With the Oscars fast approaching, I thought it was time for a sequel of sorts to last year’s Favourite Films meme. I quite like the Q and A memes, although it’s not so much fun when you’ve made them up yourself. Anyway, there’s fourteen questions in all.
The Oscars. Are you bothered?
Not really, although I’d love it if Peter O’Toole got one. I haven’t seen Venus yet, but I hear good things about it.
A really good film you’ve seen recently, although nobody else has seen it or even heard of it
There’s a film called The Assassination of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn. Although depressing, I thought it was one of the best acted and most moving films I have seen for years.
The worst film you’ve paid good money to see
The second Bridget Jones film. I thought it was so dreadful, a film devoid of any charm or humour. I hated it and declared so loudly as I left the cinema.
Most pretentious film you’ve paid good money to see
There’s so many. The Piano probably. And Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books.
A film you’ve rented on video or DVD and turned off very quickly, shouting “this is awful!”
The second Matrix film. I’d really been looking forward to it as I loved the first Matrix but this was just terrible, terrible. Most of my DVD rentals are disasters. A friend of mine is an actor and he was in The Libertine with Johnny Depp. I only rented it because I knew he was in it, but couldn’t watch more than half an hour of it.
A film you know you should watch but you’ve never quite got round to seeing
I had The Mission starring Robert De Niro on video for exactly ten years before I gave up and taped over it. Most recent films by Ken Loach I always state loudly that I want to see, although secretly I don’t. I usually do quite well with serious, acclaimed or worthy films though. I’m a great fan of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Earliest cinematic experience
My parents took me to see Oliver! at the Wimbledon Odeon when I was four or five. I loved it (and still do).
Teenage memories
When I was 14, I rented a video of An American Werewolf in London with some friends when my parents were out. The main reason was because we’d heard about a rather raunchy sex scene with Jenny Agutter. We weren’t disappointed.
Strangest cinematic experience
I went to see The Passion of the Christ on my own. The only other people in the cinema were a man who walked out and a woman who wept uncontrollably throughout the film. I kept thinking “leave woman! Leave if this is so painful for you!” but maybe that’s partly the point of the film.
Is there a film that you’ve been waiting to see again for years that’s just vanished from the face of the Earth?
Bartleby, based on Herman Melville’s classic, made in the ealy 1970s I think. It’s about an office clerk who goes slowly mad. He keeps saying “I’d rather not, sir”. Paul Scofield is in it. I’m hazy on other details. I saw it once on TV when I was about 15 and I’ve been waiting for it to be repeated again. There’s a recent remake but that one’s to be avoided. Also a film of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich starring Tom Courtenay that’s completely vanished.
Your cinematic obsession that bores everyone else to tears
Horror films from the 60s and 70s. My wife hates them, even ones that are now considered classics like The Wicker Man. I tend to watch them on my own now, or with a friend – although he’s now gone to live in Cambodia. Perhaps he was trying to tell me something.
Someone else’s cinematic obsession that you’ve gone along with
Years ago, a friend was obsessed with Russ Meyer films and was always dragging me along to see them. If that wasn’t bad enough, a woman I used to work with was equally obsessed with John Cassavetes films and would drag me to see them. Meyer won out probably, at least his weird audiences were always amusing to observe.
Anyone from the world of cinema that you have a real love/hate relationship with?
Woody Allen. He’ll hate me for this, but I really do prefer his earlier, funnier films. Also Quentin Tarantino, who I can love, hate or be indifferent to depending on my mood.
I was going to end with favourite movie, but I can’t decide! So I’m going to narrow it down by picking a particular genre out of the hat:
Favourite romantic movie
When Harry Met Sally. Or Annie Hall. Or, for the ending at least, The Graduate. An American Werewolf in London.
As a child in the late 1970s I used to pass the derelict shell of Merton Park Film Studios in South West London on my way home from school. On particularly daring occasions, a few of us would climb over the wall and boldy trespass, charging round the huge empty building that was once the birthplace of detective dramas and low budget science fiction films…
The local area always seemed perfect for the low budget imagination. Wimbledon Common was ripe for alien invasion (and there was a film called Invasion made in 1966 starring Edward Judd). There also appeared to be countless sleepy little train stations ready for a secret rendezvous; Merton Park station itself often featured in the Edgar Wallace B-movies. Locations for chases either on foot or by car were rich pickings. Vast metal footbridges soared over twin railway lines for running about on, police cars would race up and down Kingston Road with sirens rattling away. I don’t live in South West London any more, but whenever I see these old films I love spotting the Merton Park locations.
Merton Park Studios closed business in 1967, beaten into submission by its rival: television. But television’s been kind to Merton Park over the years, repeating Edgar Wallace Presents and the other Edgar’s (Lustgarten) The Scales of Justice in late night slots. Actors including Michael Caine, John Thaw and Stanley Baker owe their early film appearances to Merton Park.
