Everything I learned I learned from the movies. Audrey Hepburn
Chin chin! That's Jessica Chastain leading the toast, not Audrey. Yes - it's one year to the day that I brought 'Filmic Forays' into being with a maniacal cry of 'It's alive!!!' And while I don't entirely agree with the lovely Ms Hepburn, films have made quite the impact on my life - hence this blog. So to celebrate EFF making it to One (it'll be wearing big-boy pants before you know it), here are a few highlights from my own movie-going experience - the kind that made me want to talk about film in the first place.
Escape from the Dark - 1976
The first cinema excursion that I remember took place during my summer holidays, 1976. My parents had taken me to see a short called Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, but we were late and I only saw Pooh's final ten minutes. I was gutted and had no interest in sticking around for some feature about kids rescuing pit ponies, but this forgotten Disney film hooked me with ease. I loved it so much that to this day I remember the main theme (jaunty number played by a Yorkshire brass ensemble). It's full of adventure and friendship and has a happy-sad ending. You see, the oldest of the pit ponies has been down there so long that he's lost his sight, and... No, sorry, I can't even talk about it all these years later. Anyway, it now goes under the title of The Littlest Horse Thieves, in case you want to hunt it out and have a good cry.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - 1982
You know those near-transcendent moment of cinema, the ones where your spirits rise and all your vital signs speed up and you know you're going to leave the cinema on a natural high? Well the first of those I ever experienced was during E.T. It was specifically the moment where Elliott and his friends all lift off the ground on board their bikes due to E.T.'s telekinetic powers and escaped from their pursuers. I'd gone in that evening knowing that I liked cinema - but I exited knowing I loved it.
Footloose - 1984
Footloose isn't the best teen movie, the best dance movie, or the best Kevin Bacon movie ever made. It is, however, the film my friends and I went to see at the Iveagh cinema, Banbridge, on the evening after we'd finished our O-levels. And it summed up how we all felt. Like we wanted to dance forever. Lose - your blues. Everybody cut footloose. Timeless, I think you'll agree.
Queen's Film Theatre, Belfast - 1986-2005
I took out QFT membership on starting university in 1986 and kept it up for almost twenty years. I've probably seen more films in that venue than at any other (Thursday night was this film fan's arthouse night), including world cinema and lots of classics made before I was born. QFT wasn't always as salubrious as in the photo; their motto in the '90s was 'We're doing our best', which as advertising slogans go doesn't inspire huge confidence. ('We know we're a bit crap but bear with us' would have been no less effective.) However I loved the place, particularly their seasons of late-night black and white films with a complimentary half of Guinness. King Kong has never tasted so good.
Watershed, Bristol - 2000-2003
In the early Noughties I visited a friend in Bristol on several occasions, each time taking in a film at the Watershed cultural centre. It seemed a charmed place for me, because I never saw a dud there. In fact I kept taking in bona fide classics like Donnie Darko and Memento. They also serve great nachos in the cafe - or at least they did a decade and a half ago. Maybe it's the same chef today. Good times.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - Christmas 2001/02/03
It's not cool and it's doubtless not the mark of a true cinephile, etc. etc. - but I bloody love these films and they made Christmas special all over again for three beautiful festive seasons. I missed what had become a Yuletide event in 2004, but happily director Peter Jackson and his extended team provided more seasonal joy in 2005 with their magnificent King Kong remake. Ian McKellen facing off with the balrog, an army of marching trees, Sam's devotion to Frodo - precious memories. Precious. No?
Chatham Odeon 2013 - present
Yes I know it's got slightly more romance than Rosemary's Baby, but it's where my ongoing affair with cinema chiefly plays out these days. It's where I saw Lincoln, The Martian, Nocturnal Animals and most recently IT. The staff are lovely and if you're feeling extravagant they put Oreos in the popcorn. There's comfortable seating too, so you can have a nap during the likes of The Hitman's Bodyguard. Can't say fairer than that.
It's been a splendid cinema-going twelve months, all the better for getting to share it with you. Yes, you. And with Mother!, The Death of Stalin and Star Wars: The Last Jedi all on the way, well - we've only just begun.
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