“My best film…”

BLACK RAINBOW, written and directed by Mike Hodges.

Fiona knows Mike, so now I do too. His paranormal-political thriller was one of the subjects of last night’s conversation, and how his reading of quantum mechanics informed the screenplay… Mike is on the jury for the Michael Powell Award this year, and thus sworn to secrecy. Despite the flowing wine, he was the soul of discretion on that point. It’s all the other stuff he told us I can’t talk about… ranging from Anthony Asquith’s role in the Profumo Affair, Alan Bennett’s reaction to WITCHFINDER GENERAL and a surprise revelation regarding the great Robert Fuest… all sealed, until fifty years after all our deaths. Yours too.

Then we dropped Mike at his hotel and got the bus home. It had just managed to get more or less dark, but the sky was still in the deeper stages of cobalt blue and giant seagulls were gliding down the tall streets like X-Wing fighters, scooping up the abandoned fish suppers, and they looked like the giant roc of mythology, large enough to snatch a baby elephant, and you think is nobody else noticing this?