The Man In The White Suit

This film is on BBC2 tomorrow.  The BBC has labelled it as B/W.  surely, it’s mainly white!

Are We Seeing A New Type Of Shopping Centre?

I have been impressed by One New Change by St.Paul’s in London.

Today, as I needed to eat on the way back from Burnley, I visited Trinity Leeds, which is a shopping centre close to Leeds station to have a late lunch in Carluccio’s.

Although, Trinity Leeds is four times as big as One New Change, it has a similar upmarket feel. When you stand both of them alongside such centres as Meadowhall, Lakeside and quite a few others, there is no comparison, although they are smaller.

They have both been developed by the same company; Land Securities. it would seem that some of the features and tenants have been chosen to improves the shopping experience. Both centres have an extensive selection of restaurants and have been designed to blend in, rather than dominate their neighbours. Leeds has even got an Art House cinema from Everyman Cinemas.  Usually shopping centres, just have a multiplex showing exclusively Transatlantic trash.

From my point of view, the centre is ideally placed, as it puts a second Carluccio’s close to my preferred interchange station in the North of England;  Leeds. I won’t use Leeds every time there is not a direct service from London, but for Burnley, Blackburn and possibly a few others, it is the best route, especially if I can get lunch.

The Look Of Love

I went to see this film about Paul Raymond.  I didn’t go to my usual cinema at the Barbican, but to the Hackney Picturehouse.  This incidentally, is probably my most convenient cinema, as it’s a direct bus both ways and one light-controlled crossing of a major road.

I enjoyed both the cinema and the film.  But I am partial to the films of Michael Winterbottom. I remember C and I, thoroughly enjoying A Cock and Bull Story, a few years ago. It might have been one of the last films we saw together!

Love Is All You Need

I saw Love Is All You Need tonight at the Barbican cinema.

It was I think the first Danish film, I’ve ever seen and it was certainly one of the few films at which I cried at the end.

But then the two main characters were a widower and a woman going through breast cancer.  I am of course the first and C suffered a bought of breast cancer, which she successfully overcame.

On the whole though it is an excellent film and quite uplifting.

There Are Mormons Everywhere!

Everywhere there are adverts for Mormons.

There Are Mormons Everywhere!

I suppose religious adverts on the buses follow the same rules as films.  The more adverts there are. the worse the religion.

It gives me a bit of a problem in that I don’t travel on a bus advertising something I don’t like or disapprove of. Oxford Circus is also wall-to-wall with the adverts, so that gives me another problem, as that is a difficult station to avoid.

On A Bus To Oblivion

I was away when Oblivion opened, but it got two stars in The Times and this was the summary of their review.

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion but that is about all that this derivative sci-fi has to offer

It certainly is appearing on lots of buses, which is always the sign of a dire film.

On A Bus To Oblivion

I suppose that the shape of bus ads makes Tom Cruise look taller.

What DVD Would You Like With Your Operation?

I can’t remember the last time I was put under anaesthetic for an operation. I suspect it was when I had a tooth out at about ten!

Some years ago, I looked at a database of cases of horse anaesthesia and was surprised how many died. An anaesthetist that I used to know, once told me that you avoid it if you can. I’ve also had two friends die during hip-replacement operations.

Now though, there is a report on the BBC, where Peterborough City Hospital is using films instead of anaesthetic. at least the lady in the picture looks pleased.

I have had two endoscopies without anything at all and I would recommend this.  Admittedly, I was talked into it the first time at Addenbrooke’s by the smoothest surgeon anybody has ever met. He argued that I wouldn’t break teeth and I could help him with the procedure, by moving as he required. Not only was he smooth, but I felt no discomfort , except for a small release of wind.

The second one was in the same hospital and it was performed by a lady doctor, wearing a floral summer dress. Work out where my head would have been, as I lay down facing towards her.

I’ve also had a vasectomy, which was performed under a local. It was successful and nothing untoward happened.

If it’s possible, I will continue to avoid anaesthetic.

So I wonder what film I would choose!

I suppose Death In Venice would probably send me to sleep anyway.

The Last Quartet

I saw this film last night and it was thoroughly enjoyable and a very good study of the tensions and relationships of a group of talented people.

In some ways, I found it a bit allegorical, as the tensions between the major players in Metier, were rather similar at times, although we had simpler relationships.

Of course, philistine that I am, I didn’t recognise any of the music in the film. This probably means that you don’t have to be a music lover to enjoy the film.

I saw it in the excellent Barbican Cinema and afterwards had a drink looking out of the window, at the front door of Cromwell Tower.  That was a bit surreal and I did wonder how my life would have mapped out, if C and myself had kept the flat there, which we probably would have done, if Metier had been sold earlier.

Do we just go round in circles in our lives?

A Parade In Cadiz

Returning to the Oriana, our coach was held up by a parade.

The pictures aren’t the best, but it was difficult photographing from the coach.

Seeing these parades, reminds me of probably the first serious film; The Pride and the Passion. I saw it with my father at the cinema in Felixstowe. I remember vividly the scenes where they hid the enormous gun under a float in the cathedral to hide it from the French.

I do wonder where they shot these scenes.

A Presentation By David Rose At The Duke Of Wellington

David Rose is one of the most important people in the history of British television and film drama.

Tonight he gave a fascinating and insightful presentation of his work at the Duke of Wellington in the Balls Pond Road.

I remember him in some ways for the work he did in the 1960s with Z-Cars and Softly-Softly. Did Z-Cars and the music scene in Liverpool in some way influence me to go to University in that city?  If it did, David is worth a big thank-you, as I’ve often said that Liverpool made me. I did of course meet C there, although she was fairly local to me in North London.

His later work for the BBC in the 1970s, was not something I remember very much, as it was the time, when we were bringing up the kids and working hard, so we didn’t watch television very much.

If David’s presentation turns up at a venue near you, it is very much worthwhile seeing.

I just wish, I’d seen more of the plays and films he has produced.  Sadly, it would appear that copies don’t exist of all of them, due to the BBC’s policy of reusing videotapes.