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Sandra-Elisabeth Haider

Scotland in feature film

The country s screen-image then and now, with focus on the City of Glasgow and the development of a Scottish film industry

Diploma Thesis Bibliographic information published by the German National Library:

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Copyright © 2002 Diplomica Verlag GmbH ISBN: 9783832461201

http://www.diplom.de/e-book/221581/scotland-in-feature-film Sandra-Elisabeth Haider

Scotland in feature film

The country s screen-image then and now, with focus on the City of Glasgow and the development of a Scottish film industry

Diplom.de

Sandra-Elisabeth Haider

Scotland in feature film The country’s screen-image then and now, with focus on the City of Glasgow and the development of a Scottish film industry

Diplomarbeit an der Universität Wien Fachbereich Human- und Sozialwissenschaften Institut für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft 20 Monate Bearbeitungsdauer August 2002 Abgabe

ID 6120

ID 6120 Haider, Sandra-Elisabeth: Scotland in feature film - The country’s screen-image then and now, with focus on the City of Glasgow and the development of a Scottish film industry Hamburg: Diplomica GmbH, 2002 Zugl.: Wien, Universität, Diplomarbeit, 2002

Dieses Werk ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Die dadurch begründeten Rechte, insbesondere die der Übersetzung, des Nachdrucks, des Vortrags, der Entnahme von Abbildungen und Tabellen, der Funksendung, der Mikroverfilmung oder der Vervielfältigung auf anderen Wegen und der Speicherung in Datenverarbeitungsanlagen, bleiben, auch bei nur auszugsweiser Verwertung, vorbehalten. Eine Vervielfältigung dieses Werkes oder von Teilen dieses Werkes ist auch im Einzelfall nur in den Grenzen der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in der jeweils geltenden Fassung zulässig. Sie ist grundsätzlich vergütungspflichtig. Zuwiderhandlungen unterliegen den Strafbestimmungen des Urheberrechtes. Die Wiedergabe von Gebrauchsnamen, Handelsnamen, Warenbezeichnungen usw. in diesem Werk berechtigt auch ohne besondere Kennzeichnung nicht zu der Annahme, dass solche Namen im Sinne der Warenzeichen- und Markenschutz-Gesetzgebung als frei zu betrachten wären und daher von jedermann benutzt werden dürften. Die Informationen in diesem Werk wurden mit Sorgfalt erarbeitet. Dennoch können Fehler nicht vollständig ausgeschlossen werden, und die Diplomarbeiten Agentur, die Autoren oder Übersetzer übernehmen keine juristische Verantwortung oder irgendeine Haftung für evtl. verbliebene fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen. Diplomica GmbH http://www.diplom.de, Hamburg 2002 Printed in Germany

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Inhaltsverzeichnis/ Contents:

Preface...... 1 Introduction...... 3 1 Chapter I: The debate on Scottish film and the representation of Scotland and Glasgow on screen...... 8 1.1 Introduction Chapter I: Scotland and Film...... 8 1.2 Scotch Reels – Edinburgh 1982...... 12 1.2.1 Introduction...... 12 1.2.2 Aims ...... 14 1.2.3 Results...... 15 1.2.3.1 Tartanry and Kailyard ...... 17 1.2.3.1.1 Introduction...... 17 1.2.3.1.2 Historical connections...... 19 1.2.3.1.3 Literary connections...... 21 1.2.3.1.4 Pictorial connections...... 28 1.2.3.1.5 Cinematic connections...... 29 1.2.3.2 Clydesidism/ The image of the city...... 31 1.2.3.2.1 Introduction...... 31 1.2.3.2.2 Historical connections...... 32 1.2.3.2.3 Literary connections...... 33 1.2.3.2.4 Pictorial connections...... 37 1.2.3.2.5 Cinematic connections...... 39 1.2.4 Conclusion ...... 41 1.3 Reactions to and criticism of Scotch Reels...... 42 1.3.1 Introduction...... 42 1.3.2 John Caughie...... 42 1.3.3 Cairns Craig ...... 45 1.3.4 Pam Cook...... 47 1.3.5 David McCrone ...... 48 1.3.6 Duncan Petrie...... 49 1.3.7 More criticism...... 52

