La Grand Weekend, Gromit

On Friday, I had the opportunity to see La Grand Illusion at the Filmhouse,

I can totally see why this film was so hated by the Nazis, because it portrays war as ultimately pointless. There is no great 'enemy' within these prison camps, on either side. There are only world-weary men waiting, and hoping, for the end to come.

My only criticism is that the characters seem almost too humane; but perhaps this is my cynicism speaking. Regardless, it's a wonderful film that well lives up to expectation.

If you like this film, then you may be interested in others from 'Breaking Out and Breaking In: A Distributed Film Fest of Prison Breaks and Bank Heists'; don't worry too much about the timetable, I'm already three months behind.

All change on Saturday for "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!". It's been a while since I've seen an Aardman film, but thanks to cheap tickets via Hugh (thanks Hugh!) and a resounding answer of "YES" when I asked Nils, we went along.

I'm beginning to think I'm very conservative when it comes to violence in kids films. Pirates isn't a particularly scary film, compared to some others, but it still has plenty of knives, killing (off-screen) and impending doom. Nils survived, and there were no nightmares, but he was keen to point out that he had to hide next to me three times during the film (perhaps this number should be a new indicator of scaryness?).

I think I lolled three times and at one point Nils made a noise I've never heard before which was 20% anguish and 80% joy, so overall, a hit.

I'm going to see Aliens on Tuesday, so this month is turning into a proper film-fest after months of nothing. Don't worry, I won't be taking Nils along to that one ;-)

Finally, the weekend was rounded off on Sunday by searching for Easter eggs in the garden. The chocolate was very nice, but the "Easter Bread" made by Carmen was even better (it's like Mr Kiplings Exceedlingly Good cakes, but with the marsipan top spread liberally throughout the bread). Carmen claims she made it a bit too sweet, by accident. I can live with these mistakes.