My Ain Folk (1973)
Director:
Bill Douglas
Writer:
Bill Douglas (writer)
Runtime:
55 min
Country:
UK
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Sound Mix:
Mono
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070424/
My Ain Folk is a much darker film, and is perhaps Bill Douglas's greatest film. The family seems to become more extended and dysfunctional than ever: nameless adults come and go, only stopping long enough to shout and fight and disappear in a cloud of repressed emotion and self-hatred. The awful spectre of Jamie's 'bad' granny looms over the film: a more spiteful - and perhaps pitiful -character I have yet to see. This film has a force that is literally physical.
Douglas shows the effects of grinding poverty and emotional abuse on his alter-ego, Jamie, played by the late Stephen Archibald, and his half-brother Tommy. This is a world of casual brutality, where hopes are routinely stifled and where almost everyone suffers in silence. There is a palpable sense of nameless loss and grief permeating almost every frame of these films.
My.Ain.Folk.(Bill.Douglas.1973).avi 