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1.3.7.1 John Brown...... 52 1.3.7.2 Thomas Elsaesser ...... 54 1.3.7.3 Scott L. Malcomson...... 55 1.3.7.4 Forsyth Hardy...... 56 1.3.7.5 Jeffrey Richards...... 57 1.3.8 Conclusion ...... 57 1.4 Conclusion Chapter I...... 58 2 Chapter II: Popular images of Glasgow and its people ...... 59 2.1 Introduction Chapter II...... 59 2.2 Details ...... 62 2.2.1 The Hard Man...... 62 2.2.2 Slums...... 64 2.2.3 The legacy of the “Red Clydeside”...... 67 2.2.4 Heavy drinking ...... 69 2.2.5 Sectarianism...... 71 2.2.6 Football...... 73 2.3 Conclusion Chapter II...... 74 3 Chapter III: The development of a Scottish film industry...... 76 3.1 Introduction Chapter III...... 76 3.2 “A Poor Scottish Cinema“...... 76 3.3 Critics of “A Poor Scottish Cinema”...... 79 3.4 Chronicle ...... 82 3.4.1 1920s ...... 83 3.4.2 1930s ...... 84 3.4.3 1940s ...... 88 3.4.4 1950s ...... 89 3.4.5 1960s ...... 90 3.4.6 1970s ...... 92 3.4.7 1980s ...... 93 3.4.8 1990s ...... 98 3.4.9 2000 ...... 105 3.4.10 2001 ...... 106

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3.4.11 2002 ...... 109 3.5 Conclusion Chapter III ...... 114 4 Chapter IV: Recent films and their depiction of Glasgow ...... 116 4.1 Introduction Chapter IV ...... 116 4.2 Films ...... 118 4.2.1 Ratcatcher...... 118 4.2.2 Orphans...... 121 4.2.3 Small Faces ...... 123 4.2.4 My Name is Joe...... 126 4.3 Conclusion Chapter IV...... 129 5 Conclusion...... 131 6 German Abstract/ Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch...... 139 Bibliography ...... 152 A) Books ...... 152 B) Newspaper-articles, essays, periodicals and URL-addresses...... 155 Appendix...... 162 A) Abbreviations...... 162 B) Film list 1995 to date ...... 164

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Preface

During my studies I have always tried to attend as many film-related courses and seminars as possible, because I am both interested in and fascinated by the medium of film.

My fascination is due to the fact that film is such a multi-layered medium and allows many interpretations. Every single part of a film – e.g. its story, the forms of narration used, its characters and their development, its rhythm, the use of sound and music as well as its pictures - is important, and analyses of the whole “product” can be very informative. By watching a film and concentrating on a different aspect of it every time, it can be enjoyed over and over again.

In my Erasmus1 year abroad 1998/99, which I was lucky to be able to spend in Glasgow, the “European City of Culture 1990” and “UK City of Design and Architecture 1999”, I attended various film lectures, participated in the short film festival “Longshots” organised by Glasgow University and worked as a voluntary “Information Assistant” at the Edinburgh International Filmfestival 1999.

One of my favourite (and one of the many) cultural places in Glasgow was and is the Glasgow Film Theatre (gft)2, where I watched numerous new releases and classics alike.

I have become especially interested in British, and in particular Scottish film and film history, which is also due to the highly acclaimed Edinburgh International Filmfestival with its annual focus on Scottish filmmakers.

1 Scholarship 1998/99 from the ÖAAD (Österreichischer Akademischer Austauschdienst) within the European Union’s Socrates-programme. 2 URL: http://www.gft.org.

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Considering my love of Scotland and the medium of film it is perhaps no surprise that I chose to combine both aspects in the topic of my thesis.

My aim is to find out which kind of image(s) of the City of Glasgow and its inhabitants is/ are conveyed in recent feature-films.3 After all, a city’s image is - besides other important influences4 - also a result of its representation on screen. There is hardly any recent investigation on the subject available, leaving out of account a few books and articles on the Scottish film industry and the popularity of a small number of Scottish actors and actresses in the 1990s. Please see the chapter of introduction for more detailed information on the contents of my thesis.

At this point I would like to take the opportunity to thank my professor at Vienna University, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johann Hüttner for his help. Also, I want to thank my parents for their financial and psychological support, patience and trust in me.

