Saturday was a big day for me - two movies at different theatres. First was Puss in Boots, which has dancing cats and a zillion film references and Antonio Banderas. It was very good and also lots of fun. I came out and caught the tube to Canary Wharf, where a quick glance at Google Maps had shown me the theatre was quite close to the station. Unfortunately, for the second time in two weeks, Google Maps let me down.
There were two theatres noted on the map with the same name. I spent ages looking for the first, non-existent, one, and then realised that I had to get across a canal to reach the right place. I thought maybe the Docklands Light Rail could take me, because I couldn't see a bridge, but the DLR wasn't running. So I did a lot of running, mostly in the wrong direction.
Eventually I found a bridge and some signs pointing me in the right direction, and arrived out of breath twenty minutes late (I thought). Fortunately I had the time wrong, and the movie started twenty minutes later.
The movie was Coriolanus (just to mix things up a little). It was also very good, but in a very different way. I'd heard about it being a parallel for current crises in the world today, so for the first half an hour or so I was trying to recognise recent world events and ideas, but that meant that I wasn't really following the actual story. Once I forgot to look for parallels and got used to the Shakespearean language it was much better - moral: don't think too deeply about things until after the movie. Or maybe on a second watching. There was some incredible acting from Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave (I'm glad I don't have a mother like that), and of course the requisite Shakespearian tragedy bloodbath.
This morning I went to see Hugo, which was probably the movie I most enjoyed this weekend. I read the book ages ago (long enough that I couldn't quite remember the story) and loved it, and the movie was excellent. Hugo's an orphan who lives in a Parisian railway station in the nineteen-thirties and keeps the clocks working for various very believable reasons, and who is trying to fix an automaton his father left him. There are various other stories intertwined with Hugo's, and lots of very big words (you'd hear 'Mummy, what does that mean?' from kids in the theatre at regular intervals throughout the film). I'd love to see it again.
I think my eyes are going funny. Too much staring at screens. Oh well, four down and three to go.
There were two theatres noted on the map with the same name. I spent ages looking for the first, non-existent, one, and then realised that I had to get across a canal to reach the right place. I thought maybe the Docklands Light Rail could take me, because I couldn't see a bridge, but the DLR wasn't running. So I did a lot of running, mostly in the wrong direction.
Eventually I found a bridge and some signs pointing me in the right direction, and arrived out of breath twenty minutes late (I thought). Fortunately I had the time wrong, and the movie started twenty minutes later.
The movie was Coriolanus (just to mix things up a little). It was also very good, but in a very different way. I'd heard about it being a parallel for current crises in the world today, so for the first half an hour or so I was trying to recognise recent world events and ideas, but that meant that I wasn't really following the actual story. Once I forgot to look for parallels and got used to the Shakespearean language it was much better - moral: don't think too deeply about things until after the movie. Or maybe on a second watching. There was some incredible acting from Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave (I'm glad I don't have a mother like that), and of course the requisite Shakespearian tragedy bloodbath.
This morning I went to see Hugo, which was probably the movie I most enjoyed this weekend. I read the book ages ago (long enough that I couldn't quite remember the story) and loved it, and the movie was excellent. Hugo's an orphan who lives in a Parisian railway station in the nineteen-thirties and keeps the clocks working for various very believable reasons, and who is trying to fix an automaton his father left him. There are various other stories intertwined with Hugo's, and lots of very big words (you'd hear 'Mummy, what does that mean?' from kids in the theatre at regular intervals throughout the film). I'd love to see it again.
I think my eyes are going funny. Too much staring at screens. Oh well, four down and three to go.
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