The Pictures.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been to the 'pictures' quite a bit. I'm not sure whether that is a term used all over the country but here in East Yorkshire it seems to be the term used for the cinema. The term flea pit seems to have gone out of fashion and I haven't heard many call it the flicks, but that was often used in the Midlands.

Our first film was the 'Lady in the Van'. It is the story of a lady in a van on Alan Bennett's front yard. There is something about a British Film that I like. I think they are all a much slower pace than American films and maybe As being British I find I am more able to fill in around the characters giving them more depth. However Maggie Smith as the old lady in the van played the part as if she was still in Downton Abbey but in rags! It was a lovely film with the device of two Alan Bennetts making it interesting.

I wasn't that keen to go and see this next one but I am very glad that I did in the end. It was very poignant for people of our age with parents still alive and the love story and difficult decisions that had to be made kept you guessing right up to the end. Nick Hornby wrote the screen play and it was unhurried and not jammed with dialogue either. It was based in the 1950's and follows an Irish Immigrant going over to Brooklyn. The girl was well played by Saoirise Ronan and the sets really made me feel back to my youth. It was grey and wet in Ireland and bright and busy in New York. The girls housekeeper in Brooklyn was played well by Julie Walters. I confess to having tears in my eyes when we came out.

Our next visit was to see The Dressmaker. This is an Australian film about a woman, played by Kate Winslet, who has left a very small town in the outback and made across Europe and has worked in Haute Couture in Paris. She has left under a cloud and nobody really knows why she has come back. At first you think that this is going to be a rags to riches comedy romp as the town is a generic representation of an outback town with all the expected characters. It soon turns much darker, but still with a hint of comedy running through. There were several places where you never saw the events happening and it all made for a very good yarn. The Dressmakers Mum is well played and in the end revenge is  sweet.

We have been to see 'Bridge of Spies' this evening as I don't suppose it will be long before it is taken of screenings. It is another 'Apollo 13' where despite knowing how it ends it keeps your interest right to the end. It is a typical Steven Spielberg film that is very well crafted and filmed and is very typically American. Mark Rylance as the Soviet Spy was extremely eye catching as he seems to be able to say very little, move very little and still transmit masses of information about is character. I hope that we see him in many more films. The first part of the film is the capture of the Soviet spy and the downing of Gary Powers and his spy plane in the 1960's and then the rial of the soviet by an American lawyer and then the same lawyer negotiating the exchange of the two, and managing to get an extra American student thrown in too. The Lawyer is plated by Tom Hanks and there is something about him that in every film he plays in you just have to trust his character and he makes you believe in him. I would like to think that in his situation I too would have done the very best job I could as the rules were plain for all to see. The part when there were documentaries at school about the atomic bomb made remember just how we used to think about the 4 minute warning and how much it did colour our life. The world is not the same since the Cold War and the certainties of only one enemy. I wonder if could be argued that it was happier and less stressful than today. It was a very good film and well worth the £6 to see it.

I actually think my favourite out of the four was probably 'Brooklyn' as the era took me back to my youth and there were certain situations that were familiar and I love to have a weep as I leave the cinema. Mind you the other  three were not far behind at all. Some great films to recommend.