622909 a transactional geography of the image event

A Transactional Geography of the Image-Event: The Films of Scottish Director, Bill ForsythAuthor(s): Stuart C. AitkenSource: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1991),pp. 105-118Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with theInstitute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/622909Accessed: 15/10/2009 14:27

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105

A transactional geography of the image-event: the films of Scottish director, Bill Forsyth STUART C. AITKEN

Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA

Revised MS received 5 July, 1990

ABSTRACT The success of a film-maker is usually based upon her or his unique insights into how people perceive and respond to situations and settings. This is not to suggest that films work simply or primarily because their makers understand the conventions for representing behaviour in the environment. Film-makers exploit 'image-events' to cut across narratives. The impact of an image-event is based upon violating everyday expectations and thereby heightening the involvement of the audience with the film. As such, the portrayal of unusual imbalances and unique transformations between people and environments constitutes an important component of good cinema.

This paper explores a framework for understanding the person-environment meaning embodied in narrative cinema. The framework, drawing from recent developments in transactional theory, suggests ways that geographers can investigate the person-environment dynamics embodied in film sequence and rhythm. Transactionalism provides also a means of exploring the relationships between the film-maker, the medium, and the audience.

A transactional framework is used as a basis for studying Bill Forsyth's narrative films. Forsyth's use of image-events penetrates the extraordinary within everyday life in Scotland. In addition, he does much to subvert some of the myths that have been pervasive in the portrayal of Scottish culture since the eighteenth century.

KEY WORDS: Cinema, Bill Forsyth, Transactionalism, Scotland, Myth

INTRODUCTION

The medium of the motion picture is an integral part of modem western culture. At the societal level it provides a reflection of cultural norms, social structures and ideologies. At the individual level it is an

important element in shaping experiences and in moulding relationships between people and places. The use of film as a means towards understanding individual person-environment relations and broader social-cultural stuctures remains provocative, but largely unexplored in geography. This is curious given the power of film not only to impassion aspects of behaviour in environments but also to stimulate social consciousness. Of course, such a claim may be made of other art forms, but much of the power of film is based upon a reversal of the fundamental prin- ciples of artistic representation. Whereas in literature or sculpture, people and environments are rep- resented by other elements, in film the fundamental elements are the people and environments them-

selves. Thus in a novel, for instance, written words that constitute a narrative are organized so as to recreate people, places and events, but in narrative cinema the world is there, very recognizable, from the beginning. Moreover, and central to the arguments in this paper, the frame-sequence in a motion picture portrays the dynamic interaction between people and their social and physical environments. If, as I will argue, the foundations of successful narrative cinema lie in a unique portrayal of the dynamic interaction between people and places, and if narrative cinema has the power to frame aspects of contemporary cul- tures, then it seems reasonable that this medium should fall more fully within the purview of geography.

The basis of a successful film is often predicated upon the film-maker's ability to grasp aspects of meaning which allude others, and to communicate the potency of this meaning. The creation of narrative film implies also the initiation of a desire to explore, to move from one scene to the next. But narrative films do not work simply or primarily because their makers

Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. N.S. 16:105-118 (1991) ISSN: 0020-2754 Printed in Great Britain

understand the conventions for a sequential representation of behaviour in a setting. On the contrary, the impact of a scene often relies upon violating everyday expectations and thereby heightening the involvement of an audience with a film. The portrayal of unusual imbalances from one film-frame to another and the representation of unique transformations between people and environments constitute vital components of good narrative cinema. Meaning in cinema, as in real life, is often displayed effectively when events raise it above the level of the mundane, beyond the clutches of habituation (Aitken, 1986).

In the last few years, transactional theorists have directed their effort to understanding the dynamics of person-environment relations in terms of habituation and change (Altman and Rogoff, 1987; Stokols, 1988; Aitken and Bjorklund, 1988). These researchers emphasize process and activity, or people doing things within the context of a social and physical environment. Thus, temporal qualities such as rhythm and sequence are inherent aspects of a transactional perspective. In narrative film, rhythm and sequence turn a succession of separate shots into an organic unity which provides images with cohesion. An 'image-event' may be defined as a sequence of shots which violate or enhance the rhythm of a film and, as such, it is the fundamental level of communication between film-maker and viewer.1 The film-maker uses image-events to create person-environment imbalances and transformations which produce a rhythmic stucture that infuses the film narrative with continuity and life. This paper, building upon my research on person-environment transactions (Aitken, 1986; Aitken and Bjorklund, 1988; Aitken and Prosser, 1990; Aitken, 1990), suggests a structure for analysing how film communicates at the level of the image-event.

Of course, the vitality of good cinema goes beyond the intimacy of an audience with specific image-events and an immediate narrative. A broader narrative may communicate much of political, social and cultural importance. Geographers have shown some interest in the portrayal of cultural landscapes through the mass media (Burgess and Gold, 1985; Zonn, 1990). Zonn (1984; 1985), for example, focuses

upon Australian landscapes portrayed by the motion

pictures of film director Peter Weir. Gold (1984; 1985) shows how future urban landscapes portrayed in films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) and David Butler's Just Imagine (1930) can reveal contem-

poraneous social and political structures. Despite this work, geographers have paid little attention to the

analysis of what film seems to be primarily about, viz. text, narrative, discourse, and so forth. Landscape shots, for example, help construct a narrative space in which film characters can perform various actions of a

plot. Higson (1984) suggests that these spaces need not be neutral backdrops, but can be read as real places which authenticate the narrative fiction.2 This use of environment can shift the narrative away from the particular to the general, i.e., to a broader narrative which may communicate underlying political, social or cultural meaning. Much remains to be said about how narrative films in general, and the portrayal of person-environment relations in particular, can bolster or subvert the discourses which frame

contemporary geographies. The empirical focus of this paper is the work of

Scottish film director Bill Forsyth. Within Scotland, Forsyth is 'The Name' associated with indigenous film-making. His films are the only representatives of the 'new Scottish cinema' distributed outside of Britain (Park, 1984). This paper is not intended to be an exhaustive study of Forsyth's films, but a consideration of his use of image-events to enhance the portrayal of person-environment dynamics in his four Scottish films That Sinking Feeling (1979), Gregory's Girl (1980), Local Hero (1982), and Comfort and Joy (1984). I suggest that Forsyth's image-events suffuse a broader narrative which speak to some dominant discourses on Scottish culture. My first goal, then, is to use a transactional perspective to explore Forsyth's use of appositions, contradictions and disparities at the level of the characters, the lines of dialogue, the environment, and the incidents that make up his

image-events. My second goal is to explore the broader narrative of Forsyth's films. First, I report on some recent analyses of British literature and art that unveil a series of myths which represent Scotland as

politically and culturally inept and, secondly, I show how Forsyth's narrative subtly transcends and subverts these myths.

