Hello Friend — Grace Barber-Plentie
Hello friends, and welcome to Hello Friend. I’m Bethany Rutter, and thank you for joining me! One of the most popular episode of this series has been my conversation about books with Alice Slater which was episode 3. So, I thought it would be fun to do a similarly relaxed show about film, and I could think of no one better than today’s guest, Grace Barber-Plentie, who not only works in film but also runs Reel Good Film Club. But we’ll come to that. First of all, how do we know each other?
We know each other through Twitter!
The best place in the world.
The only place in the world.
The place I spend all my time.
Same. I spent four days off Twitter this week and it was the most surreal experience, I don’t think I’ve done that since I…
Was it horrible?
Yeah! I deleted my Facebook and my Twitter this week because I wanted a social media break and I was just like… I don’t care about Facebook at all, I don’t miss it but every day I was like… I wonder what’s happening on Twitter…
What are the MEMES?!
I know! I was like, guys, make a list of memes that I’ve missed, is that hot dog still a thing? I don’t know?
I saw that hot dog today. So I think it is still a thing.
I’m glad to hear that he’s ok.
By the time this comes out next week which will by the time people are listening be this week, maybe we’ll have forgotten about the hot dog altogether.
Maybe he’s going to be a thing of the past already.
Time moves so fast on those internet streets.
I know!
So yeah, I wanted to have you on so we could chat about films.
My favourite thing to chat about!
Tell me about your life in film, because you’re a young person, you’re relatively early in your career, what have you been up to so far?
Well, I’ve done a whole plethora of film-based bits and bobs from quite a young age, I guess? So my parents loved the arts, worked, dabbled in the arts, so I think my first film-based job, and this was a hobby, is that I used to help run this children’s film festival when I was like 11 or 12 in Brighton. It’s called Digitally Born Kids, sadly no longer going, but at the time it was pretty fun. And then I have been writing… I’ve done… I started as a music journalist, freelancing very much unpaid, when I was like 17 or 18, and from there I went onto film journalism and I’ve been doing that sporadically ever since. As you mentioned I also have my film club so I do a bit of programming and I’m working full time in distribution at the moment. So I try to do a bit of everything.
And figure out what you really want to do.
Exactly. Yeah, and I think it’s because I love film in general there’s not really anything that I wouldn’t want to do. I’m a bit… I’m not wary of the production side of things, it’s more that I’m scared to pick up a camera myself and do things.
And there’s a big difference between enjoying consuming an art form and thinking that you could make it yourself.
Exactly. As I said, I write and I’d love to write for the screen at some point but I don’t know that I’d necessarily do it all myself but I’m so lucky I know so many amazing people who work in film so I feel like I wouldn’t be short of people to give me a hand!
So have you seen any thing recently that’s coming up that you’re really excited about?
Hmmm… I’m trying to think about what I’m allowed to talk about.
That’s always the whole thing.
Embargoes are… the bane of my life. I remember when I didn’t know what an embargo was and I would just tweet… I saw the Jim Jarmusch film today! And people were like… you’re not really allowed to do that…
We all have to pretend we haven’t seen it.
I guess in terms of this year in general I’ve seen a lot of really good stuff, I feel like I’ve seen more at this point in the year that I’ve loved than I did the whole of 2016, like I just thought 2016 was a really underwhelming year in terms of film. I don’t really know why, but my favourite film that was released in 2016 was Creed, and that came out in January and nothing else lived up to that for me.
I feel really sad that I haven’t seen Creed yet, because I know I’ll like it when I do.
It is magnificent. It’s on Netflix.
I’ve literally no excuse for having not seen it, other than that I haven’t seen any other films in that franchise.
I hadn’t, when I watched it. It definitely holds up on its own. I couldn’t even tell you a favourite bit of it, it’s just an amazing film in general. And it’ll make you want to watch the Rocky films which are surprisingly good.
Yeah… it’s one of those things where I haven’t been consciously not watching Rocky films, I just haven’t seen them.
I was completely the same. I wasn’t anti-Rocky films, I just had no desire to watch them til I saw Creed and I was like… oh my god, boxing is fun.
Boxing is cool now.
Love boxing films.
Love to box.
I want to box! But if I box I want to be Rosie Perez in Do the Right Thing.
I keep saying I really want to re-watch Do the Right Thing because I enjoyed it so much when I saw it and I feel like it’s a real hot weather film.
Yeah, I was going to say it’s such a summer film. It really is. I don’t know if I’ve watched it in the summer which is a crime. That to me is a perfect open air cinema film in one of our rare heatwaves. That would be amazing.
