Comfort and Joy

Dir: Bill Forsyth

1984

****

During the 1980s writer/director Bill Forsyth was the dependable king of quirk in British cinema. Comfort and Joy came just a year after his critically acclaimed hit Local Hero, and while it only had a fraction of the budget, it still pulled out all the stops and its release was rather timely. Bill Paterson stars as a radio disc jockey whose life undergoes a bizarre upheaval after his girlfriend leaves him and he witnesses an attack on an ice cream van in the middle of Glasgow. A few days before Christmas, Glasgow radio disc jockey Allan "Dicky" Bird is stunned when Maddy (Eleanor David), his kleptomaniac girlfriend of four years, suddenly announces that she is moving out. His doctor friend Colin (Patrick Malahide) tries to console him, but Bird is heartbroken. One day, he goes for a drive to take his mind off his troubles. Noticing an attractive girl, Charlotte (Clare Grogan), in the back of a "Mr. Bunny" ice cream van, he follows it under a railway bridge on a whim and when the van stops, purchases an ice cream cone. Just like in Alice in Wonderland, our protagonist has followed a rabbit through a tunnel, with sometimes bizarre consequences. To his amazement, three men drive up and proceed to smash up the van with baseball bats. The occupants retaliate with squirts of raspberry sauce. By sheer chance, Bird finds himself involved in a turf war between rival Italian ice cream vendors: the young interloper Trevor (Alex Norton) and the older, more established "Mr. McCool" (Roberto Bernardi). As an admired local celebrity, Bird meets with McCool and his sons Bruno, Paolo, and Renato. He then goes back and forth between them and Trevor and Charlotte (later revealed to be McCool's rebellious daughter), trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Various misadventures follow, with his red BMW convertible suffering more and more damage each time. Bird becomes obsessed with resolving the war. To contact the combatants, he starts broadcasting coded messages on his early morning show, causing Hilary (Rikki Fulton), his boss, to ask his secretary if Mr. Bird's contract includes a "sanity clause". Hilary then orders Bird to see a psychiatrist about the Mr. Bunny he keeps trying to reach. In the end, Bird proposes that the rival entrepreneurs, who turn out to be uncle and nephew, join forces to market a new treat: ice cream fritters. Both sides are impressed by the product's potential. It appeals both to Trevor's fish and chips frying background as well as Mr. McCool's ice cream expertise. Since Bird alone knows the secret ingredient of the ancient Chinese recipe, he cuts himself in for 30% of the gross as well as repairs to his abused car. During the credits, he is heard trying to record a commercial for the new product: "Frosty Hots". The thing was, that there really was an "Ice Cream War" in Glasgow in 1984, and it led to murders within the city. It was really a drug-land turf war by gangs who used ice cream vans as a front. The deaths of van-driver Andrew Boyle (who had resisted being involved in drug dealing) and his family happened in April 1984, four months before Comfort and Joy was released, and as star Bill Paterson acknowledged, this had an impact on the film's reception: "It wasn't a great time to launch a light-hearted look at the ice-cream business in Glasgow." The cinematography is brilliant, especially given the low-budget and the soundtrack by Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler suited the film perfectly. The script is as sharp and witty as audiences had learned to expect from Bill Forsyth and the overall unconventional absurdity of the film was warmly received. It has aged rather well too. It was well received across the UK but Comfort and Joy really should be regarded as a Scottish classic as it is something of a love letter to Glasgow as most of Forsyth’s films are.