Flashback: January 1-2, 2005
Jan. 6th, 2005 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexsarllUnusually, I have an actual plan for New Year's Day, rather than the impromptu post-mortem activities the date normally favours. I have been invited to see Ealing horror anthology Dead of Night at the NFT. Apparently, the invitation was extended to me because I seemed the most suitable companion for a film which was at once spooky and terribly English. If my friends persist in such innovative compliments, 2005 will go well.
I often read articles about films that are on at the NFT, think they sound interesting, and then totally fail to go. I am glad that on this occasion someone else took the initiative, because it's a marvellous film. I doubt that even at the time it would have given anyone sleepless nights, and when they rely on special effects it all collapses horribly, but it has the same just-about-plausible hyper-Englishness for which Ealing are famed, and is most effectively eerie.
The segment which I feel most viscerally is the one by Robert Hamer, who also directed Kind Hearts and Coronets. It concerns the purchase of a second-hand item in Chichester which is still possessed by the spirit of its previous owner. Now, as my entry for December 24th shows, on that day I went shopping in Chichester for the first time, and bought a second hand item.
What's worse: that segment of the film stars Googie Withers. Later in life, she was in a film with my Dad - and it was my parents with whom I was in Chichester.
However, while the film shows exactly how a mirror might be possessed, I've yet to work out any viable way to possess a Zodiac Mindwarp album, so I think I'm safe.
After the film we look at the Thames and talk about death, waves and the pioneering racial harmony of Captain Scarlet.
The next day is less cerebral; finally catch up with the little sister at a Stoke Newington pub which commendably offers two ciders. Return to her crashpad for carrot & coriander soup (mmmm) via the deer of Cl1tor1s Park. Head home for the last of Oz and then out again to meet the usual suspects that we might fill in each other's gaps as to exactly what happened on New Year's Eve. Then back to Caledonian Road where I finally taste Jaegermeister. Not a bad start to the year, all told.
I often read articles about films that are on at the NFT, think they sound interesting, and then totally fail to go. I am glad that on this occasion someone else took the initiative, because it's a marvellous film. I doubt that even at the time it would have given anyone sleepless nights, and when they rely on special effects it all collapses horribly, but it has the same just-about-plausible hyper-Englishness for which Ealing are famed, and is most effectively eerie.
The segment which I feel most viscerally is the one by Robert Hamer, who also directed Kind Hearts and Coronets. It concerns the purchase of a second-hand item in Chichester which is still possessed by the spirit of its previous owner. Now, as my entry for December 24th shows, on that day I went shopping in Chichester for the first time, and bought a second hand item.
What's worse: that segment of the film stars Googie Withers. Later in life, she was in a film with my Dad - and it was my parents with whom I was in Chichester.
However, while the film shows exactly how a mirror might be possessed, I've yet to work out any viable way to possess a Zodiac Mindwarp album, so I think I'm safe.
After the film we look at the Thames and talk about death, waves and the pioneering racial harmony of Captain Scarlet.
The next day is less cerebral; finally catch up with the little sister at a Stoke Newington pub which commendably offers two ciders. Return to her crashpad for carrot & coriander soup (mmmm) via the deer of Cl1tor1s Park. Head home for the last of Oz and then out again to meet the usual suspects that we might fill in each other's gaps as to exactly what happened on New Year's Eve. Then back to Caledonian Road where I finally taste Jaegermeister. Not a bad start to the year, all told.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 03:43 pm (UTC)...Although it may possess other things, or at least lend them voodoo qualities.
I often go to obscure films at the NFT and ICA, I will keep you informed. This weekend is LA noir: DOUBLE INDEMNITY and CHINATOWN. Whee!
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Date: 2005-01-06 04:02 pm (UTC)I had been tempted by the Chinatown screening, having wanted to see that film for ages, but then the powers that be were kind enough to show it on TV.
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Date: 2005-01-06 04:54 pm (UTC)I've always thought that at least part of Z's persona was based on Danny the Dealer...
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Date: 2005-01-06 04:57 pm (UTC)Ahem.
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Date: 2005-01-06 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 05:02 pm (UTC)And then I realised that was probably exactly what you had in mind.
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Date: 2005-01-07 01:22 pm (UTC)"that we might fill in each other's gaps"
arf.