The Films That Changed My Life: Martin McKenna

May 30, 2016
The director of this week’s cracking teen flick, Is This The Real World, picks the films that have had the greatest life impact upon him.
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time

SWING TIME (1936)

“In the early eighties, the ABC ran a season of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films every Friday night, quite late. I’m not sure if Swing Time was the first of their films screened – it wasn’t their first together as a leading duo – but it remains a seminal film experience for me. Living in rural isolation as a teenager, this window through time and space into a beautiful and unreal distant world sits in my memory as a powerful and cathartic experience. It’s a lightweight musical comedy, but still a very beautiful thing. It’s possible that Ginger Rogers was my first movie star crush. How quaint…something happened to this impressionable teenager during the viewing of those films; my focus switched around to film, and it has never looked away since.”

Richard Edson, Eszter Balint and John Lurie in Stranger Than Paradise

Richard Edson, Eszter Balint and John Lurie in Stranger Than Paradise

STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984)

“Some films have a magic that is created from disparate elements which, on paper, would be hard to imagine working. And they are often my favourite cinema experiences. This Jim Jarmusch film arrived on our shores when I was a teenager starting at Swinburne Film School [in Melbourne], and it made a huge impression on me. From the opening shots set to Tom Waits, I was completely hooked. It’s a film built around a beautiful tension within an unlikely triangle. It’s an incredible trick to make a film as minimal and as rich as this one.”

Kirk Douglas in Paths Of Glory

Kirk Douglas in Paths Of Glory

PATHS OF GLORY (1957)

“I could have picked any Stanley Kubrick film. He only made masterpieces. 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen is a profound experience which can’t be put into words. But Paths Of Glory is one that I keep going back to. It’s heartbreaking. It’s deeply personal, and also incredibly political. It’s made with that graceful, elegant style which Stan brought to all his work. Kirk Douglas is ablaze in the lead role. And the moment before the executions where the cockroach gets squished is one of my all-time favourite cinema moments. “In the morning, that cockroach will be alive and we’ll be dead.” Stomp, dead cockroach. “Feel better now?” I could also have gone with Barry Lyndon…or how could I leave aside Full Metal Jacket? Kubrick: the Bradman of cinema.”

Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon

Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)

“Has there even been an on-screen performance to top Al Pacino in this movie? I would argue ‘no.’ It’s goosebump-good from start to finish. Sidney Lumet – the master, working off a script by Frank Pierson – yeah, the guy also wrote Cool Hand Luke, so there’s that…and throw in the amazing John Cazale. I can still watch it every year, and the brilliance is an amazing thing to behold. The fact that it’s a true (and deeply idiosyncratic) story is icing on an already delicious cake.”

Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem in Fear Eats The Soul

Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem in Fear Eats The Soul

FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974)

“(Though I kind of prefer the direct German translation title of ‘Fear Eat Soul Soup’)

I think I jumped in the deep end with German 70s cinema; this was the first Rainer Werner Fassbinder film that I ever saw, and it was just one of those viewing experiences which stuck with me. It’s sad and beautiful and personal. And when I complain about having to shoot a movie in four weeks, I could remind myself that this classic was shot in two weeks and I could stop whining. The love of German cinema has stayed strong; was Downfall the best film of the 2000s?”

Channing Tatum and Steve Carell in Foxcatcher

Channing Tatum and Steve Carell in Foxcatcher

FOXCATCHER (2014)

“Okay – so it didn’t change my life, but it’s freaking brilliant, and I wanted to include something from this century on the list. How’s Bennet Miller’s form? Capote, Moneyball, and Foxcatcher – one after the other. The fella is on a serious roll. The awful thing about this list is all the hundreds of movies which have enriched my life that don’t get a mention. I’ve left out The Indian Runner, Don’t Look Back, This Is Spinal Tap, Withnail & I, Gallipoli, Tokyo Story, Breathless, The Toy Story Trilogy, Into The Wild, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Elephant, The Searchers, The Good The Bad And The Ugly, Badlands, and The Tree Of Life. I could go on, and on…”

Is This The Real World will screen as part of FilmInk Presents in Sydney on Monday May 30, 7:00pm, at The Ritz Cinema, Randwick. For more information, click here. And make sure to check out our interviews with Is This The Real World stars, Sean Keenan and Matt Colwell. The film will then open  in cinemas on Thursday.

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