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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club. I'm Chris Deesey and each week I'll be joined by a guest

00:15to dive deep into the impact certain films have had on their life. Each guest will reflect on

00:21the films which have meant the most to them over the years. And every week there will be a Kent

00:25Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that has a connection to the county. And now let

00:31me introduce you to my guest for this week. He's an independent filmmaker who has released one feature

00:36documentary and a number of short films as well as teaches film studies at a local college. He is

00:43Mark Young. Great to have you on the show Mark. Thank you very much for inviting me. Absolute pleasure.

00:49Well I don't know your films in advance but oh Mulholland Drive we could probably talk for an

00:54hour about this. Funnily enough I just spoke to one of your colleagues and I said I could talk

00:59about David Lynch for about an hour or two. Is it a film you know? I do. I saw this when it came out

01:06at the cinema early 2002 and discovered that it had been originally a TV series or it was going to be

01:14and then it was turned into a feature film by David Lynch. Right absolutely. Now I find that

01:18fascinating because Mulholland Drive is it just looks like the perfect film. It looks like it's

01:25been crafted so meticulously as to spring from the mind of a genius. But when you go back and as you

01:32rightly say it actually is a kind of hodgepodge of ideas from a TV show that never really got off the

01:40ground. And I find that fascinating where ideas come from and I find that fascinating how ideas can

01:45then transform into something else. And at the time David Lynch must have thought right this is

01:50what I want to do. I want to do this TV show. This is the idea. But then it didn't work and then the

01:56idea actually became Mulholland Drive the film. And of course it's it's often voted as being you know

02:03the best film of the 21st century and you know one of the greatest films of all time. Now for me

02:09personally he's been a huge influence upon my life my filmmaking and I think you know I mentioned the

02:18word genius and I think he's one of the very few filmmakers who you could label as a genius in that

02:24he was doing things that nobody else really came close to. I mean we can look in the past look at the

02:29likes of Maya Deren with Meshes of the Afternoon the Surrealists and that kind of thing. But David Lynch

02:35took he took ideas and he he he did something else with them. We talk we talk about the dream

02:44scapes of of the lynching world but it's not really something that anybody else has come close to in

02:49my view. You know it's it's very unusual and it's it but it's also a wonderfully entertaining film as

02:54well. And it's like a dream within a dream and of course you literally have the opening of Pandora's

02:58box in this. So as audacious filmmakers go. But you're right. This was the year because he was Oscar

03:03nominated for this. It was also the year of Gosford Park, Robert Altman, A Beautiful Mind, the first

03:08Lord of the Rings film, Moulin Rouge. So this was up against some really big competition. But this is the

03:13film that in the years that followed film students have been raving about. Absolutely. And I think you can see why.

03:21I think it's it does that thing of the all great art does and it meshes experimentalism with genre

03:31because it is it's not like oh it's so out there that it's like right I'm not going to get into this

03:35it's not accessible. It is absolutely accessible in that it's it's a thriller you know and it's it's an

03:40easily understandable thriller to a degree. And of course you get about halfway through the film and

03:44then all of a sudden it changes and it's like right what has happened here what has David Lynch just took me

03:48down here. And it's it's quite extraordinary. It's quite something else. But like with all of his

03:53work you just have to enjoy it as if you're I mean his background of course was in was in art

04:00you know painting. And in the same way you might go into a gallery and you just have to let the art

04:06explain itself to you. I find his films are very much like that you know the more I understand about

04:12him the more you realise you just have to let his work speak to you and not try and let your mind

04:18try and make up too much of what's going on and and I think you're rewarded in a much better way.

04:24Because he's very good at taking you down those rabbit holes and I remember do you remember when the

04:29straight story came out and at the time it was thought well you know he's made a very

04:32straight film and but David Lynch disagreed and it was effectively saying that you know

04:37he didn't think that these films were all that but you know peculiar or mystical or strange but it's almost like

04:44the closest we've ever had to a filmmaker who's let you into their mindset into their dreams into

04:50their fantasies but but he was also a very self-deprecating filmmaker I thought that he

04:55didn't and he wasn't showing off about it he just effectively made the films that he wanted to make.

