ascunnerdarkly:

Since 2011 I’ve been writing introductory notes for screenings of classic & contemporary films at The Station Restaurant in Aberdeenshire. The idea is dinner & a movie.  A three course meal is served before the feature with the food chosen to match the film being shown when possible. Film Mobile Scotland, a company dedicated to bringing the cinema experience to rural areas, provide the films while the restaurant area has been fitted with a cinema screen and surround sound. So far they’ve shown over fifty movies ranging from silent era films, classics from the Golden Age of Hollywood, to more recent fare. Here’s a list of every screening so far. I may also add my accompanying notes for certain films.

Season 1

 Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Some Like it Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)

The General (1926, Clyde Bruckman)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, Blake Edwards)

The Black Pirate (1926, Albert Parker)

Midnight in Paris (2011, Woody Allen)

Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)

The Artist (2011, Michel Hazanavicius)

The Italian Job (1969, Peter Collinson)

The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols)

The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell)

 Season 2

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011, Lasse Hallstrom)

The Angel’s Share (2012, Ken Loach)

North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)

Anna Karenina (2012, Joe Wright)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012, John Madden)

Skyfall (2012, Sam Mendes)

Pillow Talk (1959, Michael Gordon)

Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)

The Hobbit (2012, Peter Jackson)

Life of Pi (2012, Ang Lee)

Les Miserables (2012, Tom Hooper)

The Impossible (2012, J.A. Boyona)

Lincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg)

Quartet (2012, Dustin Hoffman)

Song for Marion (2012, Paul Andrew Williams)

Talaash (2012, Reema Kagti)

Hitchcock (2013, Sacha Gervasi)

The Great Gatsby (2013, Baz Luhrmann)

 Season 3

About Time (2013, Richard Curtis)

Rush (2013, Ron Howard)

Philomena (2013, Stephen Frears)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (2013, Peter Jackson)

The Railway Man (2013, Jonathan Teplitzky)

12 Years a Slave (2013, Steve McQueen)

The Butler (2013, Lee Daniels)

Hyde Park on the Hudson (2013, Roger Michel)

Sunshine on Leith (2013, Dexter Fletcher)

The Book Thief (2013, Brian Percival)

Noah (2013, Darren Aranofsky)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013, Justin Chadwick)

The Monuments Men (2014, George Clooney)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Wes Anderson)

Season 4

Pride (2014, Matthew Warchus)

The Hundred Foot Journey (2014, Lasse Hallstrom)

Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher)

Magic in the Moonlight (2014, Woody Allen)

What we did on our Holiday (2014, Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin)

Withnail & I (1987, Bruce Robinson)

Mr Turner (2014, Mike Leigh)

Sad to report The Station Restaurant was destroyed in a fire last week along with several other businesses located in the the Old Railway Station at Ballater. It was a wonderful environment to show movies in and the experience of being able to enjoy a three course meal beforehand was unique. The Station also hosted music evenings and was a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. It’s absence will be felt in this small rural community.

thatjaime:

10 Questions about Your relationship with Cinema. Cheers to making you really think about this. 

1) What’s your earliest memory in terms of cinema? 
2) What movie have you seen that made you believe you could do whatever you just saw, as a profession?
3) In what specific way(s) has cinema changed or affected your life?
4) Have you ever been made fun of or judged for watching/loving movies too much?
5) We all get older, and life has us busy. Do you find it more difficult to find time to watch movies? If so, how do you deal?
6) A true lover of cinema has a movie that can lift their spirits. Which is yours?
7) If you could pick one film to describe your life so far, which one would it be?
8) Part 1 of 2: What’s a movie or genre that you saw that just absolutely crushed your soul?
9) Part 2 of 2-What movie did you watch to rejuvenate you? Or what double feature could qualify as an ideal emotional roller coaster?
10) For whatever reason, sometimes people can find themselves being distant from cinema. How would you reclaim that passion?

Thanks guys!

