#WeAreQFT Susie Farrell
17 April 2020
We talk to screenwriter Susie Farrell (Sulphur & White, Dirty God) about the films to tide her over during a lockdown, which much loved romcom she doesn't have much love for, and more for our latest #WeAreQFT profile.
You are stuck at home and your favourite cinema is closed. What five films do you
watch?
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed (2017)
Claire Denis’ White Material (2009)
Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010)
Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019)
Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of A Lady On Fire (2019)
Pending a longer closure, I would hold a Jane Campion season. And perhaps a John Boorman season. And to cheer myself up – Zoolander (2001). And the fantastic vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (2014).
What three words would you use to describe QFT?
Culturally very significant.
What is your earliest cinema-going memory?
My sister and I gawping at people behind us kissing, when we were meant to be watching James Bond.
What film do you dislike that everyone else loves?
Love Actually (2003) is pretty ropey.
What is your guilty pleasure film?
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
What is your favourite film soundtrack?
Sufjan Stevens' phenomenal score of Call Me by Your Name (2017).
What is the best thing about going to the cinema?
The big screen. The dark. Loved ones close.
Do you have a special place in the cinema where you always sit?
Eight rows back, dead centre.
Who is your favourite film villain?
Ralph Fiennes in In Bruges (2008).
What one thing would you change about your favourite film?
Matthew McConaughey's character is cured at the end of Dallas Buyers Club (2013). Though not sure this would improve the film.
What film do you think justifies a remake?
Ridley Scott's noir thriller from the 80s, Someone to Watch Over Me (1987). There was something inherently romantic there.
Have you ever changed your opinion on a film?
Steve McQueen's Shame (2011). I kept returning to it until I could see what all the fuss was about.
What is your favourite movie quote?
It's got to be something out of the mouth of Taxi Driver's (1976) Travis Bickle: 'Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets' has a certain resonance right now.
Who would play you in a film of your life?
Tilda. Or Joaquin Phoenix, I reckon could pull it off.
