Recommended Reading: World Film Locations: Glasgow

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had received my copy of World Film Locations: Glasgow, edited by Nicola Balkind. Having finished reading it recently I’m pleased to say it’s a great read.

We are very lucky that our city has such a rich history and that is reflected on the shelves of Glasgow’s book stores – not every city in Britain or indeed Europe will have as many tomes devoted to its sporting achievements, its architecture, its musical heritage, its dialect, its public transport… But until fairly recently there’s not been a huge amount published about Glasgow’s significant place in the world of cinema. World Film Locations: Glasgow helps ensure that this important chapter in Glasgow’s history is recorded in book form and as a bonus its own recommended reading section has pointed me in the direction of some other books on the matter which I look forward to sourcing and reading.

The joy of the book is being reminded how many movies have been made in Glasgow – there are brilliant two-page features on 38 films, each consisting of concise and interesting summaries of the plots and locations, and illustrated with captures from those productions. The films featured span the decades from O Lucky Man! in 1973 to Perfect Sense in 2011 and in addition to these features many more films are referenced, such as 1996’s Small Faces and the recently released Cloud Atlas.

Alongside the individual movie features sits a series of essays, opening nicely with Paul Gallagher’s Glasgow: City of the Imagination and concluding with Nicola Balkind’s Glasgow: Hollywood’s Film Set, which itself concludes with a stirring opinion on the potential of Glasgow’s film-making future. The other essays are Cinema City: Glasgow’s Passion for Cinema by Neil Johnson-Symington; Glaswegian Comedy: A Distinct Sense of Humour by Keir Hind; The Gift of Constraint: Danish-Scottish Collaboration and the Advance Party by Pasquale Iannone; Glasgow’s Kitchen Sink: The Cinema of Ken Loach and Peter Mullan by David Archibald; Dear Green Shoots: Underground Film-Making In Glasgow by Sean Welsh. All essays both educate and entertain.

It was particularly nice to see the former Toledo cinema in Muirend discussed in Neil Johnson-Symington’s essay – as a child of the 1980s this was my local cinema as the Cannon initially and then taking on the ABC and Odeon names before its sad closure. This was where I made my first cinema visit aged five- to see Superman IV: The Quest For Peace!

World Film Locations: Glasgow is available to order on Amazon.

Movie Glaswegians: Tony Curran

Born in Glasgow on 13th December 1969, Tony Curran is a much respected actor whose face is familiar on screens big and small in both British and American productions.

His first onscreen appearance according to IMDb was in a 1986 television Dramarama production called Wayfarers, while his first recorded movie role was in Bill Forsyth’s Being Human in 1994. Since these early days in his screen career Curran has taken on one off parts in television series – from minor police officer roles in Rab C. Nesbitt, Grange Hill and The Bill to a critically acclaimed turn as Vincent Van Gogh in a 2010 episode of Doctor Who and appearances in Boardwalk Empire and the rebooted Hawaii Five-O – as well as playing recurring characters in the likes of This Life and Ultimate Force.

In movies his credits include Gladiator, The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn, Pearl Harbor and X-Men: First Class. He played the key role of Clyde in the Glasgow-set Red Road – previously featured on this blog – and for this performance won the Best Actor category at the 2006 BAFTA Scotland Awards and British Independent Film Awards.

Tony Curran’s Wikipedia entry states that he attended Holyrood Secondary School and graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

 

Glasgow’s Global Visitors: Kevin Spacey

Name: Kevin Spacey

Born: 26th July 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA

Credits include: American Beauty, L.A. Confidential, The Usual Suspects

Reason for visiting Glasgow:

Kevin Spacey visited Glasgow in 2007 to deliver an acting masterclass to students at the city’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Below is a clip of a brief interview with the actor conducted by STV’s film reporter Grant Lauchlan at the academy. A Herald report from the time states that Spacey also visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art during his time in the city.

Starring Role: Silent Scream

Silent Scream is a 1990 film directed by Glaswegian actor and director David Hayman, who makes a brief cameo appearance in the movie. It is based on the true story of Larry Winters – a Glasgow man jailed for life at Barlinnie prison after shooting dead a barman in a London pub. While examples of violence perpetrated by Winters are limited in the film itself (with the shooting being the obvious exception to this), he is regarded as one of the Glasgow prison’s most violent inmates and is hated by the prison staff. That is in the main prison however – a significant part of the film concerns his transfer to the Barlinnie secure unit, where there is a very different environment and the staff seem practically like friends to Winters and other prisoners. Perhaps the most striking example of the different atmosphere is when some of the prison officers accompany Larry on a day release to visit his family – he leaves the house with his father and a conversation between the affable secure unit staff goes: “Larry’s away for a walk”, “Hope he comes back”, “Don’t worry, he will” – with that last line delivered in a cheerful manner as opposed to a threatening one implying that he’ll have the hounds released on him to ensure he does. At this stage in his incarceration though Winters’ stability declines in a different way through his dependency on drugs.