MTOS is a weekly Twitter event taking place every Sunday at 8pm comprising ten film related questions related to a particular theme. I’m hosting this week and have chosen ‘Screenwriters and Screenplays’ as my topic. Here are the ten questions. One question will be asked every ten minutes. 

1) What’s your all-time favourite screenplay? 

2) Do you feel screenwriters get the credit they deserve for their part in the film-making process? 

3) Is there a screenwriter whose work you seek out regardless of the project or director?

4) Film is a collaboration and occasionally writers and directors fall out. What’s the most entertaining clash you’ve heard about? 

5) What is the best film made about a screenwriter?

6) Which adapted screenplay best captures the spirit of the work (novel, play) it is based on?

7) Does the traditional three-act structure lead to formulaic storytelling in cinema?

8) Not every screenplay gets made. Any examples of scripts you have read or heard about you would like to see made?

9) Do you feel writing for television offers more fulfillment for writers than working in film?

10) Pretend I’m a studio executive. Now pitch me your screenplay.  

10) Bastards (Claire Denis)

Rugged sea captain Marco (Vincent Lindon) finds himself out of his depth in Paris as he seeks vengeance on behalf of his sexually traumatised niece. A tough quiet loner, Marco is the archetypal protagonist for a revenge movie but in this bleak and unforgiving anti-thriller Denis renders him useless.

9)Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)

Cronenberg and screenwriter Bruce Wagner’s phantasmagorical take on the landscape of Hollywood. Despite the often laboured satire it works best as a ghost story, a study of people haunted by their past in a town which is always looking for new flesh and shows only a morbid curiosity in those whose moment has passed.

8) They Came Together  (David Wain)

 

David Wain and Michael Showalter’s loving send-up of the urban rom-com particularly those using New York as the backdrop for their story. It takes every cliché in these types of movies and raises them to new levels of absurdity aided by two demented comic performances from Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. 

7)Her (Spike Jonze)

Spike Jonze’s sci-fi love story between an introvert and a sentient OS touches on prescient themes, emotional isolation, the complexity of human relationships, and how people mostly interact with the world now through technology. Its futuristic design is mostly understated and credible with the exception of those above the waist trousers.

6) Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)

A rarity these days, a smart emotionally involving blockbuster. Cruise is self-deprecating and charming as the coward who learns to become a hero and is matched by Emily Blunt as his mentor. Warner Bros still seem to be in the process of picking a title for this movie which might explain why they couldn’t persuade more people to go and see it in cinemas. 

5)  Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)

My enthusiasm for this was slightly tempered by its London-born director’s absurd diatribe against the Irish film industry and every Irish film ever made. Nevertheless Calvaryis still a moving exploration of religious faith with a wonderful performance from Gleeson.

 4) Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

 

 Wes Anderson’s colourful tale within a tale is infused with his usual mixture of comedy and melancholia. Ralph Fiennes performance reminded me a little of Dirk Bogarde in his late-period European work when he was often cast in films about the clash between the old aristocratic order and an emerging fascist regime. There’s a similar type of story here and while Anderson’s approach is comic in tone it’s as good a lament for the pre-war Europe of the 30s’ as you’ll see.

3) Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)

Part I of von Trier’s exploration of female sexuality might well be the funniest film of the year. Part II is much darker. Sex is a weapon and there are casualties. Most notably a wronged wife played with astonishing rage by Uma Thurman. At the heart of both films is the oddly touching relationship between Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her lonely confessor Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) which in the cruellest joke von Trier’s ever played on the viewer he undercuts in the final scene.

 2) Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)

Just shades What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi) as this year’s best movie about vampires sharing a house together. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are the centuries old aesthetes hanging out discussing great art, literature, and music. The only things that have survived for as long as they have.

1) Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)

Frank was an unexpected and moving surprise. I had doubts about this prior to seeing it. Chris Sievey’s (aka Frank Sidebottom) eccentricity seems intrinsically linked to his North of England background so turning him into an American felt wrong. However apart from appropriating his giant paper mache head Frank has little to do with Sievey’s life. Abraham’s film instead tells its own weird sad story and is illuminating about the nature of creativity and how mental illness can affect that process.