Cultural life: Mike Figgis, film director

'I'm taking a deep breath before committing to the Dostoevsky biography'

Mike Figgis: 'I'm taking a deep breath before committing to the Dostoevsky biography' (Getty Images)

Films

I enjoyed much of the Liberace film Behind the Candelabra. I find, however, that I am more interested in older films that I have never seen. I finally saw All About Eve and some crazy Louis Malle films. There's so much brilliant archive material around, so it's hard to get really excited about much of the newer stuff.

Television

I liked the Gillian Anderson thriller The Fall, which is like Spiral. I also liked the documentary on the last days of Anne Boleyn.

Books

Biographies of Robert Mitchum, Gabriele d'Annunzio and Anthony Powell. White Noise by Don DeLillo. I'm taking a deep breath before committing to the Dostoevsky biography. I mostly enjoyed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Music

I had a pair of old Leak valve amps rebuilt and have gone back into my vinyl collection, which is mainly jazz from the 1920s to the late 1960s. Also my dad's 78 collection, which I inherited.

Visual Arts

I saw the Bowie show at the V&A, which I thought was a bit of a mess – how many pairs of trousers can you get excited about?

Mike Figgis's new feature film, 'Suspension of Disbelief', has its UK premiere on 6 July at the East End Film Festival, London E1 (eastendfilm festival.com), which runs until 10 July