By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Where in the world is Bill Forsyth?
When Bill Forsyth’s last feature, Gregory’s 2 Girls, was on the circuit in 1999, I got to talk to him in a couple of countries. Such a sweet, smart man, with his own ideas about how to live his life. He demurred each observation I offered, no matter how precise and specific. If Housekeeping were available on DVD in the States, its influence could not be understated. Now this: “It is his best-known and best-loved work,” writes Tim Teeman in the Times of London, “but Bill Forsyth, the writer and director of Gregory’s Girl, doesn’t own a copy, and doesn’t want to. “I’ve always said, as far as I’m concerned once you’ve made a movie, it’s the kid that’s left home,” he says plainly. “I used to say, if I saw one of my movies walking down the street, I wouldn’t cross the road to say hello.” … Silence has reigned for the last eight years. No films. No word of Forsyth. “I just write, live, have a nice life,” he says. He and his partner Moira have been together for five years and live in the Western Scottish countryside. They first went out in their early twenties before his marriage to Adrienne Atkinson with whom he has two children. He has written for HBO and is developing a British-based comedy with the American sitcom queen Caryn Mandabach. The public impression is things went very wrong for you, I say. “That’s strange. I don’t see that shape,” Forsyth says. “I don’t remember tripping up along the way. I just kept going. I have to put my hand on my heart and say I’m ten times happier not making films than making films.” he says. I did it ‘cos they let me. It’s not something you decline… I can’t stand the cinema. We did go once three or four years ago just to experience it. We went to a mall outside Glasgow and had a pretty horrendous experience.” What did he see? “I’m blushing,” he says, and he is, and he is laughing too.
“Wedding Crashers,” he says. “We just wanted a night out. But the experience of being with the audience, the stench of popcorn. I objected to the way they were being manipulated, infantilised…The difference between an arthouse film and Wedding Crashers is minute. Then after the movie you’re herded out, a rat in a maze. Suddenly you’re in the car park.” After the interview, Forsyth sends Teeman a note. It’s worth reading. Where’s the tissue? [The article has links to follow-ups on what became of the cast of Gregory’s Girl; two video interviews with a younger Forsyth follow; Forsyth’s script of Being Human can be downloaded here; plus Forsyth’s CV. A 1999 London Telegraph interview (scroll to second entry), just as Forsyth was releasing his last film, is here.]
