LADY DATE SUMMER 2018

LADY DATE SUMMER 2018

We started our day with ominous clouds at Notting Hill. We had a walk around with the tourists while looking at the colourful houses and along the market at Portobello Road. It started raining around this time and we made the walk back and into Kensington. 

It stopped raining as we made our way past all the elegantly large embassies and into Kensington Gardens. We walked past Kensington Palace and around the large pond. Then up towards the gold statue of Albert by The Royal Albert Hall. 

The rain started again with massive raindrops as we made our way towards Chelsea. It was a typical English Summer day and within only a few minutes we were again putting away umbrellas to make way for sunglasses. We stopped to eat once we made it to Kings Road.

I didn’t want anything too big and quite fancied some fries so we thought the American place The Big Easywas our best bet. Unfortunately it was disappointing. DesPite there being empty tables and the hostess offering us where we wanted to sit, she did not seem to want us to be there. To the point where I felt so guilty about just ordering fries even thought that was all I wanted, so ordered chicken as well. I’m glad I did because despite this place being American, there were no fries on the menu. There were only big chips, which I am not such a fan of. The chicken was nice though. We just didn’t feel very welcome. We didn’t stay very long. Rebecca had a mac and cheese, she said it was OK but that it was very difficult to really mess up a mac and cheese. The BBQ sauce tasted like pure alcohol, which was a shame.

So we left to go to our booking at The Bletchley. We descended a staircase into a basement with 1940s music and very little light. We were sat at the bar and given army jackets to wear and a radio and enigma machine to use. They give you an option of three different scenarios. Some have better stories, some have more interesting flavours for cocktails and others are harder. We went for the one with the most interesting flavours. The tasks were not too hard, a lot of punching into the enigma machine and trying to work out what the coded messages could mean. The welcome cocktail was a lovely fruit punch affair, probably my favourite out of the three. The second was determined by the first task, which was based on a menu. The food you ordered on the menu for an imagined dinner party determined what flavours were in your cocktail. Mine had a bit of fizz and a little kick but I have no idea what was in it. The next task to determine flavours involved smelling things in bottles and spraying tastes on your tongue. You had to choose where you were going on an imagined mission. I chose Italy and received an Amarettococktail. We were finished a little early but as we’d finished our cocktails quite quickly decided to leave to get a drink somewhere else. I think this experience runs a lot smoother with only two people. I think it would be a little tedious with a big group, especially when there are so many things to decide for each person. I did hear some bad reviews before I booked about people being left for too long or forgotten about but we didn’t have this problem at all. We did have a little problem with our enigma machine giving us the wrong letters for a while but a member of staff told us we had a problem and we started again rather than spending ages trying to decode a wrong message.

We were going to head to Bartsnext but quickly realized this would be an impossible place to get into without a booking so we headed to Mr Foggs. This is a little out of the way place behind the main street in Mayfair. We hadn’t booked but managed to get a space at the bar. They hand you a kind of spinning menu of cocktails as you head in but don’t be fooled, because these are only some of the cocktails on offer. There is actually a whole book of cocktails, almost like reading a novel, which is always one of the things I love most about a good cocktail bar. I, as usual, went for a vodka-based cocktail, something fruity but a little different. The barman was a true artist. He amazingly knew the recipes for both drinks we ordered off the top of his head. He mixed with flair and decorated with the skill and care of an artisan. The cocktails were lovely. My main flavor was of raspberry puree until I reached the bottom which unfortunately was all ginger beer, so it started off better than it ended. If I wasn’t left with pure ginger at the end it probably would have been my favourite cocktail.

And then, after seeming to walk all day, we headed home.

Here are links to some of the places we visited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens

http://bigeasy.co.uk/#kings-road

https://www.thebletchley.co.uk

https://www.mr-foggs.com/menus/?location=residence

FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

TRIVIA:Tom Cruise stated in an interview that it was his intention to do the stunt hanging onto the Airbus A400M in a way to outdo himself after the Burj Khalifa climb stunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). However, his idea raised objections by the crew due to safety. Being a certified pilot himself, he wanted to get the feel of being out on the wing or on the side of the airplane. A major obstacle to filming would be bird strikes and wind resistance on the runway. To capture the action, a wind-resistant custom frame for the camera was built and mounted onto the left wing of the plane. The other major problem would be keeping Cruise's eyes open in the presence of fast wind and runway particles, so his eye specialist designed a special lens that can cover the entire eyeball. Eight takes of the stunt were filmed. Christopher McQuarrie was very concerned that the actor might panic suddenly, but was assured by Cruise to not stop filming until the stunt had been finished.

Ethan receives his new mission on a vinyl long-playing record. This was one of the first ways of receiving new missions from the Mission: Impossible (1966) television

A brief scene in which Ilsa pauses in the middle of an action sequence to remove her high-heeled shoes was singled out in reviews for its realism, especially in light of the just-released Jurassic World (2015), which was criticized as Bryce Dallas Howard spends much of her action movie literally running in heels from dinosaurs. There was even the idea to highlight the scene in promotional trailers and television spots, but Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie refused, saying that "it wasn't about twisting the knife."

