Today was film, and top of the list came Free Solo, a documentary about Alex Honnold, who likes to go mountaineering. On his own (but on this occasion, with a film crew). With no safety equipment. Yeah. The trailer has incredible cinematography. Happily, it's on closer than the last film I saw - this one is in Picturehouse Central. Which, ironically, I was staring at as I waited for a bus last night. They have three showings daily, but with a late meeting I had to go to the last one - and funnily enough, it was the latest of the week, with the last showing getting progressively earlier as the week goes on. Figures. At least being the last of the day meant I got to see it in the big screen!
So, I stayed late in the office - and what with work, and the distractions of the nonsense at Westminster, whose news was breaking as I passed time waiting to leave, I cut it a bit fine for the cinema. Of course, it doesn't matter so much with mainstream films, which have ads beforehand. Still, I was glad to make the bus that Google Maps informed me would get me there in time - which I only did because a young lady ran across the road to catch it and held it up! bless her. I was certainly in no fit state to run for it - ah well, I guess fitness comes slowly as winter passes. Eventually.
I bought my ticket at the cinema - there was certainly no rush on them - and only had to go up to the first floor of screens, as it was in Screen 1. Which is pretty massive. I've been here before, but it's been a while - I'd forgotten they have pullman seats! V nice. I had a reserved seat, but preferred to go in the row behind - and with so few there, no-one was arguing. Shortly after I took my seat, the trailers began, and after 20 minutes of those, we were into the main feature.
I'll cut to the chase. This is the scariest, most exhilarating, best-shot film I've seen in I don't know how long. Yes, the cinematography is phenomenal - shots are taken that point straight up the sheer, vertical, 3000ft wall of El Capitan, which he free solo-ed for the film (and was the first ever to do it). Impressive indeed - but not as arresting as the shots that point straight down. I've seen a few promotional films for it on YouTube, where they explain that they got cameramen who were also climbers - so yes, they positioned themselves on the narrowest of ledges, hung themselves from ropes to get the shots. Used drone shots too. Mind you, he was rather disturbed - not at the thought of falling to his death so much as at the thought of doing it in front of other people: so for the actual, final ascent, they put remote cameras in places they'd chosen in advance, so he was at a bit of a remove.
May I reiterate that he had no safety equipment? So, no ropes. He climbed up like Spiderman, his only aid a pouch of chalk that he carried on his belt, using it on his hands periodically to increase his grip. Typically, when you see someone in this position in a film, they're about to fall to their death! The different parts of the climb are explained to us, along with their attendant difficulties - particularly disturbing is the coverage of one sheer rock wall that is described as being like glass, with no real footholds or handholds. He seemed to wear special, flexible shoes for the climb, which I guess was as close as he could come to going barefoot, while protecting the skin on his feet. As he describes it, you just look for "dimples" in the rock, tiny changes in the surface - that's your foothold or handhold. He'd climbed this several times with ropes, so he did at least know the surface.
I can't do the film any more justice, so I'll just say that the coverage of the climb is phenomenal. It's also fun to see the guys watching from the ground with long-distance lenses - one an experienced free-soloer, who eventually couldn't watch any more, the suspense was so great! We in the audience agreed - every single one of us was swearing by the end, and personally I could barely watch some sequences. Real peep-through-the-fingers stuff. I also gripped my armrests a lot..
We get a lot of footage about people who have died doing this, and who were known to Alex. And lo, he has a girlfriend! who's not mad about his pastime. We get a little about his parents, his father who's passed away, and whom he thinks would have encouraged him, and his mother, who seems to have been the catalyst for his drive to succeed. Prepare for some brutally honest interviews here. (Nothing mentioned about the sister we can see in photographs.) He also runs a non-profit, the Honnold Foundation, which promotes solar energy in the developing world. It does make for a well balanced film - not everything takes place on the side of a mountain. Really, I can't recommend this highly enough - it's a terrible shame it doesn't seem to be attracting more attention.
Was lucky with buses on the way back, with hardly any waiting time. And tomorrow, back with Let's Do This for the first time this year, as we head to a Georgian restaurant for dinner. Georgia, the country..
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