Alex Cox's dream festival: Coppola, Fellini, Herzog and the 1972 gang
The Rt Hon Lord Mayor, Liverpool1 January 1972Re Proposed Film Festival
Your Excellency,
I’m pleased to outline for your consideration this plan for a film festival, based on the feature films which I understand will be ready for release this year. It is an international selection, whose only unifying element is their date: so I propose to call our enterprise the “1972” Film Festival.
I propose that the festival take place this midsummer, in all the various cinemas operating in Liverpool: the Futurist, the Scala, the Jacey, the Tatler, the ABC, the Odeon, the 051, and the Abbey Cinerama. In addition, I propose the refurbishment of the Palais Deluxe – the only inactive cinema on Lime Street – as the festival headquarters and hospitality centre.
I further propose screening 25 new films over a period of four days. The director and principal actors of each film shall be invited, and the festival will offer a substantial stipend to our guests. Film directors and actors are not wealthy people, and financial renumeration will ensure that our invitees attend.
Day one – Thursday
The opening night’s film is Aguirre, the Wrath of God, the new film by
Werner Herzog (we should insist on a world premiere as it’s supposed to be pretty good), followed by simultaneous screenings of The Godfather and Fellini’s Roma. A round table between Mr Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola, Federico Fellini and their principal cast members will be most stimulating. The day concludes with a midnight screening of an American musical, Cabaret.
Day two – Friday
A panel featuring Ken Russell, John Boorman, Helen Mirren and Burt Reynolds will discuss their new films Savage Messiah and Deliverance. Mike Hodges will screen his comic thriller, Pulp, and interview John Huston about Fat City.
In a “Kung Fu” sidebar likely to be one of the more popular aspects of the festival, Messrs Bruce Lee and Lo Lieh will introduce Return of the Dragon and King Boxer, aka Five Fingers of Death. They will be joined by Klaus Kinski, star of Aguirre, for a screening of Shanghai Joe and a discussion. (Propose Scouseology award for Mr Kinski.)
The evening’s premiere is Solaris, a Russian science fiction film. Supposed to be excellent! After a discussion between its director, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Jummy Cliff, the star of the next film, a midnight screening of the Jamaican feature, The Harder They Come.