I wonder if Summer Screen have ever done it because that would be a really good one.
They should! I’m getting majorly sidetracked… this is how my mind works…
That’s cool, this is just a chat, it doesn’t have to be super formal.
It doesn’t have to be linear.
Yeah like many good films.
Exactly! And many bad films.
I guess in terms of this year, this is an obvious one and also I’m horribly biased because I had quite a lot to do with it behind the scenes but Moonlight!
That was such a delight. And I’m really happy you got to work on it.
It was an absolute dream come true but in a way it just became reality. I interned at the distribution company.
Was that Altitude?
Yeah, that was an amazing experience, that was my first distribution experience and what a way to start, working on one of the best films I’ve seen in years, if not ever.
So let’s talk about Moonlight.
Please! Always!
I was like if there’s one film I know me and Grace can talk about, it’s Moonlight. So what do you think made it so special?
I think it’s everything and I’m obviously… being a critic in a way… I don’t call myself a critic but criticising film as part of my job, if you see what I mean, I’m used to being like… I accept that three quarters of this film were good and this was what didn’t work but I feel with Moonlight it’s just that everything slotted into place. You can’t really pull anything out and say this didn’t work.
Yeah.
And it came along at such a perfect time, it really came along when we needed it as well, and Barry Jenkins as a director is just flawless.
Yeah! And I’m just so happy for him. He seems like such a great guy.
He does seem like a lovely guy, this is the thing, and I feel like with people that ascend to such levels so quickly, because he’s only made one feature before, that I’d imagine them to be big-headed or whatever but sadly I haven’t got to meet him, but everything I’ve heard about him is that he’s genuinely a nice guy, and so happy.
I bet both of you are going to have long careers in film so I’m sure your paths will cross again.
Fingers crossed!
It just felt like Moonlight really captured everyone’s heart, mind, attention, it was such a nice moment that everyone saw it and was like… wow yeah. This is what we need, and it just felt like… these are the kinds of interesting stories that we should be letting black writers and directors tell all the time. There should be…. we shouldn’t be so grateful to see Moonlight, Moonlight should be one of a million amazing films like it every year.
There should be a Moonlight a month. We should be bored of these kinds of films, there should be so many of them. And I think, as you touched on with the story, I think what I love about it is that there’s not necessarily a story? I can’t even remember how many stories I’ve seen about white people where nothing really happens, it’s about mood and atmosphere and cinematography, and I love those kinds of films, but I want to see more of those films about people that look like me.
Yeah.
I think that’s amazing.
I don’t know if this is a terrible generalisation that I’m going to have to edit out before I put this up but… it feels like maybe black filmmakers are not allowed to just tell stories about life. About, like, shit that happens to people, it always has to be a statement or a history story.
I completely agree with you.
Just think of how many interesting everyday stories of romance and life and families and weird interesting stuff, or like… sadness or whatever, that we are missing out on because we make this demand that black writers and directors make films about a moment in history, or whatever.
I think it’s because they have to make such an impact. This is why people are going again and again to stories about slavery, stories about the civil rights movement, things that made a splash in the headlines and that they know are going to get a conversation going.
Or that are going to make white people… sympathise? Or something? Like it’s a kind of… story that white audiences will be like… oh yes I understand what this is, I get this, this isn’t a completely new concept to me that black writers want to write about life. I don’t know, it just feels like we’re playing ourself out of really amazing films.
Definitely. I think in terms of something just being about life, I don’t know there are that many other black films… I think Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett is a perfect example and it’s so similar to Moonlight in so many ways and it’s just got this really weird… it just kind of jumps in time. You never really know what’s happening. It’s just about this family living in LA in I think… I think it was made in 1979 so the late seventies, and the dad works in an abattoir and it’s about his fractured mind from working in this horrible, gruesome job, it’s about his wife, it’s about his children, but it’s not really about anything, it’s just stunning and that’s it. In terms of 2016–2017, apart from Moonlight the only other thing that does that really well and again it reminded me of Killer of Sheep is Atlanta, the Donald Glover show. When I came to watching that from watching other things with Donald Glover in like Community and his standup and things like that, I thought it was going to be a sitcom, just laugh out loud, every episode, and I think it is really funny, but I was kind of taken aback by the stillness in it, and just letting people talk and there’s one episode and it just follows his character around and we’re just following him interacting with various people, he’s looking for a lost phone, which is quite similar to the first episode of Master of None this season as well, but you really feel like the characters are allowed to breathe and it spans… he’s not even in every episode, the best episode of the season is one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen, it’s called B.A.N., and his cousin who’s a rapper is on this TV debate and it’s literally just like you’re seeing the TV show playing out, so has excerpts of the TV show and has adverts that he’s made as well and that’s it and it’s so unusual and it’s like nothing else.
And being allowed to play with form, that’s cool, that you are hired to do one thing and you’re like actually it would be really interesting if we presented this episode differently. That’s a really cool thing to be able to do.
This is also what I think we need to see more of.
Space and freedom and creativity.
There have been so many amazing, especially independent and arthouse films, that are just throwing the rulebook away and it’s time that we see that from other people and I love Lynne Ramsay, she’s one of my favourite directors. Morvern Callar is one of my favourite films and I want to see films like Morvern Callar but about everyone. About women of colour. That’s literally all I want.
Yeah and that feels like such a reasonable thing to expect. It’s like… that’s a dream, that’s a big dream.
Right? I was thinking the other day as I often do, I was thinking about Gone Girl because the book, the film, I just… I adore it. And I’ve read the book so many times, I hated the film the first time I saw it and then I rewatched it last year and was just like… this is amazing because it’s trash and he knows it’s trash. But yeah, Gone Girl was trash and it knows it’s trash but it’s also trying to be high end and slick and stuff but what I want is a black female villain that’s Amy Dunne, because I want horrible black characters. It feels like you get some black male villains but I want a monstrous black woman that’s really what I want, that just will kill anyone, she’ll backstab anyone, she’ll do anything. Yeah! That’s what I want.
I just have a lot of time for David Fincher, possibly too much time.
I need to have more time for him. Because I do love that film.
I feel like one of the hills on which I am willing to die is that the David Fincher version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is better than the original Danish-Swedish coproduction.
I love this because it’s controversial, I live for film controversy.
I don’t even see why that has to be such an edgy opinion that I have because it is just better but it feels like we have to pretend the original is always the best.
Especially now we’re living in the era of the remake, which I do have problems with just because I think it’s really limiting the original stories that are being told. But if you’re going to remake something and you’re going to make it better, let’s just…
Let’s just do it.
And accept that!
I feel like I wish we didn’t keep trying to make Spider-Man work.
Ok now that is ridiculous, there are too many.
Too many Spider-Mens! There are way too many Spider-Mens.
And I really want to see this one. I think this one looks really good. But if we’ve got this one now did you need to make the Andrew Garfield one?
And I feel like Andrew Garfield… I really hope he figures out what he’s doing. He’s been around for a really long time, like more than 10 years since he was in my favourite TV programme Sugar Rush.
Which I was literally watching the other day. Everyone I know is watching Sugar Rush again at the moment.
Maybe it’s because Andrew Garfield is in Angels in America and we’re thinking about it.
I think this has a part of it. Also I re-read the entirety of Sugar Rush in one day when I was at my parents’ last week.
The TV show was so good. But yeah, it’s been like… that was on when I was at school so 10+ years ago and I just don’t really feel like Andrew Garfield has figured out his…
He hasn’t got his niche.
It’s kind of like Jon Hamm.
This is true.
What is going wrong with Jon Hamm’s career? It’s not like everything he’s in is bad or he’s bad in everything, I actually really enjoy seeing him in stuff but I’m just like… you’re not Don Draper so who are you? What are you about?
How do you have an identity outside of that character? I think someone like Daniel Radcliffe has managed to have an identity outside Harry Potter but some people just can’t do it and it’s really sad. Although I will say I didn’t like Baby Driver but… the scene in Baby Driver that cuts to Jon Hamm as a Barry White song starts playing, that is one of the best moments of 2017 in film for me, I just thought that was amazing.
I don’t know why I liked Baby Driver so much. I’ve seen it twice this week, which is something I never do, I never watch a film twice in a week and I never go to the cinema twice and I spent way too much money seeing Baby Driver twice! It was a bad financial decision.
But sometimes you need to do it.
Yeah! I just enjoyed it so much and I was kind of in a bad mood the other day and I was like… I know what would cheer me up and that’s seeing Baby Driver again. I like films like Baby Driver and Goodfellas and… I don’t know how to characterise them other than things that are fundamentally aimed at dudes but are kind of fun and playful.
Yeah, I think I know what you mean.
Kind of bro shit but with a… it makes me kind of laugh?
High-end bro.
Yeah, like playful, not serious. I like a non-serious bro film and I feel like that’s maybe why I love The Departed as much as I do, it’s kind of weirdly playful, maybe because of Jack Nicholson’s character but these are films I’m happy to rewatch a lot and I don’t generally rewatch stuff. I don’t know why Baby Driver has really resonated with me in the way it has. I don’t know why that is, maybe it’s because of the music.
The music I do think is amazing. That was my favourite part, and I think the timing of the music is fantastic but it’s just what is there, for me, other than the music? I feel like the storyline… it feels to me like a pastiche, like it’s supposed to be a parody but I know he just thinks it’s really really cool.
Yeah.
That was my issue with it.
I think I like it because it’s a glorified music video.
But I wanted it to be more and he said he considers this a musical and I’m like… make a musical then.
It isn’t a musical.
If all of La La Land was like the first scene where everyone is singing and dancing that would have been cool and nice but it wasn’t.
I love a musical. A bad one, a good one, I love Mamma Mia as much as Singing In The Rain, I love them both and everything in between. I’m so happy because… I think it’ll be out by the time this goes out, but I’m writing about one of my favourite musicals to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
What is it?
Hairspray! The 2007 Hairspray.
With Nikki Blonsky.
All I want to do in life is make people watch Hairspray and make people watch Magic Mike XXL.
[Bethany groans] UGH that is just the BEST, Magic Mike XXL is just the purest joy and I love… I’m a really naive baby and I don’t like watching bad things happen in films so for there to be a film where there is no antagonism, it’s literally just rolling from scene to scene of pure joy. In terms of the tone of it, but also the plot! What is the peril in Magic Mike XXL?
Exactly! They’ve got one goal! And they know they’re going to get there!
Nothing is working against them. I just love watching films where nothing bad is going to happen!
It’s not even a competition, it’s a convention! They’re just doing it because they want to do it!
Magic Mike XXL is a masterpiece and it feels like someone somewhere was like… what did women like about the first film? Let’s just do that. Let’s just give people what they want and that’s so nice.
As they say in the film, all you’ve got to do is ask. And then do that.
I love it and I just love how female-gaze it is.
I was talking to my friends the other day about sex scenes with a female gaze and we said Magic Mike XXL and technically they’re not sex scenes but they’re very much sexualised and we were really like…. stumped apart from that. There’s surprisingly few, which is really depressing.
Tweet us if you can think of one because this is really my shit.
It’s important, right? So we thought of that, we said Girlhood.
Which I, like a fool, have not seen even though I know I’m going to fucking love it.
I won’t say anymore. There is a fantastic female gazey scene in that. And I guess Jane Campion films. I’ve only seen The Piano but it feels like that’s gotta count.
She’s cool.
She is. She’s amazing.
She has a lot to offer the world. Hit us up on Twitter to tell us.
And it’ll go on my list that I’m currently curating. This is what I do with my spare time, I just have lists on my phone of things in film that I like.
So it’s like a playlist but for film.
It’s my ongoing list of best sex scenes in film that I like to give a little refresh.
What are some faves?
Have you seen this film called The Watermelon Woman?
No! I haven’t even heard of it!
It’s amazing. It’s the first film by an African-American lesbian director, I think.
That’s why I haven’t heard about it! Because no one shouts about this stuff!
It’s made in the ’90s and it’s the most ’90s film ever- she works in a video store, that’s how ’90s it is. She makes films on VHS and it’s about this woman called Cheryl who is… so the director, Cheryl Dunye, she wrote it, directed it, stars in it as Cheryl, like a fictionalised version of herself. She works in a video store and she’s watching all these old plantation films and she watches this one and she sees this woman who’s just called the watermelon woman and she’s becomes obsessed with her, like who is this woman, she’s amazing, and it’s just about her making a film about the watermelon woman and then along the way she meets this girl and has this love affair with her and the sex scene in it is incredible and especially because you know it’s her directing herself.
Yeah!
There’s nothing in that for men and it’s still really, really hot.
That’s so cool!
We screened it a couple of years ago and I was talking to some of the guys that saw it and they were like… we were very uncomfortable in that sex scene… and I was like that’s amazing because think how many lesbian sex scenes there are in the world that are just for the male gaze and to have a lesbian sex scene that made men uncomfortable, I think…
Yeah, that’s really cool. Because a film I really, really loved this year and have unusually seen twice at the cinema is The Handmaiden.
So good!
Yeah! And I think that is one of the most fun films I’ve seen.
It really is.
It’s still directed by a dude… so I actually didn’t have too much of a problem with the sex scenes in it.
I didn’t have as much of a problem as I thought I would but it’s only because I went in from the outset being like… when are they going to have the scissoring scene? I knew it was going to happen!
I’m not saying that scissoring doesn’t happen. But I don’t think it… I mean, I can say from my own experience and the experience of women who have had sex with women that I talk to that it just doesn’t happen as much as films try and make you believe it does.
