On Tuesday September 7th 2009, a year and a half late, I finally went to see a film at the revamped Tyneside Film Theatre-the latest Almodovar Los abrazos rostos-Broken Embraces.
The theatre was closed for several years while the work was undertaken and films shown at the former Gateshead Town Hall across where I went a couple of times including to see once to see Le Vie en Rose.
There was a period when I would regularly visit the theatre to see the latest recommended international film reminding of my youth when I would visit the Academy cinema in Oxford Street to see Jules et Jim, Summer with Monika and Last year in Mariandbad. I returned to watching such films in central London during the period 1999 2004 when I visited my birth and care mothers once a month spending a week at a time and for a short time international films were shown at the Cineworld Bolden.
Until the extension and major refurbishment the Tyneside Cinema was an old cinema theatre within the facade of a terraced block of offices and shops in Pilgrim Street Newcastle and an entrance in a side passage High Friars.
There were three film theatres hidden away in the old building The top floor with seats on the same level and a small screen above was also used for other functions. I saw Kundun here which Chris Mullin the Sunderland Member of Parliament introduced having taken a personal interest in the fate of Tibet since it was annexed by China. The main theatre was in effect the circle of the former single theatre while the theatre using the stalls had the distinction of a sound commentary interrupted by the sound of Metro trains as they passed below. To my knowledge there was no lift. There were two places to eat and drink. At ground level with a separate entrance there was a bar serving food which catered for those not attending the cinema. The main lounge and bar where snacks could be purchased, was also used by many people as a social meeting place whether they went to see a film or not. The seats uncomfortable and the screens small with London prices.
I planned the visit to arrive in plenty of time to have an explore of the premises. The Street level bar restaurant now has tables on both sides of High Friar Lane and is rebranded as the Intermezzo Coffee Bar where the entrance is located which is similar as before and indicates little of changes that have been made. There is a life to one side which I did not use. The Tyneside Coffee Rooms are now on the second floor and were full of people at tables although it was just before three when I looked in. The fourth cinema/ event space called the Digital Lounge is here. My destination was the new space built onto the building at the top called the Electra which has one of the most comfortable and stylish blue seats I have experience. The screen is large and higher and the banking steep so I found the higher seating best. There are two stairway to the cinema, I assume for safety reasons. The main stairway or the secondary stylish from The Tyneside Bar which has a cool contemporary atmosphere where music is played at night and is available for private hire. I did not get to see the Roxy Theatre which I assume is the ground floor cinema or the Classic which has bookable premium seats in the circle. Prices range from £5 which I paid as a concession rate before 5 £ 6 for others to £10 Classic circle after 6. These are London Prices. I am tempted to enquire if there are places for the tour of the building this Sunday available as part of the Heritage weekend although I would be surprised if there is space. I explored the Theatre Royal this way three years ago and last year I visited the Jarrow Town Hall.
Now to the Almodovar which is the fourth film with Penelope Cruz. The film is something of a departure for Almodovar because while their are funny lines there are few of the usual swipes at authority or attempts to shock the audience. Someone said this was a film within a film within a film. It is not quite that. It is a film about a creative film maker coming to terms with blindness from an accident in which he lost the love of his life Penelope Cruz, in perhaps her least sympathetic role. He had selected her to star in his latest film, a comedy, and where except suggest it is the story the film Women having a nervous breakdown with Carmen Maura. The film within a film within a film is the husband of Penelope employs his son to film everything his wife does while she is away from their home. And he employs a lip reader to tell him what she and those she talks to says.
The film opens with the Director seducing a young woman who has helped him cross the road and seen him to his apartment. His former lover and lifetime friend, agent and general assistant arrives and has the great line on finding him dressing and someone obviously also present, have you finished or were you planning an encore. He son is also part of his staff personal helper but who also works as a DJ at a club. When he becomes seriously ill having drunk a glass of coke with alcohol by mistake and the Director covers up, he persuades the man to tell him the back story following the announcement of the death of former husband of Penelope, a very wealthy man where Penelope worked as a personal secretary before becoming his mistress.