04:59Yeah he was fun enough I was talking to someone the other day about this and some students of hers

05:05had just watched one of his short films called The Grandmother and they were like wow this is really

05:09strange and and they felt it a little bit too artsy and pretentious which is fine of course

05:15um but actually I said you know what he he I don't think he is at all I don't think he's doing anything

05:21in in Mulholland Drive or any of his motion pictures where he's trying to be odd or he's trying to be

05:28strange or he's trying to confuse you I think he genuinely thinks this is how the story should be told

05:33I'd love to have seen him working on set where all of a sudden he's kind of you know he's doing these

05:37things that you just don't really get and then all of a sudden he pieces it together and it's like

05:40this is quite something else you know and this is a this is wonderful it's such a wonderful film

05:45it's a very it's a very American film it's a very Los Angeles film it's a very Hollywood film

05:52and small things that I like in films are the real the real side of life that you get so you know

06:01for superhero films aren't for me for example but there's a there's a famous scene in Mulholland Drive

06:07where two two gents are sitting in a cafe now that cafe is wonderful there's a real cafe it's a real

06:14cafe that David Lynch used and there's just something so American about it and and then of course I won't

06:20give anything away for those who haven't seen the film but from that comes a very famous scene which is

06:25absolutely mind-blowingly terrifying which is something else which is uh you know David Lynch does well he's

06:30made a thriller but actually is it a horror film because there's so many elements in there that

06:34are just terrifying and there's been times when you know I've been watching this on my own and my wife

06:39has come home late and seen me just terrified what are you doing I'm just watching a David Lynch film

06:44and it's it's it's terrifying but I love it it's wonderful well it is time now to move on to your

06:50second chosen film you've gone for dogs in space I say which suggests that maybe unlike Mulholland Drive

07:00I'm not familiar with this no so dogs in space is an Australian feature film uh from a 1986 uh made by

07:09a wonderful director called uh Richard Lowenstein um and you may know the star of the film who is uh

07:17Michael Hutchence who used to be uh the singer in excess that's right yeah and so he was already

07:23by 1986 he was already fairly famous in his native australia and then this film came along um and

07:30Richard Lowenstein wanted to make a film about something called the little band scene which was

07:35in uh Melbourne in 78 79 so essentially there were some little bands who kind of like you know

07:40punk bands were around who were just all hanging out together in the same house now I love this film

07:46again because of its sense of location because it shows Melbourne in you know 1979 you feel that you

07:53are back in an Australia that doesn't exist anymore and it's also unusual in that it doesn't really have

08:00a plot as such so you've basically got these characters together in this large house there's a

08:05lot of uh band rehearsals and you get to know these characters really quite well and you start to love them

08:11of course it ends in tragedy for one of the characters because this is a feature film after

08:15all and something has to happen um but it's quite wonderful it's all based on real people uh who

08:21were around in the little band scene um richard lowenstein went on to continue to work with in excess

08:27he made plenty of um music videos for them he also made the michael hutchins documentary um which

08:33was out i think a couple years ago now but again it's one of those films that i saw when i was

08:38uh a younger man and i was exploring the idea of filmmaking and so i was used to seeing hollywood

08:47films we'll talk more about that later but then i saw this australian film which looked very different

08:53to anything i'd ever seen before and i just thought this is a very unusual sort of film a very odd it was

08:59almost like someone had picked up a just like a video and just started filming stuff now of course

09:04we're a bit more used to that now because with people's phones and stuff like that we see a lot of

09:08films now which have got more of that sort of um you know that kind of like almost like a french

09:14new wave way of making films um but i'd never seen that before yeah and when did you first see this

09:20did you see this at the time back in the 80s it was i think i must have seen it around about maybe 1990

