Tag Archives: cinema

After the movie

Friday 27th October 2023, 10.25pm (day 4,446)

Leaving the movie, 27/10/23

Clare’s birthday was yesterday but it passed without comment on here. We took each other out tonight though, including to the movies to see The Creator. Verdict? Well, it’s a damn fine-looking movie, that’s undeniable but a) it doesn’t always make a great deal of sense and b) in true Hollywood style, it takes some complex philosophical and ethical issues and treats them as mere trivia. As I followed C up the aisle on the way out, and the other two guys went through the box of old posters, I was none the wiser as to the point of it all.

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The Old Picture House, Stafford

Thursday 19th October 2023, 11.25am (day 4,438)

Old Picture House, 19/10/23

Wetherspoons, the pub chain, are a company of ambiguous attractions: but one thing they do have going for them is good taste in premises. The Old Picture House in Stafford is magnificent. I suppose it would be great if it were still a cinema but at least it is in use. And yes, I was in there at 11.25 in the morning, but hey, so were several other people.

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Bagheera and Kaa (first time)

Sunday 17th September 2023, 2.15pm (day 4,406)

Jungle Book, 17/9/23

OK, maybe you’ve see The Jungle Book like 38 times or whatever, but until this afternoon, I had never seen it all the way through. Bits of it — the songs, mainly — on Disney Time that we used to get on TV when it was a public holiday in the 1970s (“I’m the king of the swingers…. a jungle VIP”, that stuff) but never all the way through. And it might be a little archaic in its depictions of this or that but it is a pretty good movie, don’t you think? It’s certainly the only thing that happened to me today.

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Waiting for “Oppenheimer”

Sunday 13th August 2023, 7.20pm (day 4,371)

Cinema foyer legs, 13/8/23

Clare, on the right, has her membership card ready for action. The movie, as the title of the post indicates, was Oppenheimer: which is a decent movie, I’ll acknowledge that, but I’ve stopped thinking that any film needs to be three hours long. (Though these three hours were definitely better than the three hours of my life that Beau is Afraid is never giving back.)

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At Discovery Point

Sunday 7th May 2023, 12.40pm (day 4,273)

Discovery Point, 7/5/23

I am still finding the light input of my new camera somewhat difficult to set accurately. Most of the time I get it to acceptable levels that reflect the environment but other times it’s way up or down, with unpredictable results. But ‘unpredictable’ can also mean ‘interesting’ and ‘not what was expected’ — as with here. This room, showing the introductory movie at the Discovery Point centre in Dundee, was quite dark when I took this one. It worked, though.

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View from seat C8 (decadent timing)

Thursday 21st July 2022, 11.20am (day 3,983)

Cinema, Elevenses, 21/7/22

Every Thursday, for years (floods and other arbitrary closures allowing), the Hebden Bridge Picture House has had a weekly Thursday morning showing known as ‘Elevenses’. Attendees get complimentary tea and biscuits. I think in all this time I have only made one of them, but today was the second (the film being Brian and Charles). There was something quite decadent about going to the movies and being out before lunch.

And seat C8 is MINE. It has my name on it, literally — with Clare’s on C7. If you ever get there before me and sit there, believe me I will be looking evilly at you throughout the picture.

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Cinema queue, wet

Thursday 28th October 2021, 7.20pm (day 3,717)

Wet cinema queue, 29/10/21

It is wet and cold outside — but warm and more welcoming within the Picture House. The movie? No Time To Die…. alright as these things go, I guess. No spoilers, but surely it’s time to bring this franchise to an end now…. but of course there will always be the next reboot, ‘Young Bond’, ‘Daughter of Bond’, the ‘New 007’.

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The Picture House tries again

Saturday 3rd July 2021, 6.40pm (day 3,600)

Exiting the Picture House, 3/7/21

Back in late October the Hebden Bridge Picture House reopened, and this happy event was depicted on here. Then, it shut again: like all places of entertainment this was deemed surplus to requirements in the Time of the Great Fear. How could we possibly be trusted to sit inside and watch movies. Now, it’s trying again, before all places like this erode away and the only distributor remaining is Netflix. Support your local cinema, folks.

On show this evening — Fargo; a great movie, well worth seeing on the big screen. (Real film buffs will know from the surname rolling up the credits here that we were in the presence of the Coen Brothers.)

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Return to the Picture House

Friday 30th October 2020, 7.45pm (day 3,354)

Picture House foyer, 30/10/20

Hebden Bridge’s hundred-year-old Picture House has not featured on the blog in 2020. Flooded (again) on Feb. 9th and then forced to close by the New Fascism — until tonight. Tonight, we could return to support this valuable local resource, see a good film (Saint Maud) and have a glass of wine at our seat. Next week, as we are pressured back into whatever the hell ‘Tier 3’ is being defined as by Our Glorious Leaders, we will still be able to see movies, but not have a glass of wine at our seat. This is the kind of difference that gives me a warm, cosy feeling of safety and respect for authority.

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In the projection booth

Monday 26th August 2019, 3.35pm (day 2,923)

Film projector, 26/8/19

26th August: my birthday. I have emerged, somewhat sluggishly, from my 40s — I am fifty years old today. Sheesh. Part of the celebrations involved a trip to the Picture House, with party bags and all, and also a guided tour of the projection booth, which was the main draw for me as despite being a movie fan I have never before been in one, the true business end of a cinema. Not that most movies still run on the sort of 35mm projector shown here; almost all are digital these days. And no, I haven’t worked out myself what is being depicted on this frame of celluloid. Some bizarre floating alien of some kind? Anyway — here’s to the next, well, probably not 50 years, but what will be, will be.

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