Brilliant. I've only today done a deep dive into this amazing writer and artist who I'd not heard of before I saw Poor Things last week. Already I've read a number of his poems, watched several interviews, looked at many images of his artworks and ordered Lanark, Poor Things and his essay collection. I was sad to discover the only available copy of his collected verse was about £150! I plan to travel to Glasgow to see as much of his art up close as I can. I love discovering a writer or artist I can feel passionate about. He doesn't seem to be very widely known outside Scotland but the film will hopefully change that. I'm very late, but I'm catching up fast!"
I'm from Glasgow myself and have (like many people here) met Alasdair Gray when he was alive in pubs mostly concentrated at the top of Byres Road in the West End. I've met him twice over the years in the Oran Mor, the huge converted church pub ( he did a lot of the art for it), and (i think) the ubiquitous chip, which was on Ashton Lane. I remember in the Oran Mor I was with my girlfriend at the time around 2007 or 8 and she was a huge fan. He was nice enough, but to be honest I wasn't overly impressed about how sleazy he came across to my girlfriend - still though, Alasdair Gray! She had told him her email address was a reference to Rima from Lanark, and he thought that was nice. Very nasally voice, especially after a few drinks as well - I remember we were laughing afterwards about how he sounded a bit like a Weegie (Glaswegian) Mr Toad. I hate to be that guy but he really wasn't all that pleasant a man with women he fancied if his interactions with my ex were anything to go by - made her super uncomfortable but it was laughed off as just one of those experiences afterwards. Hey ho. Good luck with your traveling pal, you'll love Glasgow, we're nice people here for the most part and theres plenty of cool stuff to do.
Thank you. A wonderful documentary. And a big shout out to Rodge who is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Strathclyde University, who is such a kind and generous person. (I took a career break to explore creative writing)
He is that. So generous with his time and his passion for the craft of writing. He and Andrew Meehan were just so similar in that way in the year I was there 😊
Superb documentary. Seems like a real labour of love? The Oran Mor mural is so inspiring to me as a scientist. I have a quote from it on my office wall: "to the glory of the universe, and all who work well here". I hope the movie Poor Things introduces a wider novel to Grey's work.
Thanks for this. A decade and a half ago i was a Scot Lit and Cinema undergrad at Glasgow University and Alasdair always loomed large as a titan in my mind. His way of combining the visual and textual completely opened up my mind.
Fantastic stuff. Brilliant interviews that offered some new insights even for a Gray fanatic like me. I'm glad that folk are optimistic about the film adaptation. I think it's funny that Guillermo del Toro is filming his new adaptation of Frankenstein in Glasgow - can't help but wonder if he picked up Poor Things off the back of the new film and was inspired.
This documentary was needed and I’m glad a fellow Glaswegian brought this to the fore. Gray has loomed large for me since I left Glasgow for England for my studies. I read Lanark on those long journeys up and down one winter, as ironically I was researching and writing about Scotland but could only find funding in southern England. Lanark changed my view of Scotland and Glasgow, turned it wonderfully upside down and made me love the city all the more. It felt like I had lived parts of it, growing up in Scotstoun in the flats. I always come back to Gray when I struggle. Poor Things I feel is so entrenched in Scottish identity that this interpretation is diminished by not encompassing that. It was still good but parts didn’t quite make sense and I’ve seen some critiques of it which would have been explained by keeping it as an allegory for Scottish nationhood. Thanks man, subscribed and look forward to seeing more.
This is awesome since seeing the movie I'm become obsessed with the story. I can't wait to reads hos books. I'm Native Hawaiian and Scottish (my great grandmother is from Scotland) and try to learn as much as possible about Scotland.
Brilliant! Last week I was in Glasgow for the first time and your documentary has given me a better understanding of the places that I visited there, and also I'm astonished by the high quality of this production, it's not only insightful but also very entertaining, congratulations 👏
excellent video!! after feeling a little underwhelmed watching Poor Things i really want to read Gray's work and this is an amazing intro we love Rodge
Thank you for this wonderful profile of the man and his work. I've only read Lanark, Poor Things and 1982 Janine, but each one sparkles with his own very singular vision; each one is strange and funny and dark, and also has something to say about politics and Scotland's place in the world. I wasn't so aware of his visual art though... What an amazing artist - his paintings often tell stories, and his stories are incredibly visual, he's like he's constantly crossing boundaries to express what he wants to express. I wonder about whether he could have been a film director himself, and what kind of films he would have made.. I think something that's often missed is how beautiful his work was, how sensitive he was to how we treat each other, and how hard it is to be the persons we wish to to. I think your film captured some of that - thank you
Looking at my copy of 'Unlikely Stories, Mostly', found in a 2nd hand bookstore in St Andrews. I'm Scottish myself and when discovering Gray's body of work, I was amazed and proud to be a fellow Scot. What an achievement in life this man is. His books are a wonderland, go explore it. Great video, tell the world about Alasdair Gray! P.S. saw the film and Gray aside I personally didn't enjoy it.
So well done. You've captured the work, the huge warmth and love for Alasdair Gray here. Can't recommend this short journey to one clearly incredible yet very accessible intellect enough! So glad I caught sight of this today. Thank you very much.❤🤌👏👏
Poor things the movie was amazingly funny..it’s a wonderful homage to its writer. Proud to have my connection to Glasgow vicariously. Born in Shettleston.
