My Life in Films: Beth Chaplow

I think we often use films to try and define ourselves, be it through identifying with the protagonists, analysing the key themes or attempting to replicate the plot in our own lives, films have a formative influence, particularly during one’s youth. Going by this logic, it’s so difficult to choose simply five films that can be said to have shaped who I am as a person as particular moods necessitate the watching of certain films in order to ease stress, provide comedic relief or offer the opportunity for catharsis. However, as difficult as this task may be I have compiled a list of five films that I feel have most shaped my development as a person.

Prozac Nation

dir: Erik Skjoldbjærg

Too much Tumblr in my youth caused me to go through a phase of brutal self-analysis and introspectiveness, both of which are characterised in this film which tells the story of journalism student Elizabeth Wurtzel’s experiences with depression, based on her memoir of the same name. Although I do not suffer from depression, I was struggling terribly to fit in at school and Christina Ricci’s portrayal of Elizabeth’s isolation was so emotive that I couldn’t help but relate to it. The frequent Sylvia Plath references drew me in and even today – though with hindsight I can recognise the plot holes and the structural errors – it’s a film that I always return to when I want to shamelessly wallow in self-pity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJICKrRMlOA

Matilda

dir: Danny DeVito

Whilst the book is fantastic, the film adaptation is one of those rare occasions where the film tops the book. The Wormwood parents are the perfect caricatures and the Trunchbull to this day manages to give me nightmares. Matilda is such a wonderfully heartwarming film that it doesn’t even constitute a guilty pleasure. Its prevailing message: of good’s triumph over evil may be naive but the sustained innocent comedy and the anti-authoritarian message as well as the rare praise of precocious children ensures that the film is more nuanced and ultimately more satisfying than a traditional children’s morality tale.

Clueless

dir: Amy Heckerling

I take no shame in the fact that I am addicted to period dramas – particularly when they’re based upon Jane Austen novels – therefore it’s inevitable that Clueless (a 90’s satire of Jane Austen’s Emma) would be one of my favourite films. It tells the story of Cher Horowitz, a girl so busy playing matchmaker to everybody else that she fails to realise her own affections. The plot is overly-simplistic and some of the characters banal but it is blessed with great one-liners such as ‘she’s a full-on Monet… from far away its ok, but close up it’s a full on mess’. Clueless did the ‘coming of age film featuring a participant narrator’ thing way before The Perks of Being A Wallfower was even dreamed of, it is infinitely relatable and continues to be relevant despite being almost 20 years old.

Shutter Island

dir: Martin Scorsese

The analytical part of my brain pretty much blew up when I first saw this film, I was amazed by the plot twist yet paradoxically it seemed that my brain was not satisfied and I spend half of the night after watching it coming up with crazy and completely unviable conspiracy theories – making an already complex film even more difficult to understand. For me it’s Leonardo DiCaprio at his absolute best and I continue to affirm that if he was ever going to win an Oscar, it should have been for Shutter Island. I’ve watched the film tens of times over, looking for hints and symbols that would allow me to predict its explosive climax. Shutter Island was incredibly formative in encouraging my curiosity and helping my usually creative brain to see the benefits of lateral thinking.

The Breakfast Club

dir: John Hughes

Weirdly, the Breakfast Club has more in common with Ancient Greek theatre than it does many films of its own era. The conformity to the three unities of one-plot, one-setting, one-day could have had the adverse effect in making the film incredibly mundane yet the depth of character development and the plot structure makes it one of those films that I could watch over and over again. The film taught me not to judge on ‘clique’ or personal appearance and that sometimes the strongest friendships are those which we least expect to be formed. The Breakfast Club is the film equivalent of  multi-purpose compost, it allows you to laugh, cry, reflect and rage if the mood possesses you to do so. It is and always will be my ‘go-to’ film for every occasion as it never stops teaching one the important things in life.

Honourable Mentions:

Electra (2005), Kill Your Darlings (2013), Howl (2011) Carrie (1976), Wuthering Heights (2011), Inglorious Bastards (2009), Pulp Fiction (1994), Hercules (1997), 500 Days of Summer (2009), The Theory of Everything (2015), Les Misérables (2012)

Words by Beth Chaplow