Background
I choose Lucy Tesco as a subject because, as she is a close friend of mine, I was aware that she does not attend the Duke of York’s often. However, on one of the two occasions she did go, she saw All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Film, which was a special screening with live music. As Lucy has a part-time job in a record shop in London, I was interested to see her view on a film about a wonderful independent music festival, which she has subsequently attended twice after watching the film. Both of the films she viewed at the Duke of York’s had an effect on her, which shows that you only have to go to the Duke’s a few times before it seeps into you.
Lucy is a 19-year-old French and Philosophy student at the University of Sussex. She came to Brighton from London in September 2008 to begin her degree. She is not a regular attendee of the Duke of York’s, having seen only two films there.
On her first impressions of the Duke’s
“Visually, the first time I ever noticed the Duke of York’s I noticed the legs, which I thought were just brilliant and such a beautiful thing to look at on the outside. On the inside as well, all the different levels, the balcony, it’s kind of like going into someone’s home. It has a warm feeling to it, partly because of the lighting; you feel you can cosy on down to watch a film instead of sitting in a cold, soulless room.”
On her cinema-going habits
“I’ve only seen two films [at the Duke of York’s] but they were both very different experiences. The first film was the All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Film in November 2009, a special screening with live music. [All Tomorrow’s Parties, or ATP, is a bi-yearly music festival that takes place at Butlins.] It was shown quite late, maybe 10 o’clock. The other time was to see ‘Precious’ on an Orange Wednesday in February, the week after it came out.
I don’t really go to see films very often as when I lived in London the only options were to go somewhere really expensive so I never bothered. I would always say I’d go and see a film and never would. Coming here, I always said I would go and see films but didn’t want to spend the 5 or 6 quid it would cost me to go an see it.”
As a student, it is definitely a luxury to go and see a film at the Dukes’s. I didn’t know it does Orange Wednesdays, if I had known I would have opted to go to the Duke’s all those other Wednesdays instead of going to the Odeon, which is lacking in personality.
It is an experience going to see a film in a cinema. Coming from me, someone who doesn’t go to the cinema that often- I do generally opt to watch something on DVD- I relish going to see a film and when I think of that film I remember going to see it in the cinema.”
On the ATP film
This film would definitely not have come out at the Odeon! I was going to the ATP festival in December and the ATP film came out in November. There was a lot of hype around it and I wanted to see it so I could get a feel of what I would be experiencing. Two of my friends, who were coming to the festival with me, and I were laughing and complaining about the fact that the screening in London got a really good band to play before the film and we got The Stix, sorry guys! We got to the Duke’s on time but had a drink and smoked instead and caught the end of their set. Maybe because of the type of band they are they were swallowed up by the personality of the room. They didn’t really make themselves anything inside there.
It was also a shame because it wasn’t very busy. There were enough people to make it feel like there were other people there, but it wasn’t as full as I would have liked it to be. It was brilliant to watch because you feel that you’re in a comfortable, friendly environment where you feel you can be yourself.
It was such a good film, a brilliant documentary, pieced together with footage shot by the ATP family but also by people that had gone along and used their phones to film weird stuff happening in the audiences: people dancing, people who were clearly on so many drugs standing alone in the games arcade. On the one hand the film gave you the feel of ATP, as parts of the film were shot on camera phones, which worked so well with the footage ATP had shot themselves. Almost everything in the film was soundtracked and it was rare to get people talking unless it was an interview. I remember this one shot- it was my favourite moment in the film. In the pool at ATP there is a big drop, one of the slides comes out into a massive bowl with a hole in the middle that you fall out of. Obviously we had never been and we had no idea what this shot of a big circle was. Slowly something, a man’s body, appeared sliding around the bowl and plopped out the middle of it. It was shot from above, looking down, and it’s the one thing I really remember.
It really hyped me up about going to ATP and when I was there all I could think about was sitting in the Duke of York’s and watching it and being there and experiencing it. I was drawing parallels. The film summed up the experience perfectly. “
On ‘Precious’
“It was very funny actually, because I saw ‘Precious’ the Wednesday after it came out. It had been hyped up for ages and there were just so many people there, obviously because of the element of Orange Wednesdays. The strangest thing about the ‘Precious’ screening was all the people there who looked like they were one first dates because it was such a harrowing film. We were really lucky to get in there, I remember people arriving in groups and having to split up and sit separately. Just sitting next to an awkward couple during the film was strange; the girl was crying and her date wasn’t sure whether he should put his arm around her because that might be going too far too soon. It was such a good film but I also remember a massive queue for people to get ice cream. Ice cream and Precious Jones getting beaten and girls and boys cuddling up together on first dates. Maybe it was a clever tactical move on the guys, “Come here, don’t cry!”
Final thoughts?
“With what little experience I have on the Duke of York’s, I consider it to be a cinema that is so much more interesting and so much more excited about things that are worth being excited about. I pledge to go more!”
http://www.atpfestival.com/sized/files/tourfinal_670x0.jpg- this is a link to the poster for the film!
This entry was posted in Memories and tagged In Conversation. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
In Conversation: Lucy Tesco 2010
In conversation series:
Interviewee- Lucy Tesco
Interviewer- Lucy Westcott
Interview – Tuesday, June 15th 2010.
