Inspired by the wonderful writers over at Southern Vision and And So It Begins… I have decided to work on a list of 50 film based facts about me, things that triggered and contribute to my ongoing love of cinema.
1 – When I was younger, I distinctly remember going to the cinema almost every weekend with my dad and my brother, but I can’t remember any of the films we saw.
2 – When I was about 12, I remember being utterly terrified by Pinhead
3 – Hellraiser was the first real horror film that I watched. I was about 15 at the time.
4 – Horror was my first great cinematic love.
5 – The only seen two silent films I’ve seen are The Artist and Begotten
6 – The first black and white film I remember seeing was Night of the Living Dead.
7 – It was also the first film that made think about the idea of filmmaking, after I watched an interview with George Romero on the DVD.
8 – The film that made me want to be a filmmaker more than anything else was David Lynch’s Eraserhead
9 – I saw Phantom Menace at least three times when it was released in cinemas.
10 – The cinemagoing experience that I will always remember is when I saw Return of the King on its opening weekend in a backed out cinema.
11 – For some reason I can’t remember, David Lynch served as my gateway into foreign cinema.
12 – The first foreign film I remember watching was Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, which I loved. The image of von Sydow playing chess with death is one of the that truly sticks in my mind.
13 – I have never cried at a film.
14 – I once watched all three Godfather movies in a single sitting.
15 – The first images of homosexuality that I saw were those in Pulp Fiction
16 – The first director I became majorly interested in was John Carpenter.
17 – The Thing is my favourite of his films that I’ve seen.
18 – I have never looked at my phone while watching a film in the cinema.
19 – My favourite film opening of all time is Manhattan
20 – Manhattan also contains my favourite ending of any film.
21 – I have seen Manhattan at least a dozen times, and whenever I watch it, no matter the time, I will watch it all.
22 – Three film performances have genuinely unsettled me – Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Bruno Ganz in Downfall and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.
23 – I was utterly baffled the first time I watched Mulholland Drive.
24 – Unlike everyone in my Media class, I hated Kidulthood, it is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.
25 – By contrast, I really liked Elephant, which they all loathed because “not many people spoke”.
26 – I prefer black and white film photography to colour film photography.
27 – Ironically, The Tree of Life is the most visually beautiful film I have ever seen.
28 – I preferred Alien to Aliens.
29 – My least favourite Paul Thomas Anderson film is There Will Be Blood
30 – I love movie musicals. Especially Nine.
31 – I think Persona is Bergman’s masterpiece, and it has some of the best imagery ever used in film.
32 – My favourite actress is Tilda Swinton
33 – My favourite actor is Phillip Seymour Hoffman
34 – I think The Happiness of the Katakuris is a work of utterly mad genius.
35 – I’ve always preferred books to their film adaptations.
36 – The first documentary film I remember wanting to watch was The American Nightmare.
37 – I originally really wanted to make horror movies. Now I don’t constrain myself by saying I only want to make of a certain genre.
38 – I rarely agree with the Oscars.
39 – I love watching the Oscars.
40 – I’ve seen over 50% of the IMDB top 250 list.
41 – Cliche as I know it is, my favourite film of all time is The Shawshank Redemption.
42 – My favourite film from my childhood is The Lion King.
43 – I think Hans Zimmer is overrated.
44 – My favourite composer is Howard Shore.
45 – I want the hamburger phone from Juno
46 – I love superhero movies.
47 – The first film I remember thinking was a work of genius was Kubrick’s The Shining.
48 – I hate it when people check their phones in cinemas.
49 – I hate it when people fall asleep in cinemas.
50 – I love films with ‘The End’ after the credits.
A World of Gods and Monsters 