One of the first things I am going to do when arriving in London is applying for a membership of BFI, the British Film Institute. Because they are showing a lot of interesting films, because you get discount on a lot of film related stuff, because you get invites for all possible film events, because you are able to buy tickets for the London Film festival before all others, and because they often have very interesting Q & A (Questions & Answers) sessions with directors and actors after showing a preview of their film. And I like films. And I like the extra background information you can get about films when listening to what a director, or actor for that matter, has to say.
And because there works a very nice lady who has just used 10 minutes on the phone to help me out. I called her because I saw that they had a screening of Gideon’s Daughter, a BBC film directed by Stephen Poliakoff, this saturday. After the screening there is an on-stage discussion with writer-director Stephen Poliakoff and members of the cast and production team. One of the two main cast members is Bill Nighy. So I called them to check if he was going to attend on saturday, to participate in this on-stage discussion. And she told me that she didn’t really know, because she was not responsible for the guest list of this event. So I told her that I would jump on the plane and come all the way from Denmark to attend this event, if Bill Nighy was going to be there. She was impressed. Either that or she thought I was a complete lunatic. Which I am, obviously.
She told me to hold the line, and she was going to find out. So I waited. After 5 minutes, she came back to me and told me just to hold on a bit more, she was trying to find the guestlist man. After 5 more minutes (my expectations were skyhigh now) she told me that she was very sorry but unfortunately – Bill wasn’t going to attend this time. Pfew, close encounter. I thanked her a lot for her help.
Better luck next time.
If I could, I’d slow the whole world down
I’d bring it to it’s knees
I’d stop it spinning round
But as it is, I’m climbing up an endless wall
No time at all
No time this time
(Guess a song – I need to find that record tonight)
No Time This Time – The Police
Google just makes it too easy ! :-)