There are a number of observations to be made about Silent Scream, with the first couple concerning its production – it is not just a straightforward crime tale, with hallucinations and animations contributing alongside more pedestrian flashbacks to Larry Winters’ childhood and young adulthood. A particularly interesting mechanic in the film is the use of the prison’s security monitors – which we are occasionally shown flickering with static before they open up a window into the latest flashback. Speaking of flashbacks, the film is set primarily during the 1970s – during the later spell of Winters’ imprisonment – but we do get a glimpse into his life in the preceding decades, from a childhood relocation to Carbisdale to time spent in Wales as part of the Brecon Beacons Parachute Regiment, and the fateful spell in London. 23 years after its release the movie does seem somewhat dated compared to some of its contemporaries, and that is not simply because of the period setting – Silent Scream actually feels like it was made not in 1990 but in the 1970s at some points.

The role of Larry Winters is taken on by Edinburgh born Iain Glen, who is excellent as the emaciated, mentally tormented killer. The cast also includes John Murtagh, Robert Carlyle, Julie Graham, Douglas Henshall, Caroline Paterson and Tom Watson – who plays the murdered barman Patrick and puts in a few eerie appearances in Larry’s fantasies. And a special mention must go to the late Anne Kristen, who delivers a strong performance as the Winters matriarch whose love and pride for her son remain steadfast.

As for Glasgow’s part in Silent Scream – Barlinnie prison naturally features, as do the Royal Infirmary and the Necropolis among other locations. Some interior scenes were shot at Blackcat Studios in Glasgow and, as contributor Neil Johnson-Symington highlights in his “Cinema City” essay in Nicola Balkind’s World Film Locations Glasgow book, the London “Vogue” cinema that appears in the film is in fact the former Riddrie cinema in Glasgow. While dealing with a dark subject matter and set at a time when Glasgow was in decline, Silent Scream manages not to portray the city as one of complete hopelessness – Barlinnie’s secure unit, while flawed in places, shows an early attempt at innovation and open-mindedness by authorities while the wider Winters family are portrayed as good and hard working people.

Glasgow’s Global Visitors: Carl Weathers

Name: Carl Weathers

Born: 14th January 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Credits include: Predator, Rocky, Happy Gilmore

Reason for visiting Glasgow:

Carl Weathers spent time in Glasgow during 2007 filming BBC Three pilot Phoo Action alongside Jaime Winstone and Eddie Shin. The comedy drama was filmed at various locations around the city and at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay headquarters. No further episodes of Phoo Action were commissioned after the pilot.

Stunt Double: Tezz

Back in early summer 2011, a few months before Brad, Halle and Scarlett came to town, Glasgow was hosting action packed filming for yet another production – Tezz. The city’s main role in the film is to act as double for London in some pretty impressive police chase scenes, although Glasgow is frequently mentioned as the plot concerns a bomb aboard a London to Glasgow train.

Tezz is an Indian produced movie and this recent viewing has in fact been Glasgow on Film’s first Bollywood experience. It was watched with a completely open mind – knowing that, despite comparisons to Hollywood’s Speed, this would be a very different experience to the western (as in hemisphere) movies I am used to. So the couple of impromptu musical sequences that pop up in the film were unusual for an action thriller, but not unsurprising or unappreciated, although some explanation as to why characters’ speech would switch from Hindi to English – sometimes mid-sentence – would be appreciated.

As mentioned above, the film is about the race against time to thwart the bombing of a Virgin train travelling from London to Glasgow (surprisingly Sir Richard Branson doesn’t make one of his movie cameos). One of the group responsible for the plot is fleeing from the police through London on motorbike, although this scene is made up mainly of footage shot in Birmingham and Glasgow – as a result there are some fantastic stunts in The Barras and a dramatic conclusion to the chase on West Campbell Street. For Glasgow to witness such movie action on its streets is a privilege, as is to welcome some of the biggest names in Bollywood, such as Ajay Devgn (as the bomber, Aakaash) and Anil Kapoor (who plays the police force’s top counter-terrorism officer, Arjun) – an actor who has found success in both Bollywood and Hollywood through the likes of Slumdog Millionaire and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

But the positives for Glasgow, the stunts and the respect for another culture cannot conceal a glaring fault with Tezz – its plot. There is a flashback scene in which GoF actually thought Aakaash’s beloved wife had died after being pushed by a British police officer, and that this was therefore a motive for vengeance – but in fact she wasn’t dead and for the record he wasn’t under that impression. His motive for risking the lives of 500 people is quite simply revenge for… him being deported. Even more farcical is that his plight is romanticised – unlike with Dennis Hopper’s character in Speed, it feels here like the viewer is for some reason supposed to feel sorry for the guy that got chucked out of the country for being there illegally and then decided to hold the government to ransom, causing death and destruction along the way. So the deportation meant that Aakaash was separated from the love of his life – perhaps the reason she didn’t follow him (and thus negate the need for him to go to such extreme measures for a reunion) indicates that she was bored of his melodramatics.

