comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
written and directed by
Bill Forsyth
William David Forsyth (born 29 July 1946) is a Scottish film director and writer known for his films '' Gregory's Girl'' (1981), '' Local Hero'' (1983) and '' Comfort and Joy'' (1984) as well as his adaptation of the Marilynne Robinson novel ...
, his first film as a director. The film is set in his home city of
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
Parkhead
Parkhead () is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet (place), hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necro ...
areas) in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. The young actors in film were members of the Glasgow Youth Theatre. The film also features
Richard Demarco
Richard Demarco CBE (born 9 July 1930 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts.
Early life
He was born at 9 Grosvenor Street in Edinburgh on 9 July 1930 the son of Carmino Demarco and his wife Elizabe ...
, the Edinburgh gallery owner, playing himself. The four main actors went on to feature in Forsyth's following film ''
Gregory's Girl
''Gregory's Girl'' is a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan. The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronh ...
''.
Plot
Ronnie, Wal, Andy and Vic are four bored, unemployed teenagers from Glasgow. One day, Ronnie comes up with the idea of stealing stainless steel sinks from a warehouse and selling them. Their plan involves dressing up as women and using a strong tranquiliser ('stop-motion potion') on the driver of a Morton's Rolls bread van.
During the robbery they encounter a ninja style thief who asks to join them. They steal 74 sinks but do not manage to sell many.
Richard Demarco
Richard Demarco CBE (born 9 July 1930 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts.
Early life
He was born at 9 Grosvenor Street in Edinburgh on 9 July 1930 the son of Carmino Demarco and his wife Elizabe ...
, an art gallery owner, buys four in a pile as an artwork at the bargain price of £200.
They still have many to sell, stored in the back of the bread van, when they accidentally take an identical van and end up with a load of doughnuts. Meanwhile, the heavily tranquilised van driver remains in hospital, expected to wake in 2068.
Cast
Production
Forsyth said "I couldn't actually afford real actors, and I certainly hadn't had any experience working with them. So I asked the teenagers at a Glasgow community centre if they would appear in my movie at no pay. Actually, I promised them points in the film (a percentage of any profits)."
Filming locations
Filming took place on location around the city of Glasgow; scenes featured locations such as
Kelvingrove Park
Kelvingrove Park is a public park located on the River Kelvin in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, containing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
History
Kelvingrove Park was originally created as the West End Park in 1852, a ...
,
Dennistoun
Dennistoun () is a mostly residential district in Glasgow, Scotland, located north of the River Clyde and in the city's Glasgow#East End, east end, about east of the city centre. Since 2017 it has formed the core of a Dennistoun (ward), Dennist ...
,
Springburn
Springburn () is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households.
Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its industrial expansion began ...
Cowcaddens
Cowcaddens (; , ) is an area of the city of ,
Sighthill Sighthill may refer to:
* Sighthill, Edinburgh
Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse, Edinburgh, Broomhouse and Parkhead, Edinburgh, Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the indu ...
,
Whiteinch
Whiteinch () is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated directly north of the River Clyde, between the Partick and Scotstoun areas of the city. Whiteinch was at one stage part of the burgh of Partick, until that burgh's absorp ...
Forth and Clyde Canal
The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allow ...
Port Dundas
Port Dundas is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, located to the north of the city centre. It lies to the north of Cowcaddens, and to the west of Sighthill, with Hamiltonhill and Possilpark to the north-west.
History
The Port Dundas terminus was ...
.
Allan Court (which was a building site at the time) in Gardenhall, East Kilbride was also used as a location for the night scene.
Dubbed soundtrack
The film was released in the United States four years after the United Kingdom, following the success of ''Gregory's Girl'' and '' Local Hero''. For the American market, (
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
) the soundtrack was re-dubbed using more mainstream accents from Edinburgh. The MGM version cost more to re-dub than the entire budget for the film itself.
Release
Critical reception
In 1987 Forsyth said the film earned $90,000, "and we still haven't seen any profit from it."
Philip French
Philip Neville French (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio producer, and later a film critic. H ...
, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', described the premiere of ''That Sinking Feeling'' as "Among the happiest surprises of my years as a movie critic", writing that the arrival of the film marked Bill Forsyth as a "major new talent".
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
, in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote that "''That Sinking Feeling'' doesn't have quite the panache of
Gregory's Girl
''Gregory's Girl'' is a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan. The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronh ...
and Local Hero" but nonetheless praised it as "amiable", "funny" and "gentle".
A review in ''
Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' gave ''That Sinking Feeling'' four stars out of five, calling it "funnier, meaner and less wistful than orsyth'ssubsequent successes".
Home media
In September 2009, a restored copy of the film was re-released on DVD by
2 Entertain
2 Entertain Video Limited, trading as BBC Studios Home Entertainment, is a British video and music publisher founded in 2004 following the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International by BBC Worldwide and the Woolworths Group respe ...
. This has generated controversy however due to the use of the re-dubbed soundtrack, which had the effect of impinging upon the delivery of the dialogue and character of the film.
The
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
, through their Flipside arm, released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on 21 April 2014, with the original Glaswegian dialogue track restored. This release also featured an audio commentary by Bill Forsyth and critic
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Screenshot'', and co-presenter ...
, as well as other short films Forsyth was involved with.