"Wel nigh flawless" oedd sut y disgrifiodd yr hanesydd ffilm Dave Berry, y comedi 'arddull Ealing', Rhosyn a Rhith (addaswyd gan Urien Wiliam o sgript wreiddiol Ruth Carter, Coming Up Roses), a ddangoswyd gan RTS Cymru Wales yn Sinemaes a reolwyd gan Screen Alliance Wales ar faes yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, a gynhaliwyd eleni ym Mhontypridd. 

Cynhyrchwyd y ffilm gan Red Rooster Films ar gyfer S4C, ac fe'i gosodwyd yn ne Cymru yn dilyn streic y glowyr yng nghanol yr 80au. Hon oedd y ffilm Gymraeg gyntaf i dderbyn rhyddhad theatrig, pan gafodd ei ddangos (gydag isdeitlau Saesneg) yn sinemâu'r West End a'i dosbarthu ledled y DU gan Canon ym 1987.  Wedi'i disgrifio fel "sweetly daffy" gan y New York Times a'i ganmol gan Philip French, beirniad ffilm yr Observer, fel "ffilm sylwgar ddoniol", roedd y ffilm wedi cael ei dangos yng Ngŵyl Ffilm Cannes ac wedi ennill gwobrau'r rheithgor yng Ngŵyl Gomedi Perrot D'Or y Swistir yn Vervey a'r International Children's Film Festival yn Chicago.

Yn serennu rhai o brif actorion Cymru, disgrifiodd sut y bu'n rhaid i sinema yn y cymoedd gau, gan wneud y taflunydd (Dafydd Hywel) a'r cynorthwyydd hufen iâ (Iola Gregory) yn ddiangen.  Yn yr wythnosau cyn eu cau fe wnaethon nhw lunio cynllun rhyfedd i dyfu madarch yn rhannau tywyll llaith y sinema i dalu eu dyledion.  Lleoliad y ffilm oedd Sinema Rex Aberdâr, ychydig filltiroedd o Bontypridd, oedd eisoes wedi cau erbyn i'r ffilm gael ei gwneud.  

Mewn trafodaeth banel cyn y sgrinio, dan gadeiryddiaeth Dr Elain Price, darlithydd Cyfryngau Prifysgol Abertawe, fe ddisgrifiodd Mari Emlyn, a chwaraeodd 'June' yn y ffilm y glaw di-ddiwedd yn ystod y saethu a sut roedd cyfarwyddwr Americanaidd y ffilm, Stephen Bayly, wedi awgrymu iddi wylio Iola Gregory 'yn ofalus iawn gan fod y camera yn ei charu'.  Hefyd ar y panel, nododd Comisiynydd Drama S4C, Gwenllian Gravelle sut mae'r darlledwr wrthi'n datblygu partneriaeth allweddol gyda Ffilm Cymru a Cymru Greadigol i hyrwyddo prosiectau ffilm yn y dyfodol.  Yn olaf, nododd Elain Price sut arweiniodd strategaeth ffilm gynnar S4C yn y pen draw, o fewn y degawd nesaf, i gyfres o enwebiadau Oscar.

Hywel Wiliam

 

 

“Well nigh flawless” was how the film historian Dave Berry described, the ‘Ealing style’ comedy, Rhosyn a Rhith (adapted by Urien Wiliam from Ruth Carter’s original script, Coming Up Roses), which was screened by RTS Cymru Wales at Sinemaes, a pop-up cinema on the National Eisteddfod field, managed by Screen Alliance Wales and held this year in Pontypridd, South Wales.

Produced by Red Rooster Films for S4C, the film was set in south Wales in the aftermath of the miners’ strike in the mid-80s. It was the first Welsh language film to receive a theatrical release, when it was screened (with English subtitles) in West End cinemas and distributed across the UK by Canon in 1987. Described as “sweetly daffy” by the New York Times and praised by Observer film critic Philip French as “a funny observant film”, the film had been shown at the Cannes Film Festival and had won jury awards at the Perrot D’Or Swiss Comedy Festival in Vervey and the International Children’s Film Festival in Chicago.  

Starring some of Wales’ leading actors, it described how a cinema in the valleys had to close, making the projectionist (played by Dafydd Hywel) and ice cream attendant (Iola Gregory) redundant.  In the weeks before closure they devised a bizarre scheme to grow mushrooms in the cinema’s damp dark interior to pay off their debts.  The film’s location was Aberdare’s Rex Cinema, a few miles from Pontypridd, which had already closed by the time the film was made.  

In a panel discussion before the screening, chaired by Swansea University Media Lecturer Dr Elain Price, Mari Emlyn, who played ‘June’ in the film described the seemingly never-ending rain during the shoot and how the film’s American Director, Stephen Bayly, had suggested that she watched Gregory ‘very carefully as the camera loves her’.  Also on the panel, S4C’s Drama Commissioner, Gwenllian Gravelle set out how the broadcaster is currently developing a key partnership with Ffilm Cymru and Creative Wales to promote future film projects.  Finally, Price noted how S4C’s early film strategy eventually led, within the next decade, to a series of Oscar nominations. 

Hywel Wiliam