One of the most beloved filmmakers of his time, Bill Forsyth (b. 1946) has-with one exception-not directed a feature in more than thirty years. This long silence is all the more remarkable given his meteoric rise: between 1979 and 1983, the Glasgow native crafted four comic gems that helped put Scottish cinema on the map. How did the director of such enduring classics as Gregory's Girl and Local Hero seemingly vanish from the film world? It's tempting to blame his retreat on the painful fallout from Being Human, the troubled Hollywood production starring Robin Williams. But even before that big-budget flop, the deeply reserved Forsyth wrestled with the discomfort he felt directing-and with audiences who often overlooked the serious themes beneath his offbeat comedies. "I've always had a much darker side than most people have perceived," he confided to British critic John Brown. Through interviews with leading critics and film authorities, Bill Forsyth: Interviews offers a revealing look at the filmmaker's personal approach to his art, shaped by early encounters with the French New Wave and a youthful stint making industrial films about forestry, fishing, and factories. Forsyth reflects on his debt to auteurs like Francois Truffaut, Preston Sturges, Jean Renoir, and Jacques Tati, and offers candid insights into his process. These conversations highlight his methods and the underappreciated dimensions of his work, including what Scottish critic Jonathan Murray calls their "comic ingenuity, idiosyncratic narrative structures, and tonal complexity."
Lloyd Sachs is author of the critical biography, T Bone Burnett: A Life in Pursuit. He was a film and jazz columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Sun-Times; podcast host of Sachs and the Cinema (and the Chicago radio segment of the same name), crime fiction columnist for the Chicago Tribune, senior editor at No Depression, and media columnist for the Chicago Reader. His work has appeared in such publications as Kirkus Reviews, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, DownBeat, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and JazzTimes.
Introduction Chronology Filmography "I Think It's Quite Helpful Being Illiterate as a Filmmaker" Lloyd Sachs / 1981 A Suitable Job for a Scot John Brown / 1983 The Forsyth Saga Elliott Stein / 1983-1984 Bill Forsyth: Speaking with Scotland's Finest Filmmaker Gerald Peary / 1985 Bill Forsyth: Into the Woods Graham Fuller / 1987 Bill Forsyth: The Imperfect Anarchist Allan Hunter / 1990 "Because I Don't Like Conventional Films, I'm Always Trying to Subvert Them" Jonathan Hacker and David Price / 1991 Being Human Allan Hunter / 1994 "We Were Making Films for Scottish People" Leonard Lopate / 2010 "Comedy Is Just a Resource That You Use for Getting Through Life" Jim Healy / 2010 The Good Numbers-Ten Questions for Bill Forsyth Jasper Rees / 2014 Cornflakes Versus Conflict: An Interview with Bill Forsyth Jonathan Murray / 2015 Bill Forsyth: "Scotland Is a Little Nation with an Identity Problem" Steven Mackenzie / 2016 The Making of Local Hero Jasper Rees / 2019 On Making Breaking In with Burt Reynolds Bill Forsyth / 2019 From Sponsored Movies to Coming-of-Age Classics: Bill Forsyth Talks About Pioneering Scottish Cinema Abbey Bender / 2019 "The Idea of Just Talking to a Bunch of Kids Terrified the Life Oout of Me" Jim Healy / 2020 Index
