I aimed for 50 this year and I just made it!

It's funny the effect a film can have on you:
I’d decided to visit the cinema less often as I'd (a) reached what the French call "un certain age", (b) been 'forced'* to have Film4 (etc.) at home, and (c) for medical reasons – if not monetary ones – started travelling less often (to alternative cinemas in Newcastle, Dumfries, or Edinburgh).
Then I saw "THE FOURTH KIND", the sort of Americans-abducted-by-aliens nonsense which Sky 3 might show in the early hours – and I thought "£4.75 for this? [it was a Monday afternoon screening] I could have stayed at home and watched "WHAT KIND OF A MOTHER ARE YOU?" again on FiveUSA for nothing!".(Believe me, even the most emotional TVMovie is preferable to "THE FOURTH KIND".)
Then, within a month, I saw "ME AND ORSON WELLES" – and I thought "only £4.75 for this? How can I think of coming less often? Put on some more films like this, and I’d be back at my 1998-high (101 visits)!"

But the trouble is, they won't – children are a cinema's audience these days (hardly surprising when most people over 25 seem to own a VCR, a DVD player, an internet computer, a Skybox, and a Freeview STB). Even if commercial cinemas showed subtitled Spanish films every month (and publicised them so that people knew about them), they'd be hard-pressed to get an audience outside of the cosmopolitan cities.

Anyhow, rather than continuing to moan about the 'good old days' when you could see a double feature for 3/6d, I'll announce my awards for 2009:
Well, I suppose Michelle Pfeiffer should win something for being prepared to show her age in "CHERI"; Michael Caine for showing his in "HARRY BROWN"; Danny Boyle for directing "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE"; maybe Sandrine Bonnaire for "L'EMPREINTE DE L'ANGE". And "A BUNCH OF AMATEURS" at least deserves a round of applause for being a rollicking good comedy which didn't stoop to violence, sex, or bad language to get laughs. (And most of the highbrow critics hated it – make of that what you will!).

So, next year, 40 new films?

*Carlisle is the first all-digital TV city in the UK, so in order to watch any TV, we have to be able to receive at least 50 channels.

All ►◄ quotes are from my reviews.
© Richard Haysom, 2009.