SEEING RED
In the beginning God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made journalists.
So it’s a steal from Mark Twain but it’s still true. A while back I promised a deeper delve into the way filmmaking gets reported in this country, until I caught myself doing more useful stuff such as watching X Factor and painting my toenails.
After seeing Red Road at the weekend – better than Ratcatcher, funnier than One Last Chance – I felt even more cheesed off with the write-up in The Scotsman, not just for the cheap shot ‘porn’ headline or the usual jibes about Glasgow and the way RR shows ‘litter in the street’ (scandal!)
Here I got the feeling Alistair Harkness was at pains to compare RR with Loach, Ramsay, Campion and the Dardennes brothers just so he could chalk up all the ways he thinks it failed. Like, which movie did he think he was reviewing? Not a total hatchet job, but then I guess anybody who thinks Francis Coppola’s daughter deserves four stars for the $40 million Marie Antoinette isn’t going to be persuaded.
Making the perfect movie is mission impossible on any budget, so it’s a shame RR didn’t get any credit for delivering a half-decent film on a mere million quid, or that Kate Dickie shows more integrity in her performance as Jackie than any British actress you’d care to mention right now. If anything Red Road deserves an award for being the first Scottish film to bust its cherry when it comes to a realistic portrayal of sex, a fact overlooked by most of the reviewers.
This is a big deal because if you were to judge Scotland by its movies, you’d think sex was an alien concept to anybody north of Newcastle. And because no one here makes middle class films, at least we don’t suffer from the Richard Curtis syndrome of embarrassed posh overgrown boys doing rumpy-pumpy sugared as ever by perky girls on top. At least in RR we get to see some grown up sex, with real bits in action, no doubt accounting for its 18 certificate, so credit to the public funders for not demanding a 15 rating. Some of us remember the front page fuss in the Evening Times when Lynne Ramsay put two weans in a bath. But who knows, maybe the backers didn’t want to upset the czars at Zentropa. So what if the motive behind the shagging is suss? In the end, we never get to know the real outcome for Jackie - probably for the best – but good on Andrea Arnold for going there.
At a time when the future of Scottish film is quietly sliding down the pan, it’ll be interesting to see if the other two films in the Advance Party trilogy will ever see the light of day. If they don’t, at least it’ll save the critics from the bothersome task of reviewing them.
posted by Leanne Smith at 11:41 AM
4 Comments:
Riiiiiiight: so critics should be nicer to films when they are on a tight budget? Are you suggesting that critics like Harkess should have been kinder to The Purifiers just because Richard Jobson managed to shoot his duffer on a shoestring? Or maybe the job of the critic is to review the film, not praise its production management.
If anything, Scottish critics tend to give low-budget Scottish films the benefit of the doubt - viz the overpraised Last Great Wilderness - and accentuate the positive in local product. More recently, the local media supported Red Road with profiles, previews and interviews around the release date.
And is sex in a Scottish film really such a big breakthrough? Young Adam (also rather tenderly treated, come review time) suggests otherwise....
Whatever... But here's the thing - contrary to your defence of Scottish hacks, Red Road's only duff write-ups that I could find came out of Scotland. Why am I not surprised?
I'm not saying the critics should be all nice and cuddly to homegrown movies, and sure, there's a lot of stiffs out there that deserve a verbal kicking, but most Scottish films get a hard time from the Metropolitan journos, so it would be nice just once in a while for a Scottish hack to review a film on its own merits rather than compare it with all the films it's not.
With few exceptions, and more than any other group, Scotland's film commentators do more to trash Scottish films, paint a negative picture of the business here and generally slag off the efforts of filmmakers. No wonder the talent either gives up or leaves.
I never saw (correction - wanted to see) Young Adam - despite its zillion dollar marketing campaign - but I heard about the sex scenes. At the time I remember thinking - big deal, so they chucked the condiments around - what the punters really want is the steak pie. Yeah, riiiiiight.
The Scotsman review may not be as sniffy as you paint - could the comparisons to other films be meant to elevate not denigrate Red Road?
And you really don't know what you're talking about if you haven't seen something like Young Adam but want to make stronger points, rather than "whatever", about...
a)sex scenes in Scottish film (Tony Curran's "cunt" line is almost as embarrassing as Festival's prosthetic muff)
b)scottish reviewers - who actually tend to be overgenerous about scottish films like Young Adam and even miseries like Chasing The Deer. They certainly gave Pasty Faces an easy go instead of the doing that it would have got in a less charitable and scottishcentric world.
Here's the Red Road coverage from the Scottish press. Apart from Harkess they seem keen to praise a well-made movie. Most of them put it as a must-see. Unsupportive? Really?
10 THINGS YOU CAN'T MISS THIS WEEK Evening Times - 06/11/200 BY MAUREEN ELLIS
1. CINEMA Red Road (18), selected release.
Having wowed Cannes, critics and the public with its affecting story and powerful performances, Andrea Arnold's Glasgow-set drama Red Road is not to be missed. Kate Dickie is Jackie, a CCTV operative whose vision of a ghost from her past (Tony Curran) puts her on a sinister path
The Scotsman - 02/11/2006 Tim Cornwell Arts Correspondent
A GRITTY thriller set in one of Glasgow's toughest estates that has already walked off with a top prize at the Cannes Film Festival captured five nominations for the Scottish BAFTA awards yesterday.
