For a child in the sixties, the movies were a gateway to the world, its vicarious experiences, a technicolour textbook on how to live your life The author recounts his childhood and adolesence through the films that shaped them He learns about defying school authority from 'Mutiny on the Bounty', about sexual confusion from 'Cabaret' and, inspired by countless Westerns, sets the family home on fire with his cap gun after watching 'Red River' 'The Sound of Music' inspires his first, fumbling forays into the world of teenage romance, and how he realises the vulnerability of parenthood in 'Don't look now'