Resolis Memorial Hall, Balblair, 15 September 2007

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the making of Another Time, Another Place (photo - John McNaught).

WATCHING the film ‘Another Time, Another Place’ in 35mm format for the first time was a memorable experience. The star of this production was – and still is – the Black Isle herself, the landscape, its people and unique quality of light captured on film.

The affect of the film making process on a community was evident in the warmth of the audience, some of whom had worked on the film as extras or who had provided “hospitality, farm machinery, livestock or locations”.

Attended by an audience of approximately 200 in the Memorial Hall and adjacent marquee, the Resolis event is part of a three-day festival celebrating the 25th anniversary of the production filmed on location in the Black Isle.

The main screening of the film was accompanied by a discussion chaired by Don Coutts with Director Michael Radford (‘White Mischef’, ‘Il Postino’), Producer Simon Perry, and actors Paul Young and Phyllis Logan. It provided a valuable insight into the film and its production.

Neopolitan music from the Phillip Contini Trio, traditional Scottish music from the Donald Dhu Ceilidh Band with vocalist Olivia Ross and a Scottish-Italian buffet also featured as part of the event.

The scope of this programme (running from 5pm to 1 am) and related events over three days was positively ambitious and Resolis Community Arts are to be congratulated on their vision, together with the support of individuals and local businesses who combined to make the event a success.

A tour of locations held earlier in the day provided a framework for reminiscence by members of the cast, crew and local community. The screening was also very much a social occasion, an opportunity for people to come together, share stories and see their local environment immortalised on screen.

Large scale stills from the film printed at Highland Print Studio, press cuttings, Italian colours, candles, soft lights and memorabilia decorated the hall and Cromarty based artist John MacNaught’s distinctive designs featured on programmes and tickets.

Set in 1945 and told through the eyes of the central character Janey (played with great conviction by Phyllis Logan) the film is the story of a woman confined within a small rural community, a passionless marriage and a life of endless hard labour.

Janey develops a relationship with an Italian prisoner of war billeted on her husband’s farm – in the words of the Director, “she tries to live her dream”. In the final frame of film we imagine the tragedy of her loss, not only of her lover but her position as an outcast in a close knit community.

Radford described the film as “a piece in a minor key”, “like the prologue to a Thomas Hardy novel” in terms of outcome. Based on an autobiographical story by Jessie Kesson, which later became a novel, Michael Radford’s screenplay is “about this place”, the way in which “you feed on it and it traps you”.

Our perception as an audience is that of the central character and this whole approach tempers our reaction to characters and events on screen. Janey’s willingness to help the Italian prisoners, to see them as isolated human beings removed from their families and her empathy for them is her strength but also her undoing.

Her warmth and vitality smothered daily by the routine of rural life finds expression during the village ceilidh scene and her dance with the Italian prisoners as they celebrate Christmas. She shares their experience as a prisoner of different kind.

Producer Simon Perry also revealed in discussion the humour that we as an audience sense in the body language and dialogue in Italian which is not translated in the film. Amusing anecdotes about the making of the film shared by members of the audience who took part in the production added to the experience of viewing it.

In an age of living room DVD’s and lack of human contact through the internet there is nothing quite like the collective experience of viewing a film in 35mm which is an integral part of the magic of cinema. This event was also very much about an aspect of filmmaking that we seldom see; the human dimension of a location shoot and what that location means to the people who live there.

Paul Young remarked on the intimacy of the film, the way in which the camera dwells on the human face and images such as the sharp angulated shot looking uphill at a group of farm labourers planting tatties, dwarfed by dark furrows of earth. This lingering of the camera draws the audience into the story in the same manner that the central character is drawn into the Italian dance.

Although Michael Radford felt on reflection that the pace of the film would benefit from editing, this actually contributes – as Young suggests – to our sympathy for the characters and the intimate scale of the story.

“Celebrating the art of film, the Italian contribution to Scottish culture and the Black Isle as a location for filming”, ‘This Time This Place’ was a fitting tribute perfectly in tune with the manner of Radford’s storytelling through film, the intimacy of Kesson’s own story and experiences in war time and the unique qualities of the local environment that are a major player on screen.

The scenes of fields and sky, shifting light, seasons and elemental weather are part of the fabric of the tale. For me this was an exploration of culture in the widest sense in this focus year, the culture that allows us to grow, or not as we see in the life of the main character.

My only criticism would be the website directions which may have prevented people from out with the area from finding the venue and participating in what was a unique and memorable event.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007