051902 Sunday Herald

May 19, 2002
The Sunday Herald

Success? It'sa shore thing;Can Scottish film-makers hope for mo re than a hangover and a tan at the year's biggest film festiva l? Yes they Cannes, says Juliette Garside

The 55th Cannes Film Festival is in full flow - and nobody is quite sure where they are, who they are meant to be meeting or when they'll be eating their next meal.

Amidst all the mayhem, a couple of certainties: this is a busy year for Scottish film-makers, and nobody is busier than Robert Carlyle. Raised in Glasgow's Maryhill, Carlyle is emphatically not a luvvie, but this coming week will see him schmoozing, posing, networking and deal-making with the best of them.

First of all he has a film to promote. Once Upon A Time In The Midlands has its premiere tomorrow, so there's a lunch with co-stars Ricky Tomlinson and Shirley Henderson, a round of interviews and photoshoots - and a chance to catch up with the cast and crew, as well as producer Andrea Calderwood. It's two weeks since Calderwood gave birth to her first child, but she is determined not to miss the premiere and is due to make her way out, complete with baby, this weekend.

Calderwood, formerly head of drama at BBC Scotland, cast Carlyle in the title role of Hamish Macbeth - and the two have worked together on and off ever since. Her company, Slate Films, is developing two vehicles for Carlyle. One is the story of Benny Lynch, the Glasgow boxer and people's hero who was crowned flyweight champion in 1935. The other is a comedy set in the world of 1930s cinema, featuring Carlyle as Stan Laurel and Robbie Coltrane, ideally, as Oliver Hardy.

There will be meetings to drum up interest in these projects and also in some of the ideas being developed by Carlyle's own production company, 4Way Films, which he runs with film critic Mark Cousins, director Antonia Bird and author Irvine Welsh. Foremost of these for Carlyle is Jamie MacGillivray, a Scottish Western set at the time of the Highland clearances. Then there's Saying Goodbye To Mr Welcome. Carlyle has agreed to take on a lead role in producer Gillian Berrie's next project, a thriller about an estranged couple drawn back together by the disappearance of their daughter.

Berrie is one of the industry's best persuaders. She convinced Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton to star in her second feature, Young Adam, before her first had even been released. This is her third Cannes festival, and she is here to get the finance together for this latest project. She is fairly hopeful. "There's a huge excitement about the Scottish film industry this year," claims Berrie.

But for most the deals aren't quite so easy. A French publicist once told the New York Times that Cannes was "10,000 people looking for the 10 people who really count". These days 30,000 people attend the festival - although there are probably still only 10 who really count.

This hasn't put off Peter Broughan, who produced Rob Roy in 1995 and is returning for the 12th time. "You can't really avoid it," he says. " Although it's expensive and foul and crowded and full of the insanely deluded and the criminally ambitious, you've still got to come because everybody is here and you can do a lot of business."

Another Cannes veteran, producer and director Allan Shiach, is in a foul mood on Friday after computer failure plunged British airports into chaos and caused him to miss his flight. He is returning for the 20th time and has five meetings set up. But, he growls, he won't be attending any of the screenings or strings of cocktail parties.

Compared to Shiach, Peter Martin is a relative novice, but he has
already learnt one crucial lesson. "One of the things with the movie industry is that people have a lot of ways of saying no, and saying yes is one of them," he smiles.

Martin and his business partner Rob Morrice sold their advertising agency to set up Smuji Films last year. Martin is back in Cannes for a second time, trying to drum up interest in a film about Billy Mackenzie, the singer and frontman of The Associates, who committed suicide in 1997. It's a fascinating story, and there have already been meetings with Paramount and Miramax, but Martin knows not to get his hopes up. Instead, he is looking forward to partying.

The women from Scottish Screen, meanwhile, are looking forward to Dougray Scott's arrival. Not content with Mission: Impossible II and Enigma, Scott is in Cannes to raise money for his own project, a dark Highlands comedy called Bum's Rush.

He is keen to make a film in Scotland, which means he could do worse than speak to Dave Stewart. The Eurythmics founder is busy telling everyone in Cannes about his recently launched music, publishing, visual art and film production company. Under the guidance of Shekhar Kapur, who directed Elizabeth and Bandit Queen, the movie division is looking for digital film projects to fund. Some will be made at the new Highland Film Studio near Inverness which Stewart is helping to fund.

With so many projects destined never to make it from script to screen, it is worth celebrating the ones that have. Of the clutch of UK films selected for Cannes this year, three have strong Scottish connections: Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar, produced by BBC Scotland; Ken Loach's Sweet 16, filmed in Greenock; and Once Upon a Time In The Midlands. But even for those who have seen their projects come to fruition, there is no time just to sit back and enjoy it.

While Loach fields questions about Sweet 16, his producer Rebecca O'Brien will be busy pitching his next project. Loach is planning a third Scottish film with the writer and former human rights lawyer Paul Laverty. The director intends to return to Scotland soon, although the pair have only the seed of an idea as yet. "There's a twinkle in Paul's eye," says Loach. "It's not to be discussed yet but it would be good to do it next year."

Ramsay is also thinking ahead. On Thursday she was putting the finishing touches to the script for her next film, Lovely Bones. FilmFour will announce its backing for the project, which will be shot in the US, later this week.

FilmFour is also putting money into Calderwood's next movie. The Last King Of Scotland, based on a book by Giles Foden, is the story of a young Scots doctor who became Idi Amin's personal physician and fell under the charismatic dictator's spell.

Despite sounding a little dazed after spending six and a half hours
watching three films back to back, critic Mark Cousins is keeping things in perspective. "It's nice to see shoulder pads jostling with the brainy people. But the most important thing is to see the movies and be up to date with who all the new talents are and who film industry people want to work with."