Ever since I was little I have been fascinated by films, I distinctly remember going to see my first film The Lion King at the cinema when I was five years old. Full of excitement, the songs, colours, animals and visuals blew my mind. During the 90s Disney was going through its renaissance and I grew up on the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas. These films were the first I can remember and the magic they created set the foundation of my film going love as it sparked my interest in films and the immersive experience they provided.
My love of films and going to the cinema was further cemented by a tradition that my parents started in my early childhood were they would take us to watch a film on Christmas Eve in a vain hope to wear us out and mellow out the mounting excitement for Christmas day. In retrospect, it had the opposite effect as it just added to the growing excitement of Christmas. To this day, I hold these memories in a special place in my heart as it combined the magic of Christmas and films together. We still try to watch a film together at Christmas if we can get everyone together, which is a little tricky these days but when we do the nostalgia flows freely.
As I grew up, I became fascinated with old Hollywood during my teenage years, the movies, and musicals from the 1930s, 40s and 50s captured my imagination and I became interested in the history of Hollywood’s origin and its stars. This is where my love for Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn came from. Audrey was first as she came into my life through Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Katharine Hepburn entered my life as a trailblazing, sure of herself figure. Her films are fun (my favourites are Bringing up Baby and The Philadelphia Story) and she often portrayed women ahead of her time, which mirrored her own life. They have both influenced me and I still love them both to this day.
I remember going around to my friends houses with my DVDs trying to convince them to watch Funny Face or The Philadelphia story when we had a movie and pizza night - sometimes I was successful and they were pleasantly surprised. Other times we ended up watching Legally Blonde, Drop Dead Gorgeous or Clueless, equally loved and each one a part of the millennial film staple.
Going to the cinema became part of a shared social experience when I was at senior school. During the school holidays my friends and I would take the bus into town and get a meal deal or in their cases a happy meal, scoff them down, then buy a load of sweets from Woolworths and head to the cinema with our bags bulging with contraband.
Another thing that I used to love doing during those years was going to the cinema with my friend Jordan. We had a Friday night ritual of going to TGI Fridays, getting an oreo milkshake, chicken poppers, ribs and a brownie dessert and then we would make our way to the cinema to watch the early 2000s classics like Miss Congeniality, Mean Girls and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
I also love going to the cinema whilst on holiday, going to a cinema in a different country feels like you immersing yourself in an everyday activity but you get a different cultural experience. One experience that makes me smile every time I think about it was when I watched The Martian at the Paradiso Cinema at Lake Wanaka in New Zealand. The cinema has eclectic seating (including a vintage car which you can sit in) and a fun tradition where they bring out freshly baked cookies during the interval. The screening was full of people from all around the world and we all bonded together over the delicious cookies, Matt Damon and our travel stories.
When I was in LA many years ago I visited the El Capitan Theatre and the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard and took tours in both, which I found fascinating. It was also a lot of fun walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, spotting stars from the past and present day.
I recently had a wonderful experience where I took myself on an artist date to watch the film Perfect Days, it was 2pm on a Wednesday and I sat with a tea in a nearly empty cinema to enjoy the film, it was in Japanese but the human story captured my heart and made me cry at the end, it was a captivating film and Kōji Yakusho’s performance was both nuanced and heart-breaking.
I love it when a film moves you and you become totally engrossed in the characters and their story. I love to take myself on cinema dates, there is nothing better then settling down to a film for a couple of hours and then leaving mulling over what you have seen, good or bad. The sweet escape of a film will always play an important part in my life.