00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Lovely
00:06 this afternoon to speak to Neil Brand, who's going to be talking about a subject that's
00:09 going to be very, very dear to an awful lot of hearts at this year's Chichester International
00:14 Film Festival in August. On August 22nd, Neil, you'll be talking about Laurel and Hardy,
00:21 and that is a passion for you, isn't it? What makes them so special?
00:26 Oh, I think they're timeless. I think they're comedy, or may have been made originally 100
00:31 years ago. But you can just watch them and you immediately start to smile, you immediately
00:36 start to laugh. The other element of it that I love is that I'm a piano player, and I play
00:41 for silent films. So I will be accompanying them as they do their comic shtick. And it's
00:47 always fresh. It's always different because I improvise the music as I go. So audiences
00:52 will get a really good, funny and thoroughly kind of involving show. It's pretty immersive
00:58 as well. You get a live piano concert with the films. But one of the beauties is that
01:04 if I'm doing my job, right, you forget that I'm there. You'll just be looking at...
01:08 That's very self-effacing of you.
01:11 Well, I learned it a long time ago, that actually, if you do it right, people come up afterwards
01:16 and say, we forgot you were there.
01:18 The point is, with the two shorts that you're showing, you are promising nothing less than
01:22 two of the very best short comedy films ever made, you say?
01:26 Yes, I think without a doubt. By the time Sound came along, Laurel and Hardy were all
01:31 already fully formed. So the two movies showing one is called Big Business, in which they're
01:36 trying to sell Christmas trees in California, which is where Christmas trees grow. And they're
01:42 coming up against a guy who really doesn't want to buy a Christmas tree and then they
01:46 end up smashing his house up. And the other is Liberty, which is a movie they made, it's
01:51 a short film again, but they made it after Harold Lloyd had done Safety Last, where he's
01:56 hanging off the clock, building. The two of them wind up on top of a very high skyscraper
02:02 that's still being built. Plus, they're wearing each other's trousers that they're trying
02:06 to swap back over. Plus, Stan has got a crab in his trousers. So the consequences of that,
02:14 which mixes comedy and thrills because they do appear to be right up high in the air,
02:20 hanging over a massive drop down to the city below. It's a wonderful experience. If you
02:25 don't like heights, you might find it a little bit difficult to watch, but it's lads to the
02:29 comedy.
02:30 The fabulous thing about them is that you can see the disaster coming. But the joy is,
02:35 you know, they're going to make that disaster so much worse, aren't they?
02:39 Yes, they will. Everything they do on top of that building makes things much, much worse
02:43 and takes them seemingly closer and closer to dying. And yet, finally, they get away
02:50 and they get away with everything else they were trying to get away from in the film.
02:56 I'm very proud to be out with them, I have to say. And it's really great for me, because
03:01 there's nothing less than entire pleasure to be had out of this show.
03:06 It sounds fantastic. And just finally, put your finger on what it is about them that
03:11 we mourn to so much.
03:14 I think we recognize them. Even if they were, as I say, 100 years ago, they're like the
03:19 uncles I can remember who I really looked forward to coming to family parties at Christmas.
03:24 They're like, somehow or other, you know, you know them, you've seen them before. And
03:29 they make that very easy. They're very friendly, accessible blokes. And also, we kind of love
03:35 the fact we're smarter than they are. We may have bad days, but we never have a day so
03:41 bad we can't actually get through a door beside another person. The two of them can't get
03:47 through a door at the same time. You know, that's how bad things go for them.
03:51 It'll be wonderful to get back to them. So Chichester International Film Festival, Neil,
03:55 you'll be there on August 22nd. Really lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
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