February’s MK3D show saw Mark chat to three brilliant and wildly differing guests.

First up was Finnish director J-P Valpeakää, whose unique new film Dogs Don’t Wear Pants makes a study of grief and BDSM. He describes the feature as “a romantic comedy”, but it’s certainly unlike any we’ve seen before. Dismissing Marathon Man’s infamously horrifying tooth-pulling scene as “too short”, and disdaining the much beloved Forest Gump as the worst film ever made, his searingly dry wit had the BFI’s NFT1 in stitches.

We also heard from the fabulous, filter-less actress and filmmaker Kerry Fox, who plays Bella in Jessica Hausner’s plant-based thriller Little Joe. Having worked with numerous female directors from Jane Campion to Billie Piper, she shared her experiences of women behind the camera  ̶  and how they inspired her to realise her longstanding aspiration of becoming a director herself. As well as treating us to reminiscences of her work on Shallow Grave and Intimacy, she put to Mark her choice for ‘The Film That Changed My Life’: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive.

The delightful James Norton was our final guest of the evening. Star of the new Soviet investigative thriller Mr Jones, he discussed his encounter with the grim history of the Holodomor and the real-life journalist Gareth Jones who struggled to break the story in the UK. We also heard tales from the set of Little Women, and of his role as Stephen Ward in TV’s The Trial Of Kristine Keeler. Plus, his pick has to go down with the best of the ‘Guilty Pleasures’: Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves, with special love for Alan Rickman.

With his signature musical hommage – this time from Little Shop Of Horrors and a plant even creepier than ‘Little Joe’  ̶  Mark wrapped up another buoyant night at the BFI.
Photos by Bethany Hobbs

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