Because the men are just like… all day every day.
But I loved The Handmaiden, that is really one of my favourite films of this year.
I would agree with you.
Did you see Stoker?
I did, yeah, and I can’t remember if it’s good or not?
Yeah… it felt like a real missed opportunity. Like it’s such a cool concept and it had such a good cast, it had such a good mood but I just felt like the plot… I was just like… I don’t care, what is this plot? Does this really work? I don’t know. The only scene from Stoker that really stayed in my mind was when Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode are playing the piano.
Yes! That is amazing.
That was really good, that was a very sexy non-sex scene.
Yeah, and I saw… this film magazine that I really like and I can never remember the right way around…. is it Bright Wall Dark Room? Something like that. They did a list the other day on Twitter of the sexiest non-sex scenes. I’m so into this kind of stuff. I’ve promptly forgotten all of them which is really annoying but…
That list does exist somewhere.
It is on the internet, it can be found. There is a lot to be said for a good erotic moment.
Yeah!
I think the scene in The Handmaiden with the bath…
Where she’s like filing her tooth with a thimble, I loved that.
I would also say the cooking scene from Moonlight.
Yes!
I don’t know what it is about it but it’s so oddly erotic. It’s more potent than a lot of sex scenes I’ve ever seen.
Tell you what film I’m really looking forward to is… so I, one of my favourite directors who is working today is Yorgos Lanthimos. I am so excited for Killing of a Sacred Deer.
I am just baffled by this film, from reading Cannes reviews, it’s not what I thought it was going to be. I’m intrigued but I’m not as warm on him as a lot of people are. I really liked Dogtooth. The Lobster, I was a bit like [shrugs] but I do think I have very specific reasons for that which is I worked for a specific cinema chain, it played for six months when I was working at the cinema so I was sick to the back teeth of it by the time it left.
You never want to see The Lobster again.
I never want to think about The Lobster again. So obviously I am negatively biased towards it but I am very intrigued because I do think Colin Farrell is weirdly great.
Yeah, I totally agree. So that is someone who really knows what he’s doing now. He’s really sorted his life out. But yeah, I’m just… I get so hyped when I watch Yorgos Lanthimos films, I’m just so excited from beginning to end, I’m just like [screams]. It’s just the most exciting thing that happens to me in the cinema, so I’m really looking forward to Killing of a Sacred Deer, also because I love the story that it’s based on which is Iphigenia at Aulis.
I didn’t know it was based on something. I’ll look into that!
I love horrible things happening to people, I literally love it.
This is the complete reverse of films where only nice things happen!
Weirdly, I either way to go in… the reason I… I love happy films where nothing bad happens but I also love the certainty of a Greek tragedy and things that mimic Greek tragedy which is knowing that there is no way they will get out of this bad situation, that we are inevitably sliding towards a horrible conclusion. I don’t like watching something where I think everything is going to be ok and then it’s not. So it either has to be definitely good and 100% good or definitely bad and there is no avoiding the conclusion. And I feel like when something is based on a Greek tragedy I’m going to get what I want. Which is inevitable horribleness.
I do love Greek tragedy.
And it seems apt that he’s Greek and he’s making, you know…
Exactly!
I trust him with this one! I think because I liked Dogtooth so much.
I love Dogtooth. That was really a film that when I watched it in the cinema, I was like… I haven’t seen anything like this.
It’s insane.
It’s really wild.
So visceral, that scene where she knocks out her tooth is… so difficult to watch.
Yeah and just… I like that he… I think maybe where this film is going to be different, where Killing of a Sacred Deer and his other new film The Favourite, are going to be different, is that in both Dogtooth and The Lobster, I feel like he does such a good job of creating these worlds that have other rules that are different. Like whether that’s imposed by the government or by a member of the family, like in Dogtooth, I feel like he creates a really coherent place for these weird things to take place in, so I feel like… what is the world of Killing of a Sacred Deer? Like, if it’s just the world in general, I wonder what that is going to leave him with. But yeah, that’s the film that I’m hyped for this year. But speaking of Colin Farrell, tell you what I’m not fucking hyped for anymore is The Beguiled.
It’s been so messy.
Do you know what, I will tell you why I am not hyped for it and this will lead me onto my favourite rant: trailers are too fucking long these days and they give away way too much of the plot.
This is true. I saw your trailer rant on Twitter and it inspired me to revisit what I think is one of the best trailers of all time, and I will tell you I am very good on trailers, I think one of the best trailers of all time in terms of giving away no plot, maybe because the film has very little plot anyway, is the Inherent Vice trailer.
