It began, as these things so often do, with a conversation in a pub about favourite movies.
In this case, though, it didn’t peter out with a fumbling attempt to access the internet on an iPhone, but with the programming of three films at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and arguably the most meaningful contribution to the 2011 event by any of its “guest curators”.
The conversation in question was between former EIFF director Mark Cousins and author Alan Warner; the film director whose name came up was Jerzy Skolimowski; the movies now part of the 2011 line-up are comedy romp The Adventures Of Gerard (adapted from short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), swinging London thriller Deep End, and surreal drama The Shout (winner of the Cannes Grand Prix du Jury) – which hail, respectively, from 1969, 1970 and 1978.