Long term Subbie favourite and Maitre D of Parisian house Ivan Smagghe checks in to kick it off for June and start our party right at Subculture this Saturday. Chatting to Ivan over the years in hotel bars or during car journeys to and from airports, here at the Subbie we’re clued up on his love for movies. From his early teenage years his weekly film viewing schedule regularly rolled in to double figures. His taste in films is as varied and as exciting as his own music and his DJ selections.
We chatted (quietly) up the back row ;) where Ivan was more than happy to share his cinematic playlist of 10 favourite films…
“10 MELODRAMAS THAT I SUPPOSE YOU’D NOT I THINK I LIKE (out of a very very long list)”
RICH AND FAMOUS (GEORGE CUKOR,1981)
“George is a bitch but he’s the queen. this is like Dynasty crossed with Jane Austen with bad hair. An ultimate household favourite. His last film.”
JULIA (ZINNEMAN,1977)
“Another last film, Fonda also has pretty bad hair, Redgrave is fantastic, it also deals with the anguish that goes with writing. Zinneman is like a god where I come from.”
A conversation about Fred Zinnemann’s film Julia (1977) with Academy Award-winning sound designer and film editor Walter Murch, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Alvin Sargent, and Getty scholar Jennifer Smyth…
LES COEURS VERTS (LUNTZ,1966)
“Not strictly a melodrama but still so moving. And the first movie about “les blousons noirs” (French rockers)”
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (SCHLESINGER,1967)
“Casting and Exteriors. Photography. Why would you even want to try and remake this I wonder.”
ABSENCES REPETEES (GUY GILLES, 1972)
“Contrary to public opinion, the love for heroin makes very very good romantic movies.”
MARIANNE DE MA JEUNESSE (DUVIVIER, 1955)
Shot both as a French version and a German one in 1955 (that must have taken some balls), this is simply the campest movie I have ever watched (contains deers and gay undertones).
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION (NEWMAN, 1970)
“Paul Newman is a beautiful man. An average actor. But he is probably the best american melodrama director of the seventies.”
THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH (RENOIR, 1947)
“Renoir arrives in America and makes a movie with a coast guard, Joan Bennet and her blind painter husband, Drama ensues.”
THE TURNING POINT (ROSS, 1977)
“Bancroft, Shirley McLaine. And the guts to insert 30 minutes of ballet dancing in the middle of a movie.”
THE HEIRESS (WYLER, 1949)
“Olivia and Monty. Monty & Olvia.”
Thanks to Ivan for sharing that with us.
You can catch Ivan on Saturday at Le Subbie as he takes up le rôle de premier at Subculture from 11pm. Joining Ivan pour la soirée to provide your Saturday bande sonore will be acteur de soutien Telford. Advance tickets are on sale HERE or more on the door.
Also keep an eye out on SUB HUB channels for details of Ivan’s apparition en matinée at the BBC Music at the Quay event en extérieur this Sunday.