My annual Hollywood treat is here!

I am really not one of these people who collect magazines or even regularly read them, but I have got every one of the Hollywood issues of Vanity Fair. I got the twentieth today and I’m just pleased it’s half-term!

I’m a bad person…

I can offer lots of excuses – I have had a really demanding job responsible for 17 people, I’ve bought my first house, moved in and helped with some decorating, my boyfriend has been made redundant…  However, basically I’m a terrible person and an awful blogger.

Anyway, Mark took me for a special Valentine’s Social Cinema screening at the Phoenix last night.  They were playing my favourite film of all time (if such a thing is possible), The Apartment, with a quiz, special food and a fun atmosphere.  After coming second in the quiz (free Phoenix tickets and a meal!), Mark reminded me that I hadn’t blogged for a while and as it is half-term and I only have a little bit of work to do, I’m going to get on it and start focusing on my love for film.

PS – The Phoenix is amazing, Leicester is very lucky to have it and I must make sure I use it more often.

New beginnings… but I’ve not forgotten

It’s been a Richard heavy summer…

I am writing this from my new office! I have never had my own desk as a teacher before, so it is very exciting. I’m not sure this is what they wanted me to be doing on my second day, but as everyone else has gone home and I have been here for over nine hours, I’m not going to worry about it.

I am now… (drumroll) … the head of English at John Cleveland College, a massive GCSE and A Level college. This is lovely and I was definitely ready to move on from my last school, but it means that I am no longer in charge of media and film and can’t persuade myself that watching all and any film is professional development. It’s all about boring old books now…

To prepare for this new challenge (and I’m pretty sure it is going to be a crazy challenge) I have had a pretty restful summer. My main reading has been Richard Burton books – both a biography and his diaries. This was all sparked by watching three programmes on the BBC about five weeks ago; the new dramatisation of the Burton/Taylor production of ‘Private Lives’ with Helena Bonham-Carter and Dominic West, a programme about Burton’s diaries and a two hour documentary about the making of ‘Cleopatra’. All of the programmes were great and I also really loved the books. I still don’t think I know anymore about his acting, or understand it, or especially like him, but it was amazing to learn about the crazy fame he had.

Anyway, this resting, holidaying and Burton reading has meant that I haven’t done any top 100 films this summer, but I am still hoping to work on them and have about five sitting by my telly to get on with. It just depends on the crazy workload that I encounter…

Holiday reading.

I recently had a lovely week in La Palma.  Completely by chance I ended up taking four books that were all about British issues.  Two of them were about film and were fascinating.  I’ve started to get really interested in the British film industry and the book about the Korda brothers was fascinating.