Suzanne shares memories of watching Mean Streets on a roof and a great love of screwball comedies. You can see what else she’s been watching by following her on Letterboxd @sonambula.
What was the first film you saw at film club?
Bamboozled. Not my favourite Spike Lee but was really happy to have found Tufnell Park Film Club on our doorstep.
What’s been your favourite film at film club?
Little Fugitive (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel & Ruth Orkin, USA, 1953). I had never heard of it, but have thought about it a lot since. It's such a weird, sweet film. I've already bought a copy to force on people!
What’s been your least favourite film club?
Probably A Tale of Two Sisters, just because I am a total baby when it comes to anything even a little spooky.
Which film that you voted for are you most annoyed has lost the vote?
Luchino Visconti's Ossessione. I really want to see how it compares to the Lana Turner version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
What’s a favourite film of yours you’d love to see at film club?
I'd like to see how Jan Švankmajer’s Little Otik would go down. I realise I said I don't like horror, but I think it really skews more strange/funny than spooky/scary, and if you ever need a film based on a folk tale as an option for The Chain…
Tell us a theme and three choices you’d put up for the vote.
Screwball Heiresses, purely so that Bringing Up Baby is on the ticket. It's sort of a sloppy, unwieldy film, but you do get to spend almost two hours with a leopard, Katherine Hepburn doing an impression of a gangster's moll and Cary Grant losing his mind in a fluffy bathrobe. Throw in My Man Godfrey and It Happened One Night as contenders.
Is there a book about film that you’d recommend to other members?
Keeping to the screwball theme, I Lost My Girlish Laughter, by Jane Allen. It’s an epistolary novel written by David O. Selznick's personal secretary. It's set behind the scenes of golden age Hollywood, and I think only recently back in print. Properly escapist, just what you need right now. I also just picked up a copy of Swanson on Swanson which I've been reliably informed is entertaining nonsense (p.1: boasts about being the most popular female celebrity of the 20s; p.2: secret abortion the day after her wedding; p.3 : compares herself to Lazarus). So I am looking forward to digging into that while stuck at home.
What’s your earliest memory of going to the cinema?
The 80s re-release of Bambi, when I was about 4. At that point, I don't think there was a proper cinema in our town, so it was screened in the theatre, and since so few children's films were shown it sold out long in advance. I remember the queue curling around the building and the plush red seats when we got inside, but I don't remember anything of the experience of watching a film on the big screen for the first time.
The next year we went back to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and I remember my cousin's reaction much better: he spent weeks telling anyone who would listen about the giant telly, completely awestruck that such a thing existed.
What's your most memorable cinematic experience?
Maybe watching Mean Streets with Eoin and my family at rooftop cinema in Tallinn. We were the only audience, it was pouring rain, and we had a canopied couch, blankets and heaters. Probably not how Scorsese intended it to be watched, but definitely memorable.
What was the last film you saw outside film club and would you recommend it?
The Rider - a sort of modern western with a cast of non-professional actors playing versions of themselves. Beautifully shot and definitely recommended, but not an easy watch.
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