Bill Forsyth: “Scotland is a little nation with an identity problem”  

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Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero helped shape how Scotland sees itself. But director Bill Forsyth says that was the last thing he aimed to do There are plenty of Scottish actors and writers working in the movie business but strangely few directors. When you search for “Scottish film director”, top of the list is Bill Forsyth, who hasn’t made a film this century and is remembered primarily for two from the early 1980s – Gregory’s Girl (pictured below) and Local Hero. Such is the rarity of quality films made in Scotland by Scottish auteurs that these are still celebrated as ones that forged the character of the nation.“I wasn’t flying the flag for Scotland,” Forsyth says. “I wasn’t trying to say something culturally about Scotland – I don’t know what Scotland means to the guy next to me on the bus. It’s too dumb an idea to want to nail, a culture. It comes from making stuff, and the accumulation of that stuff finally reflects a culture.”

Source: Bill Forsyth: “Scotland is a little nation with an identity problem” | Big Issue

Bridget St John (Live) French Television 1970

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By Johnny Foreigner

Here in the colonies, Bridget St John remains one of the more under-appreciated artists in the British Folk genre. Her voice is not as sweet as Sandy Denny’s, nor possessing the huskiness of latter-day Marianne Faithful, but combines a small scoop of each with a delicious melted Nico topping.
In England during the 1970s, she worked with Kevin Ayers, John Martyn and Mike Oldfield. Her first album, Ask Me No Questions was released in 1969, and during the early seventies, she shared Folk charts and BBC radio time with Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens and Fairport Convention.

Born in Surrey, England, she lived periodically in London, Aix-en-Provence, France, eventually landing in Greenwich Village, New York, only to decide to take the next 20 years off from performing.

This small concert made for French television in 1970 is quite wonderful. Listen, and appreciate Bridget’s je ne sais quoi.

Terence Davies interview: A Quiet Passion director on making his new Emily Dickinson biopic with Cynthia Nixon | The Independent

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Ted Hughes called her “one of the oddest and most intriguing personalities in literary history”. In the course of her life, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only saw six of her poems in print. She never strayed far from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her poetry was playful and profound by turns but also often very cryptic. She uses punctuation in an idiosyncratic fashion, littering her verse with hyphens and capital letters. There is an erotic charge to much of her writing.

Source: Terence Davies interview: A Quiet Passion director on making his new Emily Dickinson biopic with Cynthia Nixon | The Independent