Ice Cream Wars

I just had the great pleasure of interviewing Bill Forsyth for a forthcoming project, yet to be announced, which prompted me to revisit COMFORT AND JOY, his 1984 film set in Glasgow at Christmas and dealing with a local radio DJ (Bill Paterson, a great actor known to non-UK peoples, I guess, for THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN and THE WITCHES) who tried to intervene in a turf war which has broken out between rival gangs of ice cream van operators. On the DVD’s commentary track, Forsyth talks about how this story was inspired by real events, which sadly overtook the film somewhat, so that a seemingly comic notion ended in real-life murder. The idea was to address the problem of violence through an absurdist lens, but nothing is too silly for human beings to kill each other over. The film’s radio background allows Forsyth to echo the street-fighting vendors’ battles with international conflicts (perhaps a touch unsubtly).

Forsyth also talks about the apparent oddity of a film set at Christmas dealing with ice cream vans, pointing out Scotland’s notoriously high sugar intake, and describing scenes of men in shirtsleeves queuing in the snow for their double fudge. I also spotted packets of Askit for sale in the Mr. Bunny ice cream van. I’m not sure, but I don’t recall Edinburgh ice cream vans selling medicine. Must be a Glasgow thing.

Weird thing about Bill Paterson — brilliant actor, but it’s uncomfortable watching him do love scenes. With your actual movie stars, it’s never uncomfortable (unless the scene is badly written, which certainly isn’t the problem here). So I guess Bill P. isn’t a star. But he’s still just about Scotland’s most watchable human.

My recollection of the film is that it slightly underperformed, and was adversely compared to GREGORY’S GIRL (everyone in Scotland’s favourite Scottish film) and LOCAL HERO (a wildly beloved film all over). I remember Forsyth appearing on the Wogan chat show to promote it, (and talking about “the pornography of violence,” not a phrase often used on BBC light entertainment) I guess because there was no big name attached to help sell it. The story simply didn’t allow for a Burt Lancaster type star turn, although given the Scots-Italian characters, surely Tom Conti SHOULD have been in it, and maybe an actual Italian star could have been wooed? C.P. Grogan and Alex Norton (returning from GREGORY’S GIRL) are great, but don’t quite convince as Italian speakers.

Shoulder pads! Guess the decade. 

The real problem is the narrative — Forsyth is excellent at throwaway jokes, and the observational stuff about Christmas melancholy and the hero’s wayward girlfriend are great. The story takes a long time to get going, and Mark Knofler’s sax score (not nearly as good as his LOCAL HERO work or even THE PRINCESS BRIDE) seems to drag it down further — it feels like the same cue played over and over again. Once the GODFATHER pastiche comes in, it feels like Forsyth isn’t particularly engaged or inspired by it. He’s actually spoken out against story, he doesn’t like it to dominate. But the plot here has actual twists, and demands a resolution, and threatens to take over, and push the characters into scenes they can’t be themselves in. All the best stuff is in the side-details.

Currently my favourite cinematic image, ever.

But these are often magnificent. The use of ice cream vans, sinisterly jingling their way through the outlying estates, is funny and cinematic (it’s great seeing familiar places rendered kind of epic). There are hilarious cameos by comedians Rikki Fulton (Paterson’s suspicious boss) and Arnold Brown (a petulant shrink), who bring the same kind of erratic performance style that characterised Chic Murray’s work in GREGORY’S GIRL. There’s a gag involving the recording of an ice cream van jingle which is one of the greatest, stupidest, and longest-set-up gags in screen history.

There should be a whole series of feature films about this guy. Check out his reading material!

There’s also Chris Menges’ fantastic photography. Menges, a natural light fetishist, unobtrusively makes ’80s Glasgow beautiful, a task which ought to be impossible, inconceivable, and not even desirable. I’m a little mad at Menges: he quit being one of the greatest cinematographers, the natural heir to Almendros, to be an OK director. It was cinema’s loss, on the whole.

Forsyth followed this with HOUSEKEEPING, underrated at the time (by me, definitely), but possibly his masterpiece. COMFORT AND JOY, for all its pleasures, perhaps works best if seen as a necessary stepping stone. It’s less soothing, more discordant and unsettling than its predecessors, and often it’s the attempts to ingratiate or play to the crowd which feel less effective, and the tonally uncomfortable or difficult bits that seem successful. having utterly mastered a particular tone very early on, Forsyth was setting himself challenges, pushing himself into areas where nothing could be taken for granted (BEING HUMAN), not an easy path to take.

I want to follow him on this journey and revisit more of these films…

Comfort And Joy [DVD]