3 Note: The British Film Institute defines a feature film as being over 72 minutes long and made on celluloid with the intention of theatrical release in at least one country. (Scottish Screen Data 1998, Section 3). 4 Cf. Katherine Jean Haldane, Imagining Scotland: Tourist Images of Scotland, 1770-1914 (University of Virginia: Dissertation, 1990). In this study, Haldane examines the influence of 18th and 19th century literature and art on the popular (tourist) image of the country and shows how, under the influence of Romanticism, Scotland became associated with the wild and primitive - an image that is in part still existent today, although it bares (and bore) little relation to contemporary Scotland. A similar approach can certainly be applied to the development of Glasgow’s image, although with different contents.

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Introduction

At Glasgow’s University Library I discovered a book about Scotland on film, Scotch Reels5. Originally, Scotch Reels is the title of a research carried out in 1982 about the depiction of Scotland on screen. It was revealed then that the predominant image of Scotland was very much engaged with stereotypes (defined as the “heather and haggis image”6 by one of the book’s critics) and had obviously nothing to do with the contemporary reality of Scotland. Not surprisingly, that radical view has found a lot of stern critics.

On superficial examination, when I think of all the recent films set in Scotland (ranging from the historical epos Braveheart to the contemporary fast-paced drug story Trainspotting, to mention two of the more popular examples), it seems to me that contemporary films set in Scotland show a wider spectrum of Scottish life than they apparently did before the 1980s, when the stories were mostly (with a few exceptions only) set in the Highlands or on an island, in a community far away from contemporary (modern and industrial) life. As a classic example of those films one can mention the musical Brigadoon by Vicente Minnelli from the year 1954.

However, in my thesis I want to concentrate on films set in the City of Glasgow, since there would be far too much material concerned if I considered every single available recent film set in Scotland.7

5 Colin McArthur (ed.), Scotch Reels. Scotland in cinema and television (London: BFI, 1982). 6 Hardy Forsyth, Scotland in film (London: BFI, 1990), p.128. 7 Note: I include a list of films reflecting some aspect of “Scottishness” in my appendix, though, from 1995 to date. There, not only British or Scottish films are taken into consideration. I cannot claim completeness of this list, but it should give the interested reader an impression of the range of films produced.

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I would like to find out whether the image of Glasgow has improved (or widened in its conception) through the release of recent films, compared to its depiction in older movies.

As I could not analyse all recent feature films set in Glasgow in this context, I decided to concentrate on a few examples. By taking a closer look at these films I hope to be able to demonstrate how varied (or one-sided – as will be determined) the contemporary portrayal of the city is.

I do not want to omit mentioning my awareness of the fact that my selection is very subjective. Had I selected other movies, the result would naturally have been a different one. Also, I have not taken into account television films or series set in the Glasgow area. Especially in recent years a whole range of series has been produced and broadcasted, for instance the surreal hospital-drama Psychos, starring Douglas Henshall, the controversial Tinsel Town, set in Glasgow’s lively clubbing scene, or Glasgow Kiss, which portrays the city as a modern, airy place, inhabited by sympathetic, educated middle-class people – something the title might not indicate.8 The following films have been chosen for closer examination: Small Faces (Gilles McKinnon, 1995) My Name is Joe (Ken Loach, 1998) Orphans (Peter Mullan, 1998) Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999)

What I considered of importance for this selection are the facts that I have actually seen these films on screen at least once, and that they are available on VHS. Actually, I would have liked to include more recent films set in Glasgow (such as the digitally shot One Life Stand by May Miles Thomas, 2000; Sweet Sixteen, Ken Loach, 2002; Morvern Callar, Lynne Ramsay, 2000), but as most of them are not available on video (yet) an analysis is made more difficult. Another important

8 A “Glasgow Kiss” means a headbutt.

5 point for selection is, naturally, that the story of those films is wholly or at least partially set in Glasgow.

Looking at the films it becomes obvious that all these productions are British, some even Scottish. This was not intended, but should not influence my analysis of Glasgow’s recent screen image in any way. This lack of non-British film-makers’ interest in setting their films in Glasgow is interesting to note, especially because films set in Scotland’s rural areas do exist (mostly in the Highlands or on the Islands; e.g. Braveheart, Mel Gibson, 1995; Rob Roy, Michael Caton-Jones, 1995; Breaking the Waves, Lars van Trier, 1996). However, Glasgow has been the backdrop for a range of films, although not featuring as itself: In House of Mirth (Terence Davies, 2000), for instance, the Scottish city doubles as a fin de siècle New York. In some scenes of Aberdeen (Hans Petter Molland, 2000) as well as Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle, 1994), Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1995) or Regeneration (Gillies Mackinnon, 1997) Glasgow stands in for Edinburgh.

