Cinema for me is…
United Kingdom – Jonathan Atkinson from Europa Cinemas on Vimeo.
Jonathan in 23 Frames
1. Describe yourself in ten words.
Geordie, recently graduated lay-about who loves films, learning, and gluttony.
2. Your best quality? Your worst habit?
I think I have a lot of sympathy for other people and will go out of my way to help them out. I am lazy beyond all reproach.
3. Your dream job?
I want more than anything to be a film director who directs their own projects.
4. What do you like most about your country?
Everyone is a comedian.
5. Your favorite dish in your country?
I think Indian food has been incorporated enough into English cuisine to say it’s part of the country’s food – poppadoms with mango chutney, onions bhajis, and a spicy curry with naan bread.
6. Which word or phrase in your native language do you like the most and what does it mean?
Outside of more rude ones, ‘worky-ticket’ is a colloquial word in the North-East for someone who is getting on your nerves and being troublesome for its own sake.
7. What European capital have you visited lately?
I visited Dublin this January, loved the people, the history, and the Guinness.
8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
Really, I’m too close to my roots to be anywhere else for long, but I think I would love the Irish countryside.
9. What does Europe mean to you? 3 values.
Tolerance, Education, Welfare.
10. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
I think I’ve always loved cinema, but Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1996, US) was the film that made me think ‘I want to make films like this’.
11. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
The Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds, it only has a one screen and feels fantastically intimate.
12. Who is your movie hero?
Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) in Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross, 2016, US).
13. Which movie director would you like to be?
There’s no point in cinema having the same director twice, but I can’t help but worship David Lynch.
14. Briefly describe your favorite scene.
The diner scene from Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001, US), a pallid man describes the contents of his nightmares to a friend – a terrible face, the two feel compelled to act out the nightmare with hellish consequences.
15. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Aguirre, Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1973, DE)
Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999, GB)
The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953, FR).
16. Which film character do you most identify with?
Ali G.
17. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
Mica Levi’s score for Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013, GB).
18. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki/Kirk Wise, 2001, JP).
19. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
I feel like Nicolas Cage could at the very least make it a good time.
20. Which talent would you most like to have?
It wouldn’t count as a talent in most other countries, but speaking a second language because I’m a typical ignorant Brit.
21. What is your most treasured possession?
My old game consoles I have from being a kid.
22. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Graduating university with a good degree in something I genuinely love.
23. What is your motto?
Learning always comes first.
