Naturally I've given this film blog a lot of serious thought in the last few days. I could - and will - pull up a short list of my favourite directors, ditto a longer list of my favourite films, and I even watched the BAFTAS on Sunday night, but an absolute all time favourite movie, that's going to be a challenge.
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| still from Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Wes Anderson) |
Also up there is Paul Thomas Anderson (no relation) with films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza to his credit. He is also the only director to have won the top prize at all three of the most prestigious international film festivals (Berlin, Cannes and Venice).
Honourable mentions should also go to Woody Allen (What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Annie Hall, Midnight In Paris, Blue Jasmine); Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Volver, The Skin I Live In, Parallel Mothers); Clint Eastwood (Play Misty For Me, Dirty Harry, High Plains Drifter, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino); Stephen Frears (Gumshoe, My Beautiful Launderette, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things, Philomena); Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, A Very Long Engagement, Micmacs); Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things); Richard Linklater (Dazed And Confused, Before Sunrise, School Of Rock, Before Sunset, Before Midnight); David Lynch (Eraserhead, Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks. The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive); Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, 1917, Empire Of Light); Anthony Mighella (Truly Madly Deeply, The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley): Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood); and Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape Of Water).
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| still from The Shape Of Water (dir. Guillermo del Toro) |
01) A Hard Day's Night (1964 dir. Dick Lester) The Beatles as their brilliant selves. Still the best 'pop' movie.
02) Amélie (2001 dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet) Audrey Tautou on the trail of the mysterious photobooth man.
03) Before Midnight (2013 dir. Richard Linklater) Third chapter in the Julie Delpy/Ethan Hawke love story.
04) Being John Malkovich (1999 dir. Spike Jonze) Surreal fantasy comedy with a portal into the mind of JM.
05) Contact (1997 dir. Robert Zemeckis) Every father of a daughter must love this Jodie Foster sci-fi tale.
06) The English Patient (1996 dir. Anthony Minghella) An epic and beautiful wartime love story.
07) Everything Is Illuminated (2005 dir. Liev Schreiber) Ukraine's dark anti-semitic wartime secrets revealed.
08) Fever Pitch (1997 dir. David Evans) Romantic comedy and best film not entirely about football ever.
09) High Fidelity (2000 dir. Stephen Frears) A fab Nick Hornby script. Men behaving badly to great tunes.
10) The Hour Of The Pig (1993 dir. Leslie Megahey) Colin Firth as a French lawyer during the witch trials.
11) The Lives Of Others (2006 dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) A STASI officer with a conscience.
12) Moonrise Kingdom (2012 dir. Wes Anderson) Anderson is a god and creator of universes.
13) Mulholland Drive (2001 dir. David Lynch) I'm still trying to figure this mind-fucker out!
14) Play Misty For Me (1971 dir. Clint Eastwood) DJ Clint battles psychopathic female admirer in thriller.
15) Poor Things (2024 dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) Fabulously conceived and acted take on Alasdair Gray's novel.
16) The Shape Of Water (2017 dir. Guillermo del Toro) Sally Hawkins falls in love with an Aquaman.
17) Starter For 10 (2006 dir. Tom Vaughan) James McAvoy in coming-of-age University Challenge comedy.
18) Summerland (2020 dir. Jessica Swale) Moving WWII evacuee story with an element of pagan magic.
19) Volver (2006 dir. Pedro Almodóvar) Penelope Cruz sizzles in Almodóvar's subtle, spooky best plot.
20) The Wicker Man (1973 dir. Robin Hardy) Best British horror movie. Director's cut recommended.
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| still from Summerland (dir. Jessica Swale) |
So we've come to the point in proceedings when I draw breath and name my own favourite film of all time. Mulholland Drive might lay claim to be "the greatest film of the 21st century" (quoting the results of a BBC Culture poll), Citizen Kane topped the critics' lists for decades as the best film of the 20th century, and The Shape Of Water is probably the most dazzlingly wonderful movie I have ever watched - but the brief was 'favourite', not 'greatest'. and so I'm going for the the film I've watched the most times out of my sizeable collection on DVD (and Blu-Ray) and that is... Fever Pitch.
Of course I mean the 1997 version starring Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell based loosely on Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, not the 2005 American remake with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. I probably watch it at least once a year, if not more. I suppose its appeal lies as much in the subject matter as in the performances, a romantic comedy based around a couple of teachers at a north London comprehensive school, one of whom happens to be obsessive about football and Arsenal FC in particular, and I have been there. I taught English at a north London comprehensive, have had romantic liaisons with fellow teachers, am mad about football - specifically Blackpool, but Arsenal would be my London team of choice - and bought a house to be near my club's stadium. Seriously, what's not to like about Fever Pitch?
