Thursday, 25 October 2007
And the Winner Was... Sally Harlow!
posted @10:01 a.m. by Richard Kelly
The Listmania! event at the London Film Festival last Sunday night was a very enjoyable affair. The ten list-making members of the public all gave outstanding performances, providing the audience with plenty to think about and chuckle over. There was a great vibe in the room (which even a garrulous Audrey Hepburn imitator couldn't disturb) and the winner of the contest by the popular vote was Sally Harlow, with her list of Ten Movies That Marked Her Growing Up in 1960s/70s Essex. I'll be posting several of the lists here in the next few days, but naturally we should begin with The Champ, Sally.
SALLY HARLOW'S LIST
Growing up in Essex I originally saw several of these films on TV in my pre-teen years: they are a mixed bag but each of them evoked real emotion within me and began a lifelong fascination with film as well as leaving me with indelible memories over 30 years later. So this list comes from the heart rather than my head, and in classic film-list style I will count down the films from 10 to 1.
#10. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes 1968)
We had the soundtrack LP at home and used to play it whilst we ate our Sunday Lunch, and I’m sure there are thousands like me who had nightmares caused by the Child Catcher. But I also identified with the actress who played Truly Scrumptious in the film – Sally Ann Howes - as she had a very similar name to my own...
9. Elvis - That's The Way It is (1970, dir Denis Sanders)
My sister took me to the cinema to see this, the first time we were deemed old enough to go on our own - we were great Elvis fans but for some reason when the usherette tore our tickets in half we were convinced that we needed the remaining half to get out again - so we went most of the film scrabbling around on the floor trying to find our discarded tickets...
8. The Birds (1963 dir Alfred Hitchcock)
Until I saw this I had never realised a film had the power to terrify so much and to this day I still feel nervous whenever a see a big group of birds perched on a telegraph wire.
7.Stardust (1974 dir. Michael Apted)
This starred David Essex – my first ‘X’ film which me and my schoolfriends went to see at The Chelmsford Pavilion when were 13. It really was quite a lot of tosh but it didn’t matter as it was all about managing to get in to see the film.
6. Giant (1956 dir. George Stevens)
I was a big James Dean fan growing up and this film was so beautiful, I doubt I understood its finer nuances and could scarcely understand what Dean’s character Jett Rink was saying but it didn’t really matter when you watching James Dean on the screen...
5. Born Free (1966 dir. James Hill)
Based on a true story about a couple in Africa raising a lion club, my Auntie Liz took me to see this at the Chelmsford ABC when I was 6 and was mortified that I sobbed the whole way through. Even now when I hear the opening strings of the Born Free theme I’m prone to well up.
4. Play Misty For Me (1971 dir. Clint Eastwood)
I wasn’t supposed to watch this as it was on TV Way Past My Bedtime but I sneaked in my sister’s bedroom and watched it on her black and white portable. We both had a huge crush on Clint Eastwood and the scenes where Clint drives his sports car along by the ocean inspired me to visit California as an adult to drive along that very road.
3. Kes (1969 dir. Ken Loach)
About a young boy and his pet kestrel: the dustbin scene brought tears to my eyes and and Brian Glover’s star turn on the football pitch where he thinks he’s Bobby Charlton and Man U are playing Spurs is still hilarious.
2. Far From The Madding Crowd (1967, dir. John Schlesinger)
This was the big Christmas Day film on BBC2 one year so the whole family sat and watched it together, and for all 170 mins I was transfixed – Thomas Hardy tragedy filmed in a 60s style with beautiful people and a wonderful heroine: Bathsheba Everdene played by Julie Christie. It inspired me to read the book and my favourite line uttered by Gabriel Oak/Alan Bates “At home by the fire, whenever I look up, there you will be. And whenever you look up, there I shall be”
1. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (dir. Karel Reisz 1960)
Starring Albert Finney – I first saw this film in the mid 70s as I reached my teenage years, and I felt I could identify with an angry young man such as Arthur Seaton (Finney). I loved his line ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down.' And I wasn’t the only person inspired by this film -the Arctic Monkeys were heavily influenced too. The title of their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" is a direct quote from the movie.
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