Current release: THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS

THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS, mentioned here previously, hasn't exactly been a recent release as such, but it's had some cinema outings and a showing on TV. Not so much a film as a collection of films, each film (by a different filmmaker or team of filmmakers) examines one of the articles of the declaration of human rights. In hindsight, it makes you wonder about the name since it covers rights rather than commandments, but we'll let that slide since it's such an accomplished work.

Stand-outs are both of the contributions by Mark Cousins (one with Tilda Swinton which captures a love of cinema like few other films; the other with Irvine Welsh about the incarceration of Kenny Richey); examinations of the trial of the alleged Lockerbie bomber; the portrait of a man campaigning for a Scottish Republic; and an amusing look at a serious breach of privacy.

Truth be told, nearly all the films are very good, the only weak link in my humble opinion being Douglas Gordon's contribution which is little more than a dark room with random sounds. It's probably exactly what he was aiming for but it's not particularly cinematic.

I have no idea what further plans there are for this film but if it surfaces on DVD any time soon, pick it up.

SEACHD - Christmas viewing

Nope, not the Irish-language TV series, but the Scottish film.

The excellent Gaelic film SEACHD: THE INACCESIBLE PINNACLE is airing on the BBC Alba digital channel on Christmas day at 9:30pm.

No gangsters, no junkies, no rocky marriages, no run-down housing estates, no alcoholics... and yet it's a Scottish film.

To remind yourselves what our film industry can achieve when it takes its inspiration from our country rather than our problems, check out this gem of a film.

More on Scottish films

Following my previous post regarding the Bill Douglas trilogy and St Andrew's Day, I should mention that I did at least celebrate the day in a film-related manner.

I took a trip to the GFT to see THE ST KILDA TAPES, a compilation of archive footage and new material relating to the remote Scottish island, put together with a new score (performed live at the event) by David Allison.

The archive footage (featuring the excellent ST KILDA: BRITAIN'S LONELIEST ISLE and some marvellous footage of emigrants sailing from Glasgow to North America) was terrific, and was enhanced by interviews with a man who actually lived there as a boy before its evacuation in 1930.

The newer material didn't go down quite as well in comparison - the time-lapse photography of Edinburgh was great but not altogether relevant, and some of it really looked like a student project. Some people left before the end and while I wouldn't go that far, it's fair to say that the newer material certainly wasn't as interesting and didn't really sit with the rest of the films - it would be better served as part of an entirely different project. Full marks for the live music though.

Still talking of things Scottish, I should point out that the Scottish anthology film collection THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS, which premiered in Edinburgh this year, is doing the rounds this month, including another screening at Filmhouse in Edinburgh on the 14th, but if you can't wait that long or are just too lazy, it's on BBC Scotland this Sunday.

The Filmhouse will also be having another screening of TROUBLE SLEEPING (this weekend), which is also showing elsewhere this month.

Finally, since I covered the BFI's DVD release of THE BILL DOUGLAS TRILOGY, I should also mention another must-own DVD purchase for fans of Scottish film.

It was released last year so I should really have mentioned it before now, but there is a 4-disc DVD collection (also available separately) called THE PETER MCDOUGALL COLLECTION. Quite appropriate that I should mention it now however, since he picked up a Scottish BAFTA last month for his work. This DVD release probably did its bit to help I suspect.

While technically made for TV, I guess I can still call these films since most of them were made in the heyday of BBC's one-off drama slot PLAY FOR TODAY and were as good as anything in the cinema.

The four dramas included are JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY (the best of the bunch, in which Jon Morrison plays a young lad leading an Orange march who suddenly sees the dark side of Scotland's sectarian problem - it also features an early dramatic performance by Billy Connolly); THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD, another excellent show in which Morrison is joined by Billy Connolly once more as they play two men dodging off work and talking about their lives; JUST A BOY'S GAME, a tale of Scottish gangsters and family ties featuring a superb performance by singer Frankie Miller; and the only one of the bunch that isn't from PLAY FOR TODAY, the more recent DOWN AMONG THE BIG BOYS (once more featuring Connolly) which tells of a promising young policeman marrying the daughter of a gangster. It's slightly more lightweight than the rest but still enjoyable.