When training for the underwater scene, Tom Cruise was able to hold his breath underwater for six minutes.

Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames are the only actors to appear in all six films.

Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the Mission: Impossible (1966) theme, also created the orchestral arrangements for the "Three Tenors" concerts that made "Nessun Dorma" (featured in this film) an international pop culture phenomenon.

The idea of synchronizing a gun shot with a particular moment in a music score during a live performance is taken out of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).

FILM 1590: BRIDGE OF SPIES 

TRIVIA: According to Tom Hanks in a press release for the movie, when his lawyer character of James B. Donovan makes arguments to the Supreme Court about Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, the actual words used in the dialogue for this movie were the same as the arguments presented to the US Supreme Court.

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel's seemingly incongruous accent, as voiced and acted by actor Mark Rylance, was actually accurate. Abel was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Russian parents and spent some of his school age years in Scotland. He returned to Moscow in his late teens but never lost his accent when speaking English.

As seen in the film, Soviet agent Rudolf Ivanovich Abel received coded messages from his KGB handlers that were hidden inside a hollow U.S. nickel. The FBI first became aware of Abel's activities in 1953, when a Soviet agent mistakenly used one of the hollow nickels to buy a newspaper. The Brooklyn newsboy who had received the nickel thought it felt too light. He dropped the nickel on the sidewalk, and it popped open, revealing a piece of microfilm with a coded message inside. But FBI cryptologists were unable to crack the code until 1957, when a KGB defector, Reino Häyhänen, gave them the key to deciphering the code, and also gave up Rudolph Abel. The "Hollow Nickel Case" was also dramatized in The FBI Story (1959), starring James Stewart.

According to Steven Spielberg in a press release for the movie, Gregory Peck came after the story in 1965. Alec Guinness agreed to play Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, Peck would play James B. Donovan, and Stirling Silliphant would write the script. MGM declined to make the movie at the time. It was 1965, Cold War tensions were high, and MGM was reluctant to get into the politics of the story.

For the scene outside the courtroom, the photographers were initially instructed to put their used flashbulbs, which are extremely hot to the touch, in their pockets. One of the background actors on set happened to be the historian of the New York Press Photographers Association. He told executive producer and 1st assistant director Adam Somner that, at the time, photographers would have ejected the bulbs onto the floor. After several takes, noticing the bulbs strewn across the floor, director Steven Spielberg decided to shoot the low-angle view of the principals walking through them.

The Russian phrase "stoikiy muzhik" literally translates to "persistent peasant" - "stoikiy" being a term meaning persistent, rigid, or uncompromising, and "muzhik" being a slang term for a Russian peasant. Abel's translation of the phrase as "standing man" is therefore appropriate on a metaphorical level.

In an interview with the International Spy Museum, the son of Francis Gary Powers, Francis Gary Powers Jr., indicated that his father was not told to commit suicide if shot down, unlike the depiction in the movie. Instead, it was given as an option in case physical torture had been involved, allowing the pilots to use a poison pin if the pilots chose to commit suicide. He also indicated that the Soviets found the pin on a third strip search but Powers warned them not to touch it; the Soviets tried the pin on a dog and the dog died a few moments later.

Steven Spielberg cast Mark Rylance in the movie after watching his Tony Award-winning performance in Twelfth Night which was Rylance's third Tony Award.

Fourth theatrical feature film collaboration of actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg with the two performing those duties. They pair previously worked together on [in chronological order]: Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and The Terminal (2004).

At the beginning of the film, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel is painting a self-portrait, the scene is based on Norman Rockwell's "Triple Self-portrait". Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are both big collectors of Rockwell's work.

The subway car that Donovan is riding on his way home is the only remaining N.Y.C. Transit R11 subway car that was part of an order of 10 built in 1949. It was called the "million dollar train" as each of the 10 cars cost over $100,000. The interior seen in the film is from a 1964/65 rebuild of the car , not the one it had when the story took place in 1961.

When London-based playwright and television writer Matt Charman stumbled upon a footnote in a biography on John F. Kennedy that referenced an American lawyer whom the President had sent to Cuba to negotiate the release of 1113 prisoners, his curiosity was piqued. Some quick research yielded a name he did not recognize, that of James Donovan, a successful insurance claims lawyer from Brooklyn. But it was the story of what took place several years earlier which he found most interesting. Donovan had defended a Soviet agent accused of espionage during the Cold War, and while he specialized in insurance law and had not practiced criminal law for some time, was then asked to negotiate one of the most high-profile prisoner exchanges in history. Charman had little knowledge of the inner-workings of the film industry. Nevertheless, he flew to Hollywood in hopes of convincing a studio to green-light a film based on Donovan's remarkable true story. While Donovan's role was not well known in the annals of Cold War history, Charman pitched DreamWorks Pictures a gripping tale of an idealistic man navigating the world of national security and subterfuge. The executives at DreamWorks were immediately intrigued. "When I heard the story, it knocked my socks off," says producer Kristie Macosko Krieger, who was a co-producer on Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012) and is based at DreamWorks. Krieger said: "Not many people know the story of James Donovan and what he accomplished during this period of U.S. history, but it sounded like something that was right up Steven's alley."

