130 Years
What Sir Walter Scott did for Hollywood
On Thursday 4th October 2018 we had a talk by David Bruce.
He was introduced by our Chairman Prof. Peter Garside.
David Bruce is a former Director of the Scottish Film Council and of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He is also a former Director of the British Universities Film and Television Council, where he developed a particular interest in film as a resource for research, and which led during his time at the Scottish Film Council to the foundation of the Scottish Film Archive, now part of the National Library of Scotland as the ‘Moving Image Archive’. He was Chairman of the Historical Group of the Royal Photographic Society (of which body he is a Fellow), and of the Scottish Society for the History of Photography.
His books include, Sun Pictures the Hill–Adamson Calotypes; Edinburgh Past and Present (with the late Maurice Lindsay); Scotland – the Movie; Photography and the Doctor; Greatrex, the true story of the photographer and forger pursued by a Glasgow cop to New York in 1866; and Letters from the Winding Nile based on correspondence from a Glasgow merchant who, in 1856–57 set out to see the sights and confirm the truth of the Bible.
Synopsis: It is an extraordinary fact that in the early years of cinema, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the novels of Sir Walter Scott provided the basis for hundreds of films. This was of course in the days of silent cinema and there is irony in that the author’s words could only appear briefly as inter-titles on screen, and it would be many years before they would be heard, as cinema acquired sound. David Bruce explores the phenomenon of why Scott’s works were so popular in this crucial period in moving image culture.
‘What Sir Walter Scott did for Hollywood’ began, many years ago, as a piece of light entertainment, but gradually acquired more gravitas as it was subjected to scrutiny and comment by a succession of audiences. It also widened out to include writers other than Scott whose contribution to cinema, and whose influence through cinema on our own culture, may have significantly affected us – for better or worse.
Download the [Transcript] - includes images
Share on social media
