The UK director of The Falling and Typist Artist Pirate King is a devoted fan of London’s Garden Cinema and a keen advocate for DVDs.
I’ve recently discovered The Garden Cinema [in London’s Covent Garden]. I trust anything they put on. It feels very curated — it’s old and new films. You become a member for very little money and you feel like you’re part of a club. They’ve expanded into negroni tastings and quizzes. It’s almost homemade and punk. I recently saw The Virgin Suicides there.
I do read reviews in advance of seeing a film, but I try not to let them influence me. If it’s a one-star review, I wouldn’t not go to see it, I see it as part of a discussion around a film. I read The Guardian and The Observer reviews. Trade [publication] reviews frighten me because of my own trade reviews.
During the pandemic I set up Friday Film Club, which was a Twitter film club. Every Friday over 23 weeks, I would show a film and then discuss it on Twitter. I tend to look at my Friday Film Club people and see what they’re watching. Twitter [now rebranded X] is a difficult place — I only talk about film, music or culture on it. I follow the leading writers and people like film historian Pamela Hutchinson. Academics are interesting for discovering new old films. I discovered Lorenza Mazzetti through Twitter.
When I’m writing and making films, in that period sometimes I can’t watch or talk about films. It gets in the way of what I’m doing and I have to be pure about what I’m doing.
My family WhatsApp group recommended Only Murders In The Building [on Disney+], which I’ve only just watched. It was escapist and relaxing. In my complete ignorance, I didn’t know anything about Selena Gomez. Where have I been not to know?
Growing up I only saw films on TV — I can remember only going to the cinema about five times. I grew to love cinema through TV, and then discovered the Aaben Cinema in Hulme [in Manchester] and when I moved to London, the Scala.
I own thousands of DVDs. I’ve got special filing cabinets and drawers for them, and plastic things you can put them in and hide under beds and sofas. I have drawers in my office at home for very special DVDs, like Grey Gardens and Tokyo Story. I still have two VHS players and have extra unwrapped DVD players in cardboard boxes. What’s brilliant is you have the extras on a DVD as well, and the physical medium and what you can read on it. What worries me about streaming is if I need to see Fear Eats The Soul, for example, where am I going to see it if I don’t own it?
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