Almodovar is able to include the odd swipe at aspects of contemporary Spanish society he does like. Penelope’s father is dying of cancer and he has been admitted to hospital and an operation but he is told to leave hospital as the consultant decides to go on holiday for the month. In desperation she contacts her former Madam for work, revealing in a matter of fact way how she earned the money for her independent lifestyle as a high class escort before securing the personal secretary position. After disclosing the cause of her distress, he arranged for the best medical and nursing care and in reward she becomes his mistress and closeting her away in his estate. She dins this claustrophobic, auditions for the film. Gets the part and Almodovar and the Director and her commence a passionate affair. When she is about to leave her husband he throws her down stairs and although she is able to finish the shooting of the film, they then go off abroad to Lanzarote where they hire a bungalow holiday home. While they are there they read in newspapers that the film which had still to be edited is to be released and when it is declared a flop. The Director decides to return to Spain to find out what has been happening and when they Penelope takes him to the airport they stop at a crossing when they are hit by another car. We the audience are lead to believe the accident was deliberate with a heave four wheeled drive vehicle crashing into their smaller car hired car and after they have been followed from leaving the holiday home.
There is a scene where the agent and her young son come to take him back to Spain after he has sufficiently recovered from his injuries. The Director and boy spend a little time together while the agent collects his possessions from the holiday home and settles the account. There she finds the photos taken on the break torn up into little pieces. The beach scene is important because it establishes the relationship between the son of the agent and the Director which has developed in one when the Direct feels able to talk about his relationship with Penelope Cruz, her husband and the accident. He believes the vehicle was a hit rather than an accident as it made off.
That the Director and young man have talked upsets the agent who when celebrating the birthday of the Director at a meal confesses that she and the camera man agreed to provide Penelope husband with the film so he could edit in such a way for it to flop. He had then destroyed all the other takes except for the his version of the film. She then also discloses that when the Director had contacted her about the publicity she had revealed the contact number to the husband and therefore felt responsible for what had happened. She admits to have been jealous because they had had an affair several years before and she discloses to her son that the Director is his father, although she had not told him this was so, saying to both that her son was the result of a brief affair.
I have mentioned that the young son of husband had been ordered to film every moment when Penelope was out of the house at the studios. Earlier in the film the Blind \Director is visited by someone with a story he wants to Director to make into a script for a film. The Director has learnt Braille in the intervening years and has also the latest adds available for those without sight. The Director refuses the cold call visit and asks the young man to contact his agent for an appointment. When this takes place the Director realises that the young man is the husband’s son and at first the Director does not want to have anything to do with him.
After the revelations about what happened to film and the disclosure about giving away the telephone number of their whereabouts on Lanzarote,. The Director visits the son and is told that the son witnessed the accident and that it was nothing to do with his the husband. He also has a film of what happened and this reveals that the car had been stationary at a roundabout when it was hit and that the couple had been kissing. This changes his perspective on what had happened. The final revelation is that although instructed to do so, the original takes, the ones which the Director had selected and recorded to become the final film had not been destroyed but had been kept secure by the agent and former lover. It is therefore possible to create and release the film as it had been intended. The film closes as the Director, the agent his son and the son of the husband are watching the final version of the revised film.
So this is a film as with Volver where there is a positive ending and can be considered t be a film about the dangers of forming judgements because of our feelings about events rather than taking a more rounded perspective before making judgements.
The sun was shining when I left the theatre around 5.15 to f5.30 with people sitting at the pavement cafe in the areas. The Metro train was crowded and a smartly dressed young man offered his seat. Later in the journey the compartment was entertaining by three school attending teenagers one of who looked about fourteen was boasting to the two older ones about drink and being drunk. They then realised they had got on the South Shields train instead oft he one for Sunderland which stopped at a Jarrow estate called Fellgate. The saving feature was that one of the two older lads was planning to join the army because one had £50 in cash during training and then £13000 a year. This appealed to him greatly and I assume that if he was accepted the army would sort out his anti social view of life but I had my doubts that he would he would be found acceptable..
