Film director: Tourist numbers in capital out of control
The cast includes some of the country’s hotly-tipped rising stars and Edinburgh is also showcased in the long-awaited Our Ladies movie out this week.
But director Michael Caton-jones, who loved filming in the city, fears the influx of tourists must be monitored or the city risks losing something special.
He said: “Since I was young to now, the huge difference in Edinburgh is the amount of people there, the amount of tourists. To my mind, it’s out of control. You can’t see the place too well. You don’t want it to be empty but I think it’s overdone. It’s a bit like Florence and Rome at the moment.”
Caton-jones, who directed the film only to see its release sabotaged by lockdown, relishing working in Scotland’s capital: “The purpose of choosing any location is to create an emotional reaction and the beauty of Edinburgh is you can choose places that reflect whatever you want to say, whether it be old and grand or scruffy or whatever. There’s so much variety, I could have shot Our Ladies five different ways and it would have looked different every time.”
Based on The Sopranos by Alan Warner, Our Ladies follows a group of Highland schoolgirls on a raucous, life-changing day trip to Edinburgh for a choir contest. It received rave reviews at its film festival premieres in London and Glasgow pre-pandemic, but its general release has been delayed 16 months due to lockdown.
One of the film’s stars, Tallulah Greive, admits she wondered if it would ever be seen on the big screen, but is delighted film bosses decided to wait for cinemas to reopen rather than release it elsewhere.
“I’m so excited. During the pandemic and everything that was going on, I did wonder what was happening to the film but that obviously wasn’t the most important thing going on,” she said. “I’m really pleased Sony waited to put it into cinemas and hopefully now people can go with their friends.”
The 23-year-old from Edinburgh says the six actors have remained close friends since shooting the film in 2018. “We are all really close to each other,” she said, “and I feel very lucky to have had such a magic experience.”