Born in Glasgow, Forsyth, years later, was educated at Knightswood School. Upon leaving at the age of seventeen, he answered an advertisement for a "Lad required for film company" and spent eight years making short documentary films.
Forsyth first came to attention in writing and directing a low-budget feature. This was the 1979 British comedy film 'That Sinking Feeling'.
The film was made with youth theatre actors and featured a cameo appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner, the Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts Richard Demarco.
Two years later, the relative success of the prior film was carried to a far higher level by Forsyth's next picture. This was the 1981 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film 'Gregory's Girl'.
It featured some of the same young cast as before, in particular Scottish actor and novelist John Gordon Sinclair, as well as the debut of Scottish actress and singer Clare Grogan.
'Gregory's Girl' was a major hit and won a BAFTA for Best Screenplay at the 34th British Academy Film Awards. It also won a nomination for Best Direction.
Two years later, Forsyth wrote and directed the first of his successful films of which he is best known. This was the 1983 Scottish drama/comedy-drama 'Local Hero'.
Produced by British film producer and educator David Puttnam, the film tells of up-and-coming Houston oil executive "Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) who gets more than he bargained for when a seemingly simple business trip to Scotland changes his outlook on life.
Sent by his crackpot boss Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) to the small village of Ferness, Mac is looking to quickly buy out the townspeople so his company can build a new refinery. But after a taste of country life, Mac begins to question whether he is on the right side of this transaction.
'Local Hero' was later rated in the top one hundred films of the 1980s in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade.
The film put Scottish cinema on the map with its delightfully eccentric culture-clash comedy, riffing on popular representations of Scottish life and folklore.
However, 'Local Hero' later had the reverse effect it had on 'Gregory's Girl' regarding accolades: 'Local Hero' won a BAFTA for Best Direction at but was only nominated for Best Screenplay.
This occurred at the 36th British Academy Film Awards. Later that same year, however, the film won Best Screenplay, but this time from the 49th New York Film Critics Circle.
Roger Ebert later said of the film: "Here is a small film to treasure, a loving, funny, understated portrait of a small Scottish town and its encounter with a giant oil company. The town is tucked away in a sparkling little bay, and is so small that everybody is well aware of everybody else's foibles."
The following year, Forsyth wrote and directed his next film: the 1984 Scottish comedy film 'Comfort and Joy'. The film tells about a Glasgow radio DJ caught in a rivalry between ice cream companies, which again featured Grogan.
The film was later nominated for a BAFTA for Best Screenplay at the 37th British Academy Film Awards.
Three years later, Forsyth wrote and directed the second film of which he is best known: the 1987 American drama/comedy film 'Housekeeping'.
Diane Keaton agreed to star and based on this Canon Films agreed to finance. However, Keaton pulled out six weeks before filming and Cannon withdrew finance. "That was one horrendous week," Forsyth says
Adapted from the titular 1981 domestic fiction novel by American novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson, 'Housekeeping' was Forsyth's first American work.
Set in Idaho during the 1950s, the film follows two young sisters Lucille (Andrea Burchill) and Ruth (Sara Walker). Both come to live with their off-the-wall Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) after their mother commits suicide by driving into a lake.
From sleeping on park benches to methodically stacking tin cans into pyramids, Sylvie's quirks are at first hard to get used to.
While Ruth eventually grows fond of the woman's irrepressible spirit, Lucille starts to resent her aunt's behavior -- especially when it brands them as outcasts among their small town's perplexed residents. And yes, it is the film in which Lahti invites a guest into a living room half-submerged in water.
Ebert later said of the film: "But “Housekeeping” is not a realistic movie, not one of those disease-of-the-week docudramas with a tidy solution. It is funnier, more offbeat, and too enchanting to ever qualify on those terms."
Forsyth was a favoured director of Puttnam during his term as Columbia Studios chairman.
Seven years later, Columbia released the 1994 British-Japanese comedy-drama film 'Being Human'.
Written and directed by Forsyth and starring Robin Williams and featuring John Turturro, the film was about a man developing throughout his life. It featured scenes from pre-history, Ancient Rome, 16th-century Spanish conquistadors and modern-day New York City, New York.
However, the film was not released fully due to bad reviews, and is currently his lowest-rated film to date.
Five years later, Forsyth wrote and directed the 1999 British comedy-drama film 'Gregory's Two Girls'. The film was a sequel to 'Gregory's Girl', as well as the second installment of the franchise. Here, Sinclair starred in and played the same character again, albeit to later mixed reviews.
The difficulties in obtaining finance, the problems in securing distribution, and the ill-fated encounter with the American film industry are unfortunately all too typical of the experience of a number of British film-makers in recent years.
As early as 1983, British film and Emmy-winning television producer Colin Vaines spoke of Forsyth's "unique style: a combination of off-beat humour, precise observation of character, considerable warmth and charm, and an underlying seriousness".
That such a director has been restricted to eight feature films in twenty-three years is indicative of the structural defects relating to production, distribution and exhibition that have hampered British filmmakers since the 1960s.
Forsyth is consistently described as quirky and droll, but has mastered the art of the unexpected since the release of his first film.
As with his subsequent features, the story is a comedy with the underpinnings of a moral tale from which the film's youthful protagonists will learn a lesson or two about life.
Forsyth has been active from 1980–present.
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