Beyond the Roundels

I picked this up from scifirenegade, and apparently it's taken me a month to answer the last couple of questions and tidy it up, so most of this I wrote in July. Also, I was all: yay! A film meme, and I've actually watched good films recently, so I shall not have to resort to all the very weird things I watched as a teenager... and then every other answer was still one of those things. (I'm so sorry. My A-Level tutors have a lot to answer for.)


What's the most depressing movie you've ever watched?

I really couldn't think of anything specific, but then I remembered - I found Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind incredibly depressing for some reason. My friends I went with liked it, even N who hates anything depressing, but I came away bleaked out to a degree that I haven't ever wanted to rewatch it to find out why I had a reaction so very at odds with everyone else's. I think perhaps I saw a different film. (My media studies teacher, of whom more shortly, would say that I did.)


What's the most disturbing movie you've ever watched?

We watched something for media studies A-Level, part of watching films made in or set in the 1950s that I can't remember the name of, but I was not prepared for the creepy sequences and all the dead rabbits. I've thought for years this was Hope & Glory (1987), which we also watched, but clearly I smushed that up in my head with an Australian-set film.


... Okay, Googling suggests that what I remember is Celia (1989), which is a horror film, so no wonder it was disturbing. Well, thank you, [Media Studies Teacher Who Looked just Like Uncle Andrew in the Pauline Baynes Illustration of The Magician's Nephew]! He didn't tell us it was a horror film! I was expecting social history drama. (I am bemused that I apparently quite specifically remember Hope & Glory down to the cover image, but ZERO content from it, while having vivid images in my mind from Celia but ZERO memory of the title or the fact that there were two films I'd combined.)



An actor/actress you've seen in more than 8 movies? Name the movies.

LOL, I don't want to even think about how many actors must qualify as the answer to this question. I've watched almost all of the Carry Ons multiple times. I've seen enough Hammer films that both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee must count. I've followed several actors about on purpose and accidentally been stalked by others.

Anyway, if I look at actors I have deliberately followed, then the top three for films are: Jeremy Northam (14 and counting), Margaret Lockwood (14 and counting) & James Maxwell (12, but I think barring 1 thing I haven't seen with a brief cameo, that is it, I have now watched all his films; I'm dedicated to my old telly blorbo.) I have also watched 8 for Alfred Burke, but the less said about at least half of those, the better.

... so, 8 for Jeremy Northam, which has included some truly lovely things; following him upped the average quality of Films I Have Seen In My Life quite considerably in the last year alone. In probably roughly approximate ranking order, but don't quote me on it, it will change tomorrow:

1. Gosford Park
2. Enigma (2001)
3. The Winslow Boy (1999)
4. Dean Spanley
5. Glorious 39
6. Amistad
7. Happy, Texas
8. Mimic (1997)
& (...who's counting?) Emma (1996)

And eight for Margaret Lockwood & a wave to my 1930s UK film voyages, which were, overall, a lot of fun, in a way none of my previous attempts to watch Old Film ever were:

1. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
2. Bank Holiday
3. The Wicked Lady
4. The Slipper and the Rose
5. Highly Dangerous
6. Jazzy
7. The Beloved Vagabond
8. The Man in Grey (this is vv dodgy to say the least, but gives excellent ML.)
also Love Story (1944), but only for the Patricia Roc/Margaret Lockwood bits.


A film you could watch on repeat for the rest of your life?

None. I am a great rewatcher of films, but if I've watched them too many times, I have to ration out rewatches carefully, because I wouldn't want to make myself sick of a dearly beloved favourite.


What's the very first film you remember watching?

The terrifying black and white comedy that involved a poisoned Christmas cake that I have no idea what it was and which may not even have been a film.

Possibly in actual films I definitely remember watching, Carry on Henry. My parents do feel bad about this, but wee me loved it a lot, so they let me.


A film you wish you hadn't watched?

Probably the other media studies A-Level one we had to watch that was nothing but people forming themselves into family photograph-style tableaux, but we never finished that because after two or three lessons, our teacher had mercy and said we could stop. Apparently the full length thing was 3 or 4 hours or something. I'm sure it was important art or whatever, but it was certainly not enjoyable. (I tried googling this one too, but none of the options I got could possibly be whatever it was we watched. It was a real thing though!)


A film you wish had a sequel?

I have some mixed feelings about Inkheart, but I really wish they had done the sequel(s) with that cast, because I love some of the weird meta and darkness that the last two books get into, although they would have needed some thinning down to be made into a movie-shape.

I think I've heard that Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves was intended to become a franchise, and it was such fun that'd I'd very much have been up for that. Honestly, they keep making everything into a franchise, so I don't see why they had to stop with something that might actually have lent itself to a being a really entertaining fantasy series.


Which book would you like to see adapted into a film?

Good question. ;-p I mean, I think I'll have to be obvious and say that someone really ought to do at least one decent Heyer adaptation some time. I don't know which ones - would the best ones translate well, or would it be better to go for something that has more shenanigans or one of those comic set-pieces at the end?


The most aesthetically pleasing movie you've ever watched?

My mind has been blank for a month. I have definitely seen some very pretty films in my life. I should have an answer, but I don't. I'm not waiting another month to post this meme.


What's your favourite movie director?

