For every director who works steadily and rarely leaves the spotlight, there’s another (often better) director who does not stick it out, and who comes to consider moviemaking a calling for others.
Bill Forsyth is one, though it’ll be a very good day indeed if news of another Forsyth feature ever emerges. The Glasgow native, who lives and writes in the west of Scotland, meant an awful lot to many of us back in the 1980s. At the beginning of his career he was a one-man Scots film industry, creating a remarkable string of comedies. “That Sinking Feeling,” “Gregory’s Girl,” “Local Hero” and “Comfort and Joy” spoke to a particular sensibility and a mordant sort of whimsy. “Gregory’s Girl” and “Local Hero” in particular found him an international audience.
In 1987 Forsyth made his first film in North America, an adaptation of the Marilynne Robinson novel “Housekeeping.” Christine Lahti starred in the picture, which fell afoul of a studio regime change. It never got the promotion it deserved. “I don’t think it was released,” Forsyth said last weekend. “It escaped for a bit.”
“Housekeeping” remains unavailable on DVD, which brings us to the fabulous impetus for Forsyth and Lahti to visit Champaign Saturday. As part of his annual film festival, Roger Ebert included “Housekeeping” on the slate. Roger wasn’t able to attend Ebertfest — he’s dealing with various medical issues, including a fractured hip now on the mend — but the show went on; his wife, Chaz, proved to be her usual stalwart, amazing and gracious self; the festival team kept everything humming; and the screenings at the beautiful old Virginia Theatre showcased everything from Ang Lee’s “Hulk” to “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” (terrific doc) to “Housekeeping” (for which I moderated a panel).
Whether you’re a participant or a patron, well … everyone’s a participant in this festival. Ebertfest is a tonic. And when a special, subtle film such as “Housekeeping” arrives in the form of a print so unexpectedly exquisite, the pastel quality of the light so magical, you are reminded that film lives and breathes most fully on a big screen. I know everyone’s watching “Lost” on their iPhones, but try replicating the experience of watching a screening of Josef von Sternberg’s 1927 gangland meller “Underworld,” accompanied by the inspired musical flourishes of the Alloy Orchestra, on an iPhone. Try it.
Forsyth and Lahti did a post-screening “Housekeeping” question and answer session. The writer-director and the actress hadn’t seen each other in many years. Someone asked Lahti about the work she’s most proud of in her career, which includes an Oscar-nominated turn in “Swing Shift.”
“I might be most proud of this movie,” she said. “I just love it so much.”
And I thought to myself: Thanks to Roger, a thousand-plus people just got the chance to see a beautiful print, beautifully projected on a big, beautiful screen, of a little 21-year-old movie made with care. A good night indeed.
Now, your turn. If there’s a Forsyth picture that means something to you, I’d like to hear about it. Go to chicagotribune.com/talkingpictures or, if you’d rather, e-me.
———-
Michael Phillips fills in for Roger Ebert on “At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper,” airing at 11:05 p.m. Sat. and 10:30 a.m. Sun. on WLS-Ch. 7.
mjphillips@tribune.com
