Tag Archives: cinema

Frame by frame

Thursday 1st October 2026, 4.10pm (day 5,516)

Animation tracks, 1/10/26

Broke off work early today to go to a movie with a 4pm start: this was The Incomer, which was OK I suppose, though the claim on the Picture House’s advertising blurb that it was set in Orkney (this being the main reason I went) was a falsehood. In fact it was filmed in Ireland and in the movie itself the exact location was never mentioned.

There were some animated sequences in the film and, as I sometimes do, I tried capturing shots without much hope of getting anything of much quality, but I like this one, firstly just because of the image but also the technicalities. For what you see here is evidence that the ‘motion’ element of ‘motion picture’ is an illusion. What we actually see on a cinema screen are a large number of still pictures, shown so quickly that our eyes are tricked into seeing movement — and even in the digital age this is still true of animation. But the camera is not fooled.

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Settling in with Nicole

Sunday 2nd August 2026, 9.55am (day 5,456)

Nicole and toes, 2/8/26

I’m on holiday. Even the chores can wait. Meanwhile, a movie marathon: four Kubrick movies in one day, starting with Eyes Wide Shut (which would be better if Mr. Kubrick had lived a little longer to edit down the last three-quarters of an hour, but that’s just opinion). Everything except Ms. Kidman stayed in this position the whole day, more or less. (And the others? Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and Barry Lyndon, in that order. Finishing time around 10pm.)

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Settling in for the three-hour Director’s Cut

Thursday 30th April 2026, 7.05pm (day 5,362)

Apocalypse Now, 30/4/26

Clare really dislikes Apocalypse Now and I have given up trying to establish why this is. It’s not that she has anything against the genre, as she agrees Full Metal Jacket is a classic, for instance. But she was out all evening….

On the other hand, having sat through the Coppola Cut for the second time, unlike with some movies (particularly The Wicker Man which was butchered in the initial edit) this one doesn’t benefit all that much from the additional material. All it really adds is forty minutes and three pairs of breasts. Nevertheless if you ask me (but not Clare) this remains a work of crazed brilliance.

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Michael, film quiz guy

Sunday 15th March 2026, 6.10pm (day 5,316)

Film quiz guy, 15/3/26

We have become fairly regular attendees at the Picture House’s monthly Film Quiz, an activity which is as good a way of spending early evening on a Sunday that I can think of, and seemed appropriate for Oscar Night, so this evening was themed around the Academy Awards. The creator of this monthly geek-fest is Michael, seen here from our usual seat in row C, with what are, these days, the indispensable tools of the trade.

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Harvey Keitel (kinda)

Friday 13th February 2026, 9.40pm (day 5,286)

Today it was either Harvey Keitel or an avocado. I asked the wife. She said, she liked the avocado, but, Harvey Keitel. So here you are. (You know the movie, right?)

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The great Movie Sort of 2025

Friday 24th October 2025, 3.35pm (day 5,174)

Movie reorganisation, 24/10/25

Maybe fifteen years ago these were in some kind of alphabetical order and general state of organisation but like molecules in a viscous liquid, they slowly rearranged themselves over time. Returning them to their original state of order has been a days-long job, only finished as I post this (Sunday morning). And it took all that time to find L. A. Confidential (which is what prompted the Sort Out in the first place).

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Afternoon in the Picture House

Monday 21st July 2025, 12.55pm (day 5,079)

HB Picture House, 21/7/25

Seeing as I am off work, no reason at all to avoid an afternoon (and free) showing of Some Like It Hot at the Picture House — one of my favourite movies, and surely everyone likes that one. Unexciting photography of a very familiar place, but as the week develops, these things should change.

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Movie quiz

Sunday 15th June 2025, 6.10pm (day 5,043)

Well, I got five out of these six. But we didn’t win the quiz. Lost on a tiebreaker. Goddamit.

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Early, Leicester Square

Friday 31st January 2025, 7.20am (day 4,908)

Leicester Square, 31/1/25

Landed at 5am at Heathrow. Just over two hours later I was here, looking for a cup of tea, which was surprisingly difficult to find in Leicester Square at this early time in the day. But one could still enter the casino, which two guys in the middle distance are seriously considering. And so ends the monstrously long month that has been January 2025: did it really only have 31 days this year? I don’t believe it.

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Creature from the inside of Tim Burton’s head

Tuesday 7th January 2025, 12.35pm (day 4,884)

Tim Burton spider, 7/1/25

Another movie reference, courtesy of the exhibition currently running at the Design Museum in London, featuring a range of drawings, models, photos and other artefacts that have poured out of the head of director Tim Burton over the last 50 years or so. Two things are apparent; 1) the guy can have done very little in his life other than pour out this endless stream of creative work, more or less constantly; 2) there is some seriously weird shit going on inside that head. Worth seeing though.

An early post today as I now sit at Heathrow Airport waiting for an overnight flight. Unless something goes seriously wrong, the next three weeks of posts will all be coming from places a damn sight warmer than this one.

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