My Life On Film

I recorded yesterday a film that I have admired for some time.

It so happens that it is a film shot on location on the island of Hoy in Orkney, the largest of the Orkney islands. It is separated from Orkney proper by Scapa Flow, an area of water that has for much of the 20th century been the location for the Home Fleet, very much the subject of this film, called The Spy In Black. It is an early work of Michael Powell, made in 1939 before he became better known as a filmmaker after he had teamed up with Emeric Pressburger. Powell and Pressburger films have become synonymous with quality British films, and many of their collaborations are considered among the finest of British films of their period.

When Michael Powell worked alone as a filmmaker, he was often fascinated with life in Scotland, and his personal output reflects this fascination.

This film is a good example, as it depicts accurately the life of people living in Orkney during the First World War, and the plot hinges around German attempts at placing a spy on the island.

In the event, this attempt fails miserably, as a counter-espionage plot means that numerous German submarines are sunk as a consequence of this failed attempt.

It is a fascinating film for me, as I am very familiar with the locations for the film, which is perhaps surprising, given that the area depicted is sparsely populated, and not perhaps a place commonly visited by tourists.

But it so happens that it is a part of Scotland with which I am very familiar, because for two years, I was responsible for the International Young Composers course, during which the composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies invited young composers from across the world to spend a fortnight on his island home, learning from him by completing a composition that was performed by an ensemble of musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

It so happened that I was the person responsible for organising that course, and for all of the arrangements that enabled it to take place.

As it was located on Sir Peter’s Island home, and since he lived close to The Old Man of Hoy, which is an important location in the film, this is unusually familiar to me as a location.

In the film, the German spy is intended to be the schoolteacher at Longhope, a small settlement at the eastern end of the island.

A small steamer delivers the schoolteacher to the island close to this settlement, and it is with some irony that I recognise the landing place, as it was the same landing stage at which an audience arrived to listen to the results of the composition course, held during the St Magnus Festival on the island of Orkney, of which Sir Peter was the patron.

And thus I would spend a fortnight or so myself at this end of the island, being hosted by a family that lived only a stones throw from that school house.

It is a fine film, and I am glad to add it to my collection.

Strangely, another film again that collection is a version of the Thomas Hardy novel, Jude.

Whilst I worked for the Scottish chamber Orchestra, I lived in Edinburgh, and it is a strange coincidence that the flat where I lived for three years, placed on the second floor of a block of four period apartments, was used as a location for that film.

In the story, Jude works as an apprentice stonemason, and the yard below my kitchen window, was used as the location for the stonemasons yard in the film.

In reality, it was a simple cobbled yard in which a garage provided services specifically to the owners of Citroen 2CVs, and strangely enough, I had cause to use this garage regularly, since I owned one of these vehicles.

And so, it is most peculiar to see this simple yard transformed into a set for this part of the film, but most gratifying to preserve this memory of my flat in Edinburgh.

I believe other parts of the film used Edinburgh for its locations, as it provides a wonderful period setting for an 18th-century town.