The theatre was closed for several years while the work was undertaken and films shown at the former Gateshead Town Hall across where I went a couple of times including to see once to see Le Vie en Rose.
There was a period when I would regularly visit the theatre to see the latest recommended international film reminding of my youth when I would visit the Academy cinema in Oxford Street to see Jules et Jim, Summer with Monika and Last year in Mariandbad. I returned to watching such films in central London during the period 1999 2004 when I visited my birth and care mothers once a month spending a week at a time and for a short time international films were shown at the Cineworld Bolden.
Until the extension and major refurbishment the Tyneside Cinema was an old cinema theatre within the facade of a terraced block of offices and shops in Pilgrim Street Newcastle and an entrance in a side passage High Friars.
There were three film theatres hidden away in the old building The top floor with seats on the same level and a small screen above was also used for other functions. I saw Kundun here which Chris Mullin the Sunderland Member of Parliament introduced having taken a personal interest in the fate of Tibet since it was annexed by China. The main theatre was in effect the circle of the former single theatre while the theatre using the stalls had the distinction of a sound commentary interrupted by the sound of Metro trains as they passed below. To my knowledge there was no lift. There were two places to eat and drink. At ground level with a separate entrance there was a bar serving food which catered for those not attending the cinema. The main lounge and bar where snacks could be purchased, was also used by many people as a social meeting place whether they went to see a film or not. The seats uncomfortable and the screens small with London prices.
I planned the visit to arrive in plenty of time to have an explore of the premises. The Street level bar restaurant now has tables on both sides of High Friar Lane and is rebranded as the Intermezzo Coffee Bar where the entrance is located which is similar as before and indicates little of changes that have been made. There is a life to one side which I did not use. The Tyneside Coffee Rooms are now on the second floor and were full of people at tables although it was just before three when I looked in. The fourth cinema/ event space called the Digital Lounge is here. My destination was the new space built onto the building at the top called the Electra which has one of the most comfortable and stylish blue seats I have experience. The screen is large and higher and the banking steep so I found the higher seating best. There are two stairway to the cinema, I assume for safety reasons. The main stairway or the secondary stylish from The Tyneside Bar which has a cool contemporary atmosphere where music is played at night and is available for private hire. I did not get to see the Roxy Theatre which I assume is the ground floor cinema or the Classic which has bookable premium seats in the circle. Prices range from £5 which I paid as a concession rate before 5 £ 6 for others to £10 Classic circle after 6. These are London Prices. I am tempted to enquire if there are places for the tour of the building this Sunday available as part of the Heritage weekend although I would be surprised if there is space. I explored the Theatre Royal this way three years ago and last year I visited the Jarrow Town Hall.
Now to the Almodovar which is the fourth film with Penelope Cruz. The film is something of a departure for Almodovar because while their are funny lines there are few of the usual swipes at authority or attempts to shock the audience. Someone said this was a film within a film within a film. It is not quite that. It is a film about a creative film maker coming to terms with blindness from an accident in which he lost the love of his life Penelope Cruz, in perhaps her least sympathetic role. He had selected her to star in his latest film, a comedy, and where except suggest it is the story the film Women having a nervous breakdown with Carmen Maura. The film within a film within a film is the husband of Penelope employs his son to film everything his wife does while she is away from their home. And he employs a lip reader to tell him what she and those she talks to says.
The film opens with the Director seducing a young woman who has helped him cross the road and seen him to his apartment. His former lover and lifetime friend, agent and general assistant arrives and has the great line on finding him dressing and someone obviously also present, have you finished or were you planning an encore. He son is also part of his staff personal helper but who also works as a DJ at a club. When he becomes seriously ill having drunk a glass of coke with alcohol by mistake and the Director covers up, he persuades the man to tell him the back story following the announcement of the death of former husband of Penelope, a very wealthy man where Penelope worked as a personal secretary before becoming his mistress.
