Comfort and Joy (1984 Bill Forsyth & scr)

Gentle, warm-hearted and amusing film seems to exhibit the flavour of the French New Wave from the opening shots of kids' faces at a department store window, and particularly in the moment that Bill Paterson spots Clare Grogan in an ice cream van and follows her. And the fate of his car and especially the moment the roof collapses seems a direct reference to Bande à Part.

Anyway Forsyth clearly likes people - all the sparring ice creamers are in the same family. And Paterson is so excited about his successful brokering of a peace he forgets all about the girl... Forsyth also likes little details (e.g. all the fictitious news reports that run throughout; the horrible rabbits) and off-the-cuff comments, and the Italiano-Scottish thing is funny. More about the film here.

I remember finding Housekeeping rather dark but I wonder if Breaking In with Burt Reynolds is worth watching ... although it's written by someone else (John Sayles)..