Journal Entries
Cambridge Film Festival
Posted Jul 10, 2005
OK guys, the reports start here! Scroll on by if you're not interested in film.
Have seen three (and a half) films so far, number four coming up this evening.
1. Opening film of the festival was Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars (English title The Last Mitterand). About the last months of Mitterand's life, and his relationship with a young journalist who was writing a book about him. The actor playing Mitterand looked extraordinarily like him. Very interesting, quite a lot of gentle humour, rather inconclusive. The journalist basically wanted to find out if rumours of M's involvement with the Vichy regime were true and M refused to tell him.
2. Hollow City (Na Cidade Vazia) - one of the first feature films to be made in Angola since the end of the civil war in 1991, by a woman director. The story of a young boy who is brought to the capital from another part of the country, where his parents have been killed. He runs away from the nun who is looking after the group of children and most of the film is about the people he meets and who help him out in various ways. Sudden, shocking ending. Very atmospheric - reminded me a lot of the time I spent living in Nicaragua, in terms of people's attitude of just getting on with life in a difficult situation.
3. Rocky Road to Dublin (1967) + The Making of ... (2004) (that's the half!). Presented by Peter Lennon, director of Rocky Road, and Paul Duane, who made the short 'Making of ...' film. They also did a Q and A session afterwards. I found this extremely interesting, and would be even more interested to hear the views of Eilis, or anybody else in Ireland or with Irish connections, if they have seen it. Peter Lennon was working for The Guardian and based in Paris when they sent him on an assignment to Ireland. He decided to make a film on the basic theme of 'What do you do with your revolution once you've got it?' and persuaded Raoul Coutard, a 'nouvelle vague' cameraman who was a frequent collaborator of Godard, to shoot it. It's a kind of snapshot of many aspects of life in Ireland in the 60s - illustrating the continuing power of censorship and the clergy, despite claims that all that had changed.
The film was accepted for the Cannes Festival in 1968 and was the last film to be shown before Godard and others demanded the closing down of the festival, in support of the students and workers in Paris. Rocky Road was then adopted by the students and shown in the Sorbonne. Reactions in Ireland were very mixed - while some reviewers championed it, others regarded it as insulting to Ireland, and it was hardly seen there until comparatively recently.
OK - that's enough about films today. Have been out for a pub lunch in Grantchester with my sister and 80+ year-old aunt who is visiting from New Zealand. Lovely sunny day.
Discuss this Journal entry [13]
Latest reply: Jul 10, 2005
Friday at last!
Posted Jul 8, 2005
This week has seemed endless at times.
College open afternoon on Wednesday (lots of running backwards and forwards between my office and the meeting room), University open days yesterday and today (lots of sitting around in the Porters' Lodge waiting for visitors to drop in and ask questions - equally tiring!).
Highlight of this afternoon was someone who came in with her daughter and asked for me by name. I had warned my boss that this might happen, so she didn't look too surprised when the visitor said "I work with Auntie Prue; she'll be envious that I've met you before she has!" Fame at last! 
The Film Festival started yesterday! Went to my first film last night - The Last Mitterand (Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars), and another one tonight - Hollow City (Na Cidade Vazia), an Angolan film. Watch out for full reports in due course, but I'm a bit tired now.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 8, 2005
For Martine and others
Posted Jul 8, 2005
I don't know if you subscribe to the Announcements in here, but if not, you might be interested in one which came up earlier today:
(not sure if that's the right way to link to other conversations, but I'll give it a try!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 8, 2005
Sandwich toaster
Posted Jul 4, 2005
Went for a routine mammogram this morning (women who've experienced this will see the relevance of the subject line).
Due to lack of space at Addenbrooke's Hospital - I presume - this involves going to the mobile mammography unit in Tesco's carpark outside the city centre. I cycled to the station and then had to wait 20 minutes for a bus. As the frequency of that particular route is advertised as every 6 or 7 minutes, I was not best pleased. No wonder public transport is under-used in Cambridge. 
[It's quite a long way on busy rush-hour roads, in case anyone is wondering why I didn't cycle all the way there. I'm a bit of a timid cyclist, only having learnt to ride a bike properly in my 40s.]
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 4, 2005
Winchester Hat Fair
Posted Jul 2, 2005
Got the train at 8.15 this morning, hoping it would not be too crowded with Live8-ers, but in fact WAGN had laid on an 8-carriage train which was nearly empty ... Got to Winchester on time, at 11.05 and my friend met me at the station.
Although it was cool and cloudy all day, there were only a few spots of rain from time to time, not enough to justify a brolly. Spent most of the day wandering round the streets and the Cathedral Green; I wasn't sure what to expect, but it seems to be a sort of festival of buskers and street performers. It was probably as well the weather wasn't better, because the crowds watching some of the shows blocked the town centre streets as it was.
Saw a very entertaining outfit called The Bureau of Silly Ideas perform 'The Hole Job'. Acrobatics, juggling and comedy based on workers who are supposed to be digging a hole in the road - very funny and slick. I see from googling that they are performing in the National Theatre 'Watch This Space' season on 11 August - definitely worth having a look, if you are in the area.
Had a great lunch in a pub called the White Swan: I had veggie burger, which turned out in fact to be two decent-sized burgers with proper vegetables in them, not the usual mashed up stuff, plus lots of salad and freshly-made chips, all for 3.99! My friend had the distinctly less healthy option of cheese and chip baguette, but she seemed to enjoy it!
Managed to avoid the Live 8 crowd on the way home too.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 2, 2005
annie_cambridge
Researcher U1483753
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."