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, whose real name was Vilyam Fisher, passed away in 1971, and was rarely photographed or interviewed while alive. According to actor Mark Rylance who portrays Abel in the film: "We don't really know all that much about him, other than the fact that he received and passed on messages at various drop sites throughout New York using a hollow coin. He was, what you call, a sleeper spy. Abel had been in the United States for several years before he began these clandestine activities, and he wasn't the chief organizer of the spy-ring, he just carried out the mission. But when he was caught, the U.S. government made him out to be a little more important than he actually was."

Actress Amy Ryan and actor Domenick Lombardozzi both appeared in HBO's The Wire (2002).

  

FILM 1570: KNIGHT AND DAY

TRIVIA: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz did a majority of the stunts on their own. Both Cruise and Diaz are avid drivers and have experience in doing sharp turns and 180's.

Chris Tucker, Adam Sandler, and Gerard Butler were all considered for the lead role before Tom Cruise signed on.

There is a remake of this movie in Bollywood named "Bang Bang" starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif.

While leads Cruise and Diaz were promoting this movie they both appeared on the BBC's Top Gear Top Gear: Episode #15.5 (2010) where they competed in the traditional speed lap in the "reasonably-priced car." Their respective time records were 01m:44.2s and 01m:45.2s.

This is the second movie in which Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have co-starred. The first being Vanilla Sky.

FILM 1367: SPY

TRIVIA: Star Melissa McCarthy has said that the film is the most physically taxing she has ever done. McCarthy has said of the mis-haps and accidents that befell her during the making of the movie: "Running, jumping, falling. I've cracked my head, I have cuts and bruises. At the end of the day I look like I fell down an elevator shaft. But I wear those wounds and thrown discs with a bit of pride". Stunt Co-ordinator J.J. Perry has also said: "We have a great stunt double (Luci Romberg) for Melissa, but once we saw how good Melissa was we were able to ask even more of her." Perry has also praised McCarthy's s impressive ability to learn and retain choreography, saying, "She was in there with some heavy-hitting action stars, which can be intimidating, but she more than held her own. Her work ethic is outstanding".

Screenwriter Paul Feig, who once was an aspiring stuntman himself, is a fan of Jason Statham's action movies. Feig tailored Statham's Rick Ford character in the film especially for the actor to play.

According to Paul Feig, Rayna was originally a 19-year-old, and the character had to be rewritten once Rose Bryne was cast in the role.

Bobby Cannavale got involved in the film because his girlfriend, Rose Bryne, joined the cast as Rayna.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) used two wrestling moves in this movie. They were Hurricanrana and German Suplex.

FILM 1338: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

TRIVIA: At first, Doris Day refused to record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as "a forgettable children's song." It not only went on to win an Academy Award, but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her signature song. So much for forgettable, she would go on to sing the same song in two more movies, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and it was used as the theme song for all 124 episodes of her TV show, The Doris Day Show (1968).

It was during the making of this film, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.

Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera setups, lighting and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, *then* I would have to direct you!"

The Albert Hall sequence lasts 12 minutes without a single word of dialogue and consists of 124 shots.

The film was unavailable for decades because its rights (together with four other pictures of the same period) were bought back by Alfred Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've been known for long as the infamous "Five lost Hitchcocks" amongst film buffs, and were re-released in theatres around 1984 after a 30-year absence. The others are Rear Window (1954), Rope (1948), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Vertigo (1958).

The plot calls for a man (Daniel Gélin in the role of Louis Bernard) to be discovered as "not Moroccan" because he was wearing black makeup. The makeup artists couldn't find a black substance that would come off easily, and so they painted the fingers of the other man (James Stewart) white, so that he would leave pale streaks on the other man's skin (according to Patricia Hitchcock, this idea was suggested by Daniel Gélin).

In a 1994 interview available on the liner notes of a Rhino compilation of Oscar winning songs, songwriter Jay Livingston says that he came across the phrase "Que Sera Sera" in the movie The Barefoot Contessa (1954), when Rossano Brazzi shows Ava Gardner his house, and she sees the inscription "Que Sera Sera" on the gate. He tells her that is the family motto, and it means 'Whatever will be, will be'.

Doris Day had a fear of flying that stemmed from tours with Bob Hope in the 1940s that resulted in some close calls in impenetrable winter weather. She almost turned down her role in this film because it required travel to London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher talked her into accepting it.

Ambrose Chapel was filmed at St. Saviour's Church Hall in St. Saviour's Road, Brixton Hill, London. St. Saviour's was sold off by the Church of England in the 1970s and has since been torn down.