Today marks my 20th anniversary at Eden Court. My first day was Monday 31st January 2000. I started on a scheme as a trainee projectionist for 6 months, but thankfully I got very lucky.
Memoires of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
As a film lover it was like I had won the lottery. Before, I had watched every film I could, which in Tain in the '80s and '90s was not that much. Watching late night foreign films on TV, with the sound turned off so I wouldn't get into trouble, had suddenly turned into making up 35mm film prints and sitting in a cinema by myself running them through (making sure that the reels were in the right order, that there were no issues with the prints and that the sound levels were good). I felt like the kid in Cinema Paradiso.
Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore 1988)
That first year I watched films by Wong Kar-Wai, François Ozon, Lukas Moodysson, Julio Medem, Tran Anh Hung, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Terence Davies and Sofia Coppola. That was my education. I never studied cinema, I watched films. The cinema screen was my window onto the world, showing me places and people that I would never experience in real life.
In 2001 I got to programme my first film season. I chose three films from Cuba; I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964), Memoires of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968) and Strawberry and Chocolate (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Juan Carlos Tabío, 1993). Ever since I began programming the cinema at Eden Court full time, in 2005, I have strived to equal this short season of films. I never will, but I enjoy trying more than I can ever say.
Take a look back at Paul’s Highlights from the last 20 years.
2000
My first year at Eden Court really opened my eyes to what cinema really is - and all on 35mm.
In The Mood For Love
Lovers of the Arctic Circle
Show Me Love
Water Drops on Burning Rocks
2001
Sexy Beast
You Can Count on Me
The Piano Teacher
Dark Days
2002
Monsoon Wedding (Probably my favourite in 20 years at Eden Court)
Dirty Pretty Things
Read My Lips
Morvern Callar
2003
Vendredi Soir
Swimming Pool
Gerry
Waiting For Happiness
2004
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring
Dead Man's Shoes
5X2
Birth
2005
Eden Court closed for refurbishment and I spent two years in the old Screen Machine at the Inverness Botanic Gardens (then the Floral Hall) eating lovely cakes, drinking tea and watching films, I'll never complain!
Napoleon Dynamite
Head-On
3-Iron
Untold Scandal
2006
Brokeback Mountain
Hidden
Ushpizin
Children of Men
2007
Eden Court reopened with two beautiful new cinemas.
Climates
Tell No One
Silent Light
Caramel (My second favourite)
2008
Water Lillies
There Will Be Blood
Couscous
Lemon Tree (Inverness Film Festival 2008)
2009
35 Shots of Rum
Two Lovers
A Serious Man (Inverness Film Festival 2009)
Film ist; a Girl and a Gun (Inverness Film Festival 2009)
2010
Samson and Delilah
Eyes Wide Open
Inception
The Arbor
2011
Blue Valentine
Weekend
Mademoiselle Chambon
Cold Weather
2012
Margaret
Barbara
I Wish (Inverness Film Festival 2012)
Final Cut - Ladies and Gentlemen (Inverness Film Festival 2012)
2013
Upstream Colour
Fill The Void
My Sweet Pepperland (Inverness Film Festival 2013)
Tall as the Baobab Tree (Inverness Film Festival 2013)
2014
Under The Skin
From Scotland With Love
The Lunchbox
The Tribe (Inverness Film Festival 2014)
2015
The Duke of Burgundy
Timbuktu
Carol
Corn Island (Inverness Film Festival 2015)
2016
Childhood of a Leader
Things To Come
Celestial Camel (Inverness Film Festival 2016)
Neon Bull (Inverness Film Festival 2016)
2017
Jackie
Paddington 2
Loveless (Inverness Film Festival 2017)
Dede (Inverness Film Festival 2017)
2018
Capernaum (it's the first time the at Inverness Film Festival laurels appeared on a release poster, which was fantastic!)
Leave No Trace
Zama
Namme (Inverness Film Festival 2018)
2019
And finally here are the best films I saw at Eden Court this year.
1 Ad Astra
2 Portrait of a Lady on Fire at InvFilmFest
3 The Souvenir
4 And Then We Danced at InvFilmFest
5 Border
6 High Life
7 Flatland at InvFilmFest
8 Pain & Glory
9 Under the Silver Lake
10 Burning
