Ah, the nostalgia of watching these intros - brings back so many great memories. Alex Cox presented these wonderfully and the scripts are funny and informative.
Talk about damning with faint praise! The Duellists isn't perfect but definitely shows promise and talent. Most directors would kill to have it as their first film.
THAT takes me back!!!.."we are late because of coverage of golf.." I used to HEAR that a LOT on BBC 2 in the 90's. The times they cancelled Star Trek because of sport was a pain in the fucking ass.
You can't appreciate "The Duelists" unless you've experienced pathological obsession. Then, it changes from beautiful visions to an agonising, awesome 👌 👏 👍 reality. ❤️
Sadly John, I don't think we ever see it's like again. Which is a massive pity as I think BBC 2/4 or even Channel 4/ Film 4 could get a Mark Kermode or even Alex Cox to present it on a Sunday night. I'm sure they can bring in a fair old fanbase to watch Cult and Odd movies. I think it's a shame but thanks to Sky Movies and other film channels plus DVD and the Internet (I bet you could find half these films on Moviedrome on youtube) has ruined any chance of shows like this. I loved Moviedrome during the Cox year's as the films were for 80% of the time unknown (they did show films from big directors like Stone, Hitchcock, Peckinpah) and Cox was a hugely likeable presenter and I loved that he wasn't afraid to knock the films and not brown nose them (which could have turned a lot of people tuning in off, to be fair to Cox he didn't pick 90% of the films unlike Mark Cousins ). I loved how well informed Cox was about some of the films (the more passionate he was on a film the longer the intro's were) . After Cox left the show did go downhill in my opinion, I wasn't the biggest fan of Mark Cousins. Cousins wasn't as likeable or as quirky as Cox plus I always got with Cousins that he was above most of the films he was introducing and the choices of films became more commercial during his reign, although he did have the odd great cult oddity ( Society which still gives me nightmares lol ). I might be a tad harsh on Cousins, I thought he was great on his Scene by Scene series. But for me he was the wrong choice for Moviedrome (Mark Kermode would have been a better choice)
I wish it would come back. But I disagree with Cox here, I think "Duellists" is a very moving film, it shows how attitudes and honour were EVERYTHING in the past.
I loved The Duellist as its a clever visual film. In my opinion at the time, I think filmmakers like Ridley Scott and Alan Parker were unfairly labelled advert directors due to their pervious professions. They are visual storytellers.
