In his essay, Two Years in the Dark, Andrew O’Hagan wrote that “….. movies and real life have secret things to do with one another and that only the hardhearted could fail to see it that way.”

There’s little that’s hardhearted about Peter Bradshaw’s collection of reviews and essays from The Guardian, THE FILMS THAT MADE ME…….

It’s clear, even in his more vitriolic reviews, that Peter Bradshaw is in love with the medium. Indeed, he writes “Film criticism is an act of love or it is nothing.. critics have to be in a state of vigilance against mediocrity and dullness – their own.”

THE FILMS THAT MADE ME….is divided into thirteen chapters where Bradshaw dissects the films that made him feel good, feel bad, made him laugh, made him cry, made him worry, made him scared, made him swoon, made him freak, made him think about the real world, reflect on his childhood, his suitability for lycra, the films that made him take his protein pills and put his helmet on and the films that made him consider Tilda Swinton’s maxim: “There’s no such thing as an old film.”

THE FILMS THAT MADE ME…. Contains readings of film, rather than just review, comment on content and context that is informative and enlightening.

His essays on the classics, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Black Narcissus are little polished gems, heart felt eye witness accounts of first viewings and their impact, and the impetus to to foster further viewings.

He cites Black Narcissus as the most erotic film he’s ever seen.

Some of these reviews are more entertaining than the films themselves and the entertainment continues when he introduces conflicting views to the reader’s taste, which is bound to happen, as, even educated, informed opinion, is still, opinion.

A consumer of the art of cinema and a producer of the art of criticism, what counts with Bradshaw, as it should with any critic, is not opinion, but the art with it is expressed. The best informed will still be a bad critic if the style is bad.

With prejudices clearly chartered, THE FILMS THAT MADE ME… makes for a fantastic voyage in film appreciation.

THE FILMS THAT MADE ME.. by Peter Bradshaw is published by Bloomsbury