09:27perhaps 91 um and if i remember correctly i think channel 4 had done an australian series

09:34on tv i think and so they were showing lots of short films um and um which were fascinating to

09:41me because i'd never really seen many short films at that point and and then this came on and of course

09:46i was already into music and i saw this film what is this and it just absolutely blew me away and is

09:51it the sort of film that you've been quite keen to like show off to other people because i always find

09:56it with this sort of film that it's quirky not many people have seen it but often filled up this that

10:02don't have a very good distribution you know almost it's left to the to the fan it's left to

10:06the person who's watching it to sort of do all the legwork and you know i'm often on social media

10:10saying don't forget this you know uh overlooked gem from 30 odd years ago it is exactly that it is one

10:16of those films um in fact i um i happen to uh bump into online the chap who it's based on

10:24and uh what's wonderful about these things is when you've got a huge film which everybody knows you

10:29know it's almost over here isn't it you know it becomes part of the culture and everybody owns it

10:33you know but because this film as you say isn't particularly well known it's not really well

10:38distributed um it kind of feels like there's a fan club around this film you know which is

10:45which is quite lovely you know and you're right i do try and talk people into seeing this film but

10:50you know where you find it is another matter um there's also a really good documentary that goes

10:55with this um about the little band scene and about the making of this um film which is almost as

11:02entertaining as the film itself really so that's interesting so it sounds like maybe on a different

11:07scale you know coppola and hearts of darkness but the sort of it's always interesting when you see the

11:11the way that a film was made through the eyes of the people who were there at the time or or those

11:17who've received it absolutely i personally find that fascinating i think especially once something has

11:22become so influential to you or become part of the cultural landscape that's what makes an

11:27interesting documentary doesn't it and yeah and it's a wonderful film well that's about all the

11:32time we have for this first half of the show however before we go to the break we have a kent film

11:37trivia question for you at home which 1960s film followed the bus tour journey of a popular british

11:44pop rock band was it a oh listen to the band b the rolling stones under review 1967 to 69 or c the magical

11:52mystery tour we'll reveal the answer right after this break don't go away

12:05hello and welcome back to kent film club just before the ad break we asked you at home a kent film

12:11trivia question which 1960s film followed the bus tour journey of a popular british pop rock band

12:17i asked is it a oh listen to the band b the rolling stones under review 1967 to 69 or c magical

12:24mystery tour and now i can reveal to you that the answer was in fact c magical mystery tour the 52

12:30minute british television film featured shots of the band the beatles around west moorling airfield

12:35which at the time was a decommissioned raf airfield did you get the answer right well it is time now

12:42mark to move on to your next chosen film and oh a classic you have gone for blade runner yes uh blade

12:49runner um again when i was growing up it was one of those films um actually there was a whole period in

12:57the 80s where um it probably started in the 70s didn't it where hollywood just got everything right or most

13:04things and it was absolutely a confident period for um for hollywood when they would have

13:13the guts to make a film like blade runner um which was at the time a huge budget film um and it just

13:21looks incredible so again the character obviously played by harrison ford um a decade he he's um he's

13:29basically hunting down replicants um so i like science fiction anyway it's something i enjoy um

13:36and this for my money is probably the best science fiction film i've ever seen you know alien is also

13:42great of course the matrix is another great film i think but this this is peak in in my view um it's

13:49again it does that thing of taking uh taking uh some experimentalism certainly with the look

13:56you know with that neon look it was just coming through into the 80s and and melding that with

14:01um science fiction but also a film noir and so it's very much a a film noir sci-fi which really

14:08hadn't been done before on that scale at least it's got the most distinctive of looks and and also

14:14in terms of all the issues around ai which i'm often asked about on kent tonight in relation to movies

14:20in a way this was kind of like the progenitor of that wasn't it in terms of asking those questions

14:24what is real what is artificial can you fall in love with something or someone like that question

14:29around uh sean young's character and indeed whether uh dacart himself might be a replicant and the fact

