October 8th, 2017.
After yesterday's ambitious "double feature" of watching Blade Runner 2049 in a near-noon session while people where queueing for the public pens of the "Battle of the Sexes" Premiere I also wanted to be; today I was able to sleep in, have a nice coffee and breakfast.... and ultimately find the motivation to come in to town and do not one but TWO premieres.
Here's how it (the first one) went down:
With crowds already gathering in Leicester Square for the premiere of 'The Last Flag Flying' with Bryan Cranston and Richard Linklater, the bold decision was made to leave and go to Embankment's temporary cinema to do 'On Chesil Beach', a premiere starting just half an hour before Leicester Square's was due to start (it's a 10min walk between the two venues)
Among Embankment's several charms, it's also considerably more chilled and relaxed than Leicester Square.
Even the poster for the movie looks relaxed.
"Hey, check it out. There's a SIXTH lighting setting labelled "deep fry" beyond the logical dial maximum...."
"This device can suck up any free floating vapours haunting this cinema. Cleaning up leaves and leaving arty streaks on your carpet is an extra charge"
"No, not that tree. I'm talking that whole BUILDING over there that might have to go. Do I have that kind of power to make that happen?" Australia's Own Clare Stewart is now in the sixth year of her role as Director of BFI London Film Festival.
"That jacket is so much cooler than mine : wanna swap?" - Dominic Cooke is the director of 'On Chesil Beach'
"Nice elbow action when shooting, dude. Counterbalance in bridge engineering works in much the same way"
"I appreciate you hiding the photo of Saoirse Ronan and pretending to be excited to photograph me. I really do" - Billy Howle is the male lead in this film, and his imdb entry reveals he was also recently in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk (2017)"
"I'm not sure everybody in that pen was entirely human" - it was a bit of a dealer pit, also including one dealer who was famously (allegedly) (on good authority) told to "F**k Off" by Saoirse Ronan at 2015's BFI LFF "Brooklyn" premiere.
"As far as cantilevers go, I'm not sure that's a fully compliant angle you've got there, bro. Just saying"
"Posing for the paparazzi can wait... First, my people need me."
Samuel West has a very long and dense imdb listing, of which the most noteworthy is (Still) the role of Dr Frakenstein in 2004's "Van Helsing".
Let's forget the photo of a talented actor and instead glory in the wonderful swirly bokeh created by my Nikon's 'heavy as a brick' 80-200mm f2.8 lens. (I feel I should almost have cropped higher...)
"Of course I know the scarf looks fantastic. Why do you think I'm wearing it?" Ian McEwan is the writer of this movie (the novel and the screenplay) and is best known for being the writer of 'Atonement' which is a really good movie (also featuring Saoirse Ronan, who is in this film and yet to arrive)
Saoirse Ronan arrives and heads directly to the pen containing the dealer she (allegedly) (on good authority) told to "f**k off" at a premiere two years ago. Sadly she is not wielding a smashed bottle of Johnny Walker to glass him with if there's a moment of recognition. Because my camera's 10fps burst will capture every bloodspurt of that.
"On the other hand, why don't I sign over here now" - good news for fans of non-violence, Saoirse and her Autograph Dealer Nemesis didn't start a bar fight (nor did they release the unspoken tension by publicly Making Out, in case you speculated that might be an option)
"Where were you when you first learned how to pronounce my name properly?"
Smart money (and popular consensus) says it's pronounced "SIR-sha"
"Fine. You may tell me how pretty I, my dress, or my shoe necklace is". I'm also kind of drawn to the expression on the lady in the background, who's all "I didn't know they put those on shoes these days"
Once Starbucks has released their annual Pumpkin Spice Latte for autumn, I guess it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas decorations.
...
"If you're going to do that other premiere in Leicester Square, you probably should be thinking of heading off now, I suppose. Tell Richard and Bryan I said 'hi' "
Will do!
So... that was premiere 1 of 2. The time - 17:17 - two minutes AFTER the first arrivals were expected at 'Last Flag Flying' in Leicester Square, a conservative 10 minutes walk away from Embankment.
Until..... um.... maybe eight and a half minutes from now?
ps. if you ever want to know when I post one of these journals and clearly indicate the sad and/or exciting state of my life, feel free to follow me on twitter at berndt2_photo, or on facebook at premieresdotco, and/or check out my Archive of Movie premieres to see how many I'm embarrassed to be up to now.