Film: Dunkirk

Tonight was free comedy in Hammersmith again. With London Live Comedy, Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, and DiscoverLDN.UK. And would you believe it - before I had the chance to cancel, they did! Well, Hammersmith & Fulham Friends did - which I'm taking it applies to all. Maybe not -anyway, it gave me the excuse. So I decided to go to a film, as I was already thinking of doing; predictably, top of the list was Dunkirk. Showing at multiple times, nice and close to me. So I chose the nearest to me - the Odeon Tottenham Court Road. And a nice, early showing.

No bother to get to - it's on my way home! Plus, of course, this being a mainstream film, I didn't have to hurry - I knew there'd be loads of time for ads beforehand. Just as well, considering the crowds I had to navigate on the way - I usually only walk this way late at night, and this was more crowded than I was used to. What I forgot was that it's cheaper to buy on the website - nuts! It's just so rarely I go to anything at an Odeon. Ah well, next time.. Seating was unreserved, but the place was quite crowded (not completely full, but I wouldn't vouch for availability late nights or at weekends). No problem - I actually wanted to sit quite close; I'd heard this is quite the visual spectacle.

Dunkirk. Famous for the rescue of nearly 400,000 trapped Allied forces from the beaches, in the face of the encroaching Wehrmacht, in 1944. Rescue effected in large part by small, civilian craft, drafted in from England - that's what makes it special. Christopher Nolan decided to make a film about it. Stars Kenneth Branagh as a naval commander, frustrated at the lack of boats for all the men that need rescuing: Tom Hardy as an embattled Spitfire pilot, keeping the Luftwaffe away from the poor men on the beach: Mark Rylance as the plucky captain of a small boat, determined to do his bit: Cillian Murphy, as a shell-shocked soldier that gets in the way more than anything: and, of all people, Harry Styles as a soldier, just trying to get out.

It's phenomenal. Christopher Nolan has the Midas touch anyway - anything he makes is worth seeing. In this, he takes three distinct strands: the Mole (on the beach), the sea, and the air. It's been described as "a silent film punctuated by dialogue". Yes, I see what they mean - little dialogue in this (what a saving on translations!). Well I mean, what with all the action going on around them - a) what need they say? and b) you wouldn't hear them anyway.

Instead, we have the most wonderfully impressive score; Hans Zimmer does it again. No gore whatsoever in this film - it's all about tension, as people wait for bad things to happen. Part of the score, in fact, is a ticking clock. Start to finish, it's relentlessly tense - not a film for those of nervous disposition. The soldiers on the beach, sitting ducks for the Luftwaffe. The Navy, doing all they can but feeling helpless. The crew of the small boats, sailing into something they're patently unprepared for. The RAF pilots - fantastic cinematography for these sequences: and how fascinated my late father would have been at the detail of the machinery! A real sense of the clunkiness of the technology of the time, too - no sleek modern technology here. Throughout, the camera is right up-close to the characters, and gives a real sense of place.

Christopher Nolan has been criticised for his lack of characterisation: rubbish. The film manages to give a very broad sweep of what was happening at Dunkirk during the evacuations, and - I'm no expert, mind, but I do think he succeeds in doing it justice. It's hugely moving, hugely shocking, and - as you might expect - I left shell-shocked. Stunning. Recommended.

And what a treat to finish early! Tomorrow, I'm off to Amsterdam, for my final two U2 concerts of the year (sniff). On Saturday and Sunday. Really, you have no idea of the organisation that went into all of this, back in January..! These were the only ones I couldn't get tickets for officially - bought them on Viagogo. And I see I booked from City Airport again - lovely!

I fly back on Monday, and saw an interesting Funzing talk advertised for that night - "Are We Living in the Matrix?" Well, I'm well overdue a free talk, with all of them that I've booked (every fourth free), so I contacted them to get a code to get this for free. Still waiting..! Despairing of them, I finally booked it on one of their limited 50% deals. It had been advertised with London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @Night - funnily enough, they've now both cancelled. It still seems to be running, though. No loyalty points for this one, I guess!

On Tuesday, another Funzing talk - I finally get to see Jennifer Rees again, when she's giving a talk on The Psychology of Criminals. With dim sum, great! (Had to stick with a 10% discount for this one - Fun_Day10 or Fun_Week10 are the ones you want for that.) And it's walking distance from me for once, in Covent Garden. She's a fantastic and engaging speaker. Excellent.. and Helen has sensibly decided to come too. On which occasion she'll deliver all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back from Twickenham!

I was just looking up what to do on Wednesday - and wouldn't you know it, at that moment the Pop-Up Opera sent me a mail with upcoming events. Une Éducation Manquée is a short, French comic opera, whose run finishes that day. All right then!

Next Thursday, my first Meetup with Up in the Cheap Seats, one of several new groups I've joined to fill the great void left by the sad departure of the Man with the Hat. We're off to see The Tempest, with Simon Russell Beale, at the Barbican. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.

And on the 7th, back with Let's Do This for a vintage swing jazz evening at Wilton's.