General facts on the screen-image of Scotland and examples of how films are interpreted by the Scotch Reels authors are included in my thesis, as they are important for a basic understanding of the topic.

I hope to have been able to make clear that the topic I have chosen is of interest to the academic discussion on “Scotland on film”. Since the early 1980s no extensive research has been carried out. However, taking into consideration the prerequisites of this publication, I have to maintain certain limits and therefore concentrate on a selection of films. A broader analysis, taking into account all productions (productions for television as well as documentaries, feature and short films), would surely be informative.

During recent years there was a discussion going on about the building of a Scottish film studio. On one hand it was said that such a studio is urgently needed

6 if Scotland wants to assure a striving film industry, on the other hand it was argued that money should be put into specific local productions rather than into a big studio complex that hardly any young Scottish film-maker would be able to afford. Those arguing against a film studio claimed that such a project would only be affordable for big non-Scottish film companies, mainly American or also English ones, who have no interest in carrying out productions in Scotland anyway, since they have their own, usually better infrastructure available.9 I have decided to include a chapter on the Scottish film industry in my thesis, since this industry is undoubtedly a strong factor in providing certain prerequisites for (here: Scottish) filmmakers. This is done in the form of an extensive chronicle.

The kind of filmic analysis I am going to do is not based on a specific school. I have merely worked with general introductions to the topic.10 In general I have used a very personal approach, by trying to confirm and being able to explain my initial impression by watching the films over and over again. In selecting the films I have not paid attention to the criterion of representation. Therefore my results should not be generalised. The result is merely a personal and subjective one.

The literature I am going to work with is based on four publications: Scotch Reels11 from 1982, although often criticised, is cited as groundbreaking research on “Scotland and film” in nearly every publication on the topic. Another influential book was published eight years after Scotch Reels: Eddie Dick’s From Limelight to Satellite12 shows already different and more positive points of view than its predecessor. Also from 1990 is Forsyth Hardy’s Scotland in Film13. The

9 Cf. e.g. Rich Grant, “Lights, cameras, mixed reaction…”, The List, Issue 398 (Oct 5-9, 2000), p. 8. 10 Knut Hickethier, Film- und Fernsehanalyse, 2nd edn (Stuttgart/ Weimar: Metzler, 1996); Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film, 3rd edn (New York et al: Longman, 1998). 11 Colin McArthur (ed.), Scotch Reels. 12 Eddie Dick (ed.), From Limelight to Satellite (London: BFI, 1990). 13 Hardy Forsyth, Scotland in Film.

7 most recent work on Scotland on screen and the Scottish film industry is Screening Scotland14 by Duncan Petrie, published in 2000. Petrie “examines the longer and deeper history of Scottish cinema in a more positive light than previous commentaries”15.

I want to introduce these publications and the different views or their authors in my thesis and will also use newspaper-articles and essays from various specialist periodicals to give an insight into the Scottish situation.

What I do not intend to do here, though, is an in-depth study of the complex field of the search for a Scottish identity, or a historical survey. My main focus is on an aesthetic analysis of recent films and their depicted image of Glasgow, then and now.

14 Duncan Petrie, Screening Scotland (London: BFI, 2000). 15 Ibid., backcover.

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1 Chapter I: The debate on Scottish film and the representation of Scotland and Glasgow on screen

1.1 Introduction Chapter I: Scotland and Film

I want to start this chapter with a short outline of the general subject of “Scotland and film”.

John Caughie in his encyclopaedia of British and Irish cinema under that heading writes the following:

(…) The problem is, of course, that like most other small countries (…) Scotland has had a limited capacity to represent itself in feature films. The appetite for film was prodigious from the start, and in the 1930s Glasgow had the largest cinema in Europe – Green’s Playhouse – and more cinema seats per capita than any other city in Europe. Production, however, was restricted almost exclusively to documentaries and educational films – and to politically motivated activists and inspired amateurs (…).16

His closing sentence on the subject (which as a whole takes up only two pages in the book) contains the claim that it is “still too early to talk about a Scottish film industry”17. He wrote this in 1996.

