A thousand and one films
2008-08-28
MICHAEL HILLS is a Wellington film collector of note. He owns more than a thousand titles, and even many more DVDs if multi-disc editions are included. His interest ranges from vintage classics to science fiction, action and fantasy. Even as a child he was intrigued by the movie industry, and how films were made. “My mother was a movie fan. Those days there was no such thing as television, and she would take us to the cinema on Saturdays, or to the drive-in. ”Today I can’t imagine watching a movie with a little speaker stuck next to a car window, but then it was a wonderful experience. “We lived in Port Elizabeth, and I remember when the fog rolled in, all the cars would start up their engines and switch them off when the fog lifted.” Then it was not possible to own a movie. “When VHS came onto the market, it was almost miraculous - at last you could own your favourite film. I immediately started collecting movies. “Later laser discs came out - I have quite a few of them, and now DVDs. I still have lots of videos, but they are stuck in the bottom of a cupboard, the quality is so bad compared to DVD.” Recently he showed two of Stanley Kubrick’s earlier films - Killer’s Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956) - at the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington. “I have movie and opera evenings at my home, and one evening we discussed the possibility of showing some of these films - films that you would not necessarily see on television and in the cinemas, to a wider audience. I suggested that we start with a director: begin with his earlier works and follow his career.” “Kubrick was fascinated by the medium and the fact that you could create an entire performance on the editing table. “He was a black and white photographer for four or five years before he went into film, and I think this helped develop his very strong visual style. For me, his work is like the music of Beethoven, immediately recognisable.” Kubrick’s most famous or rather notorius film was Clockwork Orange (1971), banned in South Africa until the 1980s. “When they finally released it, I went through to Cape Town to see it. It was very violent and very disturbing, and when I walked out, I thought, this is a movie I never want to see again. “Years passed, and I began to like Kubrick’s work more and more, and then read somewhere that Clockwork Orange was actually a comedy. I thought you must be insane!” When Clockwork Orange came out on DVD Michael bought a copy for his collection and in time he decided to give it another chance. “I sat down, really looked at it and I actually started laughing at certain points in the film. “It is of course very very black humour. Very pessimistic. Like many of his themes are, and yes, it really is a very good movie!” Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon (1975) was a watershed moment. “What a magnificent work of art. I always say that when I die they can bury me with a copy of Barry Lyndon. It is so beautiful, slow and almost novellike. Like a painting, come to life. “It was Barry Lyndon that really drew me to Kubrick. It made me wonder, who could make a film like this? You know he had a special lens developed to film in candlelight because he did not want to use studio lights.” In September Michael will show Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957) at the Breytenbach Centre. The movie was Kubrick’s first commercial and critical success. “This movie put him on the map as a director. It is also Steven Spielberg’s favourite Kubrick film and considered one of the great anti-war movies. “It is only 87 minutes - but hard-hitting. It is based on a true story, and the film depicts the horror of the First World War’s trench warfare, and the class system that kept the generals and officers in palaces while their troups suffered in the trenches.”
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