#WeAreQFT: Hugh Odling-Smee

You are stuck at home and your favourite cinema is closed. What five films do you watch?

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Power in the Blood (1989)

Rififi (1955)

Grace of My Heart (1996)

What three words would you use to describe QFT?

Luminous. Indefatigable. International.  

What is your earliest cinema-going memory?

Either attending Superman (1978) at the ABC on Fisherwick Place with my older brothers and sisters, or going to see Ghandi (1982) with my mum at the New Vic next door. Now that was a cinema - one big room, and we sat on the balcony. I can still remember the colours of that film, so clear on the massive screen. That afternoon set the standard for the perfect cinema experience.

What film do you dislike that everyone else loves?

Almost all of the 80s blockbusters – ET (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Indiana Jones (1981-1989). Terrible movies, made at a terrible time. Steven Spielberg should be locked up, him and his shooting star.

What is your guilty pleasure film?

No one should feel any guilt for liking any film, but I do have a dark, shameful fascination with B-movies about Northern Ireland, the more appalling the better. The apex of this genre is IRA: King of Nothing (2006) which was ‘created’ by Damian Chapa in Belfast in 2006. It contains a vision of Belfast and the peace process so remote from reality it becomes a reminder that others often see your history very differently from how you experienced it. There are a lot of these types of movie - Bad Day in Belfast (1974) and Hennessy (1975)  - all ludicrously enjoyable. 

What is your favourite film soundtrack?

Either Diva (1981), the Jean-Jacques Beineix film, which is the first time I think I was aware of how music and film work together, or Goodfellas (1990). I don’t tend to notice incidental music that much, but I do appreciate it when the right song kicks in at the right time.

What film character would you love to meet?

Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), because he seemed to me the best kind of man when I watched it aged 12.  

What is the best thing about going to the cinema?

It's not the only way to watch films, but it's the best way. Working for Film Hub NI, I've had the pleasure of watching films in all manner of places, community halls, above pubs, huge state of the art auditoriums and century old single screen venues. What all of them have in common, is audiences coming together to sit and immerse themselves in the dark and watch other people’s stories unfold on a huge bright screen. That cannot be matched at home, and the connection between a film viewed in a cinema is always stronger for that common experience. 

Do you have a special place in the cinema where you always sit?

Not particularly, anywhere will do as long as it's not the front two rows. 

Who is your favourite film villain?

Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

What one thing would you change about your favourite film?

I wish Brian was rescued from the cross and that he and Judith live out their days happily together on a juniper farm. 

What film do you think justifies a remake?

Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) in the age of the internet. 

Have you ever changed your opinion on a film?

This is a little iconoclastic, but although I loved A Matter of Life and Death (1946) when I first watched it, I find that I now find it leaves me cold. There’s something in the concept that doesn’t work for me anymore, and I find the sentimentalism overdone. 

What is your favourite movie quote?

 'All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back.' – The Big Lebowski.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

A strange mix of Rupert Everett and Tom Wilkinson.