Lucy Tesco Audio
Background
I choose Lucy Tesco as a subject because, as she is a close friend of mine, I was aware that she does not attend the Duke of York’s often. However, on one of the two occasions she did go, she saw All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Film, which was a special screening with live music. As Lucy has a part-time job in a record shop in London, I was interested to see her view on a film about a wonderful independent music festival, which she has subsequently attended twice after watching the film. Both of the films she viewed at the Duke of York’s had an effect on her, which shows that you only have to go to the Duke’s a few times before it seeps into you.
Lucy is a 19-year-old French and Philosophy student at the University of Sussex. She came to Brighton from London in September 2008 to begin her degree. She is not a regular attendee of the Duke of York’s, having seen only two films there.
On her first impressions of the Duke’s
“Visually, the first time I ever noticed the Duke of York’s I noticed the legs, which I thought were just brilliant and such a beautiful thing to look at on the outside. On the inside as well, all the different levels, the balcony, it’s kind of like going into someone’s home. It has a warm feeling to it, partly because of the lighting; you feel you can cosy on down to watch a film instead of sitting in a cold, soulless room.”
On her cinema-going habits
“I’ve only seen two films [at the Duke of York’s] but they were both very different experiences. The first film was the All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Film in November 2009, a special screening with live music. [All Tomorrow’s Parties, or ATP, is a bi-yearly music festival that takes place at Butlins.] It was shown quite late, maybe 10 o’clock. The other time was to see ‘Precious’ on an Orange Wednesday in February, the week after it came out.
I don’t really go to see films very often as when I lived in London the only options were to go somewhere really expensive so I never bothered. I would always say I’d go and see a film and never would. Coming here, I always said I would go and see films but didn’t want to spend the 5 or 6 quid it would cost me to go an see it.”
As a student, it is definitely a luxury to go and see a film at the Dukes’s. I didn’t know it does Orange Wednesdays, if I had known I would have opted to go to the Duke’s all those other Wednesdays instead of going to the Odeon, which is lacking in personality.
It is an experience going to see a film in a cinema. Coming from me, someone who doesn’t go to the cinema that often- I do generally opt to watch something on DVD- I relish going to see a film and when I think of that film I remember going to see it in the cinema.”
On the ATP film
This film would definitely not have come out at the Odeon! I was going to the ATP festival in December and the ATP film came out in November. There was a lot of hype around it and I wanted to see it so I could get a feel of what I would be experiencing. Two of my friends, who were coming to the festival with me, and I were laughing and complaining about the fact that the screening in London got a really good band to play before the film and we got The Stix, sorry guys! We got to the Duke’s on time but had a drink and smoked instead and caught the end of their set. Maybe because of the type of band they are they were swallowed up by the personality of the room. They didn’t really make themselves anything inside there.
It was also a shame because it wasn’t very busy. There were enough people to make it feel like there were other people there, but it wasn’t as full as I would have liked it to be. It was brilliant to watch because you feel that you’re in a comfortable, friendly environment where you feel you can be yourself.
It was such a good film, a brilliant documentary, pieced together with footage shot by the ATP family but also by people that had gone along and used their phones to film weird stuff happening in the audiences: people dancing, people who were clearly on so many drugs standing alone in the games arcade. On the one hand the film gave you the feel of ATP, as parts of the film were shot on camera phones, which worked so well with the footage ATP had shot themselves. Almost everything in the film was soundtracked and it was rare to get people talking unless it was an interview. I remember this one shot- it was my favourite moment in the film. In the pool at ATP there is a big drop, one of the slides comes out into a massive bowl with a hole in the middle that you fall out of. Obviously we had never been and we had no idea what this shot of a big circle was. Slowly something, a man’s body, appeared sliding around the bowl and plopped out the middle of it. It was shot from above, looking down, and it’s the one thing I really remember.
It really hyped me up about going to ATP and when I was there all I could think about was sitting in the Duke of York’s and watching it and being there and experiencing it. I was drawing parallels. The film summed up the experience perfectly. “
On ‘Precious’
“It was very funny actually, because I saw ‘Precious’ the Wednesday after it came out. It had been hyped up for ages and there were just so many people there, obviously because of the element of Orange Wednesdays. The strangest thing about the ‘Precious’ screening was all the people there who looked like they were one first dates because it was such a harrowing film. We were really lucky to get in there, I remember people arriving in groups and having to split up and sit separately. Just sitting next to an awkward couple during the film was strange; the girl was crying and her date wasn’t sure whether he should put his arm around her because that might be going too far too soon. It was such a good film but I also remember a massive queue for people to get ice cream. Ice cream and Precious Jones getting beaten and girls and boys cuddling up together on first dates. Maybe it was a clever tactical move on the guys, “Come here, don’t cry!”
Final thoughts?
“With what little experience I have on the Duke of York’s, I consider it to be a cinema that is so much more interesting and so much more excited about things that are worth being excited about. I pledge to go more!”
http://www.atpfestival.com/sized/files/tourfinal_670x0.jpg- this is a link to the poster for the film!