Oh yeah! What’s the song on that trailer?
There’s quite a few but it’s mainly Wonderful World by Sam Cook. But it just shows you, like about The Lobster and Dogtooth, it shows you this weird and wacky world and the people that inhabit it. It doesn’t tell you anything about the story, I don’t think.
Which is totally appropriate, give me a drop of the story. Whereas I’d heard from maybe my dad or my brother that The Beguiled trailer gives away a lot.
It is a ridiculous trailer.
So when I went to see, ooh, another film I loved this year which was Lady Macbeth, when I went to see Lady Macbeth there was a trailer for The Beguiled and I put my fingers in my ears and I hummed and I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see the trailer. And then the trailer was on again when I went to see Baby Driver the other day and I was like… I’m sitting next to someone, I can’t do my weird humming thing because I’m sitting too close to someone who doesn’t know me and I will just look wild. So I watched… I kind of half-watched the trailer and I was like… oh great so now I know everything that happens and I don’t really want to see this film anymore. I know everything that happens! I don’t need to know!
I’m still going to go see it and I am warmer on Sofia Coppola than a lot of people, I think she’s really interesting in how she polarises people, I’ll give it a chance but the trailer is ridiculous.
I’m just annoyed that I know what happens. I’m just annoyed.
I’ll tell you what I think is how all trailers should be done: two films I did not like but I think had fantastic- it’s really interesting, this is how much of a nerd I am- so American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street had two trailers released. The first for both of them were phenomenal because they had no dialogue in, it was just set to music. So the first American Hustle trailer was to Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin, I think, first Wolf of Wall Street trailer was to Black Skinhead by Kanye and they were amazingly edited, edited impeccably to the music. You got the smallest sense of what they were about and that was it, and they were beautiful. I was like this is amazing, I’m so excited. Then I saw the second trailer for both of them with dialogue and more of the plot and I was like…
Fuck this shit! This is boring bullshit! And it’s amazing how that really can kill it. I remember back in the day when people still got paid to do things like this, I was like a paid intern at 20th Century Fox and they were about to release The Happening, the M Night Shyamalan film.
I’ve seen that film and he delivers the phrase ‘What? No’ in the best way possible. It’s on YouTube.
I will look it up! But I remember they were trying to choose between different trailers for the film and they showed us in the office one trailer and it literally looked like the scariest film I’ve ever seen. It was edited in a way that made it so creepy and atmospheric and I saw the trailer they actually went with and I was like… well this looks like fuckin’ shit I’m never going to see this and to this day I’ve never seen the film but I was like… if you had catfished me with that trailer, I would have gone to see it and I would probably have hated it but you would still have got £10 of my money.
I think you’ve got to be clever- you’ve got to know what you want to do, and I’m learning this a lot from working in distribution, sometimes you have to put a bit of a veil on people’s eyes to make them see what you want them to see, then they’ll see the film.
To highlight the important parts of the film, or the good bits of the film.
Exactly.
But if it’s a horror film focus on the horror if that’s your angle.
My favourite trailer of all time, and I talked about this recently on Twitter, is the UK trailer for Let the Right One In.
I need to watch this! I haven’t seen the film, which I know is criminal, I’ve got it on DVD and it sits on my DVD shelf waiting for the right time.
I am very passionate about that film.
I think I’ll love it, I’m ready. I do love a good vampire film.
It’s so beautiful, it’s so sad and lonely and atmospheric. It’s so wonderful. But the trailer is just… you just watch it and you’re like… what is this? Because I didn’t know it was a vampire film because I saw the trailer, obviously in advance of the film coming out, I saw it in the cinema, the book didn’t really happen here before the film came out. So I was watching this trailer and I was like… I don’t even know this is a vampire film, I just know this is a weird, creepy, sad film with tweens. And the trailer was just incredible and the film really lived up to it, which is nice and unusual.
Exactly and especially when you go into the cinema and you’re still surprised by an aspect of the film because you haven’t given absolutely everything away.
And I feel like that does not happen anymore.
It really doesn’t, and there are exceptions- I know the Moonlight trailer got criticised because it didn’t really give… some people were like what is this film about?
Nothing, bitch!
Just go an enjoy it, look at it! It’s about mood!
This film is not an ABOUT film it’s a FEELINGS film.
Exactly.
It’s a people film.
Yeah!
So, tell me about what you do with Reel Good Film Club?
Yes! Well, I wish I had more to say at the moment because we’re on a bit of a hiatus.
That’s ok, everyone needs to take some time off.
We’ve been doing the most ever in the past couple of years. We all graduated university last year and now we’re in the real world, the scary place that is, so it’s just a bit overwhelming.
