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Sep. 5th, 2020 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeI have been to the cinema three times now - three different cinemas, in fact.
I went to see Proxima at the Cameo. (Four other people in there, three of whom were fully masked. I was at least three metres away from everyone.) Proxima is Eva Green as an astronaut preparing to go into space on her first mission, and her relationship with her young daughter. What I had read had focused on "the only woman in her programme" aspect, which is in there (including dealing with irritating sexism), but it is much more about her relationship with her daughter. I found this a bit irritating, and was at first thinking of it as reductive, but then worked out to reframe it to myself as a film about motherhood where she was also an astronaut, and realised how very much more it was, that way, and got over myself. It was very, very good. Throughout the credits they showed pictures of female astronauts with their young children (and mostly not with any male partner in evidence), and their list of space missions. I thought that was very good to show that this film was not some fantastical what if, but what mothers going into space have dealt with for decades.
I went to see The Lehman Trilogy at the Vue. (Everyone I saw wearing masks, larger cinema than the others but much less than 30% full. Because of distancing they have opened up the VIP seats to normal seating so I sat there - much less comfortable than a normal seat. Also because they had SO MANY adverts the three and a half hour performance ended at nearly half eleven, instead of ten-ish as I had estimated.) It was SO GOOD. I was expecting it to be like Enron and specifically focused on the crash, but it's about the history of the bank and how it passes through the family, developing from a store selling low price fabric, to inventing the concept of the middleman, to a bank, to a traders, surviving the great depression and investing in war... until the end. Three actors (Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and an astonishingly good Adam Godley) play mostly various members of the family - but also their wives, children, customers and rivals, switching between reported speech and actual acting of scenes really seamlessly, and with some stagey repetitive bits. The part I keep coming back to is Adam Godley doing the twist on a table while they describe what happens throughout the decades to his Lehman, getting more and more grotesque, twisting down further further into some truly repulsive death throes. Would love to see it again.
Today I went to the Filmhouse to see Parasite, in the black and white edition. I would probably have waited for the original colour version, but I didn't know it was going to be back in the cinema until after I bought this ticket. I had had the opportunity to see it in Sittwe but a) I was tired that evening and b) it would have been in the company of someone I have cast as my nemesis, so stayed in my room grumpily instead of joining the throng in the living room. (Only three of us in the cinema, they turned the lights up after the trailers so someone could come and stare us directly in the eye to ask us to wear masks, and the seats we sat in had removable covers.) Parasite was just as good as everyone said! Funny, and a bit scary (less than I was expecting) and horrible and sad. The recurring thing of the smell leading to the final part was very good.
My critical faculties are not very good. The films are very good. I like being out of the house, and seeing things when I can't also be distracted on my phone. At home I am mostly rewatching Rake while playing Hexonia which isn't even very good.
I went to see Proxima at the Cameo. (Four other people in there, three of whom were fully masked. I was at least three metres away from everyone.) Proxima is Eva Green as an astronaut preparing to go into space on her first mission, and her relationship with her young daughter. What I had read had focused on "the only woman in her programme" aspect, which is in there (including dealing with irritating sexism), but it is much more about her relationship with her daughter. I found this a bit irritating, and was at first thinking of it as reductive, but then worked out to reframe it to myself as a film about motherhood where she was also an astronaut, and realised how very much more it was, that way, and got over myself. It was very, very good. Throughout the credits they showed pictures of female astronauts with their young children (and mostly not with any male partner in evidence), and their list of space missions. I thought that was very good to show that this film was not some fantastical what if, but what mothers going into space have dealt with for decades.
I went to see The Lehman Trilogy at the Vue. (Everyone I saw wearing masks, larger cinema than the others but much less than 30% full. Because of distancing they have opened up the VIP seats to normal seating so I sat there - much less comfortable than a normal seat. Also because they had SO MANY adverts the three and a half hour performance ended at nearly half eleven, instead of ten-ish as I had estimated.) It was SO GOOD. I was expecting it to be like Enron and specifically focused on the crash, but it's about the history of the bank and how it passes through the family, developing from a store selling low price fabric, to inventing the concept of the middleman, to a bank, to a traders, surviving the great depression and investing in war... until the end. Three actors (Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and an astonishingly good Adam Godley) play mostly various members of the family - but also their wives, children, customers and rivals, switching between reported speech and actual acting of scenes really seamlessly, and with some stagey repetitive bits. The part I keep coming back to is Adam Godley doing the twist on a table while they describe what happens throughout the decades to his Lehman, getting more and more grotesque, twisting down further further into some truly repulsive death throes. Would love to see it again.
Today I went to the Filmhouse to see Parasite, in the black and white edition. I would probably have waited for the original colour version, but I didn't know it was going to be back in the cinema until after I bought this ticket. I had had the opportunity to see it in Sittwe but a) I was tired that evening and b) it would have been in the company of someone I have cast as my nemesis, so stayed in my room grumpily instead of joining the throng in the living room. (Only three of us in the cinema, they turned the lights up after the trailers so someone could come and stare us directly in the eye to ask us to wear masks, and the seats we sat in had removable covers.) Parasite was just as good as everyone said! Funny, and a bit scary (less than I was expecting) and horrible and sad. The recurring thing of the smell leading to the final part was very good.
My critical faculties are not very good. The films are very good. I like being out of the house, and seeing things when I can't also be distracted on my phone. At home I am mostly rewatching Rake while playing Hexonia which isn't even very good.
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Date: 2020-09-06 11:35 am (UTC)