14:34there are multiple endings of this or multiple versions of this you know more or less depending

14:39on which you know each each interpretation can yield a different response that's a really good point um

14:45yeah and perhaps that's why the film is still so relevant today um you talk to students for film now

14:50and they still love blade runner um it absolutely does it still looks good you know in terms of uh

14:56the effects now of course effects don't mean everything in a film but it still does look

15:00fantastic it does a great job of of mixing uh special effects with real locations um obviously

15:07it's set in los angeles but unlike the previous two films it doesn't really look like los angeles

15:11um but it's it's um it does point the way to a future that we are currently navigating you know

15:21and who would have thought you could do that in 1982 so many science fiction films they sort of have a

15:26a look at the future and then you know it comes to it and it doesn't really exist you know and that's

15:31that's fine escape from new york is a great example again another one of my favorite films i like john

15:35carpenter um and he made escape from new york looking at 1997 about maximum security prison of new

15:41york but that was a reflection of the time very much in terms of um you know when it was made in 1981

15:48i believe um you know new york and and and detroit and cities like that they were they felt under siege

15:55they were bankrupt and so it was a reflection of the current era now blade runner although is a

16:01reflection of its current era in some ways actually does project into the future it does look at things

16:07an existential crisis that we might be facing in the near future and it's a great point that i agree

16:12with and it's when this was made because i remember writing about this in the mid 90s and you know trying

16:18to work out what what sort of future will there be you know how uh how much thought or you know how

16:25prophetic was was ridley scott in this but also it doesn't matter but it's also a nostalgic throwback

16:30because almost as you say it's film noir it's it's almost sort of it's the future but also using

16:36film history and drawing on film history in order to weave that tapestry absolutely and and i think

16:42as i was saying before with david lynch how he his genius in that particular film was to was to melt his

16:48experimentalism with with um with genre i think ridley scott did the same thing here he took a very well

16:56established film genre and film noir and then added sci-fi to that and it worked of course it didn't

17:03at the time the film actually bombed quite badly at the box office and you know nearly put the studio

17:08out of business um interestingly enough i keep talking about backstories to films but what's

17:14interesting there's there's a documentary uh about blade runner and about the making of it and again

17:20almost as fascinating as the film in how um you know the the trouble ridley scott had to make the

17:25film the money that he needed to make it and how it almost bankrupt the studio and it is again an

17:31absolutely fantastic look at how films don't always make money now it's part of the cultural landscape

17:38but at the time it was just written off and also because it came out at the same time as et that was

17:42the other thing as well but of the two et at the time obviously was the bigger hit uh but this has

17:47certainly lasted the course no less well i suppose but maybe to a different audience both sci-fi films

17:53which also on the part of their directors portray a huge love of cinema absolutely yeah and but we're

18:00sort of going into obviously this is my third film my fourth film you'll see as well we are sort of

18:04looking at that era of filmmakers who grew up with a love of film um and obviously you mentioned et with

18:11with spielberg and you know those kind of directors were wonderful in that they took their love of

18:18film and they turned it into something else and they were making huge blockbusters and it's that

18:23confidence of hollywood that made the 80s for me such a memorable time to be a film fan well it is time

18:31now mark to move on to your next chosen film and i'm delighted to see ghostbusters appear because that

18:38hasn't come up yet on this program but what a classic with all those reboots as well you've

18:43gone for the what the 1984 original absolutely i mean there's uh i was i was talking earlier about

18:49film and saying how actually there's a lot of films that have influenced me as a person as a filmmaker

18:56but actually the films i enjoy watching at home are probably comedies you know i could have chosen

19:00something like with now and i which is a wonderful film um and clueless another incredible comedy

19:07but for me again if we look at the 80s and if we look at the confidence that hollywood had

19:12to take to take these guys who were from saturday night live and say right here you go saturday

19:18night live gang have whatever it was 50 million quid to make to make a film and just thinking just run