I suppose you can really find film locations wherever you look. I now live in Bristol in the West of England and interestingly, for me at least, Bristol has often been used as a double for London in films. For example, the Richard Burton film The Medusa Touch, although claiming to be set in London, was really filmed in Bristol in 1978 – the Cathedral at College Green doubling up for Westminster Abbey. I drive past College Green in Bristol every day and always think of Richard Burton causing havoc in The Medusa Touch.
Bristol also provides locations for the TV series Casualty, and has in the past for Shoestring and The Young Ones. I found out about The Young Ones connection when I was doing some work for a local website, and since then I’ve discovered that it’s become something of local folklore. Some friends often argue with themselves over whether a particular episode (featuring the Young Ones leaving a pub in a scene lasting about two seconds) was filmed outside The Cock O’ the North or not. That’s the pub opposite Waitrose, by the way.
According to the Internet Movie Database, Bristol also provided the location for Darling, Only Fools and Horses and Robin of Sherwood. And let’s not forget the seminal doom and gloom 70s children’s series The Changes. So it was with some interest that I approached the new drama series on E4, Skins, when I read that it was set in and around Bristol.
All I can say is oh dear, oh dear. Apart from some very unimaginative location work, Skins was franky awful and the only highlight for me was spotting Harry Enfield as an angry dad (a character I depressingly identified with). Are teenagers really that irritating?
So I returned to my memories, desperately trying to locate clips from Edgar Wallace Presents on YouTube. Alas, all I could find was the other Edgar (Lustgarten) introducing The Scales of Justice but without any sound. I’ve resorted to this exciting trailer for The Medusa Touch, with additional French subtitles. Have I gone crazy? Come on, it’s Friday night.
Yes, that’s a brief glimpse of a Bristol street. And something not quite right at Bristol College Green. Sorry – I mean Westminster Abbey.
Variations on this meme have been doing the rounds, although I first saw it at Stainless Steel Droppings.
Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
Anyone reading my recent posts will know that I’m currently juggling all three of them, but horror probably wins as my favourite.
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Hardbacks when I can, trade paperbacks when I can’t. Hardbacks if I were a rich man.
Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Amazon is always easiest, until you get home from work and you’ve had a missed delivery, or a parcel is soggy from being left in the rain. Trips to bookshops are more exciting, especially when you don’t quite know what you’re going to come away with.
Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Borders, and my daughter enjoys our weekly visit.
Bookmark or Dogear?
Bookmark. Show some respect! People who dogear are also the type of people who borrow books and never return them. They are also the people who tear the last chapter out of a really long book they are reading to take on holiday.
Alphabetize by author Alphabetize by title or random?
Sounds nerdy, but often by genre, or keeping new fiction in one place and classics in another.
Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
Keep forever. My wife is always threatening to clear out lots and lots of books. My solution is to buy an additional bookcase.
Keep dustjacket or toss it?
Keep forever.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Keep forever. If I’ve gone to the trouble of purchasing a hardback I will want the dustjacket to go with it. Removed dustjackets remind me of when I worked in a library and always wondered where they’d go…
Short story or novel?
Novel I guess, although I’d like to make the effort to read more short stories.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Harry Potter I’m afraid, although I’m growing increasingly bored with him. I didn’t like the Lemony Snicket film, but I suppose that isn’t a proper introduction. After all, I think the Harry Potter films are terrible.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I always try to get to chapter breaks, unless I fall asleep, but then maybe I shouldn’t be reading a book that does that to me. The sign of a good book is when you keep saying just one more chapter.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
A dark and stormy night, as it usually is.
Buy or Borrow?
I always feel nervous about borrowing books, probably because I hate lending them. Let’s face it, you rarely get them back. True confession: I once stole a book back.
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
Recommendation, which for a long time was only a trickle of books per year. Until blogs came along. Also browsing, and I’ve found some real gems in secondhand and charity shops.
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Anthologies of different authors (when I get round to reading more short stories).
Golden Age SF or New Wave SF?
Increasingly New Wave.
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Ambiguous ending. Did they get away with it or are they going to slip off the edge of the cliff.
Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
I have a slight visual impairment so I need lots and lots of natural light. I’m best at morning reading, although I never find the time. Ditto for afternoon reading, so the most reading I do is at night. By then my eyes are tired and I struggle with lights and lamps. Sigh.
Standalone or Series?
I like a good series, a trilogy to indulge yourself in like His Dark Materials. I’m currently wading through the Gormenghast novels. You might have noticed!
New or used?
I love brand new books, although there is nothing better than an old but lovingly cared for book. Read and cherised by a bookmark and not dogear reader…
