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Many of the greatest filmmakers started out DIY. Steven Spielberg shot WWII fighter-pilot movies with his classmates. David Lynch spent five years crafting ‘Eraserhead’ in a barn. Shane Meadows made Nottingham crime comedies starring himself in a crap wig. And ‘Shaun of the Dead’ director Edgar Wright was as ambitious as any of them. His 1995 debut ‘A Fistful of Fingers’ is a ludicrous but genuinely funny spaghetti western shot in Somerset and starring – among many others – Jeremy Beadle as himself. The film gets a pair of twentieth anniversary screenings next week at the Prince Charles Cinema, to be introduced by Wright himself. We asked him how it felt to be dusting off his very first movie.
‘Twenty years ago I was shivering outside the Prince Charles in Leicester Square, about to introduce my debut movie on its opening night,' he told us. ‘I’d come in on the Piccadilly line from Wood Green and I was incredibly nervous. I was 21, but probably looked 14. It was a night I would never forget, even though I spent the entire duration of the movie pacing around the lobby. Now, two decades later, I will be back. Come join me in my palpable embarrassment at having to watch my early work with an audience once more. Warning: It is very, very silly.’
You can find out exactly how silly ‘A Fistful of Fingers’ is at the Prince Charles next Tuesday, Nov 24. Get your tickets at princecharlescinema.com and remember to check out timeout.com/film every week for the latest film happenings in London.