My Childhood **** (1972, Stephen Archibald, Hughie Restorick, Jean Taylor Smith) – Classic Movie Review 8807

The Bill Douglas Trilogy, made on tiny budgets from the British Film Institute, are dour and downbeat, highly personal autobiographical films, but they cast a remarkable spell in terms of mood and emotion that is rare in British cinema.

We watch Douglas’s own progress from growing up poor and unwanted in Forties rural Scotland to his personal emancipation during his National Service in Egypt.

In the first film, My Childhood (1972), we see Jamie (Stephen Archibald) growing up poor and unwanted in a Forties Scottish mining village.

It was filmed in colour but printed in black and white to obtain a charcoal-drawing effect.

It features Stephen Archibald, Hughie Restorick, Jean Taylor Smith, Karl Fieseler, Paul Kermack, Ann Smith and Helena Gloag.

The other films are My Ain Folk (1973) and My Way Home (1978).

The Bill Douglas Trilogy: My Childhood is directed by Bill Douglas, runs 48 minutes, is made by BFI, is released by Connoisseur, is written by Bill Douglas, is shot by Mick Campbell and is produced by Geoffrey Evans.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8807

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