North by Northwest: The Electric and Cinema in General

About three weeks ago... well, a long time ago... not exactly sure how long ago, I went to see North by Northwest at The Electric in city centre. The Electric is the oldest theatre in the UK. We're talking from like 1909 old.

It is a pretty interesting little cinema in that it is really hard to find. I walked right past it and didn't even know it was there. The seats were quite plush and in the back of the theatre were leather settees. My flatmate Adam and I wish we could have sat there but it was double the ticket price. The seats we sat in were that old red plush cinema seat. The screen was pretty small but the theatre itself was small to begin with. It was probably about the same size as the Bijou.

The cinema was also unique in that there wasn't really a popcorn machine or a soda machine. At least not any that I could see. What they did have behind the counter was a small bar. It looked like it was stocked really well. I took a glancing look at the prices but decided against it.

The lobby was also filled with vintage movie posters. The men's room was downstairs and leading down was one poster after another with Dirty Harry being at front and center towards the bottom.

http://www.theelectric.co.uk/index.htm

There's the link for the cinema's homepage.

As for the film, I loved it. I had seen it before but I had to watch it for class. It was the choice of watching it projected on 35mm or on a DVD. I think I'm going to go with the 35mm.

My flatmate, who had never seen or heard of it before enjoyed it. He and I have gone to see a lot of movies together either at film soc or at the actual cinema. We once did a double feature back to back of Harry Brown and 2012. These two films couldn't have been more different. Harry Brown is essentially like Gran Torino but with Michael Caine. I was blown away by it. It's not the film of the year but it is one of the better British films I have seen in a while. Comically, I feel that if Clint Eastwood brought back his Dirty Harry persona for Gran Torino and Michael Caine just brought back Get Carter, then in 15 years or so I want Bruce Willis to bring back John McClane. Basically I want Die Hard but in the suburbs.

2012 was just an alright movie. I didn't really go to that expecting anything dramatic or uplifting. I just wanted to see ridiculous special effects and everything in between. It was basically just fun for the most part. Although planes taking off and having trouble did wear a bit thin after a while.

Orange, my mobile carrier does a 2 for 1 cinema deal on Wednesdays. You just text film to 241 and they send you a little code which you can go to one movie with a guest and just split the ticket. So instead of paying £4 each you just pay £2. It's a pretty solid deal.

Last weekend we both went and saw Paranormal Activity. I'm sure it is a good film. I'm pretty sure it is but the crowd we saw it with was pretty unruly. They were loud, obnoxious, rude, crude and everything in between. I have a long list of names to call them but I really don't think anybody would really want to hear it. Adam and I were both annoyed to the point where we didn't like the movie. We both sort of had the same conclusion which was that the movie was probably pretty good but we just were so annoyed by the crowd that the experience as a whole just sucked. It is definitely on my re-watch list.

As for cinema in general, I am really digging film soc. I've started to talk with the president of the committee after each show. He even gave me some homework. The assignment, bring in recommendations for the next term's screening list. It's nice to have a say with a committee like that. While all of my choices won't be picked he did say he was really impressed with my list.

We and a few other members got talking for such a long time that we went through two pubs. One closed at 11 and the other one had last call at midnight. Instead of calling it quits right there, we just went back to some Belgian girl's flat and proceeded to have one of those 4 hour long conversations which is a little bit of everything.

Also, we had a Belgian beer little tasting. It felt like a wine tasting but with Belgian beer. I can't even begin to remember all the different beers we tried. She was kind enough to allow us to try them. She didn't really care about us paying her just because her parents had given them to her to remind her of home. She was even kind enough to give me a free bottle to take with me. She said that she would bring some back as long as I paid her. It would so be worth it. One was named Duvel... I can't even remember what all the others were called. The best one though was Grimbergen. I think I'm spelling that right. Anyway, that was the best one because of how good it tasted. It was a phenomenal beer which had so many different flavors. There were hints of chocolate, vanilla, berries, fruit, wood... it just had a little bit of everything.

That's really all I can think of interesting wise that has happened lately... well, that pertains to the topic at hand.