Murray Grigor

Directing

Murray Grigor

Born

1939-01-01 (87)

Place of birth

Inverness, Scotland, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

43 titles

William Alexander Murray Grigor OBE (born 1939) is a Scottish film maker, writer, artist and exhibition curator who has served as director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He has made over 50 films with a focus on arts and architecture documentaries.

Known for

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet poster
6.8

Billy Connolly was, in the 1970s, a sort of Scottish Lenny Bruce, who, with devastating humour, sliced through the hypocrisies he perceived. This 1976 documentary follows the singer-comic during his 1975 Irish tour. Made in a cinema verité fashion, the performer appears to be completely unaware of the presence of the camera in his off-stage and backstage moments.

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet

1977

Mackintosh poster
7.0

The life and work of the Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Mackintosh

1968

Designed Beings poster
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Designed Beings

1976

In Search of Clarity: The Architecture of Gwathmey Siegel poster
7.0

Charles Gwathmey has held steadfast to the spirit of modernism in his architecture from the day he successfully built his parents' home in 1967 based on the theories of Le Corbusier and American individualism. Avoiding the nostalgia of fashionable postmodernism throughout the eighties, Gwathmey partnered with Robert Siegel, and their firm continues to create innovative houses, corporate, institutional and university buildings across America. This documentary ranges from the deMenil villa on the dunes of Easthampton to their Guggenheim Museum addition. We hear from such leading architects as Philip Johnson and Peter Eisenman, and from filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who describes how a journey through a Gwathmey Siegel house creates the same sense of drama as a well-made movie.

In Search of Clarity: The Architecture of Gwathmey Siegel

1995

The Sean Connery Paradox poster
7.3

Having become a world star thanks to James Bond, Sean Connery, who died in 2020, has never stopped trying to shed the image of a sexy and slightly brutal macho that stuck to 007. A look back at an eclectic career, carried out with panache.

The Sean Connery Paradox

2022

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Oasis

1976

Film credits

Behind the camera

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet poster
6.8

Billy Connolly was, in the 1970s, a sort of Scottish Lenny Bruce, who, with devastating humour, sliced through the hypocrisies he perceived. This 1976 documentary follows the singer-comic during his 1975 Irish tour. Made in a cinema verité fashion, the performer appears to be completely unaware of the presence of the camera in his off-stage and backstage moments.

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet

1977

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet poster
6.8

Billy Connolly was, in the 1970s, a sort of Scottish Lenny Bruce, who, with devastating humour, sliced through the hypocrisies he perceived. This 1976 documentary follows the singer-comic during his 1975 Irish tour. Made in a cinema verité fashion, the performer appears to be completely unaware of the presence of the camera in his off-stage and backstage moments.

Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet

1977

Mackintosh poster
7.0

The life and work of the Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Mackintosh

1968

Designed Beings poster
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Designed Beings

1976

In Search of Clarity: The Architecture of Gwathmey Siegel poster
7.0

Charles Gwathmey has held steadfast to the spirit of modernism in his architecture from the day he successfully built his parents' home in 1967 based on the theories of Le Corbusier and American individualism. Avoiding the nostalgia of fashionable postmodernism throughout the eighties, Gwathmey partnered with Robert Siegel, and their firm continues to create innovative houses, corporate, institutional and university buildings across America. This documentary ranges from the deMenil villa on the dunes of Easthampton to their Guggenheim Museum addition. We hear from such leading architects as Philip Johnson and Peter Eisenman, and from filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who describes how a journey through a Gwathmey Siegel house creates the same sense of drama as a well-made movie.

In Search of Clarity: The Architecture of Gwathmey Siegel

1995

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Oasis

1976

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh poster
7.7

The screen legend conducts a personal tour of the great city that shaped him.

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh

1982

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh poster
7.7

The screen legend conducts a personal tour of the great city that shaped him.

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh

1982

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh poster
7.7

The screen legend conducts a personal tour of the great city that shaped him.

Sean Connery’s Edinburgh

1982

No artwork available
NR

Life at Fettes College, Edinburgh.

Fettes

1970

BLAST poster
NR

Overview of Vorticism, a radical art movement of the early 20th Century.

BLAST

1975

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Semaphore

1976

No artwork available
NR

The North West of Scotland, seen through the eyes of a young couple taking a Spring break. Starting off in Ullapool, the film shows a fishing trip to the Summer Isles, a drive in the mailbus from Badcall bay to Glencoul, the ferry crossing at Kylesku, a ceilidh near Scourie and many landscape shots, including Suilven and Stac Polly. Also known under working title ASSYNT.

Suilven Spring

1974

Cumbernauld HIT poster
NR

A James-Bond type fiction film about an evil woman's plans to 'hi-jack' the New Town of Cumbernauld. Sponsored by Cumbernauld Development Corporation, this film is an original take on the 'promotional' films produced for Scotland's New Towns during the 1970s.

