London Stuff

My London trip last Friday went well. It was nice to have a break from all this house move stuff. The new place is still a mess and I’m starting to find it rather depressing. I know it’ll be sorted out eventually, but meanwhile, life is damned uncomfortable.

Anyway, London: I only got one half-decent snap. This is the Golden Jubilee Bridge, which Paul and I crossed to reach the South Bank and the National Film Theatre.

I have no explanation whatsoever for my unfortunate facial expression, which suggests a desperate need for laxative treatment. The last time I achieved this expression on camera, I was about seven years old. At least the scenery is nice. 🙂

It was wonderful to see Touch of Evil on a big screen. The use of imagery and sound was much more intense and the picture sharpness was really impressive.

What did I think of the re-editing done on this 1998 version? Well, I already considered the film one of the best of all time, and what this print achieves is to polish up the edges of something already great. It can’t be considered a true director’s cut—the Orson Welles memo it follows was written after Welles was effectively removed from the picture, so what might have been is lost forever in that sense. But I think Orson would have approved. The awesome three-minute opening crane shot now plays without music or title/credits… the scene introducing Quinlan and Grandi’s meeting with Janet Leigh now intercut each other instead of playing separately… the additional ‘explanatory’ bits shot without Welles are gone… a bunch of other, smaller changes are in place throughout. It’s cleaner and smoother all round.

I love this film. This just makes me love it more.

It was great to see Paul again, too, and we must do it again sooner next time.

That’s all for now.