Former Edinburgh International Film Festival curator Mark Cousins and Scottish actress Tilda Swinton (Narnia's ice queen) have sent out an open invitation to a special spontaneous, 4 minute dance event based on Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West dance (see video).
Here's the relevant bits of their open invitation:
"On Saturday 26th June 2010, at around 10.45am, come rain or shine, having had our porridge, we're gonna meet at Festival Square, Lothian Road, Edinburgh. We'll chat, read papers, suck a lolly, whatever. Then at exactly 11am, music will start - The Avalon Boy's soft shoe ditty "At the Ball". It's a song from Laurel and Hardy's funniest film Way Out West. In the film, Stan and Ollie do a wee dance, which is rubbish compared to Cyd Charisse or Gene Kelly, or any trained dancer, and yet it's one of the most charming, amusing, gentle, child-like musical numbers in the whole of cinema history.
And so, in tribute to Stan and Ollie, and to the wee boys inside them, and to their movies, and to dancing in public, in Edinburgh, in the rain (possibly), and in pure unabashed celebration of doing something as a group and looking like dafties... in tribute to all of this, when the music starts at 11am, we will put down our newspapers and our adult selves, and do the Laurel and Hardy dance from the film...
And we need you to join us. Especially if you are
- 81/2 years old
- or 85
- or an accountant
- or passing by
- or on the number 16 bus - STOP THE BUS!
- or Alex Salmond
- or an Edinburgh International Film Festival movie-goer
- or in high heels
- or grumpy
- or bevvied
- or a bit bewildered by the fact that the bell clock has moved from one side of Lothian Road to the other
- or if you've just bought a talking point lamp from Ali's Cave
- or you don't usually dance in public
If you don't join us we will look like total fools - not the first time.
Yes, we will all bump into each other, and yes it'll look nothing like those flash mobs you see on youtube. But it should be very amusing.
SO WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO?
YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE DANCE. You have two weeks. Maybe invite pals round and learn it together? We're spending our waking moments learning the footwork and twirls and dinky bits, but we are so busy laughing that it's taking a while.
You'll find the dance at the fab website www.laurel-and-hardy.com. Go to Downloads and you can watch the dance - on your computer or even on your mobile.
The film also stars James Finlayson, the great Stan and Ollie foil, who played in 33 of their films, who was born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, and went to George Watson's College and studied at the University of Edinburgh. He had the famous fake moustache and his catchword was "dohhhhhhh!"
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
We're doing it for fun, and to give a laugh to passers-by who don't know that it's happening. We're also doing it to launch our new 81/2 Foundation.
We've talked a bit about this foundation before, but on this day, Saturday 26th June, we will raise its velvet curtain. The dance at 11am is the first bit of the curtain raiser, then at 1.15pm, in Filmhouse 1, during the wonderful Edinburgh International Film Festival, we will dance a bit and talk about our foundation, and reveal our brilliant team, and announce some of our films and some of our locations, and answer questions. Then we'll show one of the loveliest films ever made, by maestro heartbreaker Mohammad Ali Talebi - 80 minutes, suitable for all ages, miss it at your peril - and then we will chat about the film, and then we'll go for a picnic if it isnae raining, and then we might have a swally. http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/whats-on/2010/8-1-2-foundation
THE IMPORTANT BIT
This latest idea, the 81/2 Foundation, has been massively supported by the National Lottery Inspiring Communities Fund through the Scottish Arts Council. They liked our thoughts and have helped us make them happen. We're delighted.
Thanks for your time, pals and press. Please learn the dance and come to the screening.
Mark and Tilda x"