Cumbernauld HIT

1977

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Automobiles

1976

The Great Wall: Lovers at the Brink poster
NR

In the twilight years of the Cultural Revolution, a Chinese filmmaker slowly becoming blind tours the country screening her last film to peasants. In it, the woman imagines two "alien" lovers walking from end-to-end along the Great Wall to join each other in the middle, one last time. This documentary is an adaptation of Ulay and Marina Abramovic's final collaborative project, the 1988 performance "The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk."

The Great Wall: Lovers at the Brink

1989

The Great Wall: Lovers at the Brink poster
NR

In the twilight years of the Cultural Revolution, a Chinese filmmaker slowly becoming blind tours the country screening her last film to peasants. In it, the woman imagines two "alien" lovers walking from end-to-end along the Great Wall to join each other in the middle, one last time. This documentary is an adaptation of Ulay and Marina Abramovic's final collaborative project, the 1988 performance "The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk."

The Great Wall: Lovers at the Brink

1989

No artwork available
NR

The process of making refractory bricks.

GR Stein Refractories

1972

Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner poster
7.2

Infinite Space, a documentary feature film, traces the lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.” It is the story of brilliance and of a complicated life – and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century.

Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner

2008

Hand of Adam poster
NR

A study of the works of the Scottish architect Robert Adam.

Hand of Adam

1975

No artwork available
NR

Is Mise an Teanga is about Gaelic, its contemporary poets and their encounters with 100 visual artists in The Great Book of Gaelic - a Book of Kells for our time. Is Mise an Teanga is a living portrait of a language in flux

I Am The Tongue

2003

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Gestures

1976

Space and Light poster
9.0

An award-winning wordless documentary that explores the architecture of the then new St. Peter's Seminary which is now seen as one of the most important post-war buildings in the United Kingdom. The film was made in celebration after architect Jack Coia was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1969. Winner of the Medalla de Bronce at the Fifth Union of International Architects Festival in Madrid (1975).

Space and Light

1972

The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright poster
9.0

Documentary on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.

The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

1983

The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright poster
9.0

Documentary on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.

The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

1983

The Living City poster
NR

A portrait of Edinburgh, accompanied by the Picturesque notes of Robert Louis Stevenson, 1878.

The Living City

1984

A SPORT FOR ALL SEASONS poster
NR

Film depicting participation in sports for all ages and abilities in Scotland, briefly touching on the need for provision of such activities.

A SPORT FOR ALL SEASONS

1976

Maltamour: Slips in Time With Random Selections by Eduardo Paolozzi poster
NR

Artist Eduardo Paolozzi explores idiosyncratic aspects of the culture and history of Malta in this unique experimental tourist film.

Maltamour: Slips in Time With Random Selections by Eduardo Paolozzi

1973

Clydescope poster
7.0

A panorama of the Clyde, from Biggar to Brodick, with Billy Connolly as your guide. Directed by Murray Grigor for the Films of Scotland Committee.

Clydescope

1974

Clydescope poster
7.0

A panorama of the Clyde, from Biggar to Brodick, with Billy Connolly as your guide. Directed by Murray Grigor for the Films of Scotland Committee.

Clydescope

1974

No artwork available
NR

Travelling the Scottish Highlands by bus.

Travelpass - It's Just the Ticket

1973

Sir John Soane: An English Architect, An American Legacy poster
8.0

All great art engages in a dialogue with the past. Architecture is no exception, as this film shows in its examination of the legacy of Sir John Soane (1753-1837), an English architect of rare genius whose influence on a generation of America's foremost architects is profound.

Sir John Soane: An English Architect, An American Legacy

2005

No artwork available
NR

Myths of tartanry exploded

Scotch Myths

1983

Ever to Excel poster
NR

The history and development of St Andrews University, Scotland, on the occasion of its 600th anniversary, and the story of how its graduates have shaped the modern world.

Ever to Excel

2012

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, murray grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Transformation By Color

1976

Mackintosh Redux poster
NR

Mackintosh Redux is a restored version of the original 1968 film Mackintosh, also directed by Murray Grigor. Mackintosh Redux was scanned to 4K from original 35mm preservation materials of the 1968 film Mackintosh held in the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive. It was then re-mastered by the Moving Image Technical and Preservation Manager, Alan Russell. Murray Grigor, the director of the original film, had Frank Spedding’s original score re-recorded by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Rory Boyle at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Although keeping to the main framework of the 1968 film there are now a number of new shots edited in and others that were dropped; subtitles added to inform the music sections and a revised narration assessing mackintosh in the history of architecture.

Mackintosh Redux

2019

No artwork available
10.0

Murray Grigor’s award-winning film on Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's architecture.

Nineveh On the Clyde: The Architecture of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson

—

No artwork available
NR

Sequence of animations and random footage (Olympic torch lighting, rituals etc) which were "based on ideas of Hans Hollein; created for the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum's opening exhibition: Man transForms", 1976. Nine designers worked with Hans Hollein in the "MAN TRANSFORMs" exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design: Nader Ardalan, Peter Bode, Buckminster Fuller, Murray Grigor, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Karl Schlamminger, Ettore Sottsass, and Oswald Ungers.

Dressing

1976

No artwork available
NR

A look at the industries of Scotland.

Prospect of Scotland

1975