Well I know it’s customary for first posts to write some kind of long account of yourself, but come on. Let’s be honest. It’s ok, you’re in the trust circle. You see, I get the sneaking suspicion you’re not really interested in my first kiss or anything. So I’ll briefly run over the relevant things.
I love movies, and I love writing about them. I was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and have a degree in English and Film from Queen’s University. I spent three years in a class with a girl who ceaselessly referred to Jean-Luc Godard as Jean-Luc Picard. No animals were killed in the process of my graduation, though I was tempted. I’ll watch almost anything at all, but a major passion is Asian cinema. In fact, if you’ve seen me online before, it may have been over at the wonderful Japanese film journal Midnight Eye, which I’ve contributed to. I once had a bunch of nasty words written about me by cosplayers for a review that dared to say the most recent Final Fantasy film was, gasp, rubbish.
Anyway, I want to say thanks to Nick and everyone here at CHUD for giving me a lovely new home and a great audience. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep this blog on course and updated frequently, as is my plan.
For now, just so that this post isn’t entirely about me, I’d like to recommend a book. George Stevens Jr’s Conversations With The Great Movie Makers of Hollywood’s Golden Age At The American Film Institute is possibly part of a competition for non-fiction title length, but is definitely a great read. The “great movie makers” of the title is no exaggeration. David Lean, Jean Renoir, Howard Hawkes, Alfred Hitchcock, Wilder, Fellini, Cukor, and those aren’t even half the names. Most of the guests are in good spirits and the book is thankfully free of other padding and filler.
My only regret is that it doesn’t record what interaction the students of the AFI at the time of these interviews, including Terrence Malick, David Lynch and Paul Schrader, had with these great writers and directors. All questions seem to be asked by Stevens. But it’s a minor niggle on a very entertaining film history book, words which don’t often go together.