HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944), dir Preston Sturges
SHERLOCK JR (1924), dir Buster Keaton
SAFETY LAST (1923), dir Fred C Newmeyer/Sam Taylor
THE GOLD RUSH (1925), dir Charles Chaplin
MON ONCLE (1958), dir Jacques Tati
JOUR DE FETE (1948), dir Jacques Tati
FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982), dir Ingmar Bergman
NAPOLEON (1927), dir Abel Gance
GROUNDHOG DAY (1993), dir Harold Ramis
GUYS AND DOLLS (1955), dir Joseph L Mankiewicz
I was 13 when my brother came home and said he'd just seen The Lady Eve at the NFT and forced me to go with him to the Preston Sturges season. We saw the lot. The NFT seasons are where I discovered Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
The NFT is a gem, which reminds us that real, as opposed to Hollywood, films exist. It was behind the first screening of the restored Napoleon by Abel Gance. I woke up on a Sunday morning with a terrible hangover and had tickets for that night. My wife, Alison, didn't want to come so I rang Mike Palin, but he didn't want to see it either. I called Douglas Adams, who was also suffering from a terrible hangover, and he didn't want to go. Then Douglas rang back and said the prospect of watching a five-hour silent movie on a sunny day was such a bad idea that he thought he ought to do it. It was one of the most memorable cinema-going experiences of my life.
