I haven't been to the cinema since “Avatar” which drew me, out of curiosity, to drive the 40 mile round trip to Inverness to see it in 3D . I'm even waiting for the Harry Potter DVD rather than expose myself to the overwhelming smell of popcorn and nachos with chilli sauce and jalepenos. It's enough excitement for me to watch on the ex's big screen with a nice bottle of carefully chosen red or white sitting between us.

The films we watch from his vast collection don't always make enough impression on me to make me write about it here but “A Man Escaped” (Un condamné à mort s’est échappe) by Robert Bresson was impressive. Bresson who was imprisoned by the Nazis for being a member of the French Resistance, based it on the memoires of André Devigny who was imprisoned for the same reason. The film was made in 1952 and is notable for the tension it generates through very little action beyond the chiselling away of minute areas of a wooden door panel to get at the lock then the painstaking collection of fibres from a mattress to converted into rope. There’s little or no dialogue and no music except very occasionally - Wagner I think. The next week we watched a film noire whose title I have forgotten (so not much of an impression!) about a heist on a jewelry store. That film has 45 minutes of complete silence whilst the burglary is being carried out. Also french film. They are v. good at subtlety.

As yet I haven't seen any reason to change my 'favourite film' list in my profile on the blog.

Last week came a change of routine when I invited a friend to watch Tilda Swinton in 'I am love' on my own, not quite so huge, screen. Tilda is utterly fascinating because she can look so beautiful and so darned ugly, also there's the whole androgynous 'Orlando' thing going on that oddly gives her a otherworldly aura, as though she's just stepped out of a UFO. In most of “I Am Love” she looks beautiful and is dressed in the best that Italian design can provide. The music by John Adams is as lush as the surroundings so from a visual and auditory view it's delicious, add to that the salivary response to the food - a major feature in the production, and we both found it a significant viewing experience. There were moments when it got a bit OTT either erring on the pretentious, or the clichéd, and the sex scene (in which Tilda's breasts figure largely) was a passage lifted straight from D H Lawrence. I hate the shots of insects and flowers that intersperse the shots of twining bodies, presumably to denote mother nature in her most riotous thrusting moments, emphasising the difference between this heightened real-life experienceand the divorced reality of Emma's usual life.

I was complacently assuming I’d absorbed and understood the emotional content so knew where it was all going when I was suddenly shocked by an event that cut right through the comfortable haze I'd lapsed into. Judging by reviews I’ve read on-line I may have been the only one surprised. After that I was more alert and curious to see how it would end, finally quite pleased by the symbolism of the cave. Her former life did look like shadows on the wall.

My viewing companion who married a very polite, slightly old fashioned, gentleman of 80+ a few years back, remarked, during the full frontal, 'oh I don't think H would have enjoyed this much'

It was a bit sweaty!


Two posts in one day - I must be avoiding something !