David Gilmour with son Jesse.
David Gilmour’s son, Jesse, hates school with a passion. Jesse loathes attending the same mundane classes day after day after day. So David lets Jesse do what any rational father would; David suggests he drop out of school. “If you don’t want to go to school anymore, then you don’t have to,” (6) said David to his son, who in turn lept up with excitement.
In David Gilmour’s non-fiction novel The Film Club; A True Story of a Father and Son, the former CBC film critic writes 
about his decision to allow his teenage son to drop out of high school and the unconventional schooling he gave Jesse. In lieu of a traditional education, David schools Jesse in his area of expertise…film. From Basic Instinct to Chungking Express, David rents a variety of films, teaching Jesse things like directing, acting and building suspense, among other topics. The only catch? No drugs. “You don’t have to work, you don’t have to pay rent. You can sleep till five every day. But no drugs. Any drugs and the deal’s off,” (10) explains David to his son.
As David and Jesse’s mom are no longer together, David moves in with Jesse to keep an eye on him. They develop a very close relationship while watching movies together and quickly go from watching The 400 Blows to Jesse explaining his relationship with Rebecca Ng. David has the privilege of being close with his son during a time when children typically pull away from their parents.
While I don’t necessarily agree with David Gilmour allowing his teenage son to drop out of high school because Jesse doesn’t like it, this novel is certainly an interesting read for film lovers. Not only does Gilmour teach his son about film, he gives readers great insider tidbits.
Gilmour threads the novel with interesting film facts, here are some of my favourites from the novel:
- Alfred Hitchcock shot Psycho (1960) in 8mm to give it a “porno-film feel” (125) Hitchcock also added a second set of stairs for the ending of Notorious (1946) to add suspense (48)
- Director William Friedken, described as “a bully and a borderline psycho,” used a real priest to play a priest in The Exorcist (1973). According to one story, the priest wasn’t giving Friedkin “the performance he wanted. So he asked the priest, ‘Do you trust me?’ The man said yes, whereupon Willie drew back and smacked him across the face.” Apparently in the scene where Father Damien is getting the last rites, you can see the priest’s hands shaking (127)
- John Travolta insisted the dialogue from Elmore Leonard’s novel be used in Get Shorty (1995) (211)
- Stephen King hated The Shining (1980), describing it as a Cadillac without an engine. He believed director Stanley Kubrick didn’t understand horror nor how it worked and that Kubrick made films to “hurt people” (68)
- Harvard graduate Steve Zhan couldn’t get an audition for Out of Sight (1998), so he sent a videotape of his audition to director Steven Soderbergh. After fifteen seconds of Zahn’s audition for the role of stoner Glen, Soderbergh said, “here’s our guy” (212)
For more interesting film facts, read David Gilmour’s The Film Club; A True Story of a Father and Son.