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Home / Podcasts / Ep. 19: Bill Forsyth’s gentle comedies

Seventh Row Editors / September 23, 2019

Ep. 19: Bill Forsyth’s gentle comedies

In this episode of the Seventh Row podcast, we discuss Bill Forsyth’s recently restored Scottish classic gentle comedies directed by Bill Forsyth, Gregory’s Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983).

This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.

Stills of the films discussed on the Bill Forsyth podcast: Gregory's Girl and Local Hero
Stills of the films discussed on the Bill Forsyth podcast: Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero

Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, Editor at Large Mary Angela Rowe , and special guest Scott Wilson discuss Forysth’s kindness towards his characters, the film’s cultural context, tackling serious subjects in a gentle way, the special features on the new Criterion disc, and why these films are endlessly rewatchable.

Want to listen to the episode?

Click here to become a Seventh Row member and get access to this episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

About the films on the podcast: Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero

As we discuss in the podcast, capturing Bill Forsyth’s films in a summary is difficult. Gregory’s Girl (1981) is (spoiler) not a movie where awkward teenager Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) ends up with barrier breaking high school football [soccer] star Dorothy (Dee Hepburn). Instead, it’s a pleasant teenage hangout movie as we meet the various people in Gregory’s social orbit. Watch the trailer.

A 2K restoration of Gregory’s Girl is available from Film Movement on VOD and streaming.

Local Hero (1983) has more of a plot, as American oil executive Mac (Peter Riegert) is sent to convince the inhabits of a small Scottish seaside village to sell their property rights so the company can build an oil refinery. While Mac has little difficulty convincing the town’s inhabitants, he begins to doubt what he’s doing… Watch the [cheesy 80s] trailer.

Local Hero will be released on Blu-ray and DVD by Criterion on September 24th.

Show notes and recommended reading

As mentioned on the Bill Forsyth podcast episode:

Check out Alex Heeney’s interview with Falls Around Her director Darlene Naponse in our latest ebook, The 2019 Canadian Cinema Yearbook.

Listen to our prior podcast episode, which featured a film with a similar tone, Sergio and Sergei.

Read Brandon Nowalk’s essay “Keeping a straight face: How CMBYN‘s queer characters get misread” as a free preview of our Call Me By Name ebook.

Never miss another episode. Subscribe to the podcast now!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

You can also subscribe on Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: Alex Heeney podcast, Brett Pardy podcast, Coming-of-age, Mary Angela Rowe podcast, Orla Smith podcast, podcast, Scott Wilson podcast

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