It was looking like film for these two days. Yesterday, it was looking like Nino, about a young Parisian man diagnosed with cancer. Again, in the Garden Cinema. But since I didn't see Effi o Blaenau on Saturday, as planned, I saw it yesterday - in the evening, it was in the Curzon Bloomsbury. Booked, because it was filling up - used one of my free tickets. (Thought it was my last, because of the way it's displayed, but I actually have a few left - just as well I'm getting to them, they expire when my membership is up for renewal, on the 7th August!) It's a Welsh-language film set in rural Wales, and based on the most excellent Iphigenia in Splott, a play that I saw years ago. Working-class girl, bored of life, gets an exciting glimpse into another world when she starts dating a wounded soldier - falls pregnant, and discovers the future she'd dreamed of with him isn't happening.. if the film was half as good as the play, it'd be worth it - and this is getting good reviews.
It was at an awkward time - I'd have had to rush to eat beforehand, so I decided to eat afterwards, and just head out in time for the film itself. Then all the buses were delayed.. so I decided the wisest thing to do would be to take the next bus that came, which I did, and ended up taking an unusual route, past St. Paul's:
I was a bit late - entered the cinema to the raucous din from a private party in the bar. I usually get chocolate and wine on my way in, but had pigged out on Terry's Chocolate Orange Minis in the afternoon, so skipped the chocolate. Mercifully, by the time I got down to the level of the screen, the din was barely audible.. I arrived during the ads, and made my way to my seat, past a couple of ladies. I was sat right beside them, but didn't dare move over, after previous bad experiences of taking other people's seats.. and Lordy, they were nearly as loud as the party upstairs, with their chatter! Happily, they quietened as soon as the film started.It's a little lighter in tone than the play, but essentially the same story, from what I can remember - I didn't include too many details in my post about that, which is right and proper. Effi is a beautiful girl, but caught in a dead-end spiral - as she says at the start of the film, every week is the same. Get trashed at the weekend - enough to have a three-day hangover - then, as she says, she rises on the third day. Like Jesus.
And then, on one of these nights out, she meets a handsome stranger, with whom she feels an instant connection.. and she sees there might be something outside her routine.. only to have all her hopes dashed in the most devastating way.
It's really moving. There is, perhaps, a more hopeful ending in this than in the play, which helps its watchability. With more of an internal monologue in the play, I seem to remember more of a sense of anger than I see in the film.. I certainly came away less angry at the system than I was on that other occasion. She gives a compelling performance.
Lovely scenery, mist-covered mountains - I couldn't seem to find whether it was filmed there, but Blaenau is a real place. And it's nice to hear a film in Welsh, for a change (subtitled, of course) - it's an unusual language, very unlike Irish or Scots Gaelic. Anyway, highly recommended.. it deserves the high rating. GBK afterwards, and delicious as ever - even if he did forget to remove the tomato, as asked. They were packing up the outside tables and chairs by the time I left, but were still taking customers who were prepared to eat inside.
I shopped on the way home - handy for that, there - but it ran too late to blog last night.
And today, it was looking like Toy Story 5! Aw, I do enjoy them.. and this one has the traditional toys competing with AI. V topical. Nearest showing to me is in Everyman Borough Yards. But since I didn't see Nino yesterday, I'm going to see it tonight - again, in the Curzon Bloomsbury for an evening show.
Tomorrow, back with CT for Our Public House, a play about politics at a local level (in the pub), playing in Marylebone Theatre. Tickets with CT are actually the same price as the cheapest with the theatre, but with CT there's a chance of a better seat.. Eating in Mumtaz, across the road, beforehand - earliest booking I could get was for 6pm!
On Thursday.. well, appropriately for London Museums A-Z's Dracula activities, the 1979 Nosferatu, with Klaus Kinski as Dracula (he's certainly scary enough), Isabelle Adjani as Lucy (sic.) Harker, and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, written and directed by Werner Herzog, is showing in Cine Lumiere..! And I've never seen it, would you believe. Part of a season of her films. Watch this space.. I flagged it to the Dracula group, and there's been some interest! (As one person said, if it's cooler..)
On Friday, back at Backyard Comedy Club with CT - double the price of other nights, for whatever reason, but still cheap.
Then a run of three films - becoming quite the habit! On Sunday, I'm thinking of Blue Heron - set in the 1990s, it sees a family move to Vancouver Island, only to have serious problems with the increasingly erratic behaviour of their teenage son. Showing in the Garden Cinema.
On Monday, finally thinking of Toy Story 5 - still in Everyman Borough Yards.
And next Tuesday, I found a new Meetup group - The DocHouse Documentary Adventurers Group: seems they head to the Curzon Bloomsbury for documentaries, which makes perfect sense with their dedicated DocHouse. With no reviews yet, it seems like a very new group! Anyway, they're off there that day to see The Day Innocence Died, a documentary about Bloody Sunday - so I thought that sounded interesting, and I'd give the group a shot.
And on the 9th, back at last with Movie Roadhouse London for The Invite. Delighted they advertised it - the trailer looks promising. Based on a Spanish film, in this, Seth Rogen and his wife decide to invite the enigmatic couple upstairs - Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz - for dinner. They have no idea what they're letting themselves in for.. showing in the BFI, and we're meeting there beforehand, and for drinks after.
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