Sweet and low: Steve Jacobs

BEST SCENE

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

It's one of the best films on Los Angeles, on acting, and on the film industry. There's the scene when Naomi Watts, the principle character, is auditioning a romantic scene along with a soap opera actor, and it's a very realistic portrayal of what acting is like. The soap opera actor starts with a soap opera stance, but Naomi does the scene so well that he becomes involved and his façade of being the reader disintegrates and he becomes the lover. The soap actor turns from bad acting to good acting. All actors learn tricks (even Russell Crowe), but here the soap actor's tricks are pared away and he becomes an honest artist again. It's a great scene because it allows actors – who are the lowest in the industry in terms of artistic ability – to evolve into artists again. The scene is also very honest about the Hollywood experience. The scene will never actually be filmed because the producer won't manage to get the movie up and it shows how the Los Angeles experience can be incredibly honest and revealing, but also brutal because nothing eventuates from that honesty. It's a great scene that tells you everything about acting, as well as film-making.

WORST SCENE

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (John Madden, 2001)

It's the scene when the Italians go to the beach for a picnic – an atrocity that's typical of Hollywood. They're bathing in the sea, they're singing opera and I think a few prostitutes are around. It's there to tell us why the fascists lost the Second World War, which is because they were too busy having fun, singing Verdi and taking their clothes off. It's ridiculous! This shows the side to film-making in LA where sentimental and syrupy projects are made in a brutal and unsentimental way. The problem with this scene is it's stereotyped, and I can also see a corporate hand. I expected Nicolas Cage, who plays Captain Corelli, to have a Coke and a surfboard and the Beach Boys to turn up – and that'd have been more natural.