" MY UNCLE BRIAN"  

My Uncle Brian was the real Cinema Paradise. I don’t know where his love of film began, but I know that he loved film.

My apologies; his picture is scratched and the negative lost, but the picture is a remarkable one. Taken by the photographer Ken Hickey; the chairascuro effect produced by utilizing the light from the projector to light the frame is Hickey’s genius. 

It shows a man who has dressed for his work, as my Uncle Brian always did. Shirt and tie with braces; always cuffs. The photography combines an intensity, a passion and a love for his work.

My Mum tells me that Uncle Bri used to cycle the News Reels around from Cinema to Cinema in Derby where they both grew up with my Uncle Don. Like Toto, in Cinema Paradisio, he must have sometimes stayed to watch the reels being loaded; the audience anticipation, awaiting the craftsman; the projectionist.

And so he became one. My mother an usherette. The real Alfrado. For those of you who have never watched Cinema Paradiso, you have a gem that awaits you. If you have seen it, watch it again, you will always find something new. For me, the movie is the greatest film ever made and has three heart stopping cinematic moments, where limited screenplay and an emphasis on the visual serves to reinforce the very essence of the story. A story about film and the love of film.

The first is the crowd baying for the film outside and Alfrado saying to Toto … "Shall we give them their film?". And the magic begins as he slowly rotates the projector to a wall outside.

The second is (after Alfrado has gone blind) the older Toto showing his first attempts at his own Filming We see a slaughter house and Toto tells Alfrado what is happening; but then the picture changes to a girl. Total says nothing, but the blind man knows it is a girl; such is the wonder and the beauty of the friendship that has been created.

The final classic moment is in the films denouement; when the great film maker Toto has become flies home to see his mother and for Alfrado’s funeral. In the film-can left to Toto are all of the kisses that the Priest took out of the movies; as he rang his bell, when Toto laughed as Alfrado had spliced the kisses out at a dress rehearsal with the Priest.

Sitting alone in his rushes viewing office; Toto’s tears are our own. Certainly one of the most moving moments in cinema history.

But the real man. Uncle Brian? He was like Eric Morecombe in looks; drove an old classic brown Ford and always arrived at our house in Aldrewasley with one arm brown from leaning out the window.

He would get out of the car and place a bone in his mouth and the dog would gently take it. But there was a moment, as there always is a moment in time when everything changes. The day I first saw my Uncle’s home videos on his Halina Super 8, was the day I feel in love with film.

It’s hard now to try to explain to a computer world of children; where speed is of the essence and concentration and patience always limited by the shoddy depths that television has steeped to. It is hard to explain what those first moving images from my Uncle Brian’s camera did for me.

The colours, the depth of field, pans, tilts and his own experiments with the camera. You can look at the best home videos made today and look at Uncle Brian’s. Most are moving pictures that often make you sick despite the greatest gadgets attached to the camera, but Uncle Brian’s were mini films. My Mum and Dad and all of my family growing up; going for walks and around the house; slowly he was learning the craft the craft of film making.

He never made any pictures that were ever released, just home movies. Documents to view and wonder