Bonnie Jack 

On my radar: Aidan Gillen’s cultural highlights

The actor talks to Bonnie Jack about Boyhood, the Bandini Quartet, his favourite app and the magic of the Curzon Soho
  
  

on my radar aidan gillen
Aidan Gillen: 'L'Atalante is startling; it would have been way out on its own in 1934.' Photograph: Karen Robinson Photograph: Karen Robinson

Born in Dublin in 1968, Aidan Gillen made his professional acting debut in 1985, appearing in short films, TV series and plays. In 1999, he landed one of his best known roles as Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series Queer as Folk, and in 2004-2008 he starred in the critically acclaimed TV drama The Wire. Gillen is currently playing Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in HBO's popular Game of Thrones. His most recent film, Calvary, a drama starring Brendan Gleeson as a provincial Irish priest, will be available on DVD, Blu-ray and download from tomorrow.

Film: Boyhood

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a Texas-set drama about growing up and growing pains shot over 12 years with the same actors, some of whom start very young and who age on screen before our eyes. It's as much about the heartbreak of being a parent as that of growing up – and that without the moments of real connection between parents and children, siblings and friends, a lot of us would be lost. We don't know when or where these moments are going to come from and we make wrong turns and choices all along the way. Patricia Arquette as the mom who tries hard but keeps picking the wrong man is really good in this. It's ultimately uplifting but doesn't let on that it's necessarily an easy ride and all the more interesting for that. It's always been fascinating seeing kids grow up in dramas (eg AJ and Meadow in The Sopranos or Arya and Sansa in Game of Thrones) but I've never seen so many years condensed into such a short time-space while still feeling there's lots of breathing space in the film. The fact that it's made by Richard Linklater who's so good with actors, picture and soundtrack of course adds loads.

Book: The Bandini Quartet

A collection of, yes, four works by John Fante. Rereading this at the moment. Fante is the man who inspired Bukowski and it'd be hard not to see how great that influence is as Bukowski said: "Fante was my God." Anyway it was that comment by CB that led me to Fante who I prefer as a writer if I had to pick. The crab-shooting passage of The Road to Los Angeles will stay with me for ever and Ask the Dustcorrect, a doomed Los Angeles romance is just fantastic. Robert Towne directed a film version of this a little while back. It's an admirable misfire but he did use the novel previously as a template for the LA of his Chinatown screenplay. The quartet also includes Wait Until Spring, Bandini and Dreams of Bunker Hill.

Music: Sun Kil Moon

I've been listening to a lot of Sun Kil Moon, aka Mark Kozelek – his last two are very good but particularly the one with Desertshore. There are also a few good tracks on Joseph Arthur's recent Ballad of Boogie Christ, notably I Miss the Zoo" – a stream-of-consciousness paean to a wilder life, and Junkies and Limosuines. On the live front I saw the Jesus and Mary Chain last night. I have to say, it's rare nowadays I listen to an album from start to finish and it's a while since I bought an actual CD. Because everything is accessible now I'll listen to as much old stuff as new. So it's been Sandy Denny, tracks such as It'll Take a Long Time or Gene Clark or Gram Parsons or whoever.

Technology: 8mm Vintage camera

I shoot all my video through this and it's so good, particularly with the 1970s filter and shadowy edging. Very good for screencapping images from the movies then. If I'm travelling around I'll usually try to make some travelogue film edited and soundtracked in iMovie. It's mad that you can do all this on a phone. I like using all this gadgetry but my favourite thing with all the technology and phones etc is when you're somewhere far away from electricity and you run out of power, preferably for days, or weeks. That's the best.

Place: Curzon Soho cinema

There's always something good on and I've seen many modern classics here over the years. An especially welcome escape on blistering summer days. And the locale is crammed with relevance – personal (loitering and imagining the area in 1958 for the stage and screen versions of Mojo in the 90s) and otherwise (writers, artists, trannies, actors, criminals, ghosts etc).

DVD: L'Atalante

I recently picked up Jean Vigo's dreamy 1934 story of a honeymoon couple heading to Paris on a barge. It's still startling and would have been way out on its own in 1934. Also included on the Artificial Eye DVD is his earlier short Zéro de conduite which was banned for years in France. An anarchic tale of kids taking over a boarding school. You can see how much Truffaut picked up from here and it was a direct influence on the 60s Lindsay Anderson film If. Vigo died young and L'Atalante was his only complete feature.

 

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