A Time Before Twitter

We nearly did Long Eaton parkrun this morning but L proclaimed herself not quite ready to return to running yet. So we stayed in bed instead, which is always a bonus.

Then I take the dogs on the park before heading to the opticians where I get to see the head contact lens chap. It’s about time, its only took four years. Apparently the practice has been leaderless for a while and its only recently that he moved up from Cambridge to take over. Hopefully he can do something with my appalling eyesight.

Afterwards I go to meet L in Debenhams, where she is having another non-shopping trip. She really does fail womankind badly on that score. I join her in their café and steal her free coffee as she waits for her watch to be repaired.

Derby play at 5:30pm today, who knew. I was settling down to listen to the game at 3pm only to find its been moved for TV. Not that 5:30pm is much good to me as we’re at the cinema.

'Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool' is the story of the final days of Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) and also her relationship with Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), a young Liverpudlian actor half her age whom she met in the late 1970’s when they, incredibly, shared the same north London boarding house.

By this point, Oscar winner Grahame’s time in the limelight had seriously faded but she continued to work where she could and spent a lot of time performing on the stage in the UK. Turner and the hugely insecure Grahame, keen herself to feel young again, quickly became lovers. For a while at least, then she seemed to forget about him.

Until 1981 that is when, already ill, she collapsed one night and called him of the blue. She asked if she could stay over with him and his family in Liverpool. Where she hoped to spend time recuperating but, as it turns out, these were to be her final days.

Despite being exasperated that she won’t seek treatment, Turner along with his mother (Julie Walters) and father (Kenneth Cranham), looks after her. The film details his memories as he looks back on their brief transatlantic romance.

It does rather morosely becomes one long death scene but it is rather refreshing that her final decline happens outside of the public glare. This was a time when famous people could blend into every day life and not be recognised. It was a time before not only YouTube but before even DVDs. In fact VHS had only just been invented.

When the landlord of Turner's local pub does recognise his superstar girlfriend, it is a one off and nobody alerts the world via the yet to be invented Twitter. 

Finally her son, having been told about her illness, travels over to take her back home where she dies just a few hours after arriving in America aged just 57.

It's an excellent film for many reasons. Its story, its message, its time, its acting. Bening is brilliant and ably supported by Bell, with whom she shows great chemistry. There is also strong performances from his Cranham, Walters and Stephen Graham as Turner's brother.

(Saturday 18^th November)

Winter Training Sorted

This morning there’s the Forest Rec Parkrun where I support both L and the cafe. Then L heads off to Pilates and the début of my squash opponent at the session. Should be interesting.

I head home with the boys before later heading to the opticians without much hope that they can do anything for my eyesight which is fading fast on both fronts, long and short sight. I see my fourth different optician in five visits which isn’t good for continuity of treatment but this chap dispenses with the ‘letters board’ and instead takes me out into the shop where he asks what I would actually like to see. I like his style and he promises to sort me out with a trial pair for next week.

I have taken up the Derby Velodrome’s offer of 50% off a three month gym subscription. So that’s the winter training sorted as just the act of joining a gym gets you fit. Isn’t that how it works?

Apparently not. So today, with L on a five day freebie trial, we head there for a couples cycling session on the indoor Watt Bikes. I ride behind her so that I can keep my eye on her. Then later we head to Broadway.

Bridge Of Spies is a historical drama 'inspired by true events' which tells the story of a spy swap during the Cold War. It sees Steven Spielberg in collaboration with the Coen Brothers in collaboration with Walt Disney. Quite a combination.

In Brooklyn in 1957, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested under the suspicion of being a Soviet spy. James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is a mere insurance lawyer who is asked to defend Abel in order to show the world that the American justice system is just and fair, even though the public have already convicted him.

Donovan may be defending the most hated man in America but he wants to do right thing, legally, by his client. That isn’t easy when even the judge has already reached his decision.

When Abel is convicted Donovan has the foresight to persuade the judge not to send him to his death. He foresees a time when having a Soviet spy in your jails could be useful.

Donovan is vindicated when an American U-2 spy plane is shot down over Soviet territory and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), fails to destroy both the plane and himself, as ordered. The Soviets capture Powers, convict him as a spy, and send him to prison.

When the Soviets get in touch with Donovan, he is sent out to East Berlin to negotiate a prisoner exchange. This he has to do as a private citizen rather than an American official. Any deal is further complicated by Donovan’s wish to also release another US prisoner, a student called Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers).  

Overall it is pretty good film if you can cope with the large dose of American patriotism that it comes served with. Patriotism that attempts to paint the East Germans as clowns which I'm sure they weren't. There’s also the totally over the top (and unnecessarily so) crash scene of the U-2. This is the only nod to your typical Hollywood action movie which this thankfully isn’t. The rest of the two hours is mercifully free of any other such gimmicks.

The film seems to be largely historically accurate and the cinematography is fabulous with some great scenes of cold war Berlin such as the construction of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie etc.

Tom Hanks is solid as Donovan but it is Mark Rylance who shines out as the star of the film. His understated performance as Rudolf Abel is pure class.

‘Bridge of Spies’ shows that the power of a good story can still stand up on its own even in modern day Hollywood.

We have a few beers afterwards in a very busy and slightly riotous Peacock. The OP isn’t up to scratch either.

 

(Saturday 28^th November)