Dies Saturnii

Saturday evening presents so much consumer choice. I can sit in my bridge of sighs bed-sit and be miserable. Or at a price I can go to a really loud alehouse. Or a really loud alehouse. Or a really loud Alehouse. Or a really loud alehouse. Or a really loud club. Or a really loud club. Or a really loud club. Eardrum splitting muszak everywhere.

This evening however it turns out that there was a free film to be seen in the City Art Gallery, well spotted my olde mate Doctor Fotis! The theme was tunnels. First set of films about various tunnels, on New York Subway mainly plus a sewer and pumping station plus the catacombs of Saint John the Unfinished big Steeplehouse in New York City. Either the filmmaker was crap at soundtracks or it was not played properly, or it was cunning use of sound by filmmaker. I suspect the first. Next very short about some clowns making a film by posing for a closed circuit television surveillance camera on New York Subway it would seem, and then filming public output. Lots of quotes from “1984” by George Orwell. “Big Brother is Watching You” “Sanity is Statistical” “War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery” and recording of apparently public reaction at other end especially as security move on said actors. “What they trying to say?” “That there are surveillance Cameras Everywhere” “Yes we know that anyways, so what”

Then some weird Frog film set on Paris metro apparently very 50’s black and white. Well composed scenes and shots. Then some further French film, this time soundtrack aok but couldn’t understand a word of it as it was in French with no subtitles.

Well you can’t complain about a free film. Whether or not it was worth watching is another matter. But what else is there to do in Leeds on a Saturday nite. Doctor Fotis mentioned about how the concept of the underground in Athens took some getting used to, and took a while to build. Plus yes. Tunnels have a certain aura to them, yet they are such an essential part of the world of the 21st century. Catacombs, sewers, underground railways, mines, wine cellars, basements.