SINGING IN THE RAIN

It’s raining in London. And we are…

Singing and dancing in the raaain!

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THE GENERAL

Last Friday, our last night in Scotland, we went to Glasgow’s old City Hall, built in 1841, to watch two Buster Keaton silent films  accompanied by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on its UK Première.

First film was a Buster Keaton short comedy, One Week (1920) and the second one was a Keaton classic, The General (1926) inspired by American Civil War and the railways.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by American Timothy Brock who is also the composer of the musics, was brilliant.  The harmony of the music with films was perfect. Watching two classics of silent cinema with such a great music was a big pleasure.

After the concert, finding a nice place with a working kitchen at 23.00 in Merchant City, Exchange Square and having a relax dinner with couple of glasses of wine was the last nice little touch of the evening.

Oh, sorry, the last little touch of the night was taking these photos in front of an old train photo in our hotel, Grand Central Hotel which is an old train station hotel dating back to 1883 and designed by Scottish architect Robert Rowand Anderson.

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A FABULOUS DOCUMENTARY: UP SERIES

Last two evenings and nights, we were in front of the tv watching during hours and hours 7 DVD’s of a fabulous documentary: Up Series. Even we are living since two years in UK, we never heard about this documentary until reading the post of Joanna Goddard about the last film of the series.

It was the first days of january when we saw the post and very impressed about the idea of the series and same day we bought the box of the six first films and the last one of the series, the 56 Up.

The documentary is about 14 British children from different cities and social circles. The director Michael Apted filmed the first one, Seven Up in 1964 when the children were seven years old and then they decided to keep filming them every seven years. During two evenings and night, we watched how this children growed up, where the life brought them, their happy and sad moments, they angers.

Even watching only the first black and white film where you can see the differences and their points of view, how they are expressing them selves was very, very impressive, but after watching the whole series and when it was the time to watch the last one, 56 Up which is released in 2012, we couldn’t wait to see where they are, how they are when they are 56.

We don’t want to talk more about them and ruin the magic of the documentary but we recommend indeed to everyone to watch this fabulous documentary. It’s just fabulous!

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SOUND ON SCREEN

Yesterday evening we enjoyed a beautiful performance at Ciné Lumière, the cinema of L’Institut Français in South Kensington. It was a Sound on Screen organisation, a combination of parts of film on big screen and live classical music concert.

First part was Beethoven’s ‘Sonata Op. 47 for piano and violin’ performed by Alexander Schmalcz (piano) and Diana Galvydyte (violin) with Bernard Rose’s film ‘Kreutzer Sonata’.

Second part was Mahler’s ‘Piano Quartet in A minor’ performed by Alexander Schmalcz (piano) and members of Quatuor Voce with Martin Scorsese’s film ‘Shutter Island’.

And the third part was Schubert’s ‘String Quartet No.14 in D minor’ performed by Quatuor Voce (violin, violin, viola, cello) with Roman Polanski’s film ‘Death and the Maiden’.

Before the concert we had a glass of wine at the little bistro of L’Institut Français. It was a successful performance. And also thanks to this organisation, we learned that Ciné Lumière is a comfortable cinema which shows nice films. What we can want more?

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A CONSERVATORY VISIT, AN EXHIBITION AND A MOVIE

Today we walked to the Barbican Centre for visiting an exhibition and watching a movie. When we arrived to the Barbican, they told that the conservatory -which is the second largest in London- is open today to the public visit. After buying our exhibition and cinema tickets, we visited first the conservatory which has a collection of tropical plants, a cage with colorful birds and a small pond with huge fishes inside.

Then we visited “Everything Was Moving” , a very nice photo exhibition with 400 documentary photos from 60’s and 70’s from all around the world. After the exhibition we had a lunch in Barbican Food Court, lunch was regular but the dessert was the best we ate untill today in London. Almond and pear tart and pistachio polenta cake were delicious! We were so surprised because in  London they just don’t know what is  “dessert”.

After the lunch we watched in Barbican’s Cinema “On the Road“, the movie which is based on the Jack Kerouac’s cult novel On the Road and it was a really successful adaptation.  After the movie we made a short visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral to see Occupy London protestors who were expressing their selfs in the middle of the sunday pray. And for the dinner we tried one of the small Thai restaurants in our neighborhood. What a lovely sunday!

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CHRISTMAS ON THE SCREEN

Yesterday evening we went to The Nave (St. Paul’s Church on Essex Road) for a special occasion. Miracle on 34th Street, one of the best christmas movies of all times was on the screen for charity for homeless people.

The church was decorated very cosy, very chrismassy with candles, mince pies, christmas crackers and treats on every table, wooden chairs, a christmas tree, lots of mulled wine for warming up and a lovely black&white movie dated 1947.

Movie was great, mulled wine was delicious, atmosphere was so great that nobody wanted to leave the church at the end of the movie. What a wonderful Christmas, what can we say…

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SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNED TO BAKER STREET

Last friday we watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie, A Game of Shadows in our favorite movie theater, Everyman Baker Street. When we  moved to London a year ago, we lived in York Street next to Baker Street for two months (oh yes, we were neighbours with Mr. Holmes) and since then we keep our fidelity to this tiny, cosy movie theater.

And when the topic  is a Sherlock Holmes movie, it’s inevitable watch it in Baker Street where Mr. Holmes was living. The movie  is brilliant like all Guy Ritchie movies and  Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are fantastic like always. Don’t miss it. Go and meet Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street!

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