David Stratton on memory: ‘The circumstance in which I saw a film might add to the enjoyment’

For his new book, My Favourite Movies, David Stratton selected a somewhat unusual number of films to feature: 111.

“I started off with 101, which seems to be the fixed number for this sort of book, and then I just couldn’t narrow it down,” he explains. “It’s really impossible to cut out a lot of films. I just had to put in another 10. I could have put in another 50, probably. But I had to draw the line somewhere, so it became 111. And even so, there’s things that should be there but aren’t.”

My Favourites Movies is a trip through the film critic’s best loved flicks, a list that includes the likes of Casablanca, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Animal Kingdom. To narrow it down to the 111 movies featured – a task he found “very, very difficult” – Stratton rewatched all his contenders during lockdown. That part of the process, at least, was easy. “Every time you watch a favourite film you notice something new, or I do anyway,” he says. “They just get better.”

Nostalgia helped Stratton decide which movies made the cut. He focused on including films he has a sentimental attachment to, the ones that remind him of a certain time in his life. For that reason, Stratton rates his memory as his most useful asset. Here, he tells us why good recall is essential in his line of work, as well as the story of some important personal belongings.

What I’d save from my house in a fire

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I would save paintings. We have a neighbour who lives in the same part of the Blue Mountains that I do, Peter Boggs, who is an absolutely wonderful artist. And for quite a few years I’ve been buying some of his paintings.

He paints streets and houses, never people. They’re very ethereal sort of paintings; sort of misty, slightly out of focus. I have probably about eight or 10 of his paintings and I just love them. They’re very beautiful works of art.

My most useful object

My most useful object is my memory. Especially in the context of writing this book, I’m happy that I still have very vivid memories of the first time that I saw a lot of the films that I wrote about. The reason that I draw the distinction about it being a book about my favourite movies as opposed to what I think are the best movies is very often because of the circumstances in which I saw them. And the memories of those circumstances.

I do keep records of all the films that I see but, when you write about a film, you don’t necessarily write down the circumstances in which you saw it. And sometimes they prove to add to the experience, in my opinion. The circumstance in which I saw a particular film might add to the enjoyment of it or the fact that it becomes a favourite. So my memory is pretty good for a fellow of my age, for which I’m very fortunate.

The item I most regret losing

A hat. Not just any old hat. When I became an Australian citizen, which was probably 1988, my wife gave me a beautiful Akubra to celebrate. And to my eternal shame, I left it in the upper rack on an aeroplane, on a long-haul flight somewhere.

I deeply regret losing the hat. It was a very sentimental hat. Irreplaceable, really.