INTERPRETING THE CINEMATIC IMAGE-EVENT

Critics of the need to provide structure for the study of film suggest that films are somehow delicate, like roses, and pulling the petals off a rose in order to study it is often an act of destruction. Conversely, others have taken the position that films, being tough, strong, and structurally indivisible, cannot be pulled apart for study (Worth, 1981). I would suggest that

106 STUART C. AITKEN

A transactional geography: the films of Bill Forsyth

there is a danger of anecdotal rather than systematic use of film-knowledge without some research structure. Unfortunately, those studying film face confus- ing and sometimes confounding choices between approaches and theoretical frameworks. Before turn- ing to Forsyth's film portrayal of Scotland and Scots, I provide some research structure based upon a transactional perspective.

Transactional theory The position taken by transactionalism in the social sciences is that of understanding person-in- environment contexts as a function of particular ongoing transactions between persons and environments (Aitken et al., 1989). Research under this perspective is linked by the assumption that individuals do not attain a stable adaptation to, or integration with, their environment. The focus is on change as an integral part of people's experience. Change is initiated by an event which creates imbalance and transformation. Events are a nexus of behavioural, environmental and temporal features and, as such, it is important not to fragment a person-in-environment whole artificially by studying behaviours or environments separately.

Transactionalism is based upon the philosophical frameworks of Dewey and Bentley (1949) and Pepper (1942; 1967).3 Originally adopted by environmental psychologists in the 1970s (Ittelson, 1972; Wapner et al., 1973), transactional research has broadened to encompass aspects of sociology (Pastalan, 1983), environmental design and architecture (Proshansky et al., 1983; Archea, 1986), urban studies and geography (Oxley et al., 1986; Aitken and Prosser, 1990; Aitken, 1990), natural resource management (Zube et al., 1983), and landscape perception (Sell et al., 1984). Aitken and Bjorklund (1988), in a review of the impact of transactional theories on behavioural geography, suggest that questions arising from the study of person-environment change are not trivial. For example, how do people come to terms with an environment that undergoes abrupt change? How does a critical transition in life, such as the birth of a child, change the relationship a person has with her or his local environment? Are all phases and forms of people-environment relations equally susceptible to change? If not, what situational and personal factors account for variable rates of change? How does the rate and sequence of change transform the fundamental relationship people have with their social and physical environment?

Film aesthetics and structure Some characteristics of transactionalism appear to have significance for the study of film. Transactional perspectives account for all participants in a particular context (Aitken and Bjorklund, 1988): the film-maker, the portrayed characters and environments, and the audience are all parts of understanding the aesthetic impact of a narrative film. Thus it would be a misuse of film content to attempt to learn from it by trying to suspend or get around the aesthetic dimension of person-environment portrayal which encompasses both the ideology and morals of the film-maker and the evaluative propensity of the viewer.

Zonn's (1984) use of the transactional perspective centres upon the relations between an audience and a landscape through the filter of the portrayed media image (cf. Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981). He suggests that the view of landscape presented to a spectator by a film must differ from the perceptual image received in direct experience. Landscape portrayal in film is circumscribed by the aesthetic quality of the transaction. The aesthetic in this context centres upon providing an audience with new awareness. The intensity, direction, and character of attention by the viewer to a landscape portrayed in a film will result in a greater or a lesser degree of involvement.

Zonn (1984) focuses upon the audience-film transactions rather than the film structure and sequence, but here too transactionalism can provide some insight. The rhythm and dynamic of film narrative- its aesthetic and communicative potential and its role in film perception-come under the purview of a transactional perspective. Carroll (1980) notes that one of the recurring problems in contemporary film theory is a lack of concern with the aesthetic dimen- sions of film structure. Although the meaning of a film is inferred in large part from images and sounds, meaning is also clearly that which the director implies in her or his arrangements and sequencing of the elements, units and parts of the film.4 The dynamic aspect of film is beginning to receive renewed attention in part due to dissatisfaction with the static explanation of meaning given by modem semiological-oriented film theorists (van Leeuwen, 1985). As Jakobson says: 'Film works with various and varied fragments of objects which differ in magni- tude, and also with fragments of time and space like- wise varied; it changes the proportions of these fragments and juxtaposes them in terms of contiguity, or similarity and contrast' (akobsen, 1933, p. 46). The portrayed environment can be used over and over

107

again in a variety of circumstances (connecting transactions in time and space), or it can change dramatically from one image-event to the next.

Transactionalism tracks an array of ongoing events related to a theme of inquiry rather than isolated to a

particular bit of behaviour or setting. This perspective parallels more mainstream approaches to film theory. Eisenstein (1943; 1949), for example, describes a successful film montage as one which provides an audience with a 'collision of ideas'. Eisenstein's thesis

suggests that '... elements of a production could be

arranged in a formally determinable order so that a viewer would be aroused ("shocked" in Eisenstein's

terminology) in precisely the intended manner and to the intended degree' (Carroll, 1980, p. 9). Worth (1981) re-interprets Eisenstein's 'collision' as 'conflict' and suggests a dialectic whereby an image-event represents a composite of 'ideas', and from one image- event colliding with another there emerges a third

image-event. The notion of the image-event also

parallels aspects of the psychoanalytic tradition

exemplified in the work of Metz (1974). For Metz, the two formative elements of film structure-the event and the sequence-are images. As such, he argues that the event and the sequence are direct analogues of the world: an image denotes that which it represents. In a critique of Metz, Carroll (1980) declares that this

position abdicates responsibility for any internal

analysis of the image, i.e., Metz does not address any level of structure below that of the sequence/event. I

suggest that the image-event may be used to disclose and explore film structure and, ultimately, film aesthetic. In addition, transactionalism advises that researchers studying film structure, style, or syntax can do so fruitfully only within a framework that includes the film-maker and the film viewer.

