Going it Alone

I did a pretty brave and exciting thing today. 

Ever since I knew it existed, I wanted desperately to go see Midnight in Paris, half because I adore Paris, and half because I adore Woody Allen.  I wanted to go with Dad rather than one of my school friends, because I have always watched all Woody Allen and French films with him.  But he wasn't able to go.  As simple as that. 

I toyed with the idea of asking my best friend to go with me.  But the fact remained that watching a French Woody Allen film was going to be quite personal for me, and I didn't want that meaning to kind of fall flat because it wasn't shared. 

One of my good friends goes to the cinema alone on a regular basis and he told me how much he enjoys that feeling of being alone and just enjoying it purely and personally.  And I thought that this would be the perfect oppertunity for me to give it a go, and go it alone.  So I did. 

It was my first day of the holidays, so I gave myself a freshening shower, prettied myself in a skirt, tights, my new shoes, and my new cardigan, and got to the bus station.  I really hate public transport because it never seems to make sense, and always gets itself wrong - bus numbers, bus times, stop locations.  I can never seem to get any of it right.  Hate it. 

Anyway, I got there, got a ticket, got myself a packet of lollies and an ice tea, and sat down, right in the middle of the middle, and spread my lardy-dah around me comfortably.  I was one of eight people in the cinema, and I was the youngest one there by fifty years easily.  There was one elderly couple, a elderly group of women, and an elderly woman with her slightly less elderly daughter, and they commented and laughed at certain moments during the trailers and film itself.  I found it very funny, actually which parts they enjoyed most, and I loved the wit, even though it wasn't anywhere near as biting as classic Allen. 

I will sum up my appreciation of the movie with the imagery of a bauble.  The movie was a little bauble.  It had its one point to make, its handful of simple characters, its simple story line.  It was short and snappy.  It made its point and ended as quickly as it began, leaving you with a feeling firstly of, oh, that was nothing, and then secondly, of, that was incredible.  I loved the point it made, and the way it made it.  I couldn't say anything much because of those who haven't, and will now have to see it, but it has a whole heap of writers from the past in it, including some that I am personally enamoured with, and that delighted me to giggles.  So that was wonderful.  And of course the scenery was just absolutely edensque.

I think, however, that the moral of the story, at least so far as my dad keeps telling me, is that through going to see a movie alone, and furthermore enjoying seeing it alone, I've proven how comfortable I am with myself.  And I do think he's right.  I couldn't do it with all movies.  I need to hold someone's arm in movies with any form of suspense in them, but this one was the perfect thing for me.  I was very comfortable.