19:25with it just do it um just wonderful and it wasn't the only film of this time you know beverly hills cop

19:30you know again have some money make a great film and you know gremlins was another film of the time

19:34i it's so many great films in the 80s comedies that have this confidence to think we know how

19:40to make you laugh now for me ghostbusters works so well because again it's a love letter to new york

19:47um so it's a wonderful wonderful new york film um and it's it's got the special effects but it's

19:53almost taking the mickey out of the special effects almost you could you could have this film with no

19:59special effects and it would still work and that's that's testament to the the the three four main

20:05characters that are in the film yeah now and i saw this on the big screen not too long ago also

20:09ghostbusters 2 which i actually saw when it came out in at the very end of 1989 but you're right

20:14because here there's that self-deprecating but almost you know with bill murray's character

20:19particularly that sense that he's not taking it all that seriously but you get caught up in in their

20:25dynamics that the shenanigans and it's very new york said so i mean this is the irrespective of

20:30whether this the special effects last the course because they're a bit gooey and when you're watching

20:34them you're thinking you know maybe you know that that was the best you know special effects they had

20:39at the at the time but it doesn't matter because that's not what the film is about no it's about

20:43it's about again for me it's about location it's about new york it's about these the this friendship

20:49between these guys it's about the situation they find themselves in they've been kicked out of

20:54university they're these they're these um you know these very well respected ish uh lecturers you

21:01know uh research scientists who have just been left essentially homeless and it's a great classic

21:07hollywood story of you know trying to do the best of a of a bad situation overcoming that and uh and my

21:13goodness they really do and it's a it's a wonderful film full of great lines very quotable um and actually

21:20you mentioned ghostbusters 2 that's often overlooked because i in some ways it's a funnier film in some

21:27ways um and uh yeah both of them just wonderful and and back to what you say about the university

21:32that's very true because some of them take their research more seriously than others and i think

21:38there's a line isn't there where is is either in this or the sequel bill murray's character effectively

21:42says that he never you know took any of it seriously and the other one maybe harold ramus is like

21:47you didn't you know because it's it's almost like hang on but you know this was serious research

21:50but they're looking into the paranormal he's like i don't believe any of that that's right that's

21:54right he's just there for the girls he's just there for well you know and it's wonderful you're a poor

21:58scientist dr ventman you know great lines um and yeah of course you've got the genius of bill murray

22:04you've got the genius of dan i've got everybody in that film is absolutely fantastic um and i think

22:10again that's what hollywood was doing well at the time you had all of these blockbusters they were all

22:14incredibly slick very funny but you've always had a character who was looking around thinking what's

22:24going on here you can even look at harrison ford in raiders of the lost ark you know as being a

22:29that sort of character and indeed harrison ford again in the star wars films which is why i think

22:34the star wars the later films probably didn't work as well because there wasn't a han solo there to be

22:40looking around with the audience going is this a bit ridiculous or is it me you know and so that's

22:45what was missing from the latest star wars films in my view um but yeah it's a it's such a terrific

22:52film it's a heartwarming film it gets shown on the tv probably every two weeks or so and i try and catch

22:58it almost every time yeah and uh have you ever seen this on the big screen that's a great question

23:03do you know what i'm not i think i have but it must have been a re-release because it came out i

23:09i wasn't really into film i was very little when this came out so but i did see i did see ghostbusters

23:142 on the big screen when it came out that was a great year actually ghostbusters 2 indiana jones

23:18and last crusade the first batman film batman 89 that was another wonderful film which yeah i could

23:23have easily put in this top four yeah well i'm afraid that's all the time we have for today but

23:29before we go if you live in kent and want the chance to share four films of your choice reach out to us at

23:35km tv and you might be invited in to be my next guest but for now many thanks to mark young for

23:40joining us and being such a brilliant guest and many thanks to you all for tuning in until then that's

23:46all from us goodbye

Kent Film Club - Mark Young (Thursday 14th August 2025)

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