Cinema
Bill Douglas Trilogy
Bill Douglas · 1972
Synopsis
1945, Newcraighall, a mining village near Edinburgh. Jamie, eight years old, lives in poverty with his brother Tommy and their grandmother; his mother is in an institution, his father absent. He befriends Helmuth, a German prisoner who works in the fields. When the grandmother dies, he goes to live with his father and his paternal grandmother, who rejects him, and then to a children's home. As a young man, he does his military service in Egypt and meets Robert there, a cultured Englishman who introduces him to books.
Context
The three films were shot between 1972 and 1978 for the British Film Institute Production Board, in black and white, almost without dialogue and with non-professional performers. Their author returns in them to his own childhood; his first producer, Mamoun Hassan, stressed the gaps the editing leaves for the viewer. The three parts run about forty-six, fifty-five and seventy-two minutes. In France, they were released in cinemas in 1997, then again, in restored prints, in 2013.
Who it is for
Three films ranging from three quarters of an hour to a little over an hour, almost silent, to be seen in order. It is harsh, but shot through with tenderness and humour.
Prizes and reception
Silver Lion at Venice in 1972 for the first part; the British Film Institute presents the whole as one of the most acclaimed accounts of childhood in cinema.
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