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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony
Lee editor of Pigasus
Press
Gallivant
Director: Andrew
Kötting
99 minutes (15) widescreen 16:9 BFI Video
review by Gary
Couzens
In 1995, documentary filmmaker Andrew Kötting made
a 13-week, 7000-mile journey round the coastline of Great Britain,
beginning and ending at Bexhill-on-Sea. And for much of the way, his
90-year-old grandmother Gladys and his seven-year-old daughter Eden
accompanied him. Eden has Joubert's Syndrome, which restricts speech and
movement (she communicates mostly in sign language, which is subtitled for
our benefit). Few Joubert's children live to see
adulthood.
Gladys (who steals every scene she's in)
and Eden make for engaging company in an enjoyable documentary. Kötting
seems to have made a point of seeking out 'characters' at every stop, for
example the proud proprietor of the award-winning superloo at Kyle of
Lochalsh. Gallivant is a celebration both of British eccentricity and the
country's landscape (which, filmed in Super 16mm, is often beautiful to
look at). Gallivant rather overdoes the tricksiness (fast motion,
jokey inserts and other techniques) and is a little overlong, but is worth
sticking with. The final scene at journey's end, with Gladys and Eden,
both for different reasons nearing the end of their lives, is very
poignant.
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