante martial artists who have to fight off rival gangs on the way back to their secure sector of the city after a centralised meeting goes bad. Yes, it's narratively challenged and the dialogue is a tad over-the-top, but the fight choreography is ass-kickingly good and the colour-saturated widescreen photography absolutely gorgeous. At the World Premiere, the audience loved it for what it was - a B-movie with solid genre roots of the type rarely seen from this part of the planet. Hey, it's even got a chopper chick cat fight, something that no self-respecting film festival should be without. Jobson is under no illusions about the film's status. Namechecking Walter Hill, John Carpenter and Ringo Lam as inspirations, he told the audience that he wanted The Purifiers to have "a superficial quality? born from looking over my son's shoulder when he's playing with his PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It's a cool movie, no masterpiece, but the beginning of something." Breaking from the usual post-screening Q&A format, he then asked who in the audience took a size 7 shoe, got two of them (both girls) down the front, invited the film's stunt choreographer to put them through some kung fu moves, then asked the audience to vote for the best. The winner walked off with an exclusive pair of Purifiers trainers - maybe all world premieres could learn something from this? The tone was raised in the evening, when Empire descended on Edinburgh's opulent Royal Museum in Chambers Street for the festival's annual gala dinner, held this year in honour of Stage Beauty - a good choice, because we think it's just about the best film in the line-up. Director Richard Eyre and actress Zoe Tapper (the film's Nell Gwyn) were present, as were director Marc Evans and Tommy Flanagan from Trauma, plus the aforementioned Jobson and Rachel Grant from The Purifiers. Empire always has an embarrassingly childish enthusiasm for being in public buildings after closing time. So it was great to mingle with the posh-suited great and good for champagne amongst the museum's Western Decorative Art 1850-2000 collection before heading under the high atrium of the splendid main foyer for dinner - past the stuffed elephant and fossilised whale's penis, of course. Flashforward - Tips for Monday. Malcolm McDowell (Traverse Theatre, 3pm and 8pm) The star of A Clockwork Orange and, more relevantly, If? and O Lucky Man! offers a personal remembrance of British director Lindsay Anderson. Inside I'm Dancing (UGC, 7pm) World Premiere of the latest by Damien O'Donnell (East Is East, Heartlands), which could be described as a buddy road movie - even if that means it's two guys in wheelchairs getting across town. *Process (Filmhouse, 7.30pm) * Controversy guaranteed as Beatrice Dalle's character moves steadily towards suicide in this sombre, strictly structured drama, scored by Velvet Underground's John Cale.