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From the director of the beloved Local Hero: ‘Pure Simple Joy’ is an apt way to describe this deceptively meek, completely endearing Scottish film with a universal theme about adolescence and the reality of teen love. John Hughes’ teen pix do not hold a candle to the innocent charm found here. The gawky yet boundlessly optimistic Gregory falls head over heels for the teenaged wonder girl of his dreams… his only problem is that she’s light years ahead of him in terms of maturity. But the female social system takes on the problem in what must be the most gentle (make that Utopian) view of high school ever. Writer-director Bill Forsythe struck independent hit gold.

Gregory’s Girl

Blu-ray

Film Movement Classics

1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / 20.05

Starring: Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Jake D’Arcy, Clare Grogan, Robert Buchanan, Billy Greenlees, Alan Love.

Cinematography: Michael Coulter

Film Editor:...

All five digitally restored classics will play theatrically in 2019, 2020.

Film Movement Classics has acquired North American rights to five renowned or unusual films including Peter Seller’s little-seen directorial debut Mr. Topaze, Luchino Visconti’s final film L’innocente, and Bill Forsyth’s beloved Gregory’s Girl.

The roster includes Bruno Barreto’s erotic comedy Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands, and King Hu’s Raining In The Mountain.

Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg said all five films will get limited theatrical releases starting this year, followed by release on home entertainment and digital platforms.

Mr. Topaze was recently digitally...

All five digitally restored classics will play theatrically in 2019, 2020.

Film Movement Classics has acquired North American rights to five renowned or unusual films including Peter Seller’s little-seen directorial debut Mr. Topaze, Luchino Visconti’s final film L’innocente, and Bill Forsyth’s beloved Gregory’s Girl.

The roster includes Bruno Barreto’s erotic comedy Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands, and King Hu’s Raining In The Mountain.

Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg said all five films will get limited theatrical releases starting this year, followed by release on home entertainment and digital platforms.

Mr. Topaze was recently digitally...

"Hard work being in love, eh? Especially when you don't know which girl it is."

It was a film without much of a plot, set in a little Scottish town where youths seemingly roamed around freely without a care in the world. Unless you were an awkward teenager by the name of Gregory, of course.

Bill Forsyth's cute 1981 comedy became a surprise hit around the world, and has now been given a makeover in a DVD and Blu-ray re-release. So, after 33 years, does the film still resonate today?

Gregory's Girl star Clare Grogan: 'We didn't expect lasting legacy'

The thing about Gregory's Girl that still resonates, is that not much happens. Compared to high school comedies of the past decade or so, where it's all risqué shenanigans and slapstick situations, this film is relaxed and easy-going, just like John Gordon Sinclair's Gregory himself.

Forsyth's filmmaking style is at its finest here,...

Gregory's Girl has been restored for a new DVD and Blu-ray release.

The classic 1981 British comedy from director Bill Forsyth will be released in widescreen for the first time on May 5.

It will also be made available as a digital download from April 21, and video-on-demand from April 28.

The DVD and Blu-ray will also include several special features, including new audio commentary from Forsyth and film reviewer Mark Kermode.

Forsyth and actress Clare Grogan will also appear in new interviews, while the alternative Us audio soundtrack will also be featured.

John Gordon Sinclair stars in the coming-of-age comedy as a gawky teenager in a struggling school football team, who becomes infatuated with Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), the latest member of the team.

It was ranked at number 30 in the British Film Institute's list of the top 100 British films, and was nominated for four BAFTAs, winning the prize for Best Original Screenplay.

Watch...

Nobody wants to rock the boat when it comes to reassessing the classics, but face facts: Gregory's Girl is clunky, 2001: A Space Odyssey is never-ending, while Dirty Dancing is still brilliant

A few weeks ago I watched The Searchers, the 1956 John Ford horse opera that is routinely described by critics as one of the greatest films of all time. In 2008 the American Film Institute named it the finest western ever, as well as the 12th best American movie, while the British Film Institute slotted it in at number seven on the all-time greatest list.

Are these guys serious? The Searchers, which deals with a mysterious, morally ambivalent Johnny Reb's relentless quest to find – and perhaps kill – a niece abducted by marauding Comanches, is padded out to epic length with all sorts of daffy comedy. The gags and slapstick fistfights undercut the serious message of the film: that most white...

Scottish ministers have backed a plan to close down a school which was used in the classic film Gregory's Girl.

Earlier this year, North Lanarkshire Council approved plans to shut Abronhill High in 2014, before transferring students to Cumbernauld High.

Councillor Jim Logue said: "I welcome the Scottish government's decision and I am delighted that their review has found that our proposals will provide immediate educational benefits from merging the two schools.

"I have sympathy for parents and pupils involved who have expressed concerns about the impact of these changes.

"However, I would like to reassure them that we have considerable experience in successfully managing transitional arrangements."

Local community members had disapproved of the plan, as the closure may disrupt pupils' education, along with the school's cultural history.

Jamie Hepburn, Snp Msp for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, said he was "disappointed" by the decision.

"I am fully aware how upset both parents...

Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already played in the Us, other times it will be films that won’t make it to the Us for a good while yet, and from time to time you’ll read about films that will never make it to the Us at all. John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan were this week reunited at the Glasgow film festival for a 30th anniversary screening of the truly brilliant Gregory's Girl (sort of a Scottish Rushmore but even better) . The Guardian took this snap of them all, as they are now. Wonderful.

Thirty years after it won hearts the world over, the cast of Bill Forsyth's classic teen romance come together for an emotional anniversary screening

It was the kind of fanatical reception that they all assumed would be forever reserved for "real" movie stars. But last Sunday, 30 years after the quiet man they used to call "Bill the van driver" directed them together in a tiny low-budget Scottish film about a schoolboy's unrequited first love, the cast of Gregory's Girl walked up the red carpet to a sea of jostling TV cameras, flashing paparazzi bulbs and thrusting autograph hunters at the anniversary screening of what has become one of the most loved British films of all time.

The enduring allure of the film that catapulted Bill Forsyth into the British film industry elite has surprised no one so much as its stars, most of whom were in their teens when they made it.