Images in motion over time through space with sequence The framework proposed in Figure 1 is a synthesis of some of the above ideas. The first part of Figure I relates to the film-maker's creation of the image-event and is derived from the work of Sol Worth (1969; 1981). A film-maker has a 'feeling' or 'belief', the

recognition of which arouses sufficient 'concern' so that s/he is motivated to communicate that feeling to others. Usually this feeling-concem-belief is vague, amorphous, and internalized until the film-maker

develops a 'story-organism' within which it can be embodied, carried, and transmitted. After awareness of the feeling-concern and development of the story- organism, a film-maker can begin to collect the

specific external images which, when stored on film and sequenced, become an image-event. Worth (1981) describes five parameters which, for our pur- poses, can be a starting point for describing the structure of the image-event. The parameters are an image in motion over time through space with sequence. These-along with an overlay of shape, size, scale, colour, sound and light-are the cues that provide meaning for the portrayal of person-environment relations. The strip running down the centre of Figure I (like a strip of film) is the external, objective image-event.

Image-events may comprise either ordinary or

extraordinary events. A good film-maker exploits the transformation which occurs with the juxtaposition of ordinary and extraordinary image-events. We need to understand this transformation in terms of person-environment transactions. Aitken and Bjorklund (1988) describe a model whereby four modes of possible behaviour/environment transaction are incorporated in terms of ordinary and

extraordinary events (Fig. 1). In the first case, ordin-

ary behaviour applied to an ordinary environment results in a relatively uneventful narrative. The audience's attention is drawn by its ability to relate to habitual, everyday circumstances. In the second case, a behavioural event significantly alters habitual forms. The environment, however, remains unaltered and the audience's attention is focused on the behaviour of the character(s). Where there is an extraordi-

nary environmental event and behaviour remains fixed, the audience is drawn to an appreciation of a

dynamic milieu and the nature of human conservatism.

Finally, extraordinary human behavioural responses may be juxtaposed with extraordinary environmental events.

The transactional categories in Figure I are neither

mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. No assumptions are made about relative frequency or sequencing except that the success of the film will usually hinge upon the creation of appropriate rhythm. In terms of involvement, an audience will seek to make sense of an image-event, and to define and locate itself with respect to that event. Film viewers continuously attempt to organize the portrayed person- environment transactions, endowing them with

meaning and speculating upon a broader narrative. This process of communication works at some times but not others. That is, a film-maker constructs a

sequence of image-events meant to represent an immediate story-organism and a broader vision, and a viewer may or may not infer what is intended.

108 STUAR T C. AITKEN


FILMMAKER IMAGE - EVENT

IMAGF IN

MOTION OVER

TIME THROUGH

SPACE WITH

0-- story-organism

PERSON- ENVIRONMENT TRANSACTION

I I

//

ORDINARY BEHAVIOR

ORDINARY ENVIRONMENT

EXTRAORDINARY BEHAVIOR

&

ORDINARY ENVIRONMENT

ORDINARY BEHAVIOR

&

EXTRAORDINARY ENVIRONMENT

EXTRAORDINARY BEHAVIOR

&

EXTRAORDI NARY ENVIRONMENT

OUTCOME

heightened involvement with the immediate narrative and, ultimately, the broader narrative

I

I

V

FIGURE 1. The use of image-events in the portrayal of person-environment transactions

BILL FORSYTH: GLIDING ON THE SURFACE OF LIFE'S DEEPS

The immediate narrative In order to depict Scots in particular context, Forsyth uses a quirky humour to articulate commonplace customs and ways as his characters subtly transact with ordinary environments. The commonplace event becomes extraordinary in the hands of Forsyth and, as such, his characters bring a shrewd clarity to prosaic situations. Although his films revolve around everyday dialogue and contexts, the events portrayed are often eccentric, contradicting norms. The plot of That Sinking Feeling (1979) is based upon a warehouse heist of stainless steel sinks ('ill-gotten drains') by acne-smitten adolescents in Glasgow.

Comfort and Joy (1984) is about a Mafia-style feud between two Glaswegian/Italian ice-cream vendors: Mr Bunny and Mr MacCool. The use of almost arbitrary plot-devices in each of these films is the basis for much of Forsyth's humour.

The plot in Gregory's Girl (1980) revolves around an adolescent trying to get a date with Dorothy, the school heart-throb and soccer star. Gregory is ultimately exposed to the wiles of the girls who dribble him along like a soccer ball at their feet until he finishes up, not with the girl of his fancy (Dorothy), but with the one who fancied him (Susan). Forsyth's skill is in combining dialogue and pace with an utter lack of melodrama to provide his own stylized representation of an ordinary world. The audience is left with a whimsical feeling for the complexities of the

p

p

I I

I

109

ordinary in everyday life:

Ultimately, I am trying to celebrate everything as ordinary, in a very self-conscious way. I just want to penetrate people's lives on the basis that everything is ordinary. I want to highlight that ordinariness, to penetrate it rather than dramatize it. To make something special when in fact it isn't, seems to be to be a denial of the very thing that the film is trying to create or glamorize. The purpose of humour in my work is to defuse any hint of dramatic artifice that might be creeping in (Forsyth, quoted in Park, 1984, p. 109).