I don't know. I think I'd need to follow them about and consider it more. In terms of pretty much the only director I have actively looked out for, when I started watching old UK 1930s & 1940s films, I rapidly started plumping for anything by Carol Reed wherever I had the option to get it, but even there, I think I saw only the start of his career, ditto the Hitchcock stuff I saw at the same point. I just liked Reed's way with light (and Margaret Lockwood.)

I should chase a few more directors about, probably. I'll have to look at who did my favourites and work from there.


Your favourite movie genre?

Fantasy, in theory. In reality, there's usually a limit to what people can do with 1 film in that regard, and TV series are a better option.

So, in practice, probably historical of one sort or another, really, which covers so many different types of films, and includes a lot of favourites, even more so if we include contemporary films that were historical by the time I watched them.


A movie that holds a special place in your heart?

Schindler's List. I find this hard/embarrassing to explain, becausemost people did not watch it in the middle of doing A-Level history on totalitarian states, but I did, and I needed to see something true where some people survived. I was getting stressed and depressed from all the terrifying Nazi Germany documentaries, and memorising death totals for different totalitarian states, and then my history tutor arranged for us to see this in the college lecture theatre as a special showing. I'd wanted to see it two years before, when it came out, and missed it, so I went. And it is such a beautifully and carefully made film, and it merges with the documentaries in my head: all that happens feels like things that people talked about in them: I can't separate them. I don't rewatch it very often, not for years now, because I'm not studying totalitarian states any more and obviously it isn't something to watch lightly, but also it does live in my head already.


Your favourite comedy film?

Hmm - maybe Down With Love? It's such much fun, such a joyous parody, and really commits to the bit. A continuing delight for 20 odd years.

In roms coms, I've remained very fond of While You Were Sleeping and Music & Lyrics.

And in honour of my misspent youth, I ought to nominate a Carry On, but which one?? Carry On Cabby? Cleo for the one-liners? Up the Khyber for the final sequence? I think I'll have to settle for Cabby. It's got Hattie Jacques's favourite part, it crosses over Carry On with my unwilling love for kitchen sink/New Wave film of the 1950s/60s. I had to watch it lots of times for Media Studies as well (that bit was my fault, not my Media Studies Tutor who is haunting this post), and still liked it by the end.


A music video you would love to see developed into a film?

LOL, I so rarely actually watch music videos, although I know you do get some that are mini-films these days. It would have been funny if someone c.1992 or whenever had developed one of those OTT music videos like Total Eclipse of the Heart or Stay, into whatever sort of weird fantasy/gothic vampire epic they actually wanted to be, I suppose. I don't suppose it'd be good, but they'd definitely be bring-your-popcorn bad.


A film everyone loves but you hate?

Well, in super-popular films that I didn't enjoy - Forrest Gump. I never wanted to see Tom Hanks again afterwards, which was very awkward for at least a decade, because he was in everything, lol. (Sorry, Mr Hanks. Undeserved.)

I watched it late at night with my uni housemates and when it got to the running part and that went on and on and on and on, I gave up and went to bed. Probably if I hadn't been trying to watch it when I needed to go to bed I might have been a tad more patient with it, but I don't think it was for me, not then anyway. Maybe one day I'll check it out again to see if I was unfair or not, but there are a lot of other films in the world I haven't seen that I need to get onto first.


A film you love but everyone else hates?

The 1980s Supergirl! I knoooooooowww but I got it on DVD a couple of years ago and it made me SO HAPPY to have this admittedly dodgy film back in my life and I refuse to apologise. It's mine, go away. ;-p


Which cinematic universe would you like to live in?

An unrealistically nice one with a sunny palette? Or at least, say a rom-com, where everything'll be reasonably okay, and not a horror/SFF/thriller/historical where I would probably die in the background in a 2 second cameo.


What's your favourite biopic?

I'm not sure, but I was rewatching Made in Dagenham (2010) this week to maybe let it go after, but then all I discovered was why I liked it so much when I watched it. (It's about the Ford Sewing Machinists' Strike of 1968 by 187 women for 3 weeks that ended up leading to the Equal Pay Act of 1970, and it's really well-handled, and despite being labelled a comedy, I'm not entirely sure it is; it's quite painful and sensitive in many parts, in a good way.) Does that count?

But if it does than Pride would count as well, and obviously that would win, because I love that a lot.


Mainstream movies or indie movies?

Both, surely?


Old movies or contemporary movies?

Both, again. But since, I suppose, even these borderline 21st C films I've been watching for Jeremy Northam of late must now count as old, then I must say, in practice, old. But part of that is a) actorly blorbos and b) accessibility. Current films are elusive beasts to track down in the wild if you don't do streaming on a regular basis and can't go to the cinema.


A film with an amazing soundtrack?

I think the only film where I loved the soundtrack so much I had to go out and buy it (on cassette, ahem), was The Phantom Menace by John Williams, so I suppose that had better be my choice, even if there are also lots of other great soundtracks. I really like Gosford Park's (and I don't just mean Jeremy Northam's singing, heh), and Rachel Portman's for both Nicholas Nickleby and Emma (1996) are both lovely and distinctive enough that I immediately recognised, when I rewatched Emma last year, that I'd really loved her work in something else.