Diary

Tonight was the fifth of my 6 films I chose as a "House Guest" at the Edinburgh Filmhouse.

I chose the films I did because they were films I loved; one of the luxuries of my position was that I didn't have to pay a second's thought to any concerns about them being popular or not.

Box office returns were absolutely not a consideration.

Apart from the sheer pleasure of sharing films I love with an audience, and then getting to see the films again myself, there's been a huge satisfaction in seeing how well the films have actually sold.

Film number four, Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev, was shown in cinema 1, and almost filled it. Tonight's film, Kurosawa's "Ran" was originally going to be in cinema 2, sold out, and so was moved to the much larger cinema one, which it also almost filled.

There's a very simple joy in that.