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The Kermode and Mayo Cinema Code of Conduct — a guide to cinema-goers as to the best way to behave while watching a film.
The Kermode and Mayo Cinema Code of Conduct — a guide to cinema-goers as to the best way to behave while watching a film.
No Eating anything harder than a soft roll
No Slurping
No Rustling
No Irresponsible Parenting
No Hobbies
No Talking
No Mobile Phone Usage
No Kicking of Seats
No Arriving Late
No Shoe Removal (except if culturally appropriate, such as in Japan)
Kermode and Mayo’s film review is a podcast that I much enjoy. It’s a well thought through, well-produced and well-delivered show by two consummate professionals. A well-balanced mix of Mark Kermode’s authoritative and acerbic reviews and Simon Mayo’s everyman approach. Humour running as a counterpoint to some serious stuff in the world of film.
One light-hearted feature was for Mark and Simon to guess, from three short bios, the recipient of a ‘films recommended for you’ list as offered by many streaming providers. The idea is that the streaming providers’ algorithm using past viewing to guide future recommendations would show which of the three people’s it might be. The bios were short. E.g., a 19-year-old student reading economics at the LSE or thirty-something exiled Australian engineer living in Leeds. It always surprised me when Mayo or Kermode matched the recommendations to the correct Bio, given it held only such scant information.
For this Reflection, I thought I’d see how I might appear. I thought my Bio might be a Liberally minded, art-loving, retired ex-businessperson. Then I needed the list of films recommended for me.
Well, with cinemas closed through lockdown, the last five films I watched on a streaming platform were …
The Mauritanian — a legal drama based on the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian held for 14 years without charge in Guantanamo Bay
Judas and the Black Messiah — a biographical drama about the betrayal of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late-1960s
Ammonite — a romantic drama very loosely inspired by the life of British palaeontologist Mary Anning
Minari — a semi-autobiographical drama of director’s, Lee Isaac Chung, upbringing in a family of South Korean immigrants trying to make it in the rural USA
Portrait of a Lady on Fire — a French historical romantic drama of an affair between an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her picture.
Here’s a list of the top 5 films the algorithm produced,
Dark Waters — a legal thriller dramatising the true-life case of Robert Bilott’s claim against DuPont after they contaminated a town
Shadow in the Cloud — an action horror following a female pilot in WW2 who meets an evil gremlin on board her plane
Another life — a 1920s crime drama based on the real-life murder of Percy Thomson by his wife and her lover Frederick Bywaters
Sound of Metal — a drama of a metal drummer who loses his hearing
Camus — a French drama of the life of philosopher Albert Camus seen through the eyes of the many women in his life.
So, what do you think? Does the algorithm work or not? I have to say numbers 1 and 2 of the recommendations don’t really appeal to me. I know the story of 3, so I may give that a watch, although I suspect it will be a loose interpretation of the actual case. Numbers 4 and 5 have no appeal to me at all.
More than that, if you had my Bio and saw the list of recommendations, would you say they are a ‘match’. I’m not so sure. Why not give it a try yourself and see if your list is more representative of you?
Anyway, while you are thinking, here’s some music. It’s got nothing really to do with the Reflection above. I just like it. It’s the late and great Ennio Morricone again. This time conducting his composition for the film, ‘Once Upon a Time in America’. And what a film. It has the most enigmatic ending I have ever seen.