Film: This Is Not a Film

Last night, stuck with my plan to see a documentary called This Is Not a Film, made by the banned Iranian director Jafar Panahi, mostly on a mobile phone, and reportedly smuggled out in a cake - that bit is said to be untrue. Showing, as good documentaries tend to do, in the Curzon Bloomsbury.

I could leave nice and late - and immediately knew the buses were delayed, from the unusually large crowd of people waiting for them. In the pouring rain, I managed to squeeze under the bus stop canopy - and one did come eventually. I had to change, and had to squeeze under another bus stop canopy, watching for any bus to come, through the drips from the edge.. it was only two stops to go, but I wasn't walking in that! It took a while, but I was early - any bus would do, and I was eventually deposited near the shopping centre.

And so to my standard for food here, GBK - where only one server was on duty, and a wee bit inexperienced, I think; with the place mostly full, she was dashing from hither to yon. I was seated immediately, but my food arrived before my wine - which, to be fair, arrived not long after. And I had forgotten to ask to have the burger without tomato - I guess it's been a while since I was last here! Never mind, it was all good - except I guess I left it too long to finish the onion rings, because when I got to them, the last two were too tough to eat..

Still raining when I went to the cinema, where an inexperienced worker behind the counter made the process longer than it needed to be. I took my seat in the cinema, tried to open my chocolates - darnit, I couldn't get the bag open! With the film starting, I gave up, sipped my wine, and had the chocolates at home later. The screen wasn't very full - unfortunately, a large head in front of me meant I was constantly having to lean to one side or the other to see the subtitles.

"This Is not a Film". No, it isn't really - during the film, he runs through the list of things he's not allowed to do, addressing himself to the cameraman. He can't write a screenplay, he can't direct.. so what he does is set up the camera to record himself doing ordinary things - we watch him having breakfast, talking on the phone, feeding his daughter's pet iguana, Igi. But that isn't enough for him - he had apparently been shut down during the making of a new film, which is, of course, occupying all his thoughts - so, feeling that it wouldn't work if he tried to film this bit himself, he calls someone to be the cameraman, and explains the story to him, lays out the set, explains how the shots would work.. we also see clips from previous films of his.

It's a frustrating film - he was under house arrest at the time, and to see a highly creative person like that hamstrung is infuriating. Having said that, it's not an especially interesting watch in itself - what I've already described is the essence of it. But it is great to see that the ban on his filmmaking hasn't stopped him from - well, filmmaking.. his latest offering, It Was Just an Accident, made illegally, is an excellent film, nominated in most awards ceremonies. He's never going to be lauded by the Iranian government - but it is fascinating to see how he manages to survive under the regime.

On the way home, it had almost stopped raining - but then I was booking ahead, so didn't have time to blog.

Next, a run of five Meetups! For tonight, I got a ticket from someone who bought one, then couldn't go, for Mrs. President at Charing Cross Theatre: an outing with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS). And that'll be interesting, a week after seeing Our American Queen, because Mrs. President is about the wife of Abraham Lincoln, who's mentioned in Our American Queen, and she and the Chases, subjects of Our American Queen, couldn't stand each other!

Tomorrow, I'm with Movie Roadhouse London - for the new Richard Linklater film, Nouvelle Vague. Referencing the French Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), it primarily focuses on the making of Breathless, directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Showing in the BFI, and I'm heading to The Archduke beforehand - although when I looked, there were only two timeslots left, and I ended up having to book quite an early one! So I'll have lots of time before I meet the group.. Don't think I'll have soup, after the last, disastrous visit.

On Friday, UITCS tempted me back with Guidelines, at the New Diorama - a play about the horrors of the internet, basically.

Then the weekend belongs to London Museums A-Z.. on Saturday, we're off to Bletchley Park, the ticket for which is valid for a year. I got a cheap train ticket on Uber, with a promotion knocking £5 off, plus £10 Uber credit - which was most of the cost of the ticket. And afterwards, we're headed to the fetchingly monikered Captain Ridley's Shooting Party! (It's a pub.) The history reads as follows: In 1937, the estate passed into government hands. Then, an undercover MI6 group arrived using the name ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’, with ‘an air of friends enjoying a weekend at a country house’. Their real purpose was to see whether Bletchley Park would work as a wartime location.

And on Sunday, it's an Unlimited event, where they don't cap numbers - we're off to the British Museum to see fragments of the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as previewed last Sunday of course, followed by a social in Penderel's Oak, as usual.

I was stuck for something to do on Monday, until I remembered something I saw advertised on Facebook - there's a talk about British Folk Horror that night! I was too late to book an in-person ticket, so I booked one for the livestream - tickets from Eventbrite.

On Tuesday - with film listings finally out - I'm thinking of heading to see Is This Thing On? A comedy about a guy who, having marital problems, heads to a bar - only to find it's open mic night, and he can't get a drink unless he does a turn on stage: so, for the first time ever, he attempts a bit of stand-up comedy. Directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper, it stars Laura Dern as the wife - and as told to me by someone at The Cartoon Museum, it's inspired by the story of John Bishop! Nearest showing to me is in the Curzon Aldgate.

Then it's two more days with UITCS - next Wednesday, Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse (SP), booked on their excellent (but now, sadly, expired) PAYG offer, where you paid £60 for access to up to five productions. I made sure to book another set before they expired!

On the 12th, we're at Monstering the Rocketman, in the Arcola - the true story of the biggest libel suit in British history, with Sir Elton John suing The Sun for falsely claiming he'd used prostitutes. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend- good weekend not to be in London, with Valentine's Day in the middle..

And on the 16th, back with UITCS again, at SP again, for Beautiful Little Fool, the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, as told by their daughter.