Gone Fishing played at the Prince Charles in Leicester Square twice this weekend, Friday supporting ‘Jaws’, and Saturday supporting ‘The Shark Still Works’, an awesome feature length doc about ‘Jaws’, and the legacy it has left (my original post here where you can watch the trailer).
This was part of The United Film Festival, which is run by Jason Connell, an American film maker and festival CEO. The festival travels around North America, programming different movies in different cities, but this was their first outing in Europe. And London was that outing.
And on stage on Saturday night that it struck me, it has taken an American to get our movie, ‘Gone Fishing’, screened in our own home city. So thanks Jason.
It was also great to see so many faces I knew in the crowd – you know who you are, and thanks for your continued support!
For me though, the highlight was watching an original 35mm print of ‘Jaws’ – right from seventies, faded, scratched, covered in dirt, with entire chunks missing (where presumably it had snapped in the past and been repaired), with mono sound… but that ‘grindhouse like’ condition evoked a kind of time portal for me, right back to 1976 and the Wigan Ritzy when I too, queued around the block for the must see movie of the summer. What struck me most though was just how terrifying a movie ‘Jaws’ still is – that opening scene sets such a terrifying benchmark, and then every scene thereafter propels the audience to that horrifying conclusion, with Quint being eaten alive, the boat sinking and Brody taking his one single shot to blow up Bruce! Awesome, awesome stuff made all the better for the mono sound, scratches, dirt and a print that kept snapping!
Blimey!
Onwards and upwards!
Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
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