Second Chance Cinema

My first experience of Second Chance Cinema (SCC) came over a month ago during the organisation's free weekend of cinema in the unusual setting of the Southbank Playhouse on Kimberly Drive in Belfast. There I was treated to a weirdly appropriate double bill of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, Strangers on a Train, and the Lynchian psychological anime horror, Perfect Blue.

Fast forward a month and the SCC team of Stuart and Rosie return to their more regular Sunday night slot in the Pavilion Bar on the Ormeau Road for a mix of shorts and documentaries - this time from one of the true masters of cinema, Mr Martin Scorsese.

The night opens with one of Scorsese's film school shorts, the Big Shave (1967) where we watch Peter Bernuth repeatedly shave his skin down to a bloodied mess over six minutes.

It's a darkly comedic piece which critics down the years suggest is a metaphor for the self destructiveness of troops during the Vietnam War, and it's hard to argue otherwise. Even in 2014 the finale still hits as hard as it did almost 50 years ago and would not have looked out of place in a Bret Easton Ellis novel such as American Psycho. Very good, very bloody and very easy to find on YouTube if you're curious...

Moving on to my favourite film of the night, American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (probably most famous for his appearance as Easy Andy in Scorsese's Taxi Driver) was nothing short of marvellous.

The documentary sees a young, curious Scorsese conduct a series of interviews with the larger than life Prince. With everything talked about, from childhood and family to his drug fuelled escapades and his life on the road with Neil Diamond, Prince is a man with the most wonderfully bonkers stories imaginable with the storytelling flair to them infinitely more entertaining.

So good, Quentin Tarantino actually lifted one of the stories cited in the movie and adapted it for his classic gangster epic, Pulp Fiction - for spoiler sake I won't say which one.

After a 10 minute break, which gave the audience a chance to top up pints and wine glasses, the night concluded with Scorsese's contribution to New York Stories; Life Lessons.

Starring the brilliant Nick Nolte, the film tells the tale of an acclaimed New York artist obsessed with his young beautiful assistant Paulette (Rosanna Arquette). More so than the previous two, Life Lessons demonstrates Scorsese's love for his home city while also his deep affection for classic film techniques produced by masters of the craft long before he came into his own - something he still practices to this day with more contemporary films such as Hugo, Shutter Island and the Aviator.

At times tragic verging on shallow, Life Lessons paints a brilliant portrait of the elitist New York art scene while still finding the time to poke fun at it.

And that was that. A chilled and delightfully entertaining way to spend a Sunday evening, which didn't involve horrid X Factor results shows and allowing yourself to end the weekend with a night out of zero blues and a couple glasses of wine. Splendid.

The team of Second Chance Cinema have another weekend of free films coming up at the end of November in the Southbank Playhouse, if it's anything like the last one it's sure to be a fun trip for anyone who loves local, indie and mainstream cinema. Worth it alone for the popcorn loaves...

Second Chance Cinema

Andrew Moore