Sunday 12 July 2015

85. Attend a Secret Cinema


I did it, I finally did it!

As a film fan, I've finally completed my pilgrimage to the biggest film experience this country has to offer; Secret Cinema.

I was dubious I have to admit. Secret cinema is notorious for it's strict no camera policy, and consequently any photo that does emerge is generally of a cheeky selfie in a blurry corner. Given the fact that the company does go to great lengths to immerse their modern viewers by taking away their shiny 3G counterparts, I did wonder what I was getting myself into. Now having done it myself I can only confirm that like Kanye at Glastonbury or the olympic opening ceremony, secret cinema can never be understood without the firsthand experience of being plummeted (slightly unprepared) into a whole new world of characters, 'stages' and events which take place in the most unlikeliest of places.

The effect is almost like going on holiday to another country. With all the preparation before hand, getting the costumes for your character, building up a story and interacting with people in this fantasy, you really do feel transported to another place. Even more brilliantly, the commitment evident from the actors and vendors is commendable, and wonderfully at odds with the apathy of today. On top of this was the fact we were seeing Star Wars, which of course meant that the excitement and commitment to the fantasy was probably even more heightened.

So what did we actually do and see? Well sadly I'm rewriting this in 2019, so a lot has been forgotten, but some things still stand out. We actually started our day away from the venue at the secret cinema pop up store. Already dressed in 'desert-raider' outfits we decided to also splurge on some secret cinema goggles - perfect keepsakes for future fancy dress parties. We then arrived at the venue, a disused newspaper factory in London, where we were met with an enormous queue. The wait however was worth it, as we were suddenly rushed through to a shipping container by the first actor of the evening who informed us we were part of the rebellion. The shipping container started to move and suddenly we were in a state of the art space ship, which was truly something to behold. This however, was nothing compared to the city of Tatoinne.

Dotted around this large space were individual houses where inside small 'events' took place. Go to one and you'd find a strange card game taking place, another and a chess board sits opposite a medical chair complete with alien tools, blood and body parts, another and you'd find prisoners behind bars. Among these also sat real life merchants selling trinkets and of course food and drink. Then pacing the streets were small scenes of storm troopers capturing dissidents and small arguments between characters. The only problem to all of this, time. There wasn't enough to take it all in and before we knew it we were being ushered into the main event, the film screening and live fighting scenes. That said in this part of the night we did see perhaps the most wondrous scene - a beautiful space craft come hovering over us. At this point I couldn't help but appreciate the amount of craftsmanship put into the whole spectacle. We then watched the movie and a glass of wine at hand.

I'd actually never watched the emperor strikes back but of course like it successors it was a wonderful film. Finally we ended the night with a quick drink at the beautifully made cantina and treked back home on the train happy with the whole escapade.

Final thing; Hans Solo is a babe.

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