Film Affects

I was working away on the FAQs section of my new website and was listing my favourite movies when it occurred to me that I have never mentioned films which influenced my books. There are scenes in The Hunter's Moon which were directly inspired by the oldest film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Max Reinhardt, 1935). It's in black and white with a 14 year old Mickey Rooney as Puck. There's an incredible scene where the King of Faerie, with black eye-liner on his eyes and wearing all black, ascends into the sky, his long dark train unravelling behind him and sparkling with tiny fairies which are also the stars in the night! (And this was wayyyyy before expensive special effects.) A more modern movie that influenced The Summer King is the late Polish genius Krzysztof Kieslowski's Bleu starring Juliette Binoche. Though it has nothing to do with fairies, it deals with death, loss, grief, and newfound love. The film also features the amazing words of 1 Corinthians 13:2, Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, if I have not love, I am nothing. The entire verse plays a big part in my book. By synchronicity (that long word for magic) the American cover of The Summer King could certainly be called "bleu"!