There were a couple of other things I might have gone to yesterday, but they were sold out, so I ended up reducing my film list again. Calais: the Last Border, this time. Showing with a short film by the same director, Lift. In the Tricycle cinema, which is in the same building as the theatre - I've been to the theatre before, not the cinema, here.
You can get there straight on the Overground. Well, when I say straight.. you'd better have a copy of the timetable. Fortunately, I do, having learned the value of it the hard way. So I could see that the direct trains had stopped running for the day (the Overground timetable isn't nearly as frequent or convenient as the Tube). In fact, my flatmate hates the Overground for that reason, and I must say he has a point. And so I could see that, although Google Maps promised I could make the journey in 24 minutes, in order to get there for 8.45 I'd have to leave in time to catch the Overground at 8.08. So I'd really need to leave around 8.05 - 40 minutes beforehand. Good to know these things.
After a delicious meal at home - Tesco Finest range does a terrific beef wellington - it was a rush to catch the Overground. Just as well I hurried along, the train was pulling in as I was crossing the footbridge. I panted my way onboard and made it in time to the cinema.
It's the same box office as for the theatres, and I could see the cinema sign pointing down a flight of stairs just past the box office. Where I queued, while a couple of ladies tried to buy tickets for Philomena, which they swore the website said was showing that night. Tsk if it did, that's not good! Can't vouch for it myself, I was here to see something else. Anyway, I eventually bought my ticket and went downstairs.
'Tis a lovely cinema. Quite large, and on this occasion, quite empty. Turned out I was attending the UK Jewish Film Festival. Ooh. Some people were handing out questionnaires about the festival, but resolutely ignored me. Hmph. And so the films duly started.
Lift came first. It's a half-hour film where the director stands in a lift, in a block of flats in London, and films people that travel in the lift. Apparently, it was his first film. And it's really good! Starts weirdly, with people looking at him most suspiciously and some refusing to travel, most who do enter the lift not looking at or speaking to him. But he seems to have spent some time there, and it's really interesting to see the same people eventually open up to him and start to chat. And they're interesting folks. I do recommend this, if you come across it.
Calais: the Last Border follows the same idea of interviewing strangers. Not in a lift this time, but around Calais. Filmed 10 years ago, people interviewed include refugees trying to get to England, and Brits trying to make a life for themselves in Calais. It's about an hour long, this one, and again, interesting. I like this guy's interviewing style, he really gets you involved in these people's stories. I'd love to know what happened to them afterwards. Like his subjects in Lift, they were all in transit, and this was a snapshot of their lives. The Afghan whose entire family was killed, and nowhere would do him for asylum but the UK. The Jamaican who had a Eurolines ticket to London, but they stopped him at the border and now there was no bus back to Brussels, where he lived. The Lithuanian who couldn't get to the UK, and now didn't have enough money to get home, so a fellow passenger made up the difference. The Brits, trollies laden with crates of cheap booze, complaining about foreigners making things harder for them. Steve, who'd tried opening a bar in Calais but it wasn't working for him and he finally packed the family into the campervan and headed for an uncertain future in Spain. The elderly couple with a failing tourism business, who were in terrible financial trouble and talking about taking an overdose. It's all here.
Afterwards, there was a Q+A. Now, this was the third Q+A I've been to recently. What I'm used to with these is audience members asking questions. Hmm. What we had in this case was the director (a Jewish chap, which is how he got into the festival) being asked questions by the presenter. Long, academic-style questions. I figured, after a couple, he'd turn to the audience. There was a lady in the front who had her hand up nearly from the start. Well, after half an hour of this interview, just this guy asking questions, the director pointed to the lady in front and remarked that he thought this lady was dying to ask a question. "O yes, of course!" exclaimed the presenter. "I did mean to ask for other questions, I wasn't just going to blabber on.." Yeah. Right. Anyway, her question and the director's answer took another ten minutes. I was beginning to wonder how long this was going to go on for - these things usually have a limit. And then, with no more audience questions forthcoming, the presenter launched into another speech. And he was going off the topic of the film, going into the director's Jewish background and trying to relate that to the film. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, I'd call it. BORING! With an eye on the clock for the last train, I left as soon as he started again. Made the next-to-last train to Willesden Junction, and had a 20-minute wait for the train to West Brompton. Which gave me time to go to the toilet, which I might add was not the cleanest. At least there was toilet paper, I suppose. And then I got home, called my mother, and by that stage it was too late to blog - hence the delay.
Tonight, it's my turn to go to Philomena! (Would have gone to The Geographer Drank His Globe Away, but it sold out again.) Apparently, Philomena is causing a terrible ruckus in Ireland, due, doubtless, to its subject matter of an unmarried woman who has a baby boy that the nuns sell to an American couple for adoption. Fifty years later, she tells someone about it and they suggest she go looking for her son. Based on a true story, and starring Dame Judi Dench as the woman in question, and Steve Coogan as the journalist who takes on the story. Well, we'll soon see what all the fuss is about. Heading to my new nearest cinema, Cineworld Fulham, which I can walk to, or get the bus if the weather is grotty. Tomorrow, I'm going to Blam! - a Sadler's Wells production. About time - it's ages since I was at a dance production. Looking forward to it. And on Thursday, the plan is to go on another guided walk - not sure which yet. I'm taking Friday off, so might get to something in the afternoon before I fly back to Ireland for the weekend - we'll see!
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