Dear Mark Kermode

Last update: 2005-07-16 19:48:40

Ask Mikeynet - Special Guest Mark Kermode.

Hi, I'm Mark Kermode, film reviewer. It never fails to amaze me quite how many people on this little planet I tend to call Earth have problems. These aren't necessarily the kind of problems that can be solved by watching a good film, either, some of them have can have real consequences if not quickly resolved. I am reminded of something the great Akira Kurasawa once said.

Anyway, here we go.

Dear Mark

I think I'm in love with this girl. I really want to tell her how I feel. She's moving away soon and I might never see her again; and I know I'll regret it for ever if I don't - yet I don't want to mess up our friendship.
Loser, Doncaster

In Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, James Stewart's height fearing protagonist Scotty develops an almost psychotic obsession with the mysterious Madeleine (Kim Novak) which persists far beyond her apparent death. When he finds her apparent double, he obsessively tries to make her into the image of Madeleine, unaware that they are the same person.

Dear Mark

I recently found out that I have a short time to live. I have just got married and I don't know how to tell my wife; it will destroy her. I know I have to tell her sooner or later. What should I do?
Worried, Manchester

David Cronenberg's The Fly is a visceral body horror in which Jeff Goldblum's Seth Brundle slowly transforms into a fly after a teleportation experiment goes wrong, much to the horror of his journalist girlfriend (Geena Davis). In subverting the classic horror into an allegory about the 1980s AIDS crisis, Cronenberg seems to be showing the finger to those who claim no artistic merit in a horror film, let alone a remake. Those people had clearly never seen the Exorcist.

Dear Mark

I have recently married a man who is 15 years my junior. We are deeply in love but my son from my first marriage disapproves. I am not going to leave my husband, but how can I show my son that this is what I want?
Bearded, Haywood's Heath

Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now is a creepy Venice-set supernatural drama starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. After the tragic death of their young daughter, the couple decamp to Italy to try and sort out their lives. As well as being deeply unsettling, the film is also a well-judged study of grief.

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