This film, about Gesto house, a ruin on the Isle of Skye, was made by me more than 5 years ago. It is a film that sought to explore ageing, passing time and the fragility of narrative.
The title of this film “Is the old so ruined? You find you’re in a flock” was taken from a poem by Robert Browning as included by A. S. Byatt in ‘Possession. A romance.’
The film begins with audio of an interview with the poet Iain Crichton Smith. In this excerpt Crichton Smith responds to the criticism he had from Edwin Morgan, later Machar. Morgan described Crichton Smith as a “narrow poet”. I am with Crichton Smith that such a charge is wrong.
I dedicated this old film to Alexander McCall Smith for writing to me to say that he found my films “very beautiful”
The following passages are from ‘How the World thinks’ by Julian Baggini:
