Home Movies: Film Fun with Electric Shadows

To mark the debut of “Screentime,” our new Q&A column, we have teamed up with Beijing film fanatics Electric Shadows for a mini-film fest. They asked us if we’d like to put some films on. “Would we ever!” we exclaimed. Then we asked ourselves a question: What movie do you watch to remind yourself of home? The answers we got were as diverse as our editorial team, so that’s what we’ll be showing on the Wednesdays of October at the Electric Shadows Cine Club.

Looking for Eric (Oct 3)
“It should be Twenty Four Hour Party People just for Steve Coogan’s homage to Anthony H. Wilson but it’s currently Looking For Eric. It’s filmed in my part of Manchester, it’s very accurate in its portrayal (from football loyalties to gun crime) and it stars Eric Cantona. As films go, it’s pretty comforting looking at Chorlton Precinct before you see your formative footballing hero take a hallucinating postman for a run down the River Mersey. Plus the ending is absolutely top-drawer cinema.”

Shooters (Oct 10)
“Whenever I tire of the daily grind of Beijing and long for home, I watch this chillingly accurate crime drama to remind myself that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be shot, tied up and robbed in my home or have my face chewed off in Paddy O’Shea’s. Interestingly, the cast are all real-life badasses making their acting debuts.”

Trainspotting (Oct 17)
“Braveheart came out about a year before this and encouraged a lot of silly chest-beating about how great Scotland is. Trainspotting did the opposite and seemed a lot more honest for doing so. Starts with shoplifting from the long-defunct and much-missed John Menzies on Princes Street in Edinburgh, which takes me back in more ways than one. Other welcome reminders of home: the dialogue, occasionally grating Edinburgh accents, dank pubs, familiar landmarks, cobbled streets, and the fact that although Beijing can be mad at times, lunatics like Begbie are few and far between here. Not all of it reminds me of home: I have never been swimming inside a toilet.”

Back to the Future (Oct 24)
“There are no movies based in Hacienda Heights, CA, really, but the parking lot scene in which they first launch the DeLorean and then the Libyans come through was filmed at the Puente Hills Mall, where I did all my back-to-school shopping as a kid.”

The Electric Shadows and the Beijinger Cine Club takes place on the first four Wednesdays of October at Riverbank Cafe. Tickets are priced at RMB 40 and things get rolling at 7.30pm.

Click here to see the October issue of the Beijinger in full.

Photo: sports.ru