Monday, 25 January 2010
Howl's Moving Castle
Saturday morning at the GFT is kid's morning, they show a film for a cheap rate aimed at kids. It is a classic thing, in the past kids used to be able to pay in for the price of an empty jam jar, but that is a thing from my parent's generation. Friends up from London, S and D, and looking for things to do, I spot that Howl's Moving Castle is this week's choice. So we meet L and A there, and the five of us go to see the film.
When we arrive there is quite a queue, more than I had really thought to expect, and for a moment I wonder whether we'll actually get in. But we do get tickets, and even for adults the price is a good incentive, coming as a nice surprise to us all. The film is in Screen 1, though there is a large group of children waiting beside the corridor to Screen 2, so for a moment I am unsure which screen it is on. But it turns out they are only standing there to keep track of them all.
The GFT is one of the few surviving old cinemas in Glasgow, it celebrated it's anniversary last year, though the previous cinema it took over from was even older than that, which makes it even more interesting. Its small, it only has the two screens, it tends to show world films and indie films, for the most part - though definitions aren't a clear cut thing.
A and I go to the gents before the film starts, when we come out there is no sign of the girls. Have they gone to the ladies? Have they gone in? We wait a moment, half expecting them to emerge. Then shrug and decide we will go in and find them inside, but in that moment the biggest group of children has appeared and they get in front of us. The girls are inside, and have taken seats, and though none of them have been here before they have taken what I judge to be the best seats in the screen. Unfortunately, to a degree, we also now have two rows of small children right behind us.
The audience is a mix, as one might expect for Miyazaki film. There are a couple of big guys with beards who sit down the front. A girl with a tight pink OSAKA t-shirt bounces down the steps, sashays out of the hall, comes back with a strolling girl in a hat with cat ears, with dangling bits which provide chunky cat gloves with claws, and the pair join a row of 20-somethings up the back. A Japanese man arrives with two children, a boy and a girl, and they sit at the end of our row, one on either side of him. A pair of Japanese girls arrive, teenagers, one with glasses, one without.
Waiting for the film to start the children are restless. One boy in particular shouts out - this film is boring! Isn't it boring? He looks for support, deliberately trying to be funny since nothing has happened yet, while also telegraphing the fact he is in fact bored. However the film starts soon enough, accompanied almost immediately by a mass of rustling sounds as dozens of bags of sweets are simultaneously opened. As black gloopy monsters roam the screen I wonder what they will make of it all. But there are constantly little things that have the whole audience laughing.
The group behind us is obviously an organised event. I'm not sure what kind of group, but obviously parents arrive, drop off their kids, and leave them to the designated adults to take care of. As such, in what is apparently the way of these things these days, kids arrive at all kinds of times. So that even once the film has started there are stragglers arriving, and all fitting themselves somehow into the row behind us. Adults having conversations, issuing instructions - you, pass the drink to that boy that just arrived. One adult suggests they should make less noise, another says something like well its a film for kids, they'll just need to understand we are going to make noise! To a degree this is true, though 15 minutes into the film might be pushing it.
At one point the Japanese man heads out - I don't notice him going, I guess to the toilet, to make a call? But his daughter gets restless, obviously not liking his absence, her brother trying to calm her, to encourage her to sit back down again. Just before she starts to get worked up, the father returns, and everything is fine again. One of the women with the big group announces - does anyone else need the toilet? And she works her way out with a handful of little boys.
Sometimes seeing films where there are a lot of kids it can end up being quite off putting. But actually, once they are settled down, the kids are all pretty well behaved. In fact they kind of make the experience, a comedy dog running around and they all laugh and giggle. The enjoyment is contagious and we are all getting into the fun of the experience.
When we arrive there is quite a queue, more than I had really thought to expect, and for a moment I wonder whether we'll actually get in. But we do get tickets, and even for adults the price is a good incentive, coming as a nice surprise to us all. The film is in Screen 1, though there is a large group of children waiting beside the corridor to Screen 2, so for a moment I am unsure which screen it is on. But it turns out they are only standing there to keep track of them all.
The GFT is one of the few surviving old cinemas in Glasgow, it celebrated it's anniversary last year, though the previous cinema it took over from was even older than that, which makes it even more interesting. Its small, it only has the two screens, it tends to show world films and indie films, for the most part - though definitions aren't a clear cut thing.
A and I go to the gents before the film starts, when we come out there is no sign of the girls. Have they gone to the ladies? Have they gone in? We wait a moment, half expecting them to emerge. Then shrug and decide we will go in and find them inside, but in that moment the biggest group of children has appeared and they get in front of us. The girls are inside, and have taken seats, and though none of them have been here before they have taken what I judge to be the best seats in the screen. Unfortunately, to a degree, we also now have two rows of small children right behind us.
The audience is a mix, as one might expect for Miyazaki film. There are a couple of big guys with beards who sit down the front. A girl with a tight pink OSAKA t-shirt bounces down the steps, sashays out of the hall, comes back with a strolling girl in a hat with cat ears, with dangling bits which provide chunky cat gloves with claws, and the pair join a row of 20-somethings up the back. A Japanese man arrives with two children, a boy and a girl, and they sit at the end of our row, one on either side of him. A pair of Japanese girls arrive, teenagers, one with glasses, one without.
Waiting for the film to start the children are restless. One boy in particular shouts out - this film is boring! Isn't it boring? He looks for support, deliberately trying to be funny since nothing has happened yet, while also telegraphing the fact he is in fact bored. However the film starts soon enough, accompanied almost immediately by a mass of rustling sounds as dozens of bags of sweets are simultaneously opened. As black gloopy monsters roam the screen I wonder what they will make of it all. But there are constantly little things that have the whole audience laughing.
The group behind us is obviously an organised event. I'm not sure what kind of group, but obviously parents arrive, drop off their kids, and leave them to the designated adults to take care of. As such, in what is apparently the way of these things these days, kids arrive at all kinds of times. So that even once the film has started there are stragglers arriving, and all fitting themselves somehow into the row behind us. Adults having conversations, issuing instructions - you, pass the drink to that boy that just arrived. One adult suggests they should make less noise, another says something like well its a film for kids, they'll just need to understand we are going to make noise! To a degree this is true, though 15 minutes into the film might be pushing it.
At one point the Japanese man heads out - I don't notice him going, I guess to the toilet, to make a call? But his daughter gets restless, obviously not liking his absence, her brother trying to calm her, to encourage her to sit back down again. Just before she starts to get worked up, the father returns, and everything is fine again. One of the women with the big group announces - does anyone else need the toilet? And she works her way out with a handful of little boys.
Sometimes seeing films where there are a lot of kids it can end up being quite off putting. But actually, once they are settled down, the kids are all pretty well behaved. In fact they kind of make the experience, a comedy dog running around and they all laugh and giggle. The enjoyment is contagious and we are all getting into the fun of the experience.
Labels: GFT, glasgow, howl's moving castle, kids, visitors
# posted by remotepush @ 19:36 
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