Cinema

We’ve had an intellectual cinematic weekend. Yes we have! Don’t look like that, we really have!

Yesterday evening was the disturbing, psychological thriller Intacto, the best film to come out of Spain and, frankly, my all-time favourite film. It was the first time that Soph has seen it and she got in to it straight away. I think she liked it.

The Intacto plot is a disconcerting premise, and one which will return to haunt you when you least expect it; the talented cast act their souls out but, above all of these qualities, the cinematography should have earned the film an Oscar nomination.

This evening we’ve watched the film adaptation of Harlan Coben’s book Tell No One. Like Intacto, Ne le dis à Personne is another completely overlooked gem of a film. I like it because, despite the translation of the book in to French and the relocation of the plot from the US to France, it’s almost entirely faithful to Harlan Coben’s excellent book. And I’m not just saying it’s an excellent book because I’ve had dinner with him.

I’m tempted to balance all this celluloid goodness out by having another dose of the Bugs Bunny Classic, What’s Opera Doc.

In other news (shuffles papers and looks up brightly)…

JP is coming down to the yard tomorrow but I can’t shorten my working day for a lesson; instead I’ve arranged for him to school Vin in my absence and I’ll catch up with him around 19.30 to see how he got on.

Yesterday Vin was a total shite. He argued every single step of the way for 45 minutes in the indoor arena. He’s feeling very fit! At one point I felt him building up for a massive buck so I had to take emergency action to push him out of the frame he needed to be in.

It wasn’t good. I got off after three-quarters of an hour feeling as though my arms were several inches longer than when we’d started. He’d ground his teeth non-stop – a sure sign he’s working under duress, instead of working with me.

This morning I was tempted to shove some carrots down his neck and run away but there were too many girls around so I tacked up and hopped on with the intention of going for a hack. But on our way out of the yard I noticed that the top arena was vacant so we schooled in there for 20 minutes.

And Vin was brilliant. None of the arguing from yesterday, no teeth-grinding, no stress-induced stiffness, no resistance in his neck; he was soft, supple and did exactly as I asked. Brilliant! As a reward after schooling we went out for a brief hack through the village anyway.

A thing occurs; last Saturday Vin gave me a tough time and again, yesterday (Saturday) he gave me a tough time. The common factors to both occasions were we schooled in the indoor arena. And shared it with the same woman having a lesson on her own horse.

I don’t know who the pupil is, she’s an outsider who comes in to use the facilities, as is her tutor, but… There maybe a bit of a pattern forming?

Anyway.

Sunday evening stretches before us. Some reading perhaps? A little prep for the week ahead, sure. Perhaps a West Wing? Or Two?

Not much food needed though; we ate massive quantities at one of the local pubs lunchtime.

A Pringles sandwich, possibly?

Mmmm…. 🙂