A transactional interpretation of Forsyth's film structure suggests that one of the ways he highlights ordinariness is through juxtaposing contrasting themes and images. One of the plot-devices of Gregory's Girl, for example, is Dorothy's successful trial for the all-boy soccer team, a team in which she replaces Gregory. Mr Menzies, the soccer coach, seems unaware that mixed-sex soccer teams are not condoned by the Scottish education system: 'What about the showers?' asks the Headmaster. 'Oh, she'll bring her own soap' is Menzies quick response. To underscore the apparent incongruity of a girl in an all- boy soccer league, the rest of the film is replete with

gender juxtapositions: dialogues between the girls take place in the science class, and those between the boys take place in the cookery class.

A fictitious coastal village (Feress) in the Western

Highlands of Scotland is the setting for the 'culture clash' that is the basis of Local Hero (1982). An American oil company is trying to buy the idyllic setting for a refinery. The film revolves around how American oil money mixes (or doesn't) with Scottish savvy. The humour is smitten with Scottish doleful- ness and irony; the type that is practiced upon Americans, generally beyond their ken but vastly pleasing to the locals. The opposition and incon-

gruity in this case is between the lifestyle of Dallas' executives and the lifestyle of a Ferness' fisherfolk. Each culture is jealous of the apparent benefits

accruing to the other. Forsyth's narratives are relatively directionless

although they are interspersed with spontaneous incongruities that provide a semblance of continuity. Running jokes such as the passing penguin in Gregory's Girl and the passing motorcycle in Local Hero are

examples of Forsyth's use of whimsical continuities. Other plot-devices seem quite arbitrary (e.g., the

lying-down dance in Gregory's Girl and the heist of sinks in That Sinking Feeling). Indeed, it is these aspects of incongruity and arbitrariness that create some of

the funniest moments in the films. Particular image- events underscore the incongruity of the extraordinary in the mundane and vice versa. Near the end of Local Hero, a fleeting glimpse of Marina (the Edinburgh research assistant) diving under the water reveals that she might be a mermaid. Early on in the same film, the young American executive, Macintyre, rescues a rabbit and names it Trudi only to be served 'le lapin' a few days later in the hotel restaurant: 'It's what the locals eat around here, Macintyre. Anyway, whoever heard of keeping a pet rabbit in an hotel room, it would be unsanitary'. The mundane in the extraordinary is exemplified also in Comfort and Joy when a

thug stops vandalizing an ice cream van to ask the main character (a famous disc jockey in Glasgow) for his autograph. In a similar fashion, the climatic depar- ture of Macintyre from the Scottish village in Local Hero is grounded by one of the fishermen: 'Excuse me, Mr Mac, can I get your autograph please?'. As in life, it is the extraordinary that alleviates boredom and creates humour in our transactions with other people and places.

Although Forsyth's narratives are relatively directionless, his films do not lack rhythm. A tracing of the dynamics of characters' relationships with the environment reveals a pattern that forms a crucial basis of Local Hero. Macintyre gradually loses his own world as he becomes more enamored and intimate with the Highland environment. On his first encounter with the Scots, his alarm-watch period- ically reminds him of business meetings he is missing back in Dallas. By the end of the film, the watch is washed out to sea with a bleep and a gurgle as

Macintyre forgets it during a sea-shell collecting spree. Moreover, Macintyre's immaculate presence at the beginning of the film has become unshaven and dishevelled by the time his boss (Burt Lancaster) flies out to help him clinch the purchase of the area for the oil refinery. The locals, on the other hand, envy Macintyre and his wealth. One old fisherman re- names his boat 'dollar' and then 'high-flier' as the film

progresses. Other locals dream of fast sports cars and

expensive vacations to exotic places. Environments and settings are integral to the

unfolding of Forsyth's narratives. The hectic lives of the Dallas oil executives in Local Hero are contrasted with the desires for love, peace, and a need for some access to the mysteries of the universe. A meteor shower and the aurora borealis are extraordinary environmental events for Macintyre, providing another nail for the coffin of his Dallas existence. The aesthetic of the Highland environment casts a cloud

STUART C. AITKEN 110


over all that was previously important to Macintyre. The 'local hero' turns out to be an old beachcomber, Ben, who makes his living from what is washed up on the shore. Old Ben-the owner of a critical part of the beach-is unwilling to sell, not even when offered a dollar for every grain of sand on the beach. His

priorities eventually win over Macintyre's boss. The

tranquility of the environment acts as a superior force, imposing its own patterns on the locals and the intruders. This interpretation, although accurate, is somewhat superficial. A transactional perspective enables a more penetrating focus on Forsyth's use of

landscape shots to engage the attention of the viewer in unique ways, and to produce particular character constructions. As Higson (1984) notes, landscape shots must at one level create a narrative space in which the protagonists of the drama can perform the various actions of the plot. In a scene near the beginning of Local Hero, for example, Macintyre and the local innkeeper discuss the sale of property in Ferness on a hill-slope overlooking a picturesque bay. The scene implies Macintyre's potential control over this environment, but, in the distance, walking along the beach, is Ben. The audience has not been introduced to Ben at this point, but there is a hint of the character's importance to the overall narrative. Clearly, the environment is being incorporated into the narrative. It is the construction of this scene-wherein Macintyre and the innkeeper ostensibly control the stage but old Ben is 'waiting in the wings'-which speaks to a set of

person-environment transactions that are the key to the whole narrative.

The effects of environment are perhaps more subtle in That Sinking Feeling and Comfort and Joy (Glasgow), and in Gregory's Girl (Cumbemauld). Inner-city slums and dilapidated Victorian parks are the setting for That Sinking Feeling. Renewal projects and peripheral council housing schemes are the settings for Comfort and Joy. In all three films, Forsyth uses 'That Long Shot of Our Town from That Hill' (Krish, 1963, p. 14) again and again to engage the audience in the realism of the setting. The repeated use of long shots of the cityscapes provides another form of continuity in Forsyth's relatively directionless narratives. Moreover, Higson suggests (1984) that this type of cinematic technique transforms a narrative space into a legitimate place. The long shot of the cityspace establishes, economically, the overall space within which the action takes place. A transactional perspective on Forsyth's use of long shots takes this argument further. In all three of his urban films, Forsyth uses the long shot to cut against narra-

tive meaning and flow. This implies that the urban environments, in one sense, envelope and constrain the characters. As such, the environment becomes a

metaphor for a character's state of mind-or 'geography of the mind' (Higson, 1984, p. 8). Each environment in Forsyth's urban films reflects the mood out of which the principal character(s) are endeavouring to break.