Almodovar is able to include the odd swipe at aspects of contemporary Spanish society he does like. Penelope’s father is dying of cancer and he has been admitted to hospital and an operation but he is told to leave hospital as the consultant decides to go on holiday for the month. In desperation she contacts her former Madam for work, revealing in a matter of fact way how she earned the money for her independent lifestyle as a high class escort before securing the personal secretary position. After disclosing the cause of her distress, he arranged for the best medical and nursing care and in reward she becomes his mistress and closeting her away in his estate. She dins this claustrophobic, auditions for the film. Gets the part and Almodovar and the Director and her commence a passionate affair. When she is about to leave her husband he throws her down stairs and although she is able to finish the shooting of the film, they then go off abroad to Lanzarote where they hire a bungalow holiday home. While they are there they read in newspapers that the film which had still to be edited is to be released and when it is declared a flop. The Director decides to return to Spain to find out what has been happening and when they Penelope takes him to the airport they stop at a crossing when they are hit by another car. We the audience are lead to believe the accident was deliberate with a heave four wheeled drive vehicle crashing into their smaller car hired car and after they have been followed from leaving the holiday home.
There is a scene where the agent and her young son come to take him back to Spain after he has sufficiently recovered from his injuries. The Director and boy spend a little time together while the agent collects his possessions from the holiday home and settles the account. There she finds the photos taken on the break torn up into little pieces. The beach scene is important because it establishes the relationship between the son of the agent and the Director which has developed in one when the Direct feels able to talk about his relationship with Penelope Cruz, her husband and the accident. He believes the vehicle was a hit rather than an accident as it made off.
That the Director and young man have talked upsets the agent who when celebrating the birthday of the Director at a meal confesses that she and the camera man agreed to provide Penelope husband with the film so he could edit in such a way for it to flop. He had then destroyed all the other takes except for the his version of the film. She then also discloses that when the Director had contacted her about the publicity she had revealed the contact number to the husband and therefore felt responsible for what had happened. She admits to have been jealous because they had had an affair several years before and she discloses to her son that the Director is his father, although she had not told him this was so, saying to both that her son was the result of a brief affair.
I have mentioned that the young son of husband had been ordered to film every moment when Penelope was out of the house at the studios. Earlier in the film the Blind \Director is visited by someone with a story he wants to Director to make into a script for a film. The Director has learnt Braille in the intervening years and has also the latest adds available for those without sight. The Director refuses the cold call visit and asks the young man to contact his agent for an appointment. When this takes place the Director realises that the young man is the husband’s son and at first the Director does not want to have anything to do with him.
After the revelations about what happened to film and the disclosure about giving away the telephone number of their whereabouts on Lanzarote,. The Director visits the son and is told that the son witnessed the accident and that it was nothing to do with his the husband. He also has a film of what happened and this reveals that the car had been stationary at a roundabout when it was hit and that the couple had been kissing. This changes his perspective on what had happened. The final revelation is that although instructed to do so, the original takes, the ones which the Director had selected and recorded to become the final film had not been destroyed but had been kept secure by the agent and former lover. It is therefore possible to create and release the film as it had been intended. The film closes as the Director, the agent his son and the son of the husband are watching the final version of the revised film.
So this is a film as with Volver where there is a positive ending and can be considered t be a film about the dangers of forming judgements because of our feelings about events rather than taking a more rounded perspective before making judgements.
The sun was shining when I left the theatre around 5.15 to f5.30 with people sitting at the pavement cafe in the areas. The Metro train was crowded and a smartly dressed young man offered his seat. Later in the journey the compartment was entertaining by three school attending teenagers one of who looked about fourteen was boasting to the two older ones about drink and being drunk. They then realised they had got on the South Shields train instead oft he one for Sunderland which stopped at a Jarrow estate called Fellgate. The saving feature was that one of the two older lads was planning to join the army because one had £50 in cash during training and then £13000 a year. This appealed to him greatly and I assume that if he was accepted the army would sort out his anti social view of life but I had my doubts that he would he would be found acceptable..
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