Local Hero

The films of Bill Forsyth - C or D/S & D ?

x-post

I suppose it has to do with whether the one character is really a mermaid...

I was just up on the west coast of Scotland a couple of weeks ago and it is as beautiful as it looks in the film - although the village (for reasons I dont understand) is on the east coast. I visted that place a few years ago and took a picture.
http://static.flickr.com/47/113817823_d4b363f7c2_m.jpg
And there's a plaque...
http://static.flickr.com/48/113817824_568c5ebec3.jpg?v=0

Ned, what did the guy on the mailing list do on the film? And what did he think of Lancaster? I'd love some background.

It does have a magical element esp. when Happer turns up in a helicopter and saves the day (and possibly Fulton Mackay's ass). Which reminds me - it's a lovely performance by the man Mackay, in fact the performaces all round are great. It;s just...er...great.

Keep watching the sky, MacIntyre!

xpost - that's the one Ned T is referring to.

Breaking In is no worse than Being Human. Or Gregory's Two Girls. Perhaps he should have stopped in about 1984.

This was actually music writer T0mmy Ud0, so I'm gathering this was an earlier (and obviously more general) freelance assignment when he was starting out. Sez Burt was a gentleman and a half but he doesn't remember too much about the evening given its overall bibulousness.

I heard at the time that BL took only expenses (and obviously a trip to Scotland) - probably a bit of myth making but it fits in with the general vibe of the film.

Mrs Trifle is away tonight being pampered and so I think I deserve another viewing. And it's a good excuse to open my new bottle of Laphroaig.

Classic...

Er, no it isn't. Assuming you're talking about Pennan.

http://www.robinwilson.net/pennancu/pennan.html has a lovely panoramic picture you can scoot around and have a nosey.

Here's a mildly diverting article by an American visitor to the locations of Local Hero - complete with pics also.

Obv. you are being more specific in your definition of east coast. And I respect that :)

Useless bit of trivia. The phone box is a prop, as the real phone box in Pennan was in a less photogenic place.

(Stew, when you get to this thread, as I'm sure you will, do you still want to borrow that off me?)

well yes, that's what i was referring to - but it's just a helicopter

I suppose it has to do with whether the one character is really a mermaid...

touche

Reviving being I'm using the Capaldi casting in DW as an excuse to tell more people about this film.

it's p good; i'll take lair of the white worm instead

LH is one of the best Hollywood-produced films of the '80s.

Which cast member appeared the same year in Return of the Jedi?

I'd guess Dennis Lawson

Denis Lawson

gah xp

I mentioned on another thread seeing a lousy film from a couple of years ago called
Bitter/Sweet. It's basically an attempt to remake Local Hero--Thailand instead of Scotland, coffee instead of oil, James Brolin instead of Burt Lancaster--with a love story worked in.

still get a huge kick out of the bit with the hammering on the roof. that and "I'll be a good Gordon, Gordon".

I've been meaning to see this for decades and finally did. What a sweet film. Felt a little like it was a little rushed, though, which was odd for a film so much about taking your time, but I can't imagine back then Forsyth getting away with making it even slower and longer. I suppose he might have swapped all the broad goofy therapist stuff for even more of the town and its people.

w/English subtitles--done!

I watched That Sinking Feeling on VHS tape some time back in the 1990s. My memory tells me the production value was low, but pretty good considering the tiny budget, the script and direction were strong, the acting was uneven, but surprisingly effective. Overall, it's the kind of film that more recently would show up on the film festival circuit unheralded and win all the 'audience favorite' awards. You'll like it.

I'm a bit of a bill forsyth sceptic but like that sinking feeling

I think I’m unusual in liking That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero and Comfort and Joy all about the same. I haven’t seen any of his later ones. Maybe 20 minutes of Gregory’s Two Girls before deciding no.

OK the TSF prints weren’t lost, it was more complex than that:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/09/drama

As soon as I read the headline on that piece, I realized "(the) heist film in there I didn't care for" was That Sinking Feeling...That's okay; I liked Gregory's Girl better this time than way back when. There must have been at least a five-year delay in That Sinking Feeling making it over here.

That heist film might have been the Burt Reynolds one, Breaking In. I didn't like it much at all, even though it was filmed in Portland.

Wow--he did two of them. You could very well be right.

They should have face-swapped Burt Reynolds into That Sinking Feeling for the US market.

I watched Local Hero last week. The end section after Burt Lancaster arrives is a bit underpowered but it's mostly very good. I love Dennis Lawson and Fulton MacKay in it. It's a really good film for right now as well.

That heist film might have been the Burt Reynolds one, Breaking In. I didn't like it much at all, even though it was filmed in Portland.

