Last night Sir Alan Parker, the director of Pink Floyd's The Wall, the 1982 film starring Bob Geldof and based on the group's classic album, made a very rare special appearance at The Space event, held at the Komedia in Brighton, England. The Space is a monthly music, film and arts event, which features a line-up of highly successful special guest interviewees from the creative industries.

Sir Alan is one of Britain's most successful filmmakers, which made for a fascinating evening. In a career spanning forty years, he has worked with some of the movie world's most respected actors, such as Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Nicolas Cage and Gene Hackman, on films such as Fame, The Commitments, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Birdy. Music has been a key theme throughout much of his work, and he has collaborated with Pink Floyd (The Wall), legendary producer Giorgio Moroder (Midnight Express), Madonna and Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita). As an active figure within the British film industry, Parker was a co-founder of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and the UK Film Council, and he is a former Chairman of the British Film Institute. His work with all these, and more, was covered in some detail with some pretty frank and honest revelations.

Pink Floyd The Wall was something he seemed to shy away from mentioning until the Q&A at the end, when he was asked directly about it. He said that was his "most miserable professional experience" but followed this up by affirming that "I'm proud of it"! He talked of "how painful it was to put it on screen" but noted that he is good friends with David Gilmour and Nick Mason due to the film (not the case, though, with Roger Waters!). He also revealed that noted director Christopher Nolan played Pink Floyd The Wall to his team just prior to starting work on his movie, Inception.