The Bafta Awards season is well underway (Sept'12 to Feb 2013) and so I'm in the midddle of seeing many screenings of new movies which members vote on from Dec'12 to Feb'13. The Orange Bafta Awards take place on 10th February 2013 at London's Royal Opera House. I've always loved the power of television and film - that's one of the reasons I wanted to be a producer. I have often found that moments from great movies can contain messages and stir emotions that you can identify with. Freud said that images are the language of the unconscious. I can look back to old and new movies that have affected me or family and friends in some way. I always wanted to translate that powerful moment and message into a commercial - not easy when involving a client and product - but film moments are used as references relentlessly in ad agencies and production companies.
dustin hoffman
I was lucky to see 'A Life in Pictures' discussion with Dustin Hoffman in person at Bafta this week. He's everything you'd want him to be and more and a much loved neighbour of mine. Totally authentic, funny and surprisingly quite emotional when talking about his personal divorce in 1980 in relation to the multi-award winning film Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) about divorce and how that had affected him - the power of movies! Lord Puttnam has also referred to how movies have got an amazing way of detecting those moments - they speak to us - and has referred to them in his acceptance speech for his Bafta Fellowship in 2006.
Bernie Wooder, psychotherapist, has pioneered the use of movie therapy to assist his clients and says that seeing emotions played out on the screen is a more powerful experience for many of his clients than talking about an abstract idea. It gives people a resource that endures. Movie therapy can help people change enormously and get to who they really are. My powerful film moments are from: Black Swan, Rebecca, The Remains of the Day, The Lives of Others, Separate Tables, etc. What are yours?