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Film Features

Let's Drift: John Maclean's Cinematic Baker's Dozen
Mat Colegate , July 3rd, 2015 06:51

As his debut feature Slow West hits the cinemas, John Maclean - former Beta Band member turned director - takes time out to reveal his 13 favourite films to The Quietus

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McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

A friend of mine recommended this when I was an art student in the '90s. I remember having it on VHS and it was a really bad copy. There was some confusion because it's quite a snowy film and I got confused between the setting and the snowy picture on the VHS as it kept breaking up every ten minutes. That actually added to the authenticity of it. This is the only Western on the list - I thought there had to be one. I think its the combination of it feeling more real than a lot of Westerns – less mythic as well as having a dreamlike quality as well. That combination of the real and the dream is the reason to love it. That dreamlike quality happens in a lot of the films on my list. It's definitely something I was conscious about when I made Slow West.