Feeding Your Creative Soul

How are we in November?!

The year had a slow start didn’t it? But now life is very much a tumble of responsibilities and ‘back to normal’ except I don’t think I can go back – only forward so I am taking on the changes and challenges that the pandemic has wrought and trying my best to live well and live safely.

One of the things I missed most in the lockdowns was going to the cinema and it has taken me a long time to rekindle the confidence to go again. Last month I filled up on cinema trips and saw the RSC with their lockdown filmed version of Romeo and Juliet starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, with its reworking of the female roles creating a much more matriarchal house of Capulet . That was followed by the long awaited James bond, “No time to Die” (no spoilers here, but do see it!! ) and then my husband’s choice of ‘Dune’. Living with three chaps there’s quite a lot of sci-fi and dystopian movies in our lives. I used to love reading sci-fi when I was a teenager but it wouldn’t be my own choice for film going. That said it was a super stylish film with many scenes majestically filmed.

This all led up to the film I had been holding out for – Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch”. I have been a fan of his films for a long time. He has a wonderful sense of story-telling that errs towards a sense of animation, all quirkily curated and beautifully rendered. There’s his ability to find and create the best sets, so joyously styled with colour and a sense of nostalgia. I love the way he flattens perspective and creates the most elaborate dolls-house views into the lives of his characters. He tends to work with an ensemble cast so, after many years, there’s the waiting for each cast member to reappear. His latest film was joyous, celebratory of writing and writers, of art, food and culture. It was a slice of perfection.