GFF 2021: Eye of the Storm
Anthony Baxter (Flint, You've Been Trumped) follows the great Scottish painter James Morrison over the last two years of his life as he struggles with failing eyesight and poor health
James Morrison’s artistic method might be boiled down to this: go somewhere and tries to paint exactly what you see. Whether that meant painting a sublime Arctic horizon or a crooked Glasgow alleyway, the task was the same. He rejected any attempt to have political, social or spiritual meanings attached to his work – it simply was what it was, an attempt to render his own perception of the world into tangible form.
Anthony Baxter's Eye of the Storm takes a similarly unobtrusive approach, largely relying on Morrison’s own words and footage of the stunning Scottish scenery that he painted to tell his story. Both are hugely effective. Morrison is a gifted speaker, talking with the same unfussy precision as he paints, and the cinematography does justice to the turbulent countrysides which he is most known for.
But what makes the film so compelling is the same thing that elevated Morrison’s work. Something human creeps into even our best attempts to be objective, the creator’s thumbprint peeking out from beneath the paint. As the film begins, Morrison’s eyesight is fading to the point that he struggles to paint. His beloved wife has passed on; the Arctic he saw has melted from existence; the Glasgow he knew has been built over, re-made almost beyond recognition. What the film becomes then is something much like his paintings – a snapshot of the world as it was briefly held in one person’s eye.
Eye of the Storm has its world premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, screening 28 Feb-3 Mar
Released 5 Mar by Cosmic Cat