‘God Help The Girl’ at 10: Stuart Murdoch reflects on his cultish beloved debut movie
For most artists, the spark of a new idea would simply be the beginning of another new album. Or perhaps, if it was slightly outside of their usual realm, it might be the birth of a solo undertaking of some sort. But for Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, something different landed in his head, demanding a new project, a new voice, and a whole new art form. From the first glimmer of God Help The Girl, he knew it was something else entirely.
“It goes all the way back to 2003 which is over 20 years ago. I was out on a run while on tour with the band, and I heard this song in my head like a radio switching on, and it was the tune to ‘God Help The Girl’. That was the start of it,” Murdoch said, “I didn’t feel like something I was going to sing or do with the band, so I thought, well, what should I do with it?”
Recalling the origin of the idea, that first tune would eventually give its name to a feature film. Released in 2014, God Help The Girl was Murdoch’s debut and only feature. It was a concept that came to him in an instant and then quickly became a project far bigger than he’d first anticipated. “It was like I’d opened a window for a different kind of music to come in. I started compiling more and more songs that were stung by a female vocalist, and then she became a kind of character,” he explained.
What started out as a strange song in his head, sung by someone other than himself, morphed into other figures, a plot and a whole cinematic world for it to live in. “I kept putting them aside, then on a break from touring in 2006, I sat down with them all and started writing a screenplay to join them all up together.”
The crafting of God Help The Girl was refreshing. Working with this character, who had taken the shape of Eve, a young girl who left a psychiatric hospital, found new friends and started a band, gave Murdoch a whole new process where he was more of a composer now he was no longer the subject. “That was the fun part,” he said, recounting a summer spent crafting songs on morning cycles, spending afternoons on the screenplay and using each evening to watch more and more films, borrowing inspiration from the likes of John Hughes, new wave classics and corny musicals.
“I think it was liberating doing things in a different way,” he added. “It’s almost like I heard them complete, rather it being about my situations and about my emotions or working them out through the music. It was almost like I could stand back and paint a little picture.”
The picture he painted is a gorgeous one. The end result of God Help The Girl is a gloriously twee musical where Wes Anderson-esque pastel-dripped visuals fill scenes, and each still could be an artistic snapshot. Packed with considered little details that elevate the entire movie either through sentiment or silliness, its finish is polished but not overdone, maintaining the liberating, DIY air that built it.
“It took five years to get there, but then we only had five weeks to shoot the movie,” Murdoch said. “We were pushing trolleys around the west end of Glasgow with the cameras, running around to make the schedule and save the tiny budget,” he remembers with a fond smile, “It was a little bit hectic.”
He remains humble about his role at the centre of the project. There is no arguing that a project on this scale, with a soundtrack of songs and a screenplay written by him, all contributing to an adventurous movie musical directed by a first-timer, is a triumph that Murdoch should be incredibly proud of. But still, he places all his gratitude and credit at the feet of his time, especially his trio of leads.
“I think actually directing the movie was the thing that I was most unsure about,” he said. “But the thing I was sure about was those guys and that there was an understanding between me and them. They were sure-footed when it came to the characters; they knew them, so I knew I didn’t have to direct them too much, and that was fun.”
Emily Browning brought Eve to life, finally actualising the character that first popped into his head almost a decade prior. “She was such a pro, and I could really rely on her to make everything better,” he said of the actor. The film also starred Olly Alexander as James, with Murdoch playing a role in unearthing the future Years and Years pop star. His memories of Alexander’s early career stand out as something incredibly dear to him as he said, “It’s clear that he had music in every vein of his body. And I would, at some later day, I would love to write a musical just for him, you know, because he’s so versatile, he’s so fun to work with.” The third part of the film’s charismatic unit was Hannah Murray as Cassie, with Murdoch smiling at the memory of her passion for the joyous project, having just come out of her dark role in Skins; “I think she really loved God Help The Girl.”
I really loved God Help The Girl, and I still do. Since I first watched the movie as a teenager after seeing stills from it on Tumblr, the project has remained one of my favourite films. When I tell Murdoch that, he seems overjoyed with a kind of enduring relief that the movie found its intended crowd. He tells me that, originally, it really didn’t due to a botched distribution job and marketing plan. “They were trying to flog it to Belle and Sebastian fans and Guardian readers who were basically 40-year-old guys. They were like, ‘This film wasn’t funny. I didn’t get it. I didn’t get what the point was. Are you going to shoot it again?’” he said, remembering bad reviews and early screenings.
Adding: “But when we went to Sundance, and when people actually saw the film without prejudice and without it being sold to just Belle and Sebastian fans, so when the right sort of crowd saw it of young people and women, they got it.”
However, that experience of needing to stay focused on the fans that matter and his own personal pride in a project was one that Murdoch was more than used to. While the film, from its earliest spark, had existed as something outside of the Belle and Sebastian world, its release brought him full circle back to his own origins. “I went through the same experience when my band started. The mainstream press hated us. They thought we were weak and trivial,” he said.
“But I was fine with that. I said to myself it doesn’t matter. We just keep making records, and if there are some people who want to see us, and we’ll just build our audience from there. And it was the same deal with the film.”
Just like the band, which blew up into one of the most cultishly beloved indie troupes out there, God Help The Girl did the same, finding its own cult of fans who still love the movie and its music for all their sentimental twee power, even ten years after its release.
