World Film Locations: Glasgow explores Scotland's biggest city and the many locations in which its films are viewed, set and shot. Taking in the important moments and movements in its rich cinematic history, this book seeks to discover the city's culture, character and comedy through its cinematic identity. Essays cover a variety of topics including a background of Glasgow's cinema-goers and picture houses, the evolution of Scots comedy, and the role of the city as inspiration for grassroots and underground filmmakers, as well as big Hollywood productions. Thirty-eight films are featured, from classics like Forsyth's Gregory's Girl and Loach's Carla's Song to cult hits like Boyle's Trainspotting. Bollywood is also represented, alongside European titles and grim Scots realism like Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe, and Red Road, and new titles including Fast Romance, Perfect Sense, and NEDs, making this an essential guide to Scotland in film.
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1. O LUCKY MAN! (1973) HM Prison Barlinnie, 81 Lee Avenue, Riddrie, G33 2QX
2. JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY (1975) Abbotshall Avenue, G15 8PL and Achamore Road, G15 8QS
3. DEATH WATCH/LA MORT EN DIRECT (1980) Glasgow Royal Infirmary, G31 2
4. THAT SINKING FEELING (1980) A patch of waste-ground off Maryhill Road in the shadow of the Cedar Court flats, G20
5. A SENSE OF FREEDOM (1981) Napiershall Street, North Kelvinside, G20
6. GREGORY’S GIRL (1981) Cumbernauld Centre, Central Way, Cumbernauld, G67 1NE
7. MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE (1983) The Campsie Fells, near Milngavie, G63
O LUCKY MAN! (1973)
HM Prison Barlinnie, 81 Lee Avenue Riddrie, G33 2QX
HAVING BEEN FOUND GUILTY of a trumped-up fraud charge and imprisoned for five years, journeyman coffee seller Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) finally wins his release, having convinced the prison governor (Peter Jeffery) that – thanks to a conversion to Humanism – he has become a model prisoner. The prison sequence in Anderson’s film is comprised of several exterior establishing shots (library footage of Wormwood Scrubs); cell and office interior shots filmed on studio sets at Colet Court (the production base of Thames Television’s Euston Films subsidiary in the early 1970s); and, finally, on location outside the entrance to HM Prison Barlinnie. Security regulations in English prisons at the time made it impossible to film anyone actually coming through a prison doorway and so, for the only time in the production, filming moved north of the border. Anderson, a Scot, was delighted. In his personal diary he described the location and filming experience thus: ‘a large plain gate (only a pity the prison buildings could not be seen behind) and a splendid large wall and a good space of roadway, remote from through traffic, in front. Scottish prison officials of great pleasantness and tolerance of our absurdity.’ Rather appropriately given the compressed, metamorphic journey that Mick Travis takes through the penal system, shortly after filming took place Barlinnie’s world-renowned ‘Special Unit’ was opened; a facility that emphasized rehabilitative treatment of prisoners and produced former Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle, the prison’s most well known success story.
Jez Conolly
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Scene description: Mick the model prisoner is released Timecode for scene: 2:13:58 – 2:20:28
JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY (1975)
Abbotshall Avenue, G15 8PL and Achamore Road, G15 8QS
IN 1970S GLASGOW, beneath the glossy nightlife, beyond the dramatic architecture of an era long gone, there was a grittier world of greying concrete and anonymous tower blocks. Deeper still, there coursed an undercurrent of strain and conflict. Director John Mackenzie immediately draws the audience into this stark and unyielding environment in Just Another Saturday, part of the BBC’s Play For Today anthology and a narrative that focuses on a young protestor named Jon (played by Jon McNeil) and his experiences at The Orange Parade. Establishing shots of Abbotshall Avenue and its interchangeable high-rises connote desolation and gloom before the day has even begun. When John sets off from his flat to the protest the camera immediately settles on an unspoken darkness; the first shot being a view towards Clydebank. Just four years earlier, the Upper Clyde Shipbuilding Consortium had been refused a £6 million loan by the Conservative government under Edward Heath, leaving the shipping industry in a state of decline and many workers unemployed. Understandably there was still bitterness about this at the time and Mackenzie’s direction could easily be interpreted as a pointed comment on the sad history of the area. This is underlined further by his follow-up shots of flaking verandas, wandering children and dismal architecture. These elements, combined with some carefully placed point of view and tracking shots, gradually build an impression of disadvantage, injustice and inequality: three key motifs that weave their way through Mackenzie’s understated but unafraid portrayal of retro Glasgow.
Helen Cox
Directed by John Mackenzie
Scene description: Jon leaves home to prepare for a march Timecode for scene: 0:09:30 – 0:11:28
DEAIH WAICH/LA MORI EN DIKECI (1980)
Glasgow Royal Infirmary, G31 2
FROM ITS EARLIEST SCENES – such as the Leone-esque crane shot rising high over the Necropolis to composer Antoine Duhamel’s jabbing strings, and this one, as Roddy leaves the Royal Infirmary – it is clear that Death Watch is no ordinary filmic depiction of Glasgow. Deserving of mention alongside more celebrated ‘outsider’ visions of the United Kingdom (Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Polanski’s Repulsion) it is an adaptation of the 1974 science fiction novel by D. G. Compton, The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. French director Bertrand Tavernier crafts a dystopian drama about TV director Roddy (Harvey Keitel) who has a camera implanted in his eye to record everything he sees. He is given the task of filming the final days of the terminally-ill Katherine (Romy Schneider) for the reality show of the title. Tavernier went against professional advice to make the f...
