January 29, 2012
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
Andy explained to me the other day in an email why he would not be going to see The Iron Lady in the cinema, and the reason he gave was a perfectly valid one. "Go and see The Artist," he recommended in the next sentence. That's what I did today, at the matinee show (12:30pm) in The Movies, an arthouse cinema on Haarlemmerdijk, about 25 minute walk west from where I live.
The Artist is a film I knew virtually nothing about as I entered the cinema, but much to my surprise I recognised quite a lot of scenes from recent clips on TV. Especially the adorable dog, one of the stars of the film, was on TV repeatedly in the past couple of weeks. It's a wonderful film for sure, but it's definitely not your standard Hollywood blockbuster. Filmed entirely black and white, and mostly with old-fashioned muted dialogues and text card, and with dramatic film music accompanying the film as if you were sitting in a 1920s movie theatre, it tells the story of a film star in 1929 who refuses to make the transition to 'talkies', films with sound and spoken words, his demise and how he was saved. A very nicely told story with wonderful cinematography. Andy was absolutely right with his recommendation.
I returned home from the cinema, saw an sms from Hanno asking if I wanted to go and have lunch with him which I had to decline because almost straight away I left the house again with my swim stuff. Yes, for the fourth time this week (I also went on Friday night) I headed for the pool and did my fifty laps. And once more it felt great. I'm so glad that it seems I'm picking up this habit again!
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