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You Have Been Watching… Red Road
I’ve been having a few conversations recently about how Scotland’s current cultural reliance on grim and gritty urban (and increasingly rural) fiction has reached the point of overkill. That particular alcoholic and violent shark has been well and truly jumped. If Scotland’s cultural palette becomes brighter as well as broader then that is surely a positive thing, […]
Alistair Braidwood
March 25, 2011
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You Have Been Watching (Glasgow Film Festival Special)…You Instead
Movies and music can make for uncomfortable bedfellows when that relationship moves beyond soundtrack duties. For every This is Spinal Tap, Hedwig and the Angry Inch or La Bamba (hugely underrated) there’s a Hearts of Fire, a Breaking Glass, a Rock Star and a Fear of a Black Hat. David Mackenzie’s You Instead, which premièred at the Glasgow […]
Alistair Braidwood
March 4, 2011
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You Have Been Watching (Glasgow Film Festival Special)…Island
One of the many hidden gems at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival turned out to be Island, a film based on Jane Rogers’ novel of the same name, and directed by Brek Taylor and Elizabeth Mitchell. I had no idea of what I was about to see bar the brief blurb on the website. Set almost entirely on […]
Alistair Braidwood
February 25, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…Whisky Galore!
This is one of the very best. If you’ve never seen Whisky Galore!, and that surely can’t be many of you, then you have a real treat in front of you. Based on the real-life story of the sinking of the S.S. Politician, which went down near the Isle of Eriskay in 1941 along with it’s cargo […]
Alistair Braidwood
February 11, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…NEDS
Whatever your expectations of Peter Mullan’s latest film NEDS are, prepare to have them confounded. You look at the poster and the tagline ‘Everyone Need To Be Taught a Lesson’ and you’ll likely think; gangs, knives, fantastic amounts of swearing, hopefully some dark humour, and, if your lucky, the possibility of redemption. All of these are […]
Alistair Braidwood
February 4, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…A Woman in Winter
Sometimes you stumble across a band, book or film and think ‘how did I miss that?’. Discovering Richard Jobson’s Bafta nominated 2005 film A Woman in Winter prompted me to ask that question as it’s a film that should be seen.
Alistair Braidwood
January 21, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…The Near Room
Glasgow Noir. A surprisingly small genre. The city lends itself to the dark shadows, dodgy characters and indecipherable dialogue that noir demands. I don’t doubt that one of the reasons for Taggart’s long running success is down to the noirish qualities of the city of Glasgow.
Alistair Braidwood
January 14, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…Comfort and Joy
I’ve looked briefly at Bill Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy in the past, but it is a film worth considering in greater detail. Also, I wanted to concentrate on a great Scottish film set around Christmas and they are few and far between, but Comfort and Joy is just that. This is his most ‘serious’ film, dealing with […]
Alistair Braidwood
January 7, 2011
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Best of 2010: Scottish Actors on The Late Late Show
Today we look back at the times when Scotland has taken over primetime US telly with some of Craig Ferguson’s best Scottish interviews since we started Dear Scotland featuring Gerard Butler, Robert Carlyle, James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor and Billy Connolly.
Saba I.
December 28, 2010