Give me a little brief history.
We’ll have been going three years this year which is crazy in itself, so it’s three of us doing it- my friend Lydia who I met at college and my friend Maria who I met at university, we’re all from Brighton but me and Maria didn’t meet until we were in London together. It’s a very small world. We found out we knew a lot of the same people as well which is nice, and it kind of came from all of us loving film. Me and Maria did film studies and Lydia studied film production at two different universities and we were so excited to go to university, we were so excited to study film, we loved film, we still do now. But we felt like something was missing when we actually got to studying film, and the films we were watching, aka watching three Orson Welles films three weeks in a row, not exaggerating and we had to do that and it was the most boring three weeks of my life. We’ve seen Citizen Kane, do we have to… and we were just like… I understand contextually that if we’re doing the history of cinema why we’re doing a lot of these white, Hollywood films, but I feel like it doesn’t have to be like this all the time. And we just felt like we were being excluded from the kinds of stories we were seeing and the things we were learning and at the same time we heard of this, I always struggle how to describe it because it’s not a festival, this thing called Scalarama, which is a month-long celebration of cinema in September which happens across the country and I think across the globe as well now, and if you want to show a film, show a film and it’s part of Scalarama. And it’s a really nice sense of film community and there’s always so much going on. So we heard about that and we were really interested in it and we were all back in Brighton for the summer in between years of university and we were like… maybe we can put something on in Brighton, but kind of in the back of our minds and then we heard of this film… so Scalarama used to have a programme that you could pick films from every year and they had this film on the programme called Sidewalk Stories which we’d heard of briefly before, and it’s by this guy called Charles Lane, this African-American director and, similar to Watermelon Woman, he wrote it, directed it and starred in it, and it’s this silent film about a homeless guy who discovers this little girl and has to look after her, and it actually inspired The Artist, which no one really talks about. Everyone thinks The Artist sprung out of nowhere, directly from old classical Hollywood but it was really inspired by this film that was made in the eighties, and we thought it sounded amazing and we thought… well it’s Brighton, and as great as Brighton is, we thought if we didn’t show it, no one else would, so we were like… shall we just show this film, and then we were like, oh shit maybe we’ve got to form a film club and be official about it so we literally scrambled together a film club in a day and then the screening went so well that we were like… maybe we can keep doing this on the side. And then we did! And we have for the past three years and surprisingly we’ve just gone gradually picking up momentum, working with new people, working with new venues.
And the priority is always showing films by black filmmakers?
By people of colour, I would say.
Not always black.
Exactly, and particularly focusing on women of colour, representations and behind the camera where we can.
That’s such a noble endeavour. It’s so bullshit that you have to do it or no one else is going to show them.
This is the crazy thing, and I feel like even in three years things are so much better in terms of film exhibition, because now we don’t have to worry all the time that if we don’t show something no one else will. Because there are so many other amazing film clubs out there that do similar things to what we do, and what’s amazing is that it never feels like a competition, it’s never like oh god we want to show that film and now they are, it’s like great, they’re showing that film so we can go watch it.
And like what else can we do?
Exactly! And as well, we’ve started thinking about other forms of exhibition and other things we can show other than just a linear narrative film, so one thing we’ve focused on a lot is music videos. They are an art form unto themselves.
And really a forum for black creativity as well.
Definitely, definitely, especially back in the day as much as now, so we’ve done a couple of music video parties where we just hire out a cinema space, we’ve done them at Deptford cinema, which is a really great community-run cinema, and it’s just been playing, curating a selection of music videos and letting people play their favourites, because we wanted to take this thing of watching music videos that can be such a solitary thing, like as an only child I spent a lot of time sitting in front of my telly just watching music videos and waiting for my favourite ones to come on, or at your friend’s house, but it’s not generally a really communal thing so we wanted to bring that into a communal space, and the way that it’s transformed is crazy, so we showed Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker video.
So good!
I think that’s probably one of my favourite music videos ever.
It’s just so magical and tonally perfect.
It tells a great story and I love a music video with a story. We showed that and everyone got up and danced in the aisles, as all Mariah and her friends are dancing in the aisles, so that was amazing. And Galdem, the magazine, they took over the V&A last October, November, and we were part of that and we screened music videos on the ceilings of one of their galleries as well.
That’s such an amazing opportunity.
The weirdest thing! So we had all these bean bags and cushions and people were lying down watching the music videos on the ceiling. And I think it’s finding new ways to bring things like music videos and narrative films into unique spaces, because I think there are audiences, and this is a really common misconception is that people of colour, marginalised people don’t go to the cinema. We do. It’s just really fucking difficult to afford to go to the cinema, especially in London, and there’s this really weird thing where a lot of films by black directors don’t go to mainstream multiplex cinemas.
