Lost in the 1950s

Last night we booked a babysitter and with our pre-purchased tickets in paw (8.20 euros a pop, so not cheap) we skipped out to the cinema to see “Lost in Translation”. We were very excited at the prospect of going to the cinema, remember, we’re parents now… It was all very thrilling, so the fact that there was torrential rain and we were soaked to the skin by the time we arrived at the cinema was no problem. We were there in good time to catch all the trailers and then the film started, fantastic.  Except, it was the wrong film. In the thundering rain, we had gone to the wrong cinema (look it’s easier to do than you think, the set up is kind of odd) and in screen one in this cinema they were showing “Mona Lisa Smile”. It was too late to change, so we sat there looking glum. To be fair to “Mona Lisa Smile”, if it wasn’t the only film we were going to see for 3 months, we might have liked it better. But it was pretty dreadful. The actresses were good but they were wrestling with a cliche-ridden travesty of a script. And we kept imagining what “Lost in Translation” might have been like. The fact that the male lead (there for decoration) was in college with Mr. Waffle added mild interest in a “I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales” kind of way. But it was not enough to sustain our interest for the duration as we steamed dry, although we did laugh at his accent in a cruel way. We’re clearly just jealous, after all, he did get to kiss Julia Roberts.

At the end, they showed a selection of 1950s advertisements which were entertaining, in fact, something of a highlight. I particularly liked the one captioned “She’ll be happy with a Hoover on Christmas morning”. I find it hard to believe that this was true even in the 1950s.