Four years later Brian Pendreigh, journalist of The Guardian, draws an altogether more positive picture of the Scottish film industry. In his book on the so-called “Scot Pack”18, which is aimed at an audience interested in celebrities’ life stories rather than in film studies, he enthusiastically speaks of a sudden dominance of Scottish talent on (international) screen. In his eyes, beginning with the success of the film Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle, 1994), a phase of international recognition

16 John Caughie, “Scotland and Film”, in John Caughie (ed.), The Companion to British and Irish Cinema (London: BFI, 1996), pp. 144f. 17 John Caughie, “Scotland and Film”, pp. 146f. 18 Brian Pendreigh, The Scot Pack (Edinburgh/ London: Mainstream Publishing, 2000).

9 for Scottish actors and actresses such as Angus McFayden19, John Hannah20, Dougray Scott21, Ewan McGregor22, Kelly Macdonald23 and others began.

In introducing the topic of “the representation of Scotland on screen” I have chosen a quote by Peter Meech. It is applied to Scotland’s popular cinematic representation:

Tartan and the sound of the bagpipes are probably the most immediately identifiable cultural symbols of Scotland. Throughout the world, and not only in areas with high concentrations of emigre Scots, they have long been accepted without question as a visual and acoustic shorthand for the imagined (Highland) essence of the country. In Scotland itself, however, they represent aspects of a cultural phenomenon which for many, in particular leftwing intellectuals, has been problematic.24

This critique on the predominantly stereotyped representation of Scotland on screen will be discussed in more detail in another chapter. Here I just want to outline the situation to give a first impression.

Considering that most films show clichés of a romantic Scotland it is maybe not surprising that “real Scots” have rarely constituted important parts of those movies at all. Instead, English, American or Australian actors have been playing Scottish protagonists, mostly with false accents.

19 E.g. Braveheart, Mel Gibson, 1995; Titus, Julie Taymor, 1999. 20 E.g. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mike Newell, 1994; Sliding Doors, Peter Howitt, 1998, The Hurricane, Norman Jewison, 1999. 21 E.g. Twin Town, Kevin Allen, 1997; Ever After, Andy Tennant, 1997; Mission: Impossible II, John Woo, 2000. 22 E.g. Brassed Off, Mark Herman, 1996; Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes, 1998; Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, George Lucas, 1999; Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, 2001. 23 E.g. Stella Does Tricks, Coky Giedroyc, 1996; Elizabeth, Shekhar Kapur, 1998; Some Voices, Simon Cellan-Jones, 2000. 24 Peter Meech, “The lion, the thistle and the saltire: national symbols and corporate identity in Scottish broadcasting”, Screen, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring 1996), p. 72.

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Similarly, Scottish actors hardly had any chances to make careers in Scotland, as they were mainly used for minor, often comic roles. So most of them emigrated south to the film-centre of London (or to the United States) and denied their roots and regional accents in order to be able to succeed: “The biggest stars seemed to play down their Scottishness, for the simple reason that to be seen as Scottish relegated an actor to character roles.”25

In an interview in 1997, the Scottish actor Robert Carlyle confirms this, but also admits that the situation has improved in the past few years:

Scottish actors tend to be quite good at accents because their whole experience of the media from early childhood is English accents. It’s perhaps more difficult the other way round, for English actors to do Scots accents. And it’s really only been in the past five years that it’s been in any way acceptable to hear a Scottish accent in a lead character.26

It is probably also due to Sean Connery, that Scottish vernacular on screen has been more and more accepted. As Pendreigh points out, the actor’s Scottish accent has become “an integrant part of the Connery screen persona”27. John Millar elaborates:

He has (...) refused to let his natural soft Scots burr become a hang-up. When you cast Sean Connery in a movie that’s exactly what you get. So we’ve seen him, Scots accent and all, as an Arab sheikh in The Wind and the Lion, a Spaniard in Highlander, an old Irish/ American cop in The Untouchables, a high-powered Norwegian cop in Ransom, a Saudi diplomat in The Next Man and the Lithuanian hero of The Hunt For Red October.28

Most of the time, however, so Pendreigh writes, “Scotland supplied the basic storylines, and it sometimes supplied scenery, and supporting cast, but Hollywood or London supplied the stars.”29

25 Brian Pendreigh, The Scot Pack, p. 27. 26 Robert Carlyle in an interview by Sally Chatsworth, Sight and Sound (Nov 1997), p. 13. 27 Brian Pendreigh, The Scot Pack, p. 41. 28 John Millar, “Sean Connery”, in Eddie Dick (ed.), From Limelight to Satellite, p.167. 29 Brian Pendreigh, The Scot Pack, p.24.