Thursday 17 February 2011

Secret Cinema

Last weekend (12th-13th Feb) I went to London with two wonderful people, Laura and Malcolm, to go to an event called 'Secret Cinema'. "What is Secret Cinema?" I here you ask. Well, I shall tell you in due course.


I shall admit that I slept most of the to way to London; after being the driver for so long it seems that now I get car sick if I'm not driving which is a tad annoying as it means I can't join in the conversations or read but can simply sleep and listen to my iPod.
All the way to London I had a craving for Marks and Spencer's crispy bacon; they have it at service stations and I really really wanted some. Sadly, the best we could find was a Waitrose, so humus and carrots it was! They say I'm high maintence! pah! haha, Laura did mock me for it.
When we arrived in London I had such a strange feeling of being home. I think it was the smell - pollution. It was a smell I was very familiar with growing up in the Philippines, and although it sounds disgusting, it smelt like home. I was instantly comfortable in the busyness. 


So, what is Secret Cinema? Well, the idea is that you have no idea what film you are going to see or where exactly. You are given 'clues' during the weeks before like what to wear and where to meet.


"Secret Cinema attempts to blur the boundaries between theatre and cinema with the audience becoming part of the narrative and interacting with actors on a set just like in the film.
The film is interluded with performance and film fans can even eat and drink that which is in the movie.
Fabien Riggall, founder and creative director, said: “We aspire to bring the colour, the passion and the vibrancy of the films we screen to life and we would like our audience to be part of that creative process. Secret Cinema aims to further the participation of its audience whilst continuing to push the boundaries of how films are seen and experienced.”"quote


Getting ready for Secret Cinema was a lot of fun. We were told to dress up late-1940s, so we looked slightly odd, but I quite liked it! It's strange to see how much fashion changes as the style of fashion was actually quite similar to as it is now. Setting off to Wapping Station (the location we were told to meet at) we looked very very odd, at least I thought we did. Though that changed as soon as we arrived at Wapping Station. There were loads of people dressed similarly strangely as to how we were. While we were waiting there was a policeman dressed as a 1940s policeman and we were handed with newspapers written in the style of 'Unknown Culture Movement'. Suddenly a group of people (actors) were coming towards us chanting 'art for all and all for art', telling us to follow them, "why wait when you can create". 


When we got into the location (Tobacco Dock) we were welcomed into a 1940s experience with actors everywhere to make it 'real'. There was a restaurant, several bars, market stalls with flowers and food, ballet dancers, jazz dancers, and several scenes from the film. There was also several ballet pieces acted out for us throughout the evening.
                                        
The film was The Red Shoes, a 1948 film. It was fun finding bits and pieces of the evening in the film; for example a piece of set was being carried in the queue, at the time we had no idea what it was. It was a good film, and was thankfully not scary (there had been several comments implying it would be a scary film).

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