Despite the odds, Scotland continues to punch above its weight in the cinematic arts.
Take Edinburgh-born film-maker Charlotte Wells. Oscar nominated last year for her elegiac and moving debut Aftersun, an autobiographical tale starring man-of-the-moment Paul Mescal, she won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and followed that with a Best Newcomer gong at the BAFTAs. Aftersun also opened the 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival, a home-town triumph for the young director.
The latest prizewinner is Edinburgh-based Portuguese film-maker Laura Carreira. Her Scottish-set debut On Falling had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, made its European bow at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (where Ms Carreira won a Best Director award) and in October picked up the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival. It’s given to the most original and imaginative directorial debut.
The film continues to tour the art-house festival circuit – Rome, Zurich, Thessalonika (another award) – and early next year it makes its own kind of home-coming when it shows at the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) following a series of UK-wide screenings, also hosted by GFF.
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Unlike Aftersun, On Falling falls into the category of social realism. It tells the story of Aurora, a Portuguese migrant to Scotland who works as a ‘picker’ at one of those vast warehouses storing the stuff we buy on-line. Ms Carreira’s wider subject is migration, class, the modern workplace and, of course, the pernicious gig economy. It’s no surprise, then, that her main backer is Sixteen Films, the production company run by Ken Loach and Rebecca O’Brien.
For some critics, that fact places On Falling in Loach’s state-of-the-nation trilogy, a series composed of The Old Oak, Sorry We Missed You and I, Daniel Blake. Maybe. But in these latitudes it’s important to remember all three of those films have scripts by Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty.
Moreover, while social realism of the sort Ms Carreira deploys may have been championed by Loach, it has always had many august proponents north of the Border. Peter Mullan is one, Lynne Ramsay another, Bill Douglas a third. There are more.
Talking to Ms Carreira, The Herald’s Derek McArthur hears that On Falling is about “how limiting life can become when you’re just trying to get by and you work so hard and you’re still not comfortable financially… people in many different types of jobs are experiencing that so it felt like a pertinent film to look at the way we’re living and to really question it.”
You can read more about the ongoing success story of GFF here.
Art trip
My 2024 visual art highlight is the exhibition currently on show in the belly of the Royal Scottish Academy building in Edinburgh.
Dürer To Van Dyck consists of drawings from the collection held at historic Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. Many of them are on display in Scotland for the first time.
The works themselves are fascinating, as are the stories behind them – the social and historical context, if you like. Also fascinating is the story of how the collection came together and the questions that are raised today about patronage and (whisper it) taste.
Geographical context matters as well, of course. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have seen these works as they were once displayed at Chatsworth House, arrayed in a long gallery where they were hung higgledy-piggledy on the walls? Better still, how about seeing works by Anthony van Dyck or his contemporary Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp, the city in which they lived and worked? The Herald’s Nicole Mitchell did just that, and here she picks some of the highlights of her visit to one of Europe’s bona fide art capitals.
And finally
Panto season continues apace (try saying that after an Advocaat Snowball and half a bottle of Aldi Prosecco) and The Herald critics are dutifully keeping up. Trotting alongside “indefatigable” theatre veteran Guy Masterson, Neil Cooper finds him excelling in a solo performance of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, directed by Nick Hennegan and staged at Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy.
Still in the capital, a very different proposition entirely: Donny Osmond (yes that Donny Osmond) starring as a “rock and roll Pharaoh” in a glitzy touring production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It’s now 52 while Osmond himself is 67, though neither is looking their age. “An epic selection box of ecclesiastically inclined bangers,” Neil finds, one brought to life with “slick choreography” and performed on a “maximalist” set. Come panto season, they’re the best sort.
Meanwhile at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, Mary Brennan joins panto veteran (make that panto legend) Jimmy Chisholm in a patter-soaked production of Jack And The Beanstalk.
To music, and beginning at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall where critic Keith Bruce took in a pair of concerts. First, a performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Daniel Hahn. For a run through of Jeff Tyzik’s arrangement of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Nutcracker Suite they were joined by four alumni of the acclaimed Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.
Also in the programme, Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto and Anton Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony. Second was the Glasgow Hospitals Christmas Concert, a fundraiser for the Young Lives Vs Cancer charity featuring the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra and the Glasgow Hospitals’ Choir under the baton of fast-rising Scottish conductor Alistair Digges.
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A short walk away at the City Halls, Keith took in a performance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra of work by Mozart – including a recently discovered piece written when the composer was in his teens – and at the Perth Concert Hall he enjoyed the dream team pairing of fiddler Aidan O’Rourke and guitarist Sean Shibe. O’Rourke is a well-known figure on the traditional music scene while Edinburgh-born Shibe, a previous recipient of the BBC New Generation Artist award, became the first guitarist to win the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Award in 2022. Their new duo is called Luban, and here it was making its Scottish debut.
Finally, Gabriel McKay took in a gig by Sam Fender at the Hydro. His verdict? All hail the Geordie Springsteen. At the same venue, Alex Burns braved a Glasgow cold snap to enjoy a five star performance by Mercury Music Prize nominee and (with apologies to Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Tay-Tay) all-conquering 2024 pop queen Charli xcx. Have a BRAT Christmas, everyone.