Yep.
They’ll generally be classed as arthouse, they’ll go to the BFI or Curzon, which are really…
So expensive!
I think the BFI is actually great because they do under-25 tickets for £3.
Which is so much cheaper than anywhere else in London.
Exactly. It makes such a difference but other places it’s juts ridiculous and then they complain that people aren’t seeing these films or the right kind of people aren’t seeing these films and it’s because they’re not being put on in the right places. So it’s just about trying something new I think, because the audiences are there, we’ve just got to explore the form.
The thirst for it is there, the people are there, you just have to be… it’s annoying that you personally have to take on the responsibility of being creative with getting those things together, but it’s a really nice way to be able to spend your time.
It is, yeah, and because I don’t unfortunately have the luxury of making that my job at the moment- one day in the future that would be my dream.
What is your all-time favourite film?
I think… I think… it used to change every year and I think the fact it hasn’t changed for a very long time probably means that it is the number one, and that’s Boogie Nights.
I love Boogie Nights.
It’s so good.
He really is the best.
He is, yeah.
I think that’s a bold claim but I don’t feel like it’s too out there.
I don’t think he’s made a bad film and that’s very rare for me to say about a director. People like to shit-talk Inherent Vice, which I think is a great film.
I haven’t seen Inherent Vice, and I will. That’s the only one of his films I’ve never seen but I will, I have no beef with it.
Not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination but it’s very enjoyable, I think, anyway.
And probably better than 90% of stuff that anyone else could make.
Yeah! For sure. He is just himself. And I like the fact that… going off on a slight tangent but why Mad Men is my favourite TV show is because even though people think it’s really serious and moody all the time, it doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s really fucking stupid.
And playful.
Exactly.
And has weird little…
Someone gets run over by a lawnmower! That’s not a serious show! And that’s how I feel about Paul Thomas Anderson films as well, that no matter how depressing Boogie Nights might be, it’s so ridiculous and melodramatic that there’s still humour in it, even in its darkest moments.
I think Boogie Nights is a great choice, so congrats. Well, on that note, we should wrap up! Ok I’m going to ask you a few questions before we finish. I forgot to do this in a previous episode with Fil and Brad because I got really discombobulated by the fact there were two of them in the studio. Ok… if you could only take one film with you into an underground bunker to watch for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Magic Mike XXL.
Legit.
Yeah, I think so. I feel like I should say Boogie Nights because it’s my favourite film but…
I think those two things are not necessarily the same. Your favourite film and the film you could happily rewatch forever are not always the same, so legit choice.
I think you’ve got to have something fun.
If you went to the shop and were going to buy some crisps what crisps would you buy?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’ve been listening to all the other episodes this week.
You knew this was coming.
I did, I was like oh my god when’s she going to ask me about the crisps? I would take plantain chips.
Very good.
But in the clear bag.
What emoji best describes you?
Moon emoji.
Moon? Like Moonlight! Just like Moonlight. And is there anyone you would like me to talk to in season 2.
So many people… well a mutual follow of ours is the amazing Sarah Sahim.
Yes, I love Sarah.
She is the best.
And just so fearless.
She is.
She’s really fearless, and I really like that about her.
And so funny.
She’s wonderful. She’s a really good follow.
She was like… why hasn’t Bethany asked me to go on her podcast yet?
I see how it is.
I think she expects it!
Ok cool!
She would be a great guest because she knows about everything. I was hanging out with her and she told me about… it was either Schrodinger’s Cat or Pavlov’s Dog… she explained one of those to me…
Was it the one with the bell or the one with the box?
I think it was the one with the box?
That’s Schrodinger’s Cat.
She told me about that then five minutes later she was talking to me about Drag Race.
I’ve got to get her on. Sorry Sarah that I haven’t had you on in season one, my list is just too long. So Grace, would you like people to follow you online or would you rather they didn’t?
Always! Now I’ve returned to Twitter after my four-day hiatus.
You’ve come back refreshed after your long break.
I have! I’m ready to troll even more. I’m ready to make more memes about La La Land.
So who are you on Twitter, and would you like to big up Reel Good Film Club?
So on Twitter, I am, I the elusive chanteuse, to quote the great Mariah Carey, @gracesimone. Reel Good Film Club is @gottobereel with two es.
Like a reel of film.
Well, that’s all folks. Join me next week for the final instalment of Hello Friend season 1.
