CMBA Profile: FILMYCKS

 

Each month, the CMBA profiles a classic movie blog written by one of our members. This month, we're featuring Michael Roberts, who writes at FILMYCKS. 

1. Why do you blog?

Firstly, I like the challenge of distilling my thoughts on the films I love into an essay form, as it’s a great way to improve your writing. As a bonus if I can convey my interest to others to promote those films I write about, it might just light a spark for them. There’s such a world of pleasure and information to be found there and it’s a passion of mine to champion quality films from any era, but especially classic film.

2. Besides classic movie blogging, what are some of your other passions?

I’m a musician, so music has always been a huge part of my world and who I am. I’m a Beatle tragic, so they got me interested in playing and I’ve played in bands and produced and written songs all my adult life. Currently playing and singing in a piano bar in Hobart and writing novels for eBooks. I’ve published 5 eBooks so far, 4 on songwriting and one on The Beatles on Film, but I’m expanding and updating that one currently.

3. If you could program a perfect day of classic movies for TCM, what would be the seven films on your schedule?

I’d probably program something in sequence based on year of release.
I’d start with a Von Sternberg-Dietrich collab and go from there, but the seven would change based on the mood I’m in. Today’s mood?
Shanghai Express
Only Angels Have Wings
The Grapes of Wrath
Out Of The Past
The Furies
Some Like It Hot
The Sweet Smell of Success
- A hard-edged lot with a Wilder comedy for a little relief!

4. What is a classic movie that you love, but most people don't know about -- and what do you love about it?

A Powell and Pressburger gem called Gone To Earth. It was made in 1950 and released in the US as The Wild Heart. It was a struggle due to David Selznick, who produced and demanded his new wife, Jennifer Jones star in it. Nonetheless, Jones is lovely, as is the rest of a great cast and the film is brilliant. It has the strangeness of Michael Powell’s askew Englishness and the unsettling darkness of a tragic folk tale that beautifully essays man’s struggle between the ethereal and the corporeal via the love triangle device of Mary Webb’s source novel.

5. What is something that most people don't know about you?

Mmm... I’m an open book, so nothing interesting to speak of. Unless you count arriving at Roswell on a spaceship, being the shooter on the Grassy Knoll, filming the fake moon landing with Stanley Kubrick and inventing Crypto currency (because there’s a sucker born every minute) then I’m struggling to come up with anything!

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We thank Michael for participating in our Q&A profile and encourage you to visit FILMYCKS. 

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