Red Road is a critics' favourite, though it is up against the feelgood factor of The Flying Scotsman, a film about the cycling champion Graeme Obree, which also claimed five nominations.
The dark horse in the contest for best film, however, is True North, a high-seas drama of illegal Chinese immigrants shipped aboard a Scottish trawler. Starring Peter Mullan, Martin Compston and Gary Lewis, it has yet to be seen in Scotland, but won acclaim at its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Top ten Films Scotland on Sunday - 29/10/2006
1 RED ROAD (18) Andrea Arnold directs this award-winning tale of a CCTV operator who becomes obsessed by a former prisoner. Starring Kate Dickie.
Scottish Daily Record 27/10/2006
RED ROAD 18 Director Arnold's film debut joins a long line of Scottish success stories at the box office
ACCORDING to First Minister Jack McConnell, Scotland is the best small country in the world.
It must be true because I've seen the posters. But are we also the best small country in the cinematic world? Hollywood rules supreme at the box office, but every now and again, someone stands up and waves the Saltire from the stalls.
It happened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. In among the hoo-hah surrounding the red-carpet premieres of The Da Vinci Code, Volver, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, X-Men 3 and Marie Antoinette, the Jury Prize went to Red Road, a film developed and shot in Glasgow. The studio big-wigs must have choked on their croissants.
Red Road is as good as any film made this year anywhere on the planet. Its win at Cannes is the cinema equivalent of beating the French 1-0 at Hampden. Maybe our films also deserve to rise up the world rankings.
It's not as if we don't have talent at our fingertips. Sean Connery and Ewan McGregor are two of the most famous movie stars in the world. Peter Mullan, Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle and Shirley Henderson are sought after by the biggest names in the business.
No actor is currently hotter than Glasgow-born James McAvoy.
Remember too that this is the country of Whisky Galore, Gregory's Girl, Trainspotting and Ratcatcher.
In other words, as a Scottish film, Red Road doesn't come out of nowhere. Its writer-director Andrea Arnold (born in Kent but working up here, so given 'Honorary Scot' status for this review) won an Oscar last year for her short film Wasp.
Her first feature is even more impressive.
Dickie's performance is astonishingly precise, while Curran keeps the dangerous and charming elements of his character in perfect balance.
Red Road isn't easy viewing. It contains a particularly graphic sex scene that's remarkable because it takes us into the head of the female character - something Hollywood rarely dares to do.
It's a film that takes risks and wins rewards. Audiences should do the same and fly the flag for a Scottish film that's truly world-class.
The Herald - 26/10/2006 Alison Rowat
FILM OF THE WEEK RED ROAD (18) 4/5
HOPES were higher than a 1970s tower block for Andrea Arnold's first feature following her Oscar-winning short, Wasp. With this raw thriller, a portrait of grief and retribution, she has exceeded them.
Arnold's stripped-to-the-bone film is part of an experimental project led by the Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier. The idea is that three directors, using the same characters and Dogmestyle minimalist techniques, will make films that form a trilogy. This might be something else you'd rather push to one side in the interests of enjoying this cracking thriller. Once past the HMB feelings, something rather wonderful happens with Red Road. It becomes plain that the urban wasteland on the screen could be on the fringe of any European city - Paris, Berlin, Dublin, wherever. It happens to be Glasgow. These are Glaswegians, but they could be any group of damaged people. Arnold has created a world in which the audience, even the home crowd, can lose themselves, and told them a story they'll not forget easily. She can come back any time.
Nice to find somebody who cares about this subject almost as much as I do.
I didn’t see, as you say, “something like” Young Adam. I didn’t see Young Adam full stop. The reason I didn’t see the film was because my hype alert was on high, with every male journo (and would-be novelist) falling over themselves because of the Trocchi book, like they wished some of that pseudo-romantic literary junkie chic would rub off on them. Anyway, I just don’t go for Ewan MacGregor’s acting and Tilda leaves me colder than a witch’s tit.
Tony Curran’s performance in Red Road was outstanding in its complexity. I disagree with you about the cunt speech – risky, sure, but I think it worked. Difference of opinion, okay?
I agree with you though about some films getting an easier ride than others. Chasing the Deer and Pasty Faces should have got a doing, not just for crimes against filmmaking but for the shabby way both productions treated vulnerable wannabe actors and technicians by charging them for the privilege of working.
Thanks for posting the articles. The Evening Times one – great. The Scotsman – cliché city – ‘gritty’ ‘Glasgow’s toughest estate’ – didn’t say anything good about the film though, apart from it being a ‘critic’s favourite’ and ‘walking off’ with a top prize – like it stuck the gong up its jumper and sneaked out the back door. Scotland on Sunday – purely a listing and not exactly brimming with praise. The Daily Record – a fairly positive piece, I’ll give you that, but I wish they’d spare us the Sean Connery shite – when was the last time Shir Shean made a movie in Scotland? 1952? Or Bobby Carlyle for that matter? The Herald’s review was fair enough – which was why I put the link in the first place.
Maybe you should get yourself a blog. The more being said about Scottish film, the better.
Lx
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