Lots of art this week. First Blowup, being shown to mark Antonioni’s death (he was the director; fraid I’d never heard of him). Not a bad film. Wikipedia says that it "does not follow a conventional narrative structure", which I interpret as it not having a plot. Most of the plot seems to involve unlikely situations which allow for lots of strange angles and artistic shots, with 60s stylism to the fore. Still, the shots were very artistic, which was fun in itself. It’s not aged well, but it’s an interesting historical view.

The Alvin Ailey dance company played at the Royal Theatre. It started off with a dark and meaningful dance about something, backed with orchestral music and then moved towarded a more dancable (er…) gospel set which got everyone tapping. The dancing wasn’t the best I’ve seen; the acrobat dance wasn’t that acrobatic, the grace was evident but not excellent. But it kept me happy for the 2 hour show (with two long interevals!).

24-7 is another Shane Meadows. More engaging than This is England, but with similar territory. Bob Hoskins as a likeble boxing coach, with a dark ending to keep up the griity realism. I like Shane Meadows; although his films have a dark edge, he’s got a great sense of humour which is never partronising, warm to his subjects.

Going to watch "Hero" now. Based on previous similar films, I suspect it’s going to be visually beautiful without much plot.

Originally published on my old blog site.