I read Lanark, years ago. I can’t say I totally understood it. But like the film 2001 A Space Odyssey, I just enjoyed it, it wasn’t that important to understand everything. The image is enough. It’s an experience. The only book that I might re-read. Love his art too. Brilliant documentary by the way.
nice. you've made me aware that "poor things" is based on alasdair gray's book and who gray was - and i didn't know an hour ago. i wouldn't be too hard on the scottish film industry tho. other countries like japan and south korea have a long tradition of it and if scotland doesn't, it's kind of hard to develop one in the current landscape where we're stuffed to the gills with content and you'd be competing against the 800lb gorillas of not only england but also hollywood. it might have been a curse that scotland's native language is english too... the thing about places like japan and korea is that they made movies for themselves almost as a necessity. the language barrier was a big deal and created opportunities within a kind of protected enclave as a result of that barrier. but with scotland, you don't have that language barrier and much of infrastructure for the media like the bbc provided the non native works that proliferated instead.
Just got back from seeing the movie. I think Grey would be very happy with the film. McNamera managed to include all the major beats of the novel, even though 60 years of the narrative (and 1/3 of the book) is skipped. Knowing that Grey had specifically given Lanthimos permission to do as he saw fit makes a big difference.
So many people that Criticise this film from a Feminist perspective say things like 'the Brothel Sequence is Portrayed as Empowering!😮 Urrggh! Clearly this is a Man's Perspective of what a Woman could Enjoy!' This TOTALLY MISSES THE POINT. She neither views the Brothel as Destructive or Empowering: it is Useful, but Disappointing. What she really enjoys in Paris are the Anatomy Classes and the Socialism.
Just started listening, but this guy's accent is super charming! The complaint about it not being filmed in Glasgow with Scots is misguided though - much better that it got made than not having been made and the director had every right to cast who he wanted to cast. In fact, the amazing cast is integral to the success of the film & a large part of why anyone is watching this video. Also, that kind of thinking is really extreme gatekeeping. Who is to say when a work should be "allowed" to be performed / filmed by the non-preferred group? That said, at halfway through, I can see that this is a high quality and informative documentary - thanks!
I think it’s totally fine for Lanthamos to adapt the story however he wants, and I actually enjoyed the film. But it’s fundamentally different than the book. Having rid the story of any underlying ‘Scottishness’, the film doesn’t have any of the subtext of the book; which is really about Scotland’s relationship to the world and how the country sees itself. So I can understand people in Scotland feeling that a crucial element (or perhaps even the entire point) of the story has been lost. But like I say, I myself liked the film.
Read lanark back in 80s sorry to say only reading Poor Things now it is an absolute masterpeice i am not bothered that scottish content was taken out as for me a book and a movie are two entirely different creatures .sadly Alisdair is no longer with us to know what he would thought , what i tjhnk is really sad is that no scot or brit fillllmakers have attemptedcto tackle it and now complain of how a Greek does sorry we need to ditch this victom mentality and fight with the same creative energy as mr Gray, was also recently at the atchive poor things was mentioned not sure anyone mentioned the movie though it was probablu the reason for, well it has been so lets celebrate by talking about him with every chance can, i smell a renaissance on the wind
It's called an adaptation, the original text is just an inspiration that leads to the film. The film isn't Alasdair Gray's Poor Things, it's Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things.
This documentary will become a classic. Can we please have it without the English subtitles? They are so damn distracting! I’m not Scottish but have no trouble understanding the accents.
Sorry, we’ve hardcoded them into this video as we’ve had a lot of feedback that people prefer our subtitles over RU-vid’s display. We also find it helps a lot with engagement, and it’s easier for us to subtitle once rather than individually across platforms. It’s great to hear that you have no problem with our accents and thanks very much for your positive feedback! We hope it will become a classic too.
@@OssianScotlandThanks for the explanation. I’d still love to be able to watch it ‘clean’ somehow - maybe I’ll try and mask the bottom of the screen. I’d also like to commend your choice of music for the opening and closing credits - it reminded me so much of another of Glasgow’s brilliant artistic exports to the world The Blue Nile. I’m now enjoying all of Gareth Williams’s Song from the Last Page album. Thank you so much for alerting me to it. Pete, Hobart Tas Aust
Crappy for sure, but to play Devil’s Advocate the film would likely never have been made otherwise. How Green Was My Valley was shot in Southern California. Robin Hood films usually get shot in Wales. That’s life. They’ve been trying to make Poor Things into a film for close to 30 years. Jim Broadbent was attached to the film for so long he got fed up of being asked when it was coming out. If nothing else I hope the film gets more of Gray’s work back in print. Maybe someday we’ll see a film version of James Kelman’s novels - A Disaffection or Kieron Smith, Boy perhaps.
Why should he lose the glottal stops? It’s the natural cadence of his voice. As a presenter I feel he should slow his delivery to be more clearly understood, but his accent is fine. It would be like asking Sorcha Dallas to stop using high rising terminal when she speaks in this documentary. It’s her natural cadence and doesn’t detract from the information she’s conveying.
