Sunday, July 20, 2008 East Central Illinois

10th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2008

'Housekeeping' Forsyth proud of picture – but done directing

By: Melissa Merli
Sunday, April 20, 2008

CHAMPAIGN – Bill Forsyth's name in the '80s was synonymous with Scottish cinema, but he hasn't directed a movie since his last, "Gregory's Two Girls," released in 1999.

"I just didn't enjoy it very much," he said via an international phone call to his home near Glasgow. "I was never comfortable making movies, I must say. I didn't know the rules. I didn't know what was expected of me.

"It was a fairly uneasy time for me. I started working at a very early age in the film business. I more or less fell into it, and it's not something you fall out of as long as you're still doing it."

Forsyth, who had been more interested in literature as a child, left school at 6 and entered the film industry by chance, after answering a local newspaper ad seeking an assistant to Stanley Russell, who was a pioneer in establishing the Scottish film industry.

In the '70s, Forsyth and Charles Gormley, another aspiring Scottish filmmaker, put together Small Tree, a company that made industrial films, documentaries and features.

According to Mr. Gormley's obituary in The Guardian in 2005, "Gormley and Forsyth would go to any lengths – indeed, they went into an Ecuadorian jungle to make 'The Secrets of Los Tayos,' based on Erik von Daniken's theories about cave drawings by spacemen."

In 1977, Forsyth worked with Glasgow Youth Theatre. With those young actors in mind, he wrote the script for "Gregory's Girl." Unable to find money for the project, he wrote, again for the theater members, "That Sinking Feeling." The success of that film, released in 1979, allowed him to make "Gregory's Girl" (1981) for which he received the British Academy Award for best screenplay.

Forsyth, the first Scottish filmmaker to develop an international reputation, now concentrates on writing and producing movies. "I work on ideas," he said. He has two or three right now but no desire to return to directing.

"I would never want to make a movie again," he said.

But one of the residual benefits of having been a director, and a great one at that, is that from time to time Forsyth receives "these odd phone calls, like part of the pension plan, that always come out of the blue," asking him to attend a festival that plans to screen one of his movies.

In February, his agent received an e-mail from organizers of Roger Ebert's Film Festival, asking him to come to Champaign with his 1987 movie "Housekeeping," starring Christine Lahti. He and Lahti will be onstage after the 7:30 p.m. Saturday screening. The movie is sold out.

"I haven't seen the movie since I made it," Forsyth said. "I don't know if I have the wherewithal to sit and watch it with an audience. During previews and at festivals, I used to pace up and down when they showed one of my movies. Now that I'm grown up, I might be able to sit through it with people."

Forsyth, 62, said he's proud of "Housekeeping." Unlike many of his other films, "Housekeeping" was not written by him. Hence, he had to use different craft skills.

"When you write and direct movies, people think you have all the answers, so people leave you alone," he said. "You can fall into these terrible traps. People assume, 'He must know what's going on.'"

"Housekeeping," Forsyth's first movie shot in North America, is based on the novel of the same title by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson. It tells the story of two young girls whose mother drops them off at a relative's home. She then commits suicide by driving into a lake. They are shunted from relative to relative until their mother's sister takes them in. She's eccentric and not a good housekeeper.

Forsyth didn't meet Robinson until after he started making the movie. Her book had first come to his attention when he was in New York to attend an awards ceremony. Someone he met in the city had read Robinson's novel and "was keen" for Forsyth to read it, too. The next morning, it was delivered to his hotel.

"I was knocked over by it," he remembered. "I hadn't read a novel for quite a few years with that use of language and imagery. I really took to it. When I was making the movie, it wasn't so much the characters or story. It was like I was making a promo for this novel. I just wanted people to read the novel."

Forsyth heard that Robinson was pleased with the film. At one point during production, she visited the set. "She said, 'My goodness, this is the home,'" Forsyth recalled. "It's probably a thrill for any novelist to see their creation solidified, manifested. Or maybe she was just being polite, you know."

Forsyth had hoped to set "Housekeeping" in Idaho, as Robinson had done with her novel. After scouting the state, though, Forsyth and crew couldn't find an unspoiled location near a lake that still resembled Idaho in the 1950s.

So they headed north, crossed the border and found the ideal location in and around Nelson, British Columbia. "Suddenly, you were back 20 to 30 years," he remembered.

Forsyth said the Steve Martin movie, "Roxanne," also was shot in Nelson around the same time. That led the town to post road signs that read, "Nelson, British Columbia, film capital of the world."

And that makes Forsyth chuckle, even now."I would never want to make a movie again," he said.

But one of the residual benefits of having been a director, and a great one at that, is that from time to time Forsyth receives "these odd phone calls, like part of the pension plan, that always come out of the blue," asking him to attend a festival that plans to screen one of his movies.

In February, his agent received an e-mail from organizers of Roger Ebert's Film Festival, asking him to come to Champaign with his 1987 movie "Housekeeping," starring Christine Lahti. He and Lahti will be onstage after the 7:30 p.m. Saturday screening. The movie is sold out.

"I haven't seen the movie since I made it," Forsyth said. "I don't know if I have the wherewithal to sit and watch it with an audience. During previews and at festivals, I used to pace up and down when they showed one of my movies. Now that I'm grown up, I might be able to sit through it with people."

Forsyth, 62, said he's proud of "Housekeeping." Unlike many of his other films, "Housekeeping" was not written by him. Hence, he had to use different craft skills.

"When you write and direct movies, people think you have all the answers, so people leave you alone," he said. "You can fall into these terrible traps. People assume, 'He must know what's going on.'"

"Housekeeping," Forsyth's first movie shot in North America, is based on the novel of the same title by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson. It tells the story of two young girls whose mother drops them off at a relative's home. She then commits suicide by driving into a lake. They are shunted from relative to relative until their mother's sister takes them in. She's eccentric and not a good housekeeper.

Forsyth didn't meet Robinson until after he started making the movie. Her book had first come to his attention when he was in New York to attend an awards ceremony. Someone he met in the city had read Robinson's novel and "was keen" for Forsyth to read it, too. The next morning, it was delivered to his hotel.

"I was knocked over by it," he remembered. "I hadn't read a novel for quite a few years with that use of language and imagery. I really took to it. When I was making the movie, it wasn't so much the characters or story. It was like I was making a promo for this novel. I just wanted people to read the novel."

Forsyth heard that Robinson was pleased with the film. At one point during production, she visited the set. "She said, 'My goodness, this is the home,'" Forsyth recalled. "It's probably a thrill for any novelist to see their creation solidified, manifested. Or maybe she was just being polite, you know."

Forsyth had hoped to set "Housekeeping" in Idaho, as Robinson had done with her novel. After scouting the state, though, Forsyth and crew couldn't find an unspoiled location near a lake that still resembled Idaho in the 1950s.

So they headed north, crossed the border and found the ideal location in and around Nelson, British Columbia. "Suddenly, you were back 20 to 30 years," he remembered.

Forsyth said the Steve Martin movie, "Roxanne," also was shot in Nelson around the same time. That led the town to post road signs that read, "Nelson, British Columbia, film capital of the world."

And that makes Forsyth chuckle, even now.

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