Of the spate of clever, witty and stylish pre-Millennial English romantic comedies - Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors, Notting Hill et cetera - Fever Pitch is the one that does it for me.
Colin Firth (as Paul Ashworth, the popular, Arsenal-obsessed teacher) and Ruth Gemmell (as Sarah Hughes, the serious, nerdy school mistress) are excellent in the lead roles as oddly-matched lovers, as are Mark Strong and Holly Aird as their respective foils. The school scenes (lessons, staff meetings, football practice, parents' evenings) all shot on location at Fortismere School in Muswell Hill) are brilliantly evocative. Paul and Sarah's romance rises, falls, and nearly comes off the rails when she gets pregnant, all against the backdrop of the 1988-89 football season when Arsenal need to beat Liverpool at Anfield on the final day to win the league title for the first time in nearly twenry years.
The highs and lows of being in love, the crests and troughs of being a football fan are all there in this tightly scripted, frequently moving and often very funny romantic comedy whose soundtrack is also outstanding, from the La's "There She Goes" at the outset to Van Morrison's jubilant "Bright Side Of The Road" at the final whistle. Apparently the film is available in its entirety on YouTube, so you have no excuse.
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| still from Fever Pitch (dir. David Evans) |
The internet and streaming services have conspired to make cinemas and cinema-going a fringe entertainment activity nowadays. My local Odeon multiplex switched off its projectors for good two years ago, and the town that once had over twenty cinemas now has just one, showing films that mostly I don't want to see, all superheroes and CGI stunt craft. I prefer to go to the Island Cinema in St Annes, a small independent picture house.
Nowadays people seem content to watch films streamed to their TV sets, computers or phones. They watch them in the bath, in waiting rooms or while travelling, on tiny screens with headphones on. It's such an insular and degraded way to watch a film compared to the immersive and collective social ritual of sitting with hundreds of other people in a darkened picture house watching an epic creation in panavision on a huge screen with an all-embracing sound system. It's a great loss, and it prompted this latest poem about cinemas. It's not my finest effort but it celebrates those fast-disappearing places from a bygone era that furnished the indispensable and essential conditions to properly enjoy great movie-making as a shared experience.
Cine Qua Non
Some are in gowns and furs or 3-piece suits,
others in best frocks, or jackets-and-ties, All
are properly dressed up for a great night out
at their local picture palace or movie house,
ready to be taken out of their lives for a while.
Hats and coats left ticketed in the cloakroom,
they head for the circle or stalls, families out
for a birthday treat, dating couples, husbands
and wives, friends enjoying the weekly ritual
of the latest Ealing or Hollywood blockbuster,
clutching confectionary which they'll munch
in the dark, trying not to make too much noise.
It's a curious convention, these chocolate bars,
tubs of popcorn, hot dogs, all to be consumed
while watching a film - precursor of tv dinner.
They settle comfortably into concentric rows
of plush velvet seats, maybe a thousand in all,
for the auditorium is huge. They're like letters
in the curve of some old-fashioned typewriter,
waiting for its keys to be pressed, their senses
and emotions triggered by a thrilling script in
which screen idols, who earn more in a week
than they do in a year, will play out scenes of
love or war or slapstick comedy to have them
collectively gripped, gasping, laughing, even
crying. Witness the beauty and power of truly
immersive entertainment, a shared experience
they will talk about and relive in coming days
except maybe for those couples busily kissing
in the back row. And it's funny how everyone
will emerge smelling of cigarette smoke, and
not really mind, as they mill on the pavement
outside still under its spell, whatever they saw,
saying their good-byes, and wasn't it brilliant,
knowing that they'll be back shortly for more.
In the lost property office sit quite a selection
of umbrellas and gloves, spectacles in cases,
handkerchiefs lipsticks compacts and lighters
all awaiting collection. Plus the occasional bra,
they never get reclaimed, owners too ashamed.
Outside, before the doors are locked, a ladder
is propped against the marquee, the old letters
are coming down and next week's attractions
are being slotted into place on the light-box:
Heart of Darkness and The Last Picture Show.
Thanks for reading, S ;-)
3 comments:
An excellent bog and a credit to your 500th contribution. Well done. The poem is exquisite Steve. Keep on trucking' honey.
I'm glad you included Fever Pitch in your top 20, I remember that magic night well. 2 nil at Anfield awesome. As for my favourite film, that is a japanese film called Ran.
I like A Complete Unknown. I grew up with the music of Dylan, have seen him in concerts in Australia, both times l took my kids remember holding my daughter in my arms at an outside concert while Bobby sang Hard Rain and the heavens opened up raining on the crowd below it was just so good. His music was and is cutting edge. Go see this movie and wonder how good he is.
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