The lack of adequate recreational facilities in the

designed Newtown of Cumbemauld is in evidence

throughout Gregory's Girl as various characters devise ways of entertaining themselves and coping with the constraints of the environment. Usually this coping revolves around gender relations: From get- ting a peek at nurses with 'brassieres' ('Tak it awff, lass! Tak it awff!') to hitch-hiking to 'Caracas' (where the girls outnumber the boys two to one). The 1970s, drab, pre-fabricated architecture is contrasted against soft-focus daydreams and the effervescence of the adolescents. In That Sinking Feeling, a scene depicts three of the main characters sitting in an automobile, presumably driving, discussing the boredom of their lives. Forsyth then moves the image back to

encompass what is revealed to be a derelict car in the midst of slum clearance. This classic cinematic tech-

nique of moving from the particular to the general is used to underscore the deprived context of these adolescents' environment. Narrative sequence thus defines a space for the purpose of portraying person- environment transactions in context. Forsyth uses a more subtle narrative landscape sequence towards the end of Gregory's Girl. The dynamic of the urban

landscape changes when Gregory eventually meets Susan. As they walk towards the country park, vistas open and the enclosed monochronic urban environment is replaced with an open, colourful, semi-rural setting. Once again, the environment imposes its own pattern on Forsyth's narrative.

In both That Sinking Feeling and Gregory's Girl one is left with the impression of a tough environment where the adolescent is a proficient survivor. This feeling is highlighted by contrasts with adults who are caricatured as buffoonish (Gregory's soccer coach, Mr Menzies) or habituated (Gregory's Dad and the school's Headmaster). The adults are merely part of the grey and drab environment. In fact, the younger the character, the more precocious and worldly: Gregory's younger sister Madilyn and her boy-friend Richard are portrayed with a maturity beyond their years. After asking Gregory for a date with his sister, Richard is quickly told to 'Act your age, go break some windows-you'll run out of vices before you're

111

twelve, go on, piss off!'. In a later scene, Madilyn takes Gregory shopping after explaining that 'if you're going to start falling in love, you'd better start taking care of yourself'. At the cafe, Gregory takes his sister into his confidence by describing his dreams of Dorothy. Madilyn retorts 'I just dream of ginger beer and ice-cream, I'm still a little girl, remember?'. We sense that this is not really the case, Forsyth subtly reverses the common relationship between age and maturity. It is not until later on in the movie that the irony of Gregory's first conversation with Mr Menzies becomes clear: Gregory asks, smirking, 'Is that a moustache your growing? That's good, it makes you look older, more mature'. 'Do you really think so?' replies the coach. 'Oh yes', says Gregory, 'I'm doing a lot of growing up too, it slows you down you know'.

An investigation of person-environment transactions should incorporate both the social and the

physical environment. It is important to note briefly that the inconsistencies between Forsyth's characters and their physical environments are paralleled by the

relationships between his characters. There are always communication difficulties between the primary and secondary characters (e.g., Gregory and Dorothy, Macintyre and his boss). As with his person-place relations, Forsyth's person-person relations are con- voluted and indistinct. In Local Hero, one important link

may be made between these two types of relations. McIntyre (1984) proposes that Forsyth creates a mystical connection between Marina and the

innkeeper's wife on the one hand, and nature on the other. Moreover, paralleling their relationship to the physical setting, the principal male characters in Local Hero (and in the three urban films) are unable to dominate or control the female characters.5

One critic of Forsyth suggests that his film narrative creates imbalances and transformations amongst characters which give way to misty, dream-like narrative 'resolutions' (Malcomson, 1985). These flimsy narrative resolutions may explain why Forsyth's films do not seem to end although they are certainly satis-

fying enough not to require sequels. I doubt if we will ever see Gregory's Girl II: The Later Years. And yet, as with life, we are left with the feeling that the transactions portrayed in Forsyth's film continue after the credits roll.

The broader narrative That Sinking Feeling, Gregory's Girl, Local Hero, and Comfort and Joy are the most popular and widely distributed representations of current Scottish narra-

tive film. They have not only given Forsyth a crucial

place in the development of Scottish film but they have also placed on his shoulders a considerable burden of cultural responsibility (Malcomson, 1985). This burden is all the more onerous because it comes at a time when the roots of Scottish tradition and culture are being questioned (Trevor-Roper, 1983; Pringle, 1988). It is critical then, to assess Forsyth's broader narrative. In this part of the paper, I draw on

aspects of audience-film transactions in terms of how film can create or subvert contemporary geographies. Zonn (1985), for example, shows how the character of

images of Australia presented by the Australian cinema since 1970 strongly reflects attempts to crystallize and promote particular aspects of the nation's identity with landscape. Before trying to

place Forsyth's broader narrative in such a context, it is important to understand in what ways the origins of Scottish cultural traditions have been called into

question. Speculation on the privation of Scottish history

and geography through the media is found in some recent research on art, literature, cinema and television (McArthur, 1982; McIntyre, 1984; Malcomson, 1985; Pringle, 1988).6 Craig (1982) identified two 'frozen' discourses-Tartanry and Kailyard-which, he suggests, represent Scotland as politically and culturally irrelevant. The origins of Tartanry and

Kailyard may be traced to the uneasy period in the

eighteenth century when Scotland was settling into union with England. These joint discourses represent Scotland's apparently featureless integration into an industrial culture whose power and identity lay outside Scottish control. The literary tradition of

Tartanry and Kailyard began in the nineteenth century and evolved into Scottish film.7 Tartanry portrays the Highland Scotland of romantic glamour. This is the discourse of the novels of Sir Walter Scott, operas and musicals like Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1823) and Minnelli's Brigadoon (1954), and narrative films like Rob Roy the Highland Rogue (1953) and Geordie (1955). Tartanry is based upon a

mythicized past of brave but unsuccessful heroes.

