What was your first film?
Blue Skies, with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Astaire got the girl, so I immediately went out and learned to tap dance.
Favourite film?
M Hulot's Holiday because it incorporates all our vulnerabilities, desires, hopelessness and ridiculousness.
Last film you walked out of?
It was so boring I can't remember what it was called. It starred Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz, who are wonderful, but it was ghastly.
Most erotic movie moment?
Helen Mirren having Alan Howard in the lavatory in The Cook, The Thief...
Most annoying cinema habit?
Chewing gum on the floor or being eaten.
Last time you snogged in the cinema?
Ryan's Daughter, a fantastically long time ago, even before I met my wife.
Favourite snatch of dialogue?
"No, no, that's not me; I live up here," said by Gene Kelly in An American in Paris before starting on a series of fantastic numbers, such as I Got Rhythm. It was evocative of everything I ever dreamt Hollywood would be and which, of course, it turned out not to be.
Which actor would you most like to be?
Gene Hackman or Fred Astaire.
Which actress?
I wouldn't like to be any actress. An awful lot of them are exceedingly complicated and tricky.
When did you last hide under your seat?
When any film shows an operation.
When did you last cry?
In Life is Beautiful.
What do you remember about Fellini's 8½?
The visual look of it, which is what stays in my mind with Peter's films. Greenaway is an astonishing film-maker if you don't want to be emotionally drowned by cinema.
Would you work with him again?
Like a shot.
John Standing is in 8½ Women.
