Description

LONG SHOT (BFI Flipside 034) (DVD + Blu-ray) A film by Maurice Hatton THE FLIPSIDE: rescuing weird and wonderful British films from obscurity and presenting them in new high-quality editions. Two low budget filmmakers attempt to talk up some finance in this brilliantly barbed movie-biz satire played out against the backdrop of the 1977 Edinburgh Film Festival. Shot for next to nothing on short-end scraps of black-and-white stock, this deadpan verit-style comedy drama follows director Charlie (Charles Gormley) and scriptwriter Neville (Neville Smith) on the hunt for cash, cast and ‘name director’ Sam Fuller to shoot their Aberdeen-set oil-boom adventure ‘Gulf and Western’. Along the way, they encounter a plethora of filmmaking luminaries including Wem Wenders, Stephen Frears, John Boorman, Bill Forsyth and Alan Bennett. Special features Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition Scene Nun, Take One (Maurice Hatton, 1964, 26 mins): Comedy short film starring Susannah York Hooray for Holyrood (Ross Wilson, 1986, 38 mins): Scottish Television film celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Edinburgh Film Festival, presented by Robbie Coltrane Sean Connery’s Edinburgh (1982, 28 mins): Promotional film starring the iconic actor Booklet with new writing from Bill Forsyth, Vic Pratt and Dylan Cave, plus full film credits UK | 1978 | black and white, colour | 84 minutes | English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | original aspect ratio 1.33:1 | Cert 12 (infrequent strong language, moderate sex references) |BD50: 1080p, 24fps, 1.0 PCM mono (48kHz/24-bit), region free | DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 1.0 mono (192kbps), region 0 Review ‘A picaresque comedy…forged from the repeated lament for a native cinema’ –Time Out