Being frozen, the discourse leaves behind any tangible ideology, history or geography. The cultural geography it creates is that of heather, hills and glens, kilts and porridge, brawny men and cabers, the Highland clearances and Culloden. More critically, it creates a contemporary Scotland of diminished capacity in which political power and cultural greatness are historicized and thereby made inaccessible (Malcomson, 1985). The contemporary Scot is



compliant to English domination. The Kailyard discourse portrays a second series of myths which represents the Lowland Scots as parochially insular, poor, humble, puritanical folk; people concerned only with their own cabbage patch (the literal meaning of Kailyard). It is mawkish sentimentality which creates a cultural geography based upon haggis and haddocks, whisky and beer, crofts and wee but-n- bens, and community and family life. Craig (1982, p. 11) describes Kailyard as the discourse which established an image of Scots as narrow-minded and Scotland as 'a world of grotesquely impoverished human potential'. From this mythical world there can be no positive development of the culture from within. This is the discourse of films like The Little Minister (1934), Whisky Galore (1949), Rockets Galore (1958), Bonnie Scotland (1935), The Maggie (1953), and Greyfriars Bobby (1961) or the newspaper images of 'The Broons' and 'Oor Wullie' in Scotland's most

parochial newspaper, The Sunday Post.

In romanticizing and mythologizing an apolitical 'Scottishness', in celebrating defeat, nostalgia, and sentimentality, in applauding symbolic victory over self- determination (these discourses) displace, even actually prevent representations which would be of genuine cultural and political use within the contemporary Scottish situation (McIntyre, 1984, p. 54).

I would like to suggest that the 1980s witnessed some thawing of these frozen discourses. Which returns us, after some distance, to Forsyth's broader narrative.

McArthur (1982) feels that Gregory's Girl and That Sinking Feeling, in particular, eschew Tartanry/ Kailyard and deploy discourses that are not maudlin but which relate to aspects of the lived experiences of contemporary Scots. Forsyth's forays into the codes and attitudes of working-class adolescent Scots are nothing but enlightening: for example, the importance of fish 'n' chip shops (Gregory's Girl), ice-cream vans (Comfort and Joy), and jam doughnuts (That Sinking Feeling). These codes are integrated with degenerated urban settings and pitiful heroes to produce films that are more ironic than parodic. Forsyth describes himself as a serious-minded and didactic film-maker. He has a keen sense of the incongruities that make the ordinary extraordinary, he expresses his amazement that people frequently miss the meaning behind events in his films:

There is a lot of ironic comment in there which seems to have passed people by. Maybe it is just too underplayed in the script. The way I was trying to work it was that the

more low key it was, the more penetrating it would be, but obviously it doesn't work. Maybe people don't want to have to give that kind of attention to something. Maybe you have to be broad and dramatic or something. It is amazing how crude you have to be in a film (Forsyth talking about Local Hero, quoted in Park, 1984, p. 56).

In contrast to Forsyth's urban films, Local Hero was roundly condemned in the British media for perpetu- ating the myths of Scottish culture. McArthur (1982) feels that it comes very close to falling into the Kailyard discourse. Local Hero's story-line, based upon the opposition of American entrepreneurship and Scottish couthiness, is remarkably similar to that bastion of Kailyard discourse, The Maggie (1953). In true Kailyard fashion, the Scots in The Maggie win against the American corporate machine through their own shrewd savvy rather than through political struggle (McArthur, 1982). The message of the discourse is, of course, that the Scots can achieve their goals only at this level. But the resolution of Local Hero leaves neither the Scots nor the Americans as winners. Power to resolve the issue of who gains from the oil-refinery (both Macintyre and the residents of Ferness want the sale to go through) is left in the hands of the eccentric oil tycoon (Burt Lancaster) who decides to turn Ferness into a marine preserve. This narrative resolution underscores the powerlessness of people who live in this part of Scotland. The lives of the Scots in Forsyth's films are not romanticized with victories through Kailyard couthiness or Tartanry heroism. Forsyth quotes someone from the Isle of Skye who thanked him for making a film that showed what it was like to live in the Highlands: 'It wasn't escapist for him, and it wasn't romantic for him, because he was one of the people portrayed in the plot' (Forsyth quoted in Park, 1984, p. 90).

Several characterizations and image-events com- bine in Local Hero to subtly subvert the Tartanry and Kailyard discourses. The black parish minister and the leather clad punks in the ceilidh band, for example, are far removed from romantic tartan-adored Highlanders. Cabbage-patch mentality is difficult to find amongst the villagers who are eager to sell up and the sophisticated innkeeper who is equally ready to coordinate the sale. In fact, it is the American oil tycoon who appears the most enigmatic about the world's affairs as he searches the heavens for a comet to name after himself.

A disparity between discrete image-events and a broader narrative is evident in all Forsyth's films. In Local Hero, the reality of living in a depressed area on

113

the periphery of the European Community subtly intrudes on the narrative in terms of Forsyth's depiction of people's relationships to their environment: 'It's just scenery to them Macintyre, you cannot eat scenery, it doesn't pay the rent'. Job prospects and dole queues are intertwined in the narratives of the urban films, Comfort and Joy, That Sinking Feeling and Gregory's Girl. The sink heist is hatched in part out of boredom and in part out of a need for money: the two scourges of unemployed youth in Glasgow. Attempted suicide is humorously parodied when one of the 'gang' in That Sinking Feeling tries to drown himself in a bowl of Cornflakes. In Gregory's Girl, window-cleaning is upheld by Gregory's friend as the kind of job any self-respecting male would want to

aspire to. Forsyth's films suggest also that success in life need not be ensured with wealth and material

prosperity. The disc-jockey in Comfort and Joy dis- covers that fame and fortune do not placate the break

up with his girlfriend. Near the end of Local Hero, Macintyre is willing to exchange his life-style (includ- ing a fully paid for Porsche and a condominium in Dallas) for the life (and wife) of the innkeeper in Scotland.

