London things

[fabiadrake]

Back from a weekend in London to see Master & Commander at the Prince Charles Cinema — my first time seeing it at a cinema. I realised last year (after an anniversary showing?) that I’d passed up an opportunity I probably should not have passed up, so this time I seized my chance and went with a friend, who very kindly put me up for two nights. Would I call it my alltime favourite film? Perhaps not, but it is a perfect film: no missteps, nothing superfluous, nothing overlooked. (And this was a 35mm showing; even better.) The audience applauded afterwards, which goes with the territory but it was cute. A young woman behind me said, I feel like I never need to watch another movie again. A young man said, I could watch this every weekend. Great audience. I felt as if I were part of a very particular cohort.

I made some short visits to Covent Garden, Choosing Keeping, the National Portrait Gallery, the London Graphic Centre, and the V&A, and got breakfast at Brother Marcus.

#SaveThePCC

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Oh, how wonderful! I think I only saw it at the cinema when it first came out! It really is a good one to rewatch--like you said, it's perfect! I'm glad you had a fun weekend!

[fabiadrake]

Thank you! I hope you had a good weekend too!

I was trying to remember how I first saw it and I really can’t — I suspect a family member may have bought a copy when it got a home release, although none of us were Aubreyad readers. I fell in love with the naturalism in the opening scenes, and I always love rewatching it. (I’m planning to commit to reading one of the novels this year; a number of people have recommended HMS Surprise as a good place to start, although the friend I was staying with advises starting at the beginning.) When my local cinemas started reshowing older releases I thought it was kind of an admission of defeat: a lot of new releases are pretty generic. But I’ve decided I may as well take advantage — a few nights ago I went to see a screening of the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. Which was lovely, and the audience was obviously happy to be there, but they didn’t seem to have quite the level of devotion as the M&C crowd: M&C has a particular cult following, and so does the PCC, in its way. They’re both such beautifully constructed films, though; Weta Workshop worked on both, iirc. And the sound design is so good, especially in a theatre.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

We're having a heat wave over here, so this weekend hasn't been that great! :( But I've been trying to distract myself by writing tiny fic!

I haven't read all of the Aubreyad books yet, but I read the first one first, so I'd recommend it. HMS Surprise is a good one too, and so is The Far Side of the World, especially if you're fond of the movie! <3

Oh, The Fellowship of the Ring is one I also saw when it first came out! It must have been so much fun to share it with such an engaged audience!