At the end of the year I will no doubt be asked about my favourite film of 2011. It's The Fighter and has been since February. I can't see it changing.
But a question which is never asked is: "What has been your favourite film experience?''
I suspect this is because many people just imagine going to the pictures to be the same every time.
Of course, they could not be more wrong.
Watching a movie could range from an annoying Friday night in a multiplex with a bunch of lairy teens sitting in the row behind to... a well, packed Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds with Miss W watching a super low-budget movie and enjoying the question and answer session afterwards.
Let's start from the beginning.
I was in Leeds because that is the new haunt of my daughter. So, I was already in a good mood having spent a couple of hours with her.
She's a broadcast media student so was well up for making her and my debut at Hyde Park Picture House.
What a place!
This is like an old-time music hall, complete with old-style ticket kiosk and a screen which has stalls and a balcony and a screen covered by a huge velvet curtain.
I could go on about how great it is but I have realised I've banged on for England already and I haven't even started on the film yet.
Thus, I must turn to Black Pond, a film made by Casualty actor Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley.
The Q & A with them and actor Chris Langham revealed that this movie cost just £25,000 to make. That would make it, in my book, the best value movie of the year.
Put simply, there is no way anyone would have realised it was low budget.
One of the reasons is the cast: Langham, impressed by the script but also desperate for work following his arrest in 2005 and subsequent conviction for child porn offences.
Anyway, it is a quirky comedy drama which provokes laughs and moments of reflection.
The plot surrounds an offbeat character (the excellent Colin Hurley) who enters the life of suburban couple, Sophie (Amanda Hadingue) and Tom Thompson (Langham), by chatting to him while he is on a walk with his dog.
This introduction leads to a short and unexpected friendship with the couple which leads to explorations about their relationship and a particularly dramatic ending.
From an early stage we know the couple and their daughters have been accused of burying a body but how we get to that stage isn't clear until the very end.
The directors and Langham talked about how only a third of the film's script was used and that the actors were allowed to improvise and let the movie take its own course (we were amazed to learn that Simon Amstell's part was only introduced after the original shooting had finished)
If this sounds amateurish, it's anything but.
Langham (has he really been off of our screens for six years? and Hurley are both very good indeed.
The Q & A afterwards was wonderfully enlightening and gave Miss W some great ideas for her uni work.
To be fair to Langham, he alluded to having been without work, when the interviewer seemed to have been astonished that he would want to be involved in such a low-key project.
Apparently, there were follow-up questions to his recent history but, having to hotfoot back to Nottingham, I missed them.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see whether other film of TV companies are as kind and this is a springboard to a comeback.
As for Black Pond: it is stylish funny and engaging. Of course, on such a low budget it was rightly not over-ambitious but is certainly worth 7.5/10.
I forgive Tom Kingsley for refusing to send me a screener because this was my favourite night of everyfilmin2011!
0 Comments