Local Hero ends with a ringing telephone kiosk in Femess. After he loses his alarm watch, the telephone kiosk represents Macintyre's primary link with Dallas ('We wull paint it any colour ye want, Mr Mac'). Now that Macintyre has returned to his own reality in Dallas, he places a call to the telephone kiosk. The

telephone rings on unanswered as the captions roll. Forsyth always bursts any romantic bubble he may have created and leaves us with a cogent taste of reality.

THE FILM-MAKER'S VISION The auteur theory has permeated film criticism over the last two decades. Park (1984) places Forsyth with the new aggressive breed of writer-directors in British cinema. He suggests that those directors who see there role merely as artisan-like interpreters of scripts are unlikely to develop new notions of cinema: '... there are permutations in the relationship between writer, director and producer which do not allow for the creation of new cinema aesthetic' (Park, 1984, p. 120). Auteur theory suggests that the controlling element in the rendering of a new cinema aesthetic must be the personal vision (feeling/concern/belief) of the film-maker. To acquire that vision requires an immersion in the context of the film.

Forsyth, now 43, was bor in Glasgow and, at the time of writing, still lives there. He leart his craft in

Scottish film production-documentaries. Over the

ensuing years Forsyth was first a drop-out from the National Film School and then he formed his own

production company (Hunter, 1984). Out of this came a dream to produce Scotland's first feature film. The dream came to fruition in That Sinking Feeling which reflects, in part, Forsyth's own upbringing in

Glasgow but also, more crucially, it reflects his con- nections with the Glasgow Youth Theatre. At the time he was working on Gregory's Girl Forsyth became involved with the Youth Theatre as a place to recruit his cast. Struck by the aimless despair of the

unemployed teenagers, he put off Gregory's Girl to make That Sinking Feeling about their lives (Champlin, 1987).

There are weaknesses in Forsyth's vision of Scotland and Scots. He has admitted to not being concerned with politics in making films, but simply with characters and situations. In interviews, Forsyth offsets the importance of his broader narrative. His

agenda as a film-maker is not to address Scotland's 'frozen' discourses with political statements but to subvert subtly the English and Hollywood styles of film-making through the unconventional rhythm of his narrative and the extraordinary transactions he creates for his characters:

The way that I go about making films is a reaction against what you could call the traditional English dramatically structured film, and also, especially, the English form of film acting. So I suppose I'm quite openly reacting against that. I'm doing that because of the relationship that Scotland has had with England. I suppose it's that inferiority that we feel, the Scots people, vis-a-vis England (Forsyth, quoted in Malcomson, 1985, p. 19).

Forsyth sees himself as an experimental film-maker: 'The thing that interests me about anything I do is not the story but the use of film and the way film mani- fests itself behind whatever surface there is' (Forsyth, quoted in Park, 1984, p. 116). Although critics have noted the similarities in story-line between Local Hero and The Maggie, it is Forsyth's use of film structure rather than his story-lines that reveals a contemporary Scottish culture. In his rebellion against the

rigidly-organized style of English film comedy Forsyth indulges in prosaic narratives which are highlighted by extraordinary events. For Forsyth, the style of his film-making is more reflective of real-life than conventional English and Hollywood narrative:

Really, I suppose the films boil down just to a collection of moments which may give the audience a certain



amount of insight into either a character or a situation or a place or various degrees of each of them. And that's about all I would want anyone to get from a film that I've made (Forsyth, quoted in Malcomson, 1985, p. 20).

One could argue that Forsyth is abdicating political responsibility by letting the incongruities and inconsistencies made explicit at the level of the

image-event languish with his flimsy narrative resolutions. Forsyth stops short of any explicit generalizations of working-class history, nor does he attempt to

impose or even suggest any programme of Scottish

political or cultural redemption. Malcomson (1985) suggests that Forsyth's Scots, freed from Tartanry and Kailyard, are left with very little to do. Forsyth's characters do not rely upon a mythical Kailyard couthiness or Tartanry-styled heroism. And yet Forsyth's vision is poignant. His exposition of the ordinariness of everyday life in Scotland reflects the

struggle that most of us have to make sense of a world that is larger than ourselves. This is the 'deep' that

Forsyth 'glides over'.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, I establish some rationale for incorporating a transactional perspective in the study of narrative film. In film theory, there is some confusion between the structural operation of the film medium on the one hand, and the bases for aesthetic judgments on the other. The study of structure is concerned with how it is possible to perceive, understand and create film sequences whereas an aesthetic describes the mechanisms which enable the viewer to value and

prefer certain of these constructions. A transactional

perspective appears to offer an appropriate concep- tual framework for the study of rhythm at the level of the image-event. Transactionalism satisfies also the need to understand meaning at a broader level because there are two sets of person-environment transactions that are worthy of study: those portrayed in the film and those between the audience and the film. The underlying premise is that a juxtaposition of ordinary events against extraordinary events enhances the involvement of the viewer in the narrative. Moreover, landscapes and physical environments need not be neutral backdrops but can be juxtaposed against characters and vice versa. As such, environments can become real places which authenticate the narrative fiction, or they can represent and play-off the emotions of the principal character(s). A focus on the events and incidents that drive the

rhythm and sequence of film images provides a useful starting point to disentangling the person- environment transactions portrayed in narrative cinema. As such, I suggest that the image-event is the fundamental level at which we can investigate narrative film.

Image-events are dynamic tools which, when used

properly, heighten the awareness of an audience and

engage them in a film-maker's vision. Forsyth's narrative films provide a good example of the use of

image-events to penetrate contemporary Scottish culture. He creates a rhythm that parallels everyday experience of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Forsyth uses image-events in apposition (ordinary against ordinary) and opposition (ordinary against extraordinary) to highlight his vision of everyday life in Scotland. As such, he adeptly portrays the inter-

dependency of person-environment relations. In his films, the environment reflects either the state of mind to which the main characters wish to aspire, or the mood from which the main characters are trying to

escape. Forsyth's narratives suggest that, ultimately, incongruities such as these will not be resolved. He

juxtaposes long shots of cityscapes and landscapes with character action, for example, to highlight the

encompassing nature of the environments within which the characters transact.

