I have never been a fan of war movies.
As soon as the story takes a jingoistic turn, I start to squirm in my seat, uncomfortable as the line between cinema and propaganda begins to blur.
Several times this year, as a wide programme of events was unveiled to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, I've felt uneasy with the very concept of marking the start, not the end, of a conflict. And yet here I am, slipping off my day-to-day Herald & Times group arts editor hat in order to put on the one I wear three days each year as artistic director of the Kirkcaldy Film Festival, programming a short strand of First World War films that will be screened next weekend at the Adam Smith Theatre.
So, I repeat: I have never been a fan of war movies ... but there are anti-war movies that are among my favourites in all of film history. Take the 1937 classic, La Grande Illusion. French cinema enjoyed a golden age during the 1930s (from L'Atalante to Le Jour Se Leve), but, for me, nothing has endured with such passion and poignancy as this statement on brotherhood across class and national divides.
La Grande Illusion will screen on Sunday September 21, just before Regeneration, the story of the war poets undergoing pioneering treatment at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh. The festival kicks off on Friday with Stanley Kubrick's powerful depiction of military injustice, Paths Of Glory, and even the Saturday matinee, A Little Princess, has a war backdrop as it follows the trials faced by a girl at a New York boarding school when her father is declared killed in action.
There are other elements to the Kirkcaldy Film Festival too - fun in the shape of Woody Allen's latest, Magic In The Moonlight, and a special preview (one day ahead of the London world premiere) of What We Did On Our Holiday, with Billy Connolly and David Tennant; action as Sean Connery plays James Bond in a 50th anniversary screening of Goldfinger; a "Fife on Film" focus including a retrospective of local director Paul Wright (For Those In Peril) and a return to the East Neuk locations of The Winter Guest.
But it's the First World War movies that have been at the forefront of my mind. Every time I arrive in Kirkcaldy by train, I leave the station and walk past the town's war memorials and through the War Memorial Gardens. They're across the road from the Adam Smith Theatre, and more than once I've used them for quiet, contemplative breaks between screenings. It seemed appropriate for the festival to include an act of remembrance for the many names listed on the walls here, even if we could only do so by pulling from the archives a few films that say something meaningful about such sacrifice.
Can cinema make a lasting difference? Probably not. But when La Grande Illusion won an award at the New York World's Fair in 1939, President Roosevelt declared: "All the democracies of the world must see this film." Next week, Scotland has its chance.
Follow Kirkcaldy Film Festival on Twitter @KirkcaldyFF
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