Last Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited to a cool studio loft apartment to watch the UK’s North West premiere of Roman Polanski’s Carnage.
The event was for Into by Windows Phone UK and Clifford over at A Dog Ate My Wookie had helped set it up. Studio Canal UK had kindly provided the film.
The event was to promote Windows Phone’s new Operating System, socialising between Windows Phone users and the Windows Phone 7.
Mrs Live for Films
This New York feeling continued as we alighted at the fifth floor and walked into a huge studio loft apartment. To the right was a bar serving cocktails and beer (it also had the Batman engraved Nokia phone that Mark was lucky enough to pick up a while back). In front of us were very comfy looking sofas, coffee tables, big screen TVs with XBox 360s hooked up to them and to the left were rows of seats and a big cinema screen. There was also a DJ filling the room full of some excellent tunes.
As Carnage is set in a New York apartment they had got the decor for the event spot on. The film is based on a stage play called The Gods of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. It is all set in an apartment and follows two couple brought together as one couple’s son has hit the others and they are trying to sort out the hows and the whys. As their time together progresses they slowly unravel and turn on each other.
The room slowly began to fill with people so we grabbed a drink or three and got comfy on one of the sofas. People went round with trays of food – bagels, pizzas, burgers and more – and it was very cool.
It got even cooler when four people got up and started talking to each other in American accents. They were actors treating us to a couple of scenes from The Gods of Carnage play. Absolutely brilliant and even better being sat right next to them.
Scenes from the play
A few more drinks, some more nibbles and another scene from the play it was then time to move over to the cinema half of the room were popcorn awaited.
We were given a brief introduction to the film and the results of the competitions were announced. It turned out I had won one of the prizes. 12 months free music on Zune! Thank you very much Windows Phone people.
The lights dimmed and the film began.
Like the play it is set in the one apartment and the corridor outside. Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C Reilly. They play the two couple brought together by their sons having a bit of a barney.
As it starts the couples are all nice and pleasant with each other and everything appears to be resolved. Yet they cannot get away from each other and they end up talking more and more which leads to anger, stress and vomiting.
Polanski manages to take a very theatrical piece and make it work on the big screen. Having four people simply talking in a room can be difficult to make interesting, but Polanski does it with good camera work, a nice set and four fantastic actors.
As you would expect all are great to watch with Waltz and Winslet in particular being sensational. When the whisky is opened John C Reilly comes into his own and Foster is so good at shouting and screaming.
At only 80 minutes the film flies by with many laughs and a slight sense of unease in places.
It is quite a departure from Polanski’s usual type of film. Nevertheless it is a very watchable, quirky piece of film.
With the film finished we collected our coats and headed outside..after a quick filmed interview with the Windows Phone people. I have no idea where or if the interview will be used.
A great night was had by all. A big thanks to Clifford, Windows Phone UK and Studio Canal.
Me at the bar
Check the Windows Phone FB Page for details of future Into events.
