Tag: cinema

Film: Nocturnal Animals – (8/10)

thegirlinthecafe

This second film from Tom Ford is a bit of a slow starter but don’t worry about that, it will quickly grab you by your shirt and won’t let you go until you have left the cinema. This is one very beautifully shot and stylish (of course) film that is going to stay with you for a while.
I highly recommend you to watch it, if only for great performances from Amy Adams and Jack Gyllenhaal and the beautiful stylistic scenes.

Oh and nocturnal, I had to look it up!

Plot: An art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband’s novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

Nocturnal Animals has an IMDB Rating of 8, which is exactly what I would rate it too.

Nocturnal Animals trailer

Read more about Nocturnal Animals on IMDB »

What to do in London

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Bill, Bill and Priscill
First an update from the moving front:

I had planned to meet quite a lot of people tonight who wanted to have a look at the two rooms available in my current flat, but I fear that the planned tube strike from 7pm tonight might mess things up a bit. Just when I started to worry about that, my Italian landlord called, he is currently in the UK and said he was in no hurry at all to get the rooms filled. So I guess that means I will stop looking and he can sort it out himself. Which is good news – no more effort required from me then, me thinks.

My IKEA sofa bed has been sold and will be picked up on the 28th of June.

I sent 2 letters of recommendation to my new landlord for my approval (should not be a problem at all according to Angus)
I have ordered moving boxes and will start packing soon.
I need:
to find a reliable man with a van who can move the boxes to the new place on the 1st of July.
to sort out a Royal Mail auto mail redirection for my post
to quit all bills and send a change of address to a long list of companies

Moving date still set for the 1st of July which is 22 days from now. It can’t go fast enough for me.

This weekend I had my good friend over and we have been enjoying London. Here are some things that we can highly recommend:

  • Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Decent chick flick rom (and a bit of com) and recommended. Out now.
  • Yeah it is still on, so we couldn’t help ourselves.
  • We visited the Camden Stables (market). I had been to Camden before but I never made it to the stables section and we liked it. They also have a very nice area where you can sit down with your coffee and get something to eat from one of the many food stalls around. We opted for a pancake with nutella/banana. Not bad we can tell you!
  • We saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the musical And can be short about this: go see it! It was fantastic, great music, fantastic cast and an evening full of fun. An absolute joy to watch.
  • On Sunday we went to see immensely mad, crazy, hilariously funny Bill Bailey in the Riverside Studios. He did two tryouts in London before going on tour in the rest of the UK and I laughed my socks off. He is so funny. Catch him if he comes to a place near you.
  • We also enjoyed the view from Parliament Hill (Hampstead Heath), had a coffee in the cafe with the most incapable staff on Leicester Square (All Bar One – please don’t go there they are totally rubbish), had lunch while having a nice view over the Thames in Greenwich, and checked where Lord Sandwich hung out in the National Maritime Museum (free entry).

We had a great weekend! And you?

Things that can make a Friday

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

  • An egg/bacon sandwich for breakfast. I know, I am so British sometimes.
  • Good friends. Even when they live 200 miles away. We actually managed to watch Love, Actually together on the telly this week while chatting on MSN, demanding complete radio silence when “he” was in view. Yes we are both 12.
  • The fact that BFI is screening Absolute Hell. Didn’t think I would be able to ever catch that one on the big screen. How cool. And how young he is!
  • The trip to the sea last weekend made me realize that I had to do this more often: trips to the sea. So I googled some good places near the coast (I live on an island after all so there is lots of coast around!) where you can find nice lighthouses and Sunday it will be the beautiful red and white Beachy Head lighthouse in Eastbourne. May the weather be nice.
  • 22 days until departure to the Isle of Man. Five lighthouses!
  • Flashbacks of a fool (Daniel Craig), Happy Go Lucky (Mike Leigh’s new one), In Bruges (duh? yes but Ralph Fiennes) and Street Kings (duh?? yes but Hugh Laurie! I don’t like the hospital bits of House, but I do like House!) are all hitting the cinemas in London this weekend.
  • I don’t know what it is with series built around hospital life, but I happen to like Grey’s Anatomy a lot too. Neither here do I like the hospital scenes!
  • Am currently reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks I had not heard of Sebastian Faulks before a friend recommended and gave this book to me. I love the book and can’t wait to spent more time with it. Another reason why he will be on my radar: he has written Devil may Care, a new Bond novel which will be released on the 28th of May.
  • New on the photoblog: Shells and Under a blood red sky
  • Seeing as you all did so well with the previous one, please add your caption to this picture too (and no this is not turning into a daily thing). Leigh-on-Sea was a dog paradise.

