Film: Drommer (Dreams)

Tonight, I pencilled in yet another film - Drommer (Dreams), part of an Oslo-based trilogy. In this one, a girl develops, and writes about, her intense crush on her French teacher - her mother and grandmother, reading what she's written, are shocked, but also really impressed with the quality, and decide she should publish it.. again showing in The Garden Cinema, and I'd have to skive off slightly early again to make it.

The day was full of meetings, and I seriously thought the last one would never end. Thank goodness I was working from home, so was ready to leave the second it was over, nearly half an hour late. Then the bus was delayed.. I made the cinema within a minute of start time. And found myself in a ridiculously long queue. Seems everyone had chosen that moment to queue to buy tickets. In retrospect, instead of spending so many minutes in the queue, I should just have bought a ticket on the spot, on my phone - the harassed person behind the counter was giving priority to scanning tickets, for folks that already had them. But no, I waited.. and to be fair, did get in while the trailers were still showing. Someone was sitting in my seat - I hardly think it's worth arguing, so I sat in front of him.

Oh-ho-ho, this is terrific! We see snippets of the girl's obsession with her teacher - the angst, the not eating, not sleeping.. her friends are worried about her, and want her to start using a self-help app. She finds out where her teacher lives, knocks on her door.. and although she is let in, we aren't. Instead, we jump to her talking to her grandmother about the finished book, which she, as a published author herself, is the first person let read it. Then her mother does - and they spend a considerable amount of time first wondering how much of what is described in what the grandmother describes as a "racy" book actually happened.. and then analysing it from a feminist perspective, as the girl herself gets all embarrassed about the idea of publishing it.

Throughout, we're not sure how far the relationship actually went.. although towards the end, we perhaps get a hint, as the author breaks into the narrative. In a postscript to the story, we see her a bit older, more mature, at college, and attending a therapy session in which she's apparently been describing the story we've just been watching. In addition to taking the story at face value, we end up seeing how her family relate it to their own experiences, how the teacher reacts when she's told, and how the author herself feels a few years down the line - about what happened, and about life and love in general. And I guess the abiding message is - that the things that happen to a person as a teenager don't have to define your existence, as she re-evaluates what happened, with distance, and moves on.

For all that, the first thing I noticed about the film was the slow, gentle pace.. never boring, it is very calming, with that terrific Nordic light - one of the first images of the film is of a really long flight of steps, covered, at that stage, in ice. This must be near where the grandmother lives, as we later see her industriously climbing them (no ice) - but they also appear in a dream sequence, as a representation of Jacob's Ladder. We have scenes set in the family cabin, snow falling outside. And the initial scenes in the teacher's flat (which we do eventually get into) are warm and snug, filled with wool - she's some sort of visual artist, and knits and weaves. As the film ends, however, she has a clearout - the flat is brighter, more spacious, and we have more outdoor, summer scenes. As the seasons pass, so too our author is moving on.. whether she is ready or not.

By the way, it's also unexpectedly, and repeatedly, hilarious. This is the first film in ages I've walked out of with a spring in my step! Really, v highly recommended. It also occurs to me, as suggested by someone a while ago, that I might think about taking out membership.. we shall see, if I continue to go as often. Anyway, again to Nando's afterwards - where, as with so many other places, the staff are beginning to recognise me - and lo, they managed only to burn one of the pieces of garlic bread tonight! Well, and the edges of the other.. And to end the day, popped into the handy nearby Sainsbury's on the way home..

Tomorrow, my one Meetup of the week - Up in the Cheap Seats are doing a couple of different things, and I chose the musical Sing Street, which sounds fun. Based on a film I saw some years back, it's set in Dublin in the 80s, and focuses on schoolkids trying to start up a band. Playing in the Lyric Hammersmith.

On Thursday - yes, film again.. heading to Young Hearts, that night only in the Curzon Bloomsbury. And being in the office again that day, I can walk to it.

Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend to check the house is still standing and the cat still remembers how to purr. Flying there with Aer Lingus because Ryanair was so ridiculously expensive.. back with Ryanair though.

And back in London on Monday, again I'm headed to the Summer Organ Festival with CT - this time, the performer is Simon Horgan. The second of four Mondays in a row it's running.