My Childhood (1972)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Bill Douglas

Writer:

Bill Douglas (writer)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland...

Plot Keywords:

Autobiographical | Independent Film

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Stephen Archibald	...	Jamie
Hughie Restorick	...	Tommy
Jean Taylor Smith	...	Grandmother
Karl Fieseler	...	Helmuth
Bernard McKenna	...	Tommy's Father
Paul Kermack	...	Jamie's Father
Helena Gloag	...	Father's Mother
Ann Smith	...	Jamie's Mother
Eileen McCallum	...	Nurse
Helen Rae	...	Bus Conductress
James Eccles	...	Man Singing

Runtime:

46 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Newcraighall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

Trivia:

Filmed in colour, though all printed in black and white to obtain a charcoal-drawing effect.

Movie Connections:

Followed by My Way Home (1978)

Depressing yet brilliant with it.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is the first of three autobiographical films written and directed by Bill Douglas, recounting his childhood and adolescence. Although I'm nearly 15 years younger than Douglas, we have some common roots: we were both of us born into grinding poverty in Scottish industrial villages, and both spent time in orphan institutions. (In my case, the venue changed shortly from a village to a council estate in "Glesga", and then to Australia.) As I watched this film record of Douglas's childhood, I found myself reliving incidents from my own early life which were nearly identical -- painfully so -- to what I was seeing on the screen. The boy protagonist in this film steals coal: not for a lark, but out of dire necessity. I recall doing the same for the same reason. I also recall getting caught, and getting beaten for it.

SPOILERS AHEAD. The protagonist in this film, ostensibly Bill Douglas as a boy, is cried Jamie. The name change warns us that some fictionalisation is about the premises, but we're never told precisely at which points in the story, nor how extensively.

'My Childhood' is set in 1945, before V-E Day. One of Douglas's experiences which I did NOT share: his home village Newcraighall (near Edinburgh) is also the site of a work camp for German PoWs. The only person who shows any kindness to young Jamie is a German labourer, Helmuth. There is a surprising amount of physical intimacy between the man and the boy, although Douglas does not seem to have intended any subtext.

Jamie speaks no German, and Helmuth is just barely learning Scots. We see them sharing a primer, as Jamie tries to teach Helmuth the word 'apple', which the German insists on pronouncing 'apfel'. (Doesn't he notice the spelling difference?) Throughout this film and the rest of his trilogy, Douglas uses apples symbolically: they seem to represent prized treasures which are highly desirable in this impoverished landscape. Jamie and his older brother Tommy live with their 'gran': their mother is in a mental institution, hopelessly catatonic. No smell of a father about the place.

In all three films, Douglas wrings astonishing performances from a (mostly) non-professional cast. I noticed that the boys cast as brothers Jamie and Tommy don't look as if they're related. It transpires that they're half-brothers, and neither father bothered to marry their mum. At one point, a local man gives Jamie the huge gift of a sixpence! This act of generosity pleased me -- I remember how valuable a sixpence was in Perthshire in 1953 -- until I twigged that this man is Jamie's deadbeat dad! So, why doesn't he live up to his responsibilities?

Tommy's dad, slightly less of an absentee father, is a spiv ... and marginally successful with it. He gives Tommy a canary in a cage. Since Newcraighall in 1945 is a mining village, this is actually a useful gift. (I hope I needn't explain why coal miners keep canaries.)

I hesitate to apply the term 'art direction' to this film, but the clothing, the streets, the houses and -- most of all -- the interiors of these people's homes are absolutely note-perfect, again triggering my own memories. One coal miner here wears a shirt which looks more like 1972 than 1945, but everything else is spot-on. Even the Bedford lorry is appropriate.

Although the main character in this film is a boy, I don't recommend this film for children unless they're VERY mature. Among other problems, this film includes a shot of a dead cat and another of a dead bird.

One piece of good news is not shown here: after 'My Childhood' was made, the wretched mining village Newcraighill was modernised and developed, and is now very much a fit place to raise a child. Much of the credit goes to Helen Crummy MBE, who appears briefly in this movie as Jamie's schoolmistress. The fact that this village could rise from the rubble of its own coal-tips -- and the fact that a boy who came from this despond was able to make something of himself in spite of it -- would constitute the only good news in this very bleak and discouraging movie.

I wept while watching 'My Childhood', but I suspect that this was down to Douglas's film triggering some of my own painful memories. Still, that's a testimony to his abilities as an artist. My rating for this bleak and depressing memoir: 9 out of 10.