Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Albert Birney & Kentucker Audley's Strawberry Mansion is MUBI GO's Film of the Week in the US for February 18, 2022.
NOTEBOOK: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?
ALBERT BIRNEY: Dream tax.
KENTUCKER AUDLEY: A dream auditor falls in love with the dreams of an older woman.
NOTEBOOK: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?
BIRNEY: The Dryden Theater at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. I worked at this theater from 2006 - 2011. Every night of the week there was a different film projected. New releases, foreign films, silent films, visiting filmmakers (I met Walter Murch, Thelma Schoonmaker, Kris Kristoferson, Alexander Payne, Bill Forsyth)—a little bit of everything. Working there was a dream job and it will forever be my favorite theater.
AUDLEY: I might have to say The Kentucky Theater in Lexington, KY, which is where I first fell in love with movies. It was the first beautiful old theater I ever walked into, so it always felt like a special place to be. I saw Eyes Wide Shut there when I was in high school—it was pretty thrilling to see a new Kubrick film as I was getting obsessed with his older work. It’s also a music venue where I saw concerts with my dad, John Prine and Ray Davies, and a bunch of others.
NOTEBOOK: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life? Why is it memorable?
BIRNEY: It was a screening of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist with about 30 people in the audience. There is a particular moment, late in the film, when Charlotte Gainsbourg smashes a wooden block down on the genitals of Willem Dafoe. There was a couple sitting directly in front of me and I guess this traumatic moment caused the man to have a seizure. His girlfriend stood up screaming and asked someone to call 911. So I brought out my flip phone, dialed 911, and slowly backed out of the theater, explaining that someone was having a seizure in a movie theater. I was in the lobby, still on the call, when the couple emerged. He was shaken but seemed to be ok and I walked back into the theater and sat back down very much in a daze.
AUDLEY: Oh, that’s hard. There’s been some memorable ones, from seeing Magnolia and having my mind blown, and then hearing some high school classmates of mine talking shit about it on the way out, saying it was the worst movie they’ve ever seen. That opened my eyes to differences of opinion. Another one that comes to mind is seeing Mother! at Radio City Music Hall where I was sitting directly next to Arcade Fire. I was so repulsed by the film and wanted to leave but I didn’t want to disturb the band. More recently, during the pandemic lockdown, when my wife and I were going crazy from not going to the movies, we drove to the Poconos where movie theaters had reopened and watched Beetlejuice completely alone at an AMC. Tears were streaming. Oh, and even more recently, I saw the Velvet Underground doc after getting COVID a week before and losing all sense of smell. I loved the film and when I walked out of the theater, I could smell again.
NOTEBOOK: If you could choose one classic film to watch on the big screen, what would it be and why?
BIRNEY: Predator is probably the movie I’ve seen the most times in my life while never seeing it in a theater. I’d like to see that with a large rowdy audience who knows when all the classic lines are about to be spoken because you can feel the energy well up in the theater like a reverse cymbal hit.
AUDLEY: Another tough one. One film I’ve been itching to see recently on the big screen is Kurosawa’s Dreams. I’ve only seen it once, probably in my early 20s, but it felt like such a mystical thing to me at that age. I don’t remember much about it, but the feelings and the visuals haunted me. I was probably really stoned watching it, so maybe that’s why it left such an impression. But I’m ready to revisit and see if it holds up to my imagination.