Film Club Convention

Altogether now...dum dum dadum dum dee dee dee, dum dum dadum dum dee dee dee. Oh, come on, I'm sure you recognise the Bond theme even in typescript.

Dong was most anxious at the weekend for us to settle down and watch a nefariously borrowed copy of Casino Royale. Nefariously borrowed because Auntie Sharon stole it from her parents' collection whilst they are away. Honestly, you just can't trust some people.

I'm sure that with such a well known film and genre I have no need to actually give it a write-up, so suffice to say it's an object lesson in how to make a "running, jumping and falling over" film. Very exciting, plenty of more-or-less Mickey Mouse violence, lots of chasing about and a paper thin plot. Terrific fun and I recommend it to anyone who's not yet seen it. Thanks to Dong for insisting on turning his bird into a house-breaker to obtain the DVD.

The reason I've entitled this posting "Film Club Convention" is that on Sunday we had another film night, this time at chez The Millbrooker. We offered a slightly less sophisticated example of the cinematographer's art, but undoubtedly a genuine classic: F W Mernau's 1922 silent "Nosferatu".

Up until the latter stages of this near two hour marathon the plot follows Bram Stoker's Dracula about as closely as one can get. The Jonathan Harker role is taken by a German boy called "Hutter"; Lucy Westrenra and Mina Harker are more or less rolled into the single character of Hutter's wife; Van Helsing is almost written out; Renfield is a German estate agent called Knock.....you get the idea.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, I don't really know how it played to those who haven't recently read the novel (or to someone who's never read it at all). However, I'm pleased to say that the regular five of us have now got another classic under our belts.

I think Sharon was hoping for a bit more running like in Metropolis, but there was deal more slow menacing walking in this one.

We enjoyed lots of lovely red stuff during the screening along with umpteen fattening nibbly-bits. The usual abject twaddle was discussed animatedly late into the evening, and Keith once again fell for the old "do you fancy a port?" trick resulting in his note to us the following day:

"I think I remember most of last night but have forgotten what I was going to do today!..."

So, here's a photo of Keith enjoying that very port which helped to erase some of his remaining brain cells along with Shaz and Dong both enjoying a jolly decent Armagnac:

Dong tells me the Armagnac gave him the taste so he emptied Sharon's cooking brandy later that same night (they were still with us well past midnight) - he still looked mostly healthy on Monday early evening, perhaps he's Nosferatu...