A Beautiful Mind

#190 at the time of writing.

I watched this film again today and found it compelling and ultimately very emotional. It's the story of genius mathematician John Nash's battle with schizophrenia - the Hollywood version rather than being comprehensively accurate, but the spirit of the tale rings true.

The way his delusions were handled in this film was particularly effective for me. I understood the helplessness he must have felt, the seductiveness of the mental trap he found himself in. And also the fear and frustration that his wife had to overcome to support him (Jennifer Connelly in an Oscar-winning performance; the movie also won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay).

According to IMDb's trivia, this was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies Of All Time" by Premiere magazine. Which makes me think that Premiere don't know squat. (Looking at the rest of the list only confirms it.)

UK Premiere

My short film, The Man Who Married Himself, has its UK premiere as part of the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday this week!

I handed in my MA Creative Writing dissertation a couple of weeks ago, and I was intending to focus back on screenwriting - with a mission to write the next low-budget indy breakthrough hit.

But then I saw the Terry Pratchett Prize, for a debut novelist writing a time travel story set on Earth. I happen to be a quarter of the way through writing a comic science fiction novel about a time travelling janitor. Destiny?

So I've set myself a challenge to finish it by the deadline - that's 1000 words a day until 31 December. I've only been doing it a week and I'm already behind... to work!

Premiere

Yay! My wife and I attended the private premiere of The Man Who Married Himself at BAFTA's Princess Anne Theatre yesterday, and it was brilliant.

The film looked great on the big screen. The music added a whole new dimension, emphasising the tragic elements of the main character's loneliness. People laughed in the right places, clapped plenty... there were even one or two heckles. :)

I'm generally not great at schmoozing at those kind of events, but it was fun to chat to Warren Clarke (he praised the film, and offered me one piece of advice for the future: "Write bigger!"), and Mark Joseph who I'd met on the set, and Film Four people, and some of Garrick's friends and family.

It's incredible how many people were involved in making an 11-minute film. Everyone worked so hard on it, with such an incredible amount of goodwill, mostly for little or no money - what other industry (apart from the charity sector I suppose) can claim that kind of dedication?

So, soon the film will be touring festivals and I'll be persuading all my friends and family to go see it. You too! Go!