Battleship Potemkin and Pet Shop Boys at Trafalgar Square
Tonight I went to the ICA curated event at Trafalgar Square which saw the Pet Shop Boys with the Dresdner Sinfoniker providing a live soundtrack to Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin". It is the second time I've seen the film on a big screen, and it just looked fantastic. I'm sure I shall no doubt review the event at length for my collective portfolio when I get a chance, but in the meantime here are some pictures that give a flavour of my evening. It was quite a mixed crowd near me to be honest, not at all the out-and-out Pet Shop Boys fans I expected. There was a group of people near me who had only seemed to come for the event (they left after 30 minutes complaining of the cold), an old film buff who'd clearly come for the screening alone - as soon as the film ended and the Pet Shop Boys began to reprise one of the parts of the score without the images he bolted, and there seemed to be what looked like a whole host of bewildered tourists who'd accidentally got caught up in the crowd. It was great to be able to go to a free, unticketed event like this in Central London - one that would not have been possible on the same scale before the pedestrianisation of the road in front of the National Gallery - thank you Mr Mayor.
I was put off by all the anti-war anti-Bush leftist messages at the beginning; it was a very crude and pathetic thing to try and shoehorn onto such a fantastic movie. So I was perhaps less moved than you seem to be.
You'll note that I didn't mention it - sometimes silence can speak volumes...
Wonderful film, great score and really good atmosphere. Brilliant evening despite a determined attempt to spoil it by hectoring rabble rouser who made a series of assumptions about the 25,000 people there who were in fact much more diverse, thoughtful and measured than his simplistic rant seemed to suggest.