I saw this movie recently at Glasgow Film Festival and its delightful. A script by Sally Phillips produced by Ecosse Films and directed by Sheree Folkson, its witty, gorgeous-looking and heart-warming without being cheesy. I did some work on it more than 2 years ago when it was shooting in Scotland and I’m pleased to say almost all my footage has made it to the screen! I remember when I arrived on set being told it was a very “girly” film. I was seen lowering my viewfinder when exploring shots for the opening scene and immediately pulled up by the director. It seems low angles are not for lassies! I’d never really thought much about gender-specific camera angles before but I suppose if you think about Rocky 2 or Rambo 19………anyway being somewhat bendy I loved this girly film…most particularly because its a funny film. There are superb lead performances by David Tennant, Alice Eve and especially Kelly Macdonald. She plays the local island girl who inadvertently becomes a “decoy bride” to distract the paps from the wedding of the century. David plays a blocked writer and (naturally) a twit and Alice plays (naturally) the world’s most beautiful film star to whom he is incomprehensibly betrothed. Its all set in the sheeting rain and soggy bogs of the Scottish West Coast …and its all good…..
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Mary Whitehouse rhymes with Toilet
Big Banana Feet, a feature length documentary made in 1975 was screened on Sunday at Glasgow Film Theatre. Shot handheld in available light by push-processing slow 16mm film stock it follows a very young Billy Connolly on his tour of Dublin and Belfast at the height of the Troubles. Connolly was emphatically warned not to go…3 members of a showband had died in an attack very recently…but he went anyway…and he came back in one triumphant piece. A small film crew followed him shooting just about everything he did, including his stage shows for about 48 hrs non-stop.
Murray Grigor (Director), David Peat (DoP) and Paddy Higson (Producer) were all at the screening along with other elder statespersons from the period. There were many escaping eyebrows, knowing stoical looks and tired legs but no flared trousers. There was also alot of laughter. To my bemusement the extremely youthful camera assistant was there too….that was Yours Truly !