Film: La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion)

Tonight - I was waiting for the film list to come out, just in case, but finally plumped for another dinner at Greenwich Yacht Club with Over 40 Living the Life. It's always a good evening! Unfortunately, the organiser later messaged me to say she was not feeling the best, and might have to cancel - and she did later cancel, but said it was because of a "training evening". Well and good, this had some competition tonight - so Plan B was to head to La Grande Illusion, showing at the Prince Charles, again for one night only. A 1937 WWI drama about French prisoners of war escaping from a German prison, it was supposed to be good.

Oh, thank goodness my bus came quickly, it's so cold.. and I shivered my way down to the cinema. 

Now, I'd booked - it hadn't been selling out, but it was in the downstairs cinema, and since there's a bar down there, I figured booking in advance would avoid me having to queue at the lobby bar, which is the only place to buy tickets. However, the blasted confirmation email - with the QR code I'd have to have scanned - had never arrived! So I ended up having to stop at the lobby bar anyway, where I showed her the screenshot I'd taken of the confirmation page, and she printed me out a ticket. Got my wine in the downstairs bar, to save me having to carry it down the stairs - and did you know that today was National Drink Wine Day?! Me either.. Well, as I was getting it, I spotted a jar of free badges, which you can wear in solidarity with the cinema - if you didn't know, there's a petition against their landlord increasing the rent and introducing a break clause, in case a developer wants to buy it..

The film itself is an amusing concoction, biased towards the French, but not unsympathetic to the German side. Sure, there's some buffoonery, but a senior German officer forms a deep bond with a French officer, considering their rank to mean more than their nationalities. And much of the film is spent lauding French food, and showcasing the envy of the other prisoners, who aren't getting the fancy food parcels from home that the French are!

The whole thing is treated as a sort of game - as the French officer remarks at one point, outside, children play at being soldiers, while in there, soldiers play like children. Escape, in particular, is seen as the very point of being in a POW camp. And the film succeeds, at what must have been a very tense time, when it was originally released, in making its audiences laugh at the absurdity of the situation, without ever getting weighed down by too much tension. 

It's more a study of the differences between peoples - one of the characters is also Jewish - than a thriller, or a political drama. It could be seen, I suppose - given the timing of the release - as being a sort of plea for everyone to talk to each other, laugh together, enjoy life together as they were meant to. If that was its aim, it didn't work out too well, of course.. BTW, the "grand illusion" of the title is mentioned a couple of times during the film, when it is taken to refer to either the idea that the war will be over soon, or that it will be the last ever..

Coming out, I was really glad I hadn't decided to come to either of the later showings, each of which had a long queue, standing outside, on either side of the entrance, in the freezing cold! Instead, I headed around the corner to my fave Bella Italia, in Cranbourne Street. Where I hadn't booked, because I'd figured I shouldn't need to - although it did later occur to me that, if I don't book, they don't know I've eaten there, so they won't send me a survey to complete, with a gift of a free starter.. Yeah, I'll be booking in future. In any case, after welcoming me effusively, they did find me a table, right down the back for once, where I was sumptuously fed, and he didn't have to ask what wine I wanted.. and sure enough, by the time I finished, I was the last customer again.

And so to a very cold journey home, waiting for buses - and I made sure to pop into Tesco en route, and buy some Soothers.. I have a niggling, tickly cough that could prove very awkward.

Tomorrow, I've discovered more storytelling - Winter's Night Wonder Tales, as advertised on Facebook (how sensible), this is happening upstairs at The Palmerston. Just saw it advertised as I was thinking of what to do that night!

And on Thursday, finally back with Up in the Cheap Seats for The Shark is Broken, at Richmond Theatre. A comedy about the making of Jaws.. how could I resist?! I was perturbed, mind you, to see that the "cheap" seats in the Stalls involve an automatic VIP experience booking, with champagne and such! Huh - I went for the next price level up, in the rear Stalls, thus paying much less.. Booked for the Buenos Aires Steakhouse, across the road, for beforehand..