Ultimately the film-maker's vision can speak to a broader narrative which has implications beyond the immediate image-event. There is some debate as to whether Forsyth's films cut through the 'frozen' discourses of Scottish culture. In truth, Forsyth does not avoid the Kailyard and Tartanry myths, but neither does he bolster them. Nor does he attempt to construct any new discourses. Forsyth purposefully stages and then deconstructs Kailyard and Tartanry, not through any dialogue or generalizations, but through explicit disparities between discrete image- events and an unconventional approach to film rhythm that subverts both the English and Hollywood styles of film-making. His experimental film tech- niques penetrate the ordinary and it is this, more than anything, that enables viewers to appreciate aspects of the contemporary cultural geography of Scotland and Scots. Forsyth's vision is, quite simply, to explore the incongruity in everyday events. He constructs a shrewd portrayal of person-environment dynamics that leaves the audience with one way of coming to terms with the realities of life.

Through a careful consideration of how the image- event is used to create film narrative, one can gain an appreciation of the importance of representing the

115

relationship between people and environments in

particular context. In this sense, a search for the juxta-

position of the ordinary and the extraordinary is

probably the most penetrating way to explore the

sequence, rhythm and, ultimately, the aesthetic of film narrative.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the encouragement and

support of Leo Zonn, and the comments of Ken Foote and three anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft of this paper.

NOTES

1. The term 'image-event' was coined by Sol Worth (1969) in his development of a semiotic of film. Worth

suggested that the image-event could be described as

sign; given the behavioural oriented set of definitions for sign developed by Morris (1946). In terms of film communication, then, an image-event has the same sig- nification to the organism which produces it that it has to other organisms stimulated by it (Worth, 1981). The orientation of this paper required that I provide a more

specific definition of the image-event in terms of the

dynamic of film structure. 2. Higson (1984) writes a penetrating account of the use of

person-place juxtapositions in British 'working-class' ('kitchen sink') films of the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, he explores directors' use of protagonists in landscape and townscape shots in the context of the validation of these types of shots by contemporary middle-class discourses.

3. Dewey and Bentley (1949) and Pepper (1942; 1967) examine the philosophical and metatheoretical assumptions implicit in physics, biology and the social sciences.

Dewey and Bentley (1949) discuss self-action, interaction, and transaction as three approaches to the pursuit of knowledge. Transactionalism assumes the insepar- ability of contexts, temporal factors, and physical and

psychological phenomena. Pepper (1942; 1967) also focuses on context, assuming that temporal processes are inherent features of events. He suggests that '...

change goes on continuously and never stops. It is a

categorical feature of all events ...' (1942, p. 243). Altman and Rogoff (1987) provide an excellent review of Dewey and Bentley's, and Pepper's, influence on psychology. Stokols (1988) speculates on the impact of transactional and transformational theories in environmental psychology, and Aitken and Bjorklund (1988) assess their impact on behavioural geography.

4. This view-based upon auteur theory (ca. 1962)-

suggests that the director is the primary creative force in a motion picture.

5. It is interesting to note, as an aside, that in Housekeeping (1987) Forsyth's principal characters are women. In this film his women-environment relations are not portrayed in terms of dominance or control. Rather, the principal characters relate to the physical environment in terms of nurture. Their relationship to the built environment, on the other hand, is destructive.

6. Evidence of the authenticity of certain Scottish traditions may be found in areas out with the media.

Although beyond the discussion of this paper, archival evidence seems to corroborate some of the speculation on the privation of Scottish history. Trevor-Roper (1983), for example, suggests that much of the Scottish

Highland 'tradition' was invented during the eighteenth century by the English or by bourgeois Scots. In fact, he attributes the invention of the kilt to an English Quaker from Lancashire who wanted the workers in his iron-ore

smelting factory near Inverness to dress more suitably for their toil. The significance of George IV appearing in

Edinburgh wearing a kilt in 1822 may be related to royal appropriation of Scottish 'tradition'. At about the same time, Landseer's paintings of Queen Victoria in the Scottish Highlands '... signified a royal imposition and

appropriate of the Scottish landscape and Scottish his-

tory' (Pringle, 1988, p. 146) at a time when an industrializ-

ing Britain needed to consolidate under an imperialist ideology.

7. Craig (1982) exposes the development of Tartanry and

Kailyard in nineteenth century Scottish literature.

Trevor-Roper (1983) describes how Scottish literary traditions at this time were influenced by one or two

major figures who were intent upon creating a mythic past.

FILMS CITED

BUTLER, D. (1930) Just imagine, 20th Century Fox, Hollywood

DISNEY, W. (1953) Rob Roy: the highland rogue, Walt

Disney Productions, Hollywood DISNEY, W. (1961) Greyfriars Bobby, Walt Disney

Productions, Hollywood FORSYTH, W. (1979) That sinking feeling, British National

Film School, London FORSYTH, W. (1980) Gregory's girl, Samuel Goldwyn

Productions, Hollywood FORSYTH, W. (1982) Local hero, An Enigma production for

Goldcrest, Warner Bros production FORSYTH, W. (1984) Comfort and joy, Kings Road

Productions, London FORSYTH, W. (1987) Housekeeping, Columbia Pictures,

Hollywood. GRIFFITH, D. W. (1934) The little minister, Independent LANG, F. (1926) Metropolis, Ufo, Berlin MACLEOD, A. (1949) Whisky galore, Ealing Studios,

London



MACLEOD, A. (1958) Rockets galore, Ealing Studios, London

MACLEOD, A. (1955) Geordie, Ealing Studios, London MACKENDRICK, A. (1953) The Maggie, Ealing Studios,

London MINNELLI, V. (1954) Brigadoon, 20th Century Fox,

Hollywood

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Documents

622909 a transactional geography of the image event