    Here is mine:

    “No I really should not have eaten that. Really not!”

  • Enjoy your weekend!

Rain from my brain

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Piccadilly Circus in the rain

I am struck by a severe (blog) writers block (and wondering who is interested in reading all this crap shit stuff anyway), so a couple of notes and then I am off.

When I took this picture 2 days ago (without having an umbrella at hand but not minding the rain) I focussed on the reflections on the pavement, I am annoyed now that I did manage to cut off the top of the umbrella on the left.

Some words about the Oscars:

I was very pleased to see Marion Cotillard winning the Oscar for best actress. La Vie En Rose was one of the best films I have seen in 2007 and she is to blame for that. Fantastic performance.

I was also pleased to see Juno win best Screen Play. Appreciating films like Juno with an Oscar is encouraging, Juno has been made on a low budget, and it proves that it can be done: making a great film on a low budget. Have you seen it yet?

I don’t share the hype about No Country and have not seen There Will Be Blood (not in the mood for a film like that).

Some short film reviews:

  • The Bucket List, even though a bit too Hollywoody in some places is wonderfully uplifting, despite the fate of it’s two main men. Jack Nicholson is funny. And, as you know, I love actors who can act with their eyebrow. Jack is a master.
  • I thought Jumper was crap. Hayden Christensen doesn’t have any on screen charisma, and the story was so bad I left the cinema before it was finished. Only high point in this film is Jamie Bell.
  • Be Kind Rewind. I so looked forward to this one, the trailer looked great, Jack Black is spot on for the role, and I love Mos Def. And I loved, loved, loved Michael Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. Be Kind Rewind has a great premise, and the parts where they “swede” existing films is great, but the story was messy and unfortunately I have to say that overall I didn’t like it very much.

March is going to be a train travel month. With film shoots (for work that is) planned in places like Oliver Lucas’ Shropshire (I strangely look forward to that, even though the man is a made up character in a play!) , Exeter (a visit to England’s beautiful Devon and close to south Coast at last) and Edinburgh (mmm yeah talk Scottish to me). I will try to plan the shoots in a way so I can stay over for the weekend and see bits of the country. Not the least because I desperately need a holiday as my head is on the edge of exploding.
More about this soon.

Not here to be loved

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

When I woke up this morning I felt very weird. Weird that I didn’t need to go to work, weird wondering what I have done – quitting it, and well, my head is just still a bit confused about what is happening in my life at the moment. It will get better soon I’m sure.

A way to get me out of that kind of state of mind is the cinema, the cinema is my second home. Yes, you probably knew that already.

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The Prince Charles Cinema

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Yes, the cinemas on Leicester Square are incredibly expensive. But there is a way around that. Just 50 meters from Leicester Square there is The Prince Charles Cinema. This is an independent cinema and they are showing a lot of independent films, but they also show a lot of blockbusters after they have been running in the other cinemas for a few weeks. They are current running films like Harry Potter, King Kong but also pearls like Broken Flowers and Mrs. Henderson Presents. I saw Proof today with Anthony Hopkins, Gwenneth Palthrow and Jake Gyldenhaal (a bit weirdish film – but well acted).

Now let me tell you why you have to support this cinema : ticketprice ?3,= (ca. Euro 4.50) for evenings, and if you are as crazy as me being there in the daytime, tickets are ?1.50. On friday all tickets are ?1,= which is about 1.40 Euro. That’s completely amazing. The chairs are good, and so it the sound. So go visit it if you are ever in London, wanting to see a movie.

(Internet will be installed at home 1.5 weeks from now – until then – answers on emails will be a bit delayed – and postings will be chaotic as I can’t really write well under pressure (= the clock ticking in the internet cafe)).