THE WOOD AND THE TREE

Let's get serious here for once.

The other night while watching the underexposed but excellent movie, The Woodsman, I was struck by a profound truth about the business of film. Though it has to be said The Woodsman, judging by its nine or so producers - executives, associates - wasn't the easiest sell. No wonder. Kiddy fiddler Kevin Bacon gets paroled and tries to live a 'normal' life while battling with the urge to revisit his old habits. Even worse, his new apartment looks onto an elementary school.

What makes the film exemplary - apart from its courage in taking on a fiercely uncommercial premise - is the veracity of its performances, the tight, don't-spell-it-out script and the discreet direction by Nicole Kassell. Its prosaic, blue-collar world is beautifully photographed and the sound mix is amazing. It's exactly the type of film that should be getting made in Scotland. Why? Because it's on a scale that we could just about manage on our measly budgets, the kind of story that could equally happen here, making it universal and maybe more important, relying on people, ordinary folk battling with their crises. No cheap shots, no striving for effect, no pratfall humour.

So what if The Woodsman was made outside Hollywood - in fact it has a real European feel to it. Then it hit me - when you compare Tinseltown to what passes for film here - not just Scotland but the entire UK - it's obvious that studio films are the high class hookers compared with our skanky streetwalkers. High class hookers cost a lot of money, just like blockbusters. They're high maintenance, they like to look good. No freezing on street corners for these babies - it's five star suites or no deal. Even if the commodity's the same.

Here meanwhile we fumble in the dark and get paid shit for our efforts. Maybe because we're having to deal with such low-rent, low calibre clients - impotent public funders, distributors who steal your takings, sadistic broadcasters who invite you in and can't decide if it's full sex they want or a hand job, who tell you how to do them while trying to cut your rate. In other words, a bunch of hard-ons. Just like the poor streetwalkers our movies look bad, maybe because we feel bad. And when we feel bad, we begin to feel and act like victims.

It's not a bad analogy, probably because it's true. I can't imagine any filmmaker in Scotland pitching a film like Woodsman and getting a shot at it. Which is a shame, because if it had been made here it would be winning awards all over the place and maybe for once Scottish film might seem worth a punt, we'd get paid and the punters would get some satisfaction.