The eyes have it

One of my favourite interviews was Julie Christie who, back then, was still somewhat shy of the media — I'd seen her a few years before, knitting between takes, when I visited the set of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet but hadn't spoken to her — although she'd agreed to talk to Premiere to promote Alan Rudolph's Afterglow.

It gave me the perfect excuse to rewatch a ton of Christie movies and so by the time I drove to Oxford, where she was starring in a play, to interview her, I had fallen for "Lara" once again. I told Christie straight off that I wasn't going to ask her why she had never married or why she didn't ever have children (two topics that had dominated almost every interview she'd ever given at that point; I know, I'd read them all!). Oh good, she said, and seemed to immediately relax. We spent the next couple of hours sitting on a pub bench, chatting about everything from Darling to Terence Stamp to Warren Beatty to Dr. Zhivago, and much more besides.

I remember her being incredibly smart, witty, and film literate, and she had a wonderfully dry sense of humour. I remember, too, that she stroked my arm a couple of times during the course of our conversation to reiterate a point she was making. It's rare that one gets smitten during an interview, but that was one such occasion.

Dr. Zhivago is out soon on Blu-ray. The above stills come from the dvdbeaver review. It will be an immediate purchase for me.