British Culture & Society

Heriot - Watt University Edinburgh
Department of Applied Languages & Translating

Edinburgh in Film

Part I / II

Class: British Culture & Society

First Term: (September - December 2000)
By: Sina Friedreich

University of Mainz/Germersheim

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

INTRODUCTION 3

1. THE EDINBURGH FILM GUILD 3

2. THE EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL 4

3. SCREENING SCOTLAND 5

4. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 7

5. REFERENCES 22

Introduction

The following pages form the first part of my essay on Edinburgh in Film.
In the first two chapters, two major film institutions which played an important role in the history of film in Edinburgh shall be introduced. Their importance for the development of film will be pointed out clearly.

The third chapter will then deal with the question of how Scotland was portrayed and the reasons for that. To answer this question, the main influences on the depiction of Scotland will be described. The third chapter will subsequently end by describing how the Scots themselves wanted to depict their country and culture.

In presenting famous films and musicals in the final chapter, dualities of Edinburgh and Scotland and their stimulus for productions in and around Scotland shall be depicted.

1. The Edinburgh Film Guild

One of the most important organisations concerning the history of film in Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Film Guild, formed in 1930 by Norman Wilson and Forsyth Hardy. It constitutes the oldest continuing film society in the UK and possibly in the whole world. The greatest achievement of the Guild was establishing the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1947. In those days, the Film Guild was based in Hill Street and had almost two and a half thousand members and therefore was the largest film society in the country.

Besides the Guild, Norman Wilson and Forsyth Hardy, founded the influential international magazine of film critics Cinema Quarterly in 1930.
The existence of the Edinburgh Film Guild was crucial to the establishment of the "Regional Film Theatre" for Edinburgh, in Randolph Crescent, and played a major part in its move to the present premises in Lothian Road. Despite the great competition through alternative means of access to movies, the Guild kept on flourishing.

2. The Edinburgh Film Festival

The Edinburgh Film Festival came into being in 1947 as the first International Festival of Documentary Film and the first Film Festival after the Second World War. At that time only four separate programmes existed which were organised by the co-operation of UNESCO and John Grierson, a consultant of Mass Media.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART II

INTRODUCTION 13

5. FILMS IN SCOTLAND AND EDINBURGH FROM 1935 UNTIL 1996 13
5.1 The 39 Steps 13
5.2 Waverley Steps 14
5.3 Shallow Grave 16
5.4 Trainspotting 18

6. THE FUTURE OF SCOTTISH FILM 20

7. EPILOGUE 21

8. REFERENCES 22

Introduction

In the second part of my essay on Film in Edinburgh, I will mainly concentrate on summarising four major films that play a decisive role in the establishment of film culture in Scotland. In my choice of films, I want to emphasise the growing independence and identity of Scottish culture both on a national and international level. At the end of my essay, I will give a positive view about the future of Scottish film, and finally write about my own experiences.

5. Films in Scotland and Edinburgh from 1935 until 1996

The 39 Steps, Waverley Steps, Shallow Grave and finally Trainspotting are important films in the history of Scottish film. They play an important role in the steady development of both the depiction of Scotland and filmmaking in Scotland itself.

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