Film: La Chimera

Tonight and tomorrow are film again. Tonight's is one that's been hanging around a while - La Chimera is an Italian romance/comedy/fantasy, as described, and looked from the trailer to be a delightfully quirky thing. I was delighted to be catching it at last! Closest showing was the Curzon Bloomsbury - one of my favourite venues, was looking forward to that. I was going to go to the earlier showing, but what with writing the blog, it ran too late, so it was the later one. I tried to book, but of course the app is playing up again! Just as well, or I'd have booked for the early one.. I decided to eat beforehand - GBK, nearby, is excellent.

And it was just as well it worked out that way, because I was hungry. Made it to GBK just before 7, which was kind of perfect - the film was at 8.40. Now, I've been having the chargrilled chicken in my burgers there for a while, mainly because it fits better in the burger, whereas the chicken in breadcrumbs tends to stick out - quite a lot - at either end. However, I never have liked the chargrilled taste.. so I decided to risk the breadcrumbed chicken tonight. And it wasn't too cumbersome, and it was gorgeous! Colour me happy..

I finished in time to shop - which I needed to do - and headed for Waitrose. Where I got most of what I wanted - curiously, they didn't have grapes, and while they did have bottled water, wouldn't you know it, as always, the cheapest was too far back on the shelf to reach. Always happens here.. and there was no-one to ask for help; neither had anyone left a convenient step lying around. So I just managed to reach the next cheapest.. and was not at all amused, checking out, when the snippy automatic voice on the self-service till decided I wasn't moving fast enough. Very self-entitled-sounding voice, I must say..

Well, with all of that, I made the cinema with minutes to spare. I asked the nice lady for a ticket - she said I could have the very last one! I explained I would have booked, except I couldn't get the app to work. "Oh no!", she exclaimed, "that was our fallback!". Ah well.. and wow, it was tricky, trying to manage a glass of wine, a tub of chocolate, a really heavy shopping bag, and a paper ticket, down four flights of stairs. The ticket, of course, got the worst of it - the usher downstairs had to uncrumple it so he could read it, then directed me where to go. Happily, it was one of the closest screens on that level, and I was on the edge of the back row. Which meant I had to manoeuvre myself to get up several times to let people in and out. Ah well..

Some of the blurb for this describes it as an example of "magical realism". I like the phrase - it's a realistic story, but with a dreamlike quality, a layer of surreality. There are many chimeras in this.. the story centres on the compelling Josh O' Connor, whom we meet asleep on a train at the start of the film. Turns out he's been in prison.. turns out he lives in a sort of lean-to at the top of the hill. Turns out he's the beloved boyfriend of the daughter of an old lady (Isabella Rossellini), who lives in a faded mansion with her singing student, who apparently can't sing. When he meets the student, there's an immediate attraction. However, he seems to be carrying a torch for this old lady's daughter, whom we see in dreamlike sequences. Meanwhile, her other three daughters arrive, and in the style of King Lear, start bossing her around, telling her where she should live, and divvying up her possessions.

But that's not the only thing going on in the film - not by a long shot. You see, the reason our protagonist was in prison - and how he makes his livelihood - is that he seems to have an extra-sensory ability to detect archaeological artifacts. Goes around with a dowsing rod most of the time, but sometimes he can just.. sense them. He has a band of merry followers - who start to dig wherever he tells them. They are, basically, graverobbers - the graves just happen to be ancient. And now that he's out of prison - well, he just can't seem to keep from carrying on with it.

Everyone in this is chasing a chimera - the singing student who can't sing, the old lady who, like her daughter's boyfriend, harbours hope of her daughter coming home, the whole gang of people chasing an archaeological find. Mind you, they seem to be onto a sure thing with this guy - he never seems to fail. However, when it comes down to a choice - will he choose reality, or keep chasing an unattainable dream?

Plenty of metaphor here to keep us busy - in a part of Italy that seems to be absolutely dripping with archaeological treasures, but where no-one is quite what they seem. I liked it - and sure enough, as I say, Josh O' Connor, whom I hadn't seen in anything before, is a compelling watch. Very interesting film.

Tomorrow's film, third in a row, is Longlegs, the new horror film. Stars Nicholas Cage as the eponymous serial killer who leaves occult clues for a young, female FBI agent to follow.. Obvious shades of The Silence of the Lambs there. And it's really highly rated - in fact, no executive decision required to go see it, it literally topped this week's list! (after I eliminated the ones whose trailers I groaned at). Trailer certainly looks fantastic - quite a visceral performance from the young agent. So, I would have gone to see it today - except that The Hideout is seeing it tomorrow, so I said I'd wait and see it with them. We're seeing it in the Prince Charles, with drinks beforehand in Clubhouse 5 - and I've booked for dinner afterwards, in the local Bella Italia, of course! Yum.. It'll be great to catch up with them again, too.

On Sunday, back with Discover London - History Talks and Events for Kensington Mansions and Mews: grand houses and servant streets. Always a good walk with Jeanny!

On Monday, third Meetup in a row! I'm back, unusually, with London Social and Cultural Meetups for a social drinks evening in Daly's Wine Bar. And I can eat there too..

On Tuesday, film again - best rated is Bye Bye Tiberias, a documentary about a Palestinian woman who went to live in France, where she became an actor. Curzon Bloomsbury again.

On Wednesday, back with London Literary Walks (LLW) for a walk entitled Fleet Street Newspapers. We're meeting at The Blackfriar pub, where I can eat, conveniently.

The plan for Thursday is film again! Utterly delighted that this is still showing, and I can make it - I'll go to see Kinds of Kindness, the latest offering from the esoteric mind of Yorgos Lanthimos, who again has reunited Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, with Jesse Plemons and Hong Chau, in what promises to be a wonderfully odd offering. Showing in the BFI this time, but not selling out, so I haven't booked. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.

The next two days, back with CT for the Bitesize Festival at Riverside Studios - they have a few offerings, but on the 22nd, I'm going to see Dangled.

And on the 23rd, Namastae Bae - a satirical guru.

On the 24th, back with LLW for a walk about Newton and Legal London. We're meeting in The Devereux, but they don't do proper meals - I'm eating in The George, up the road, beforehand.

The next two days, back with Over 40 Living the Life. On the 25th, it's Afrique en Cirque at the Queen Elizabeth Hall - always love a circus!

On the 26th, it's Slave Play - at the Noel Coward, it got a terrific review yesterday. Stars Kit Harington - who apparently gets his kit off! (pun intended). Eating in the nearby Bella Italia.

And the 27th is the next date possible for my ex-coworkers' reunion, what with everybody travelling hither and yon, and suffering from jetlag.. I'm thinking of going back to Brown's, and nobody's disagreed yet!