Inspiration
Inspiration from Film
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’- Frank Capra, 1946
- A fantastic life-affirming film about how to truly appreciate the people and things around you. With a lead role fabulously played by James Stewart and a great film to see if you’re feeling a bit low.
‘A Zed and Two Noughts’- Peter Greenaway, 1985
- Filmed in the eighties, this film is about love, death and decay, featuring a ménage á trois. This is a visually sumptuous film and a great music score by Michael Nyman.
‘Diva’- Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981
- A little known and slightly quirky film from the French director of ‘Betty Blue’. It’s a thriller based around a motorcycle courier who unwittingly gets involved with a corrupt politician and the police. It also features the opera singer Wilhelmenia Fernandez who sings the brilliant aria from Alfredo Catalani’s opera ‘La Wally’.
‘Paris, Texas’- Wim Wenders, 1984
- A great film about past history, brilliantly played by Harry Dean Stanton, very well structured and a laid back score by Ry Cooder.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’- Stanley Kubrick, 1968
- Apart from ‘Star Wars’, this was one of the first SciFi films I ever saw and it had a great effect because of the errant computer, Hal, and its subtle comments on the cycle of man.
‘Wings of Desire’- Wim Wenders, 1987
- Another fantastic Wenders film about two angels who oversee post-war Berliner’s lives. Shot in black and white and then colour when one of the angels falls in love with an acrobat and becomes a mortal on earth. Not that I’m obsessed about Wim Wenders!
‘Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)’- Tom Tykwer, 1998
- Fantastic debut from this German director and without doubt the best film soundtrack of the nineties. This is a film about chances and shows a number of different takes on the same situation. A bit similar to ‘Sliding Doors’ (Peter Howitt, 1998) but way smarter.
‘Blue Velvet’- David Lynch, 1986
- Fascinating film about a small town underworld, starring Isabella Rossellini and a really scary Dennis Hopper as drug-crazed, Frank Booth.
‘Pulp Fiction’- Quentin Tarantino, 1994
- Brilliant return of John Travolta as Vincent Vega and a great soundtrack. Some memorable lines, including “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead” and “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go home and have a heart attack”.
‘Koyaanisqatsi’- Godfrey Reggio, 1982
- Taking its title from a Hopi Indian term for “life out of balance” this fabulous documentary film is about the natural and built environment, with a film score by Philip Glass.
‘Apocalypse Now’- Francis Ford Coppola, 1979
- A brilliant film, set during the Vietnam war, about an army captain sent to assassinate a renegade colonel. It features star performances from Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando and is quite a chilling movie from start to finish. It has the infamous line by Robert Duvall, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”.
