Cinema
Gregory's Girl
Bill Forsyth · 1980
Synopsis
Cumbernauld, a new town near Glasgow. The school football team loses all its matches, and the coach holds trials. Gregory, tall and awkward, loses his place as centre-forward to Dorothy, the best player, and moves into goal. He falls in love with her and confides in his little sister Madeline, ten years old, who advises him. He gets a date. Dorothy's friends sort things out among themselves without his knowing.
Context
The British Film Institute had turned the project down, judging it too commercial; its author first made another film almost without money, whose success made it possible to raise about two hundred thousand pounds. Filming took place in the summer of 1980 in the new town of Cumbernauld, with amateur actors, almost all without experience; only the performer of Dorothy had already appeared on screen, in a local advertisement. For its American release, the film was redubbed in a studio with softened accents.
Who it is for
One hour thirty, in Scottish English with subtitles. The story follows the boy over a few days, from the football pitch to the date.
Prizes and reception
British Academy award for best screenplay, and seventy-five weeks on release in London.
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