Confusing the two would seem highly improbable tbh. Also I can't imagine "That Sinking Feeling" being described as a heist movie.

The Graun article describes it as "Glasgow's ­contribution to the bathroom sink ­heist genre" as well as the headline gag.

I think ‘heist movie’ is one of those descriptors that people enjoy applying more at the margins than the core (cf. Man On Wire)

This will win me no friends here, but Local Hero never did much for me. It always kind of seemed to me like a proto-version of one of those whimsical Miramax 90s comedies like The Full Monty or Waking Ned Devine--less aggressively cutesy, sure, but in the same ballpark. Some things I don't mind: the character who lives in the shipwrecked boat, and the guy who plays the main actor's assistant in Scotland (the one who falls for the marine biologist). But I don't feel anything for the lead or care about his perspective, which leaves me uninvested in his transformation, and none of the Lancaster material is all that funny (despite otherwise liking the film, Kael basically agrees with me on this point).

Likely as a result, it is still the only Forsythe that I've seen. I did look for Housekeeping after I read the novel back in my undergrad, but I couldn't find it to rent anywhere at the time.

"the guy who plays"!!

Looked him up on Wiki just now, and what can I say? He's someone who is famous for a bunch of things I don't pay attention to--Doctor Who, The Thick of It. I've seen quite a few movies he's in, but never made the connection.

It always kind of seemed to me like a proto-version of one of those whimsical Miramax 90s comedies like The Full Monty

This is utter bollocks.

I don't agree, cryptosicko, but I come up short the same way with Housekeeping, and even Gregory's Girl I didn't like as much the first time, so I understand. Droll and quiet can be a coin flip--for whatever reason, I immediately connected with Local Hero and Comfort and Joy.

Also I can't imagine "That Sinking Feeling" being described as a heist movie.

The one I saw was a full-on heist film, so it must have been the Burt Reynolds.

I should also add that it is has been a good decade-plus since I've seen Local hero (still ten or so years removed from the Full Monty era, but closer enough to possibly explain my reaction), and that its brand of gentle humour may be more my speed these days. I didn't like Tati at first, either.

crypto - yeah, I figured you would have seen some other of his films, not just being outraged at you failing to respect the only Doctor Who to win an Oscar (btw he was definitely "famous" before The Thick Of It)

this movie is a tonic. I watched it twice tonight.

If you love Local Hero there's a strong chance you love Limbo, which I saw tonight. I found it extremely moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pdLSXjEAoc

Amir El-Masry's central performance is a miracle.

Doesn’t seem to be streaming in this US,*sigh*

It's going to be on Mubi soon, they bought it for distribution.

Think I saw it was already on MUBI Ireland & UK.

It's not yet, I just checked, but I think it's coming on to the platform when the cinema run ends in a week or so.

Some of the humour in this is a bit too broad and doesn't quite land (although my cinema partner disagreed) but I can forgive it a lot because it is so deeply felt and complex as an entire work. I have a very specific niggle about the Scottish accents in it too - Hebridean accents are very specific but rarely deployed here - but again, the same, I forgive it.

It would have just elevated it to hear actual outer-hebrides accents on screen though. It would have been nice to hear some Gaelic too. A lot of Oueter-Hebridean-Scots don't, won't or even can't speak English. I was shocked to go there on a theatre tour and encounter people who can't speak English and only know Gaelic.

but there's the Lancaster accent

Amazing to think there are Scots who can't speak English but it's true, there are (though it's very rare, now).

Is that a reference to something, Alf?

I think Soto is referring to Burt Lancaster, not to the English region Lancaster, or to the dialect of anyone in the film Limbo

ah!

Thanks, my darling.

You’re my eyes and ears!

Because a little time is all we have left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArhlLvYG0I

Just bought the soundtrack CD for this last month and was surprised to find this song isn't on it!

Because Mark Knopfler didn't write it, I assume.

Or did he?

Anyway, just rewatched for the first time in...four years it seems and it still holds up.

Hadn't realized that Danny was played by Peter Capaldi.

Had you seen Capaldi in anything before four years ago?

Yes

Usually he's quite a bit older. And, more to the point, grouchier.

That “making of” video was excellent and nicely in keeping with the movie. Both Forsyth and Putnam (the producer) come across very well.

He’s not very much older in Dangerous Liaisons or Lair Of The White Worm or as George Harrison in John & Yoko: A Love Story tbf. (If you haven’t seen Lair, stick it on but don’t get confused by how cherubic the wrinkly old villain from Heretic and A Very English Scandal and Paddington 2 is.)

Sorry, wasn't keeping up with his career during those formative years, will have a belated look-see soon.

That “making of” video was excellent and nicely in keeping with the movie. Both Forsyth and Putnam (the producer) come across very well.