Do you remember the first film you saw at the cinema?
This was the question asked by a pair of vox-pop reporters for a series of short videos shown during a film festival in my home town of Cesena.
Most young respondents recalled Disney or Pixar animations; one older guy remembered seeing The Wizard Of Oz, another recounted how he was dragged reluctantly to see Visconti’s The Leopard when his parents couldn’t find a babysitter.
Hearing these experience got me thinking about my own ‘firsts’ at the movies.
Dad was sound asleep during this scene from Where Eagles Dare.
The first film I saw with my parents was Where Eagles Dare – a WWII drama based on Alistair McLean’s novel with the unlikely pairing of Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton as Nazi impersonators undertaking a mission impossible task of freeing prisoners held in a Colditz-like fortress.
This movie was memorable not for the action packed set pieces but for the fact that my Dad fell asleep half way through and had to be prodded awake by my Mom when he began snoring. Continue reading