On the one hand, watching these dramas make you despair about modern TV. Once upon a time a guy from the shipyards with no experience could end up writing some of the BBC's most acclaimed dramas; now the only way he'd get such acclaim is if he was ballroom dancing or some such pish.

On the other hand though, at least we had a time when television drama, particularly of the regional variety, was this strong. The films included are all terrific stuff and a bonus disc also includes interviews with Morrison and McDougall himself. It's full of interesting information, including the revelation that the main marching action in the brilliant JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY had to be filmed in Edinburgh (pretending to be Glasgow) because the sectarian problem in the west was so bad that they weren't allowed to film it in Glasgow.

At least since it took me so long to tell you about this release you should be able to get it really cheap in a sale now. Just be sure and do pick it up.

Bill Douglas (and St Andrew)

I feel rather ashamed that St Andrew's Day has come and gone (it was the 30th of November) and I failed to celebrate it (in blog form at least) by coming up with anything related to Scottish films. I'd like to say however that for once it wasn't my laziness - my internet connection has been down for the last several days. Honest.

With that in mind, I thought at the very least I could use this opportunity to point out that just recently (well, several months ago) the British Film Institute released on DVD the greatest Scottish film(s) ever made, in the form of THE BILL DOUGLAS TRILOGY.

Sadly these three represent three quarters of Douglas's entire feature-length film output, so we can only wonder at what might have been under different circumstances. That said however, the films that we do have are marvellous.

The three autobiographical films (of which the first, MY CHILDHOOD, is probably the best) tell of a young boy growing up after World War II in a poverty-ridden Scottish mining village (Newcraighall, just outside Edinburgh, if you're interested) as he gradually approaches adulthood.

The films are not just memorable for their starkly honest portrait of Scottish post-war poverty (after all, Scottish cinema specialises in tales of poverty and misery) but for being the most beautifully made Scottish films too. Being shot on grainy old black and white 16mm helps the films no end - MY CHILDHOOD in particular, despite being made in the 70s, truly feels like the 1940s) - but Douglas somehow still makes the barren wasteland of post-war Scotland look magical. Whether it's the rundown housing or the wide-open fields nearby, every shot is visual perfection.

The other films in the trilogy (MY AIN FOLK and MY WAY HOME) don't have quite the same gritty look about them but nevertheless encompass everything that was great about the first two films. If there's any flaw at all, it's that MY WAY HOME perhaps loses something by following the young lad's exploits abroad, which don't seem to have the same punch as the tales of his depressing Edinburgh childhood.

I should also single out one other aspect of the films that really boost the authenticity too, and this concerns the casting. While the actors are all terrific, what really stands out is the way the speak. I'm not just talking about what they say and how they say it (although that is true to life too) but also the accents.

The accents might seem like a small detail to focus on but I can't emphasise enough just how rare something like this is. Under normal circumstances Scottish films like this would be made up of a combination of people with BBC Scottish accents, people trying to sound like they're really working class Scots, and people who have west-coast accents. None of that here - every accent in the film is total authentic, unmistakably the voices you would expect to hear in a working class town in the east of Scotland.

Describing the accents perhaps could be a but misleading here mind you, as it gives the impression that there's a lot of talking. There's not - one of the most striking things about these films, particularly MY CHILDHOOD, is how little dialogue there is. That only adds to the poetic, art-house style of the films and really makes them stand out further against the pack.

These films are the most beautiful, lyrical films in the history of Scottish film (only Lynne Ramsay and Richard Jobson have really tried anything approaching this) and the BFI's DVD release is a must-own item, whether you're Scottish or not.