ESSENTIALS
Natalie Stendall — Editor / Writer, Writer Loves Movies
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WANT TO KNOW MORE
What makes your Website / Podcast stand out from the rest?
Writer Loves Movies began life as a review site but it has evolved into a place for longer features analysing cinematic storytelling. As a reader and a viewer, I’m interested in the many ways that film interacts with the novel and I’ll be exploring this in the coming months in a series of ten to fifteen minute reads. My ‘Companion Pieces’ series explores unintended parallels between stories in different mediums and ‘The A-Z of Adaptations’ is also coming soon.
Where do you see your Website / Podcast in the next 5 years?
I hope to make Writer Loves Movies a friendly space for exploring some of the more theoretical aspects of film. These conversations are all too often hidden away from mainstream audiences but are every bit as fascinating to the regular film goer.
What are your Go-To Sites for Film?
Little White Lies, The New Yorker and a fantastic film diary site http://thelastpictureblog.co.uk
Classic Film you Shamefully haven’t seen?
Gone With The Wind
A Film that Genuinely Scared you?
The Haunting (1963) terrified me when I was growing up.
A Film that still makes you Cry like a baby?
Up
A Film that still has you Pissing Your Pants Laughing?
Withnail & I
An Old film you would love to see on an IMAX screen?
Jason & the Argonauts (1963)
What is your Favorite Film of 2019 so far?
If Beale Street Could Talk
Which Screenplay do you wish you had Written?
Adaptation or A Cock & Bull Story
Who would Play you in your Biopic?
Carey Mulligan with a Nottinghamshire accent.
Whose Zero Oscar wins or nominations hurts the most?
Steve Buscemi
The Internet is no more – what is your Job now?
Librarian
What is one of your greatest Childhood Movie Memories?
Queuing up outside the cinema waiting for the first showing of Jurassic Park.
Where do you stand on Streaming Services and their place in film?
By offering audiences who live outside of the major cities access to smaller releases, I feel that streaming services occupy a positive space. They enable wider audience participation in what can often be an exclusive conversation. To some degree I believe the large studios and multiplexes have contributed to the ‘streaming problem’ by offering such a limited variety of films. Anything that increases diversity can only be a good thing.
What are some of the Film Quotes you use a lot in everyday life?
“Why has my head gone numb?” – Withnail & I
What is the Role of a Film Critic – and how important are they?
What I find most valuable about film journalism and critics generally is the number of doors they are able to open for me as a viewer, helping me to find wonderful independent films that I might otherwise miss.
