A Great Night In
John Hannah: The Scottish actor selects the 1943 war drama
directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, for a great night in.
Why is this film special?
It's an amazingly complex piece of storytelling in which nothing is quite
what it seems. I'm a big fan of Powell and Pressburger.
When and where did you first see it?
About ten years ago, when I was sharing a flat with the actor Neil Dudgeon.
We were unemployed and had both been recently chucked by women, so we used
to stage video retrospectives of famous film-makers to cheer ourselves up.
The best performance?
Roger Livesey is great as Clive Candy. He manages believably to span 40
years of a man's life. And Kerr is impressive playing three different roles.
Which scene would you rewind?
The plot is like a big carpet - you pull a single thread and it runs all
the way through. For example, there is a scene where Livesey swears he'll
never change until his house is razed to the ground and surrounded by water.
Years later the house is destroyed by bombers and an emergency water tank
is installed on the site.
Has this film influenced your own work?
I've never been a fan of magical realism in literature, but I love it in
cinema. I suppose Sliding Doors had something of the fantastic about it.
Who do you watch it with?
I watched it on my own just last week, because my wife was away.
And for refreshments?
Some pasta, a couple of glasses of wine and something to smoke.
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