 

Glasgow’s Global Visitors: Charlton Heston

Name: Charlton Heston

Born: 4th October 1923 in Evanston, Illinois, USA (died in Beverly Hills on 5th April 2008)

Credits include: Ben-Hur, Planet Of The Apes, Touch Of Evil

Reason for visiting Glasgow:

The internet contains accounts of at least three visits to Glasgow by the late Hollywood heavyweight. Putting these visits into chronological order, he is reported as visiting in 1952 to promote the film The Greatest Show On Earth – this nugget of information is in a 1979 Herald article surrounding a further visit from the man at that time. The 1979 visit was to promote a book of his working diary and in a detailed interview he tells the newspaper’s William Hunter about his love of Scotland. In 1990 Heston came to Glasgow once again – this time to promote Treasure Island – and unveiled a plaque and cut the ribbon at the newly renovated foyer of the Cannon cinema on Sauchiehall Street (now the ABC – named after the cinema’s original name – music venue).

Movie Glaswegians: Billy Boyd

Billy Boyd’s first onscreen appearance was in a 1996 episode of television’s Taggart – since then his acting journey has been one of the more remarkable ones to come out of Glasgow. He has continued to appear on the small screen, from a cameo in an early Still Game episode to an appearance in Casualty as recently as 2012, but it is within his film credits that you will find the most interesting range of roles.

Boyd is a familiar face in homegrown movies, including On A Clear Day, The Flying Scotsman and Stone Of Destiny, as well as the previously featured Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy. In Hollywood he has appeared in the sublime (Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, alongside Russell Crowe) and the ridiculous (Seed Of Chucky, voicing the son of the murderous Child’s Play doll).

It is for his role as Peregrin ‘Pippin’ Took in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy however that he is best known – Pippin, one of the ‘Hobbits’, was a key character in the blockbuster saga whose instalments were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Boyd developed a firm bond with his fellow Hobbits played by Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan and Sean Astin during production of the movies, so much so that the former two attended his wedding at Oran Mor on Byres Road in 2010. Onscreen of course these genuine Hollywood friendships created great chemistry.

Billy Boyd was born in Glasgow on 28th August 1968 – the popular actor often appears younger than his years, perhaps partly due to his association with the role of Pippin, but maybe also due to his other job as frontman of the band Beecake. Boyd’s acting career was shaped in Glasgow, where he graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He lives in the city with his wife and son.

Glasgow’s Global Visitors: Jean Reno

Name: Jean Reno

Born: 30th July 1948 in Casablanca, Morocco

Credits include: Leon, Ronin, Godzilla

Reason for visiting Glasgow:

Jean Reno visited Glasgow in 2004 as part of the UK’s multi-city French Film Festival (although born in Morocco to Spanish parents, he is a French national). During his time in the city Reno introduced his film Tais-Toi! at the Glasgow Film Theatre and attended a civic dinner in the City Chambers aimed at fostering links between Glasgow and France. Notable about the visit was the revelation of an apparent friendship between the actor and the city’s then Lord Provost – Liz Cameron – following their introduction at an event in Brittany a year and a half earlier. A BBC News article from the time quotes Reno as saying “I am especially pleased, in the year of the Entente Cordiale celebrations, to visit Glasgow, a city that has intrigued me ever since I met its Lord Provost Liz Cameron, who is such a great ambassadress“.

Movie Glaswegians: David O’Hara

Born in Glasgow on 9th July 1965 and raised in the city’s Pollok area, David O’Hara is well known for his distinctive voice and the wide range of interesting characters that he has applied it to.

After leaving school O’Hara first joined a youth opportunities programme at Glasgow Arts Centre, which saw him tour schools in theatre productions, before moving temporarily to London to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. During his time at the Central School of Speech and Drama, he returned to Glasgow to take on his first screen role – in Bill Forsyth’s 1984 film Comfort And Joy.

The career that has followed has spanned television on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Tudors, Prime Suspect V and Taggart, and likewise UK and American cinema. O’Hara’s movie credits include Cowboys & Aliens, Wanted and The Departed. He is no stranger to villainous roles, such as those of Albert Runcorn in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and the shadowy government figure Michael Canaris in Glasgow-set Doomsday, however in perhaps his best known role he is one of the good guys – the insane Irish character Stephen in Braveheart.