“Normal? The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren’t”

The Imitation Game.

So i’ve FINALLY seen it!

I actually saw it on November 10th but wanted to wait until my second viewing (the friday of the same week) before i made a proper attempt at saying anything here.

I am going to make an extremely conscious effort to limit myself because i will waffle for the rest of my life about this if given the chance.

This film..is absolutely stunning. Gorgeous, heartbreaking, funny, inspirational…as is the man the story is about. I’ve been following this film for a while and one of the best decisions i have ever made was to go and find out more about Alan Turing. He is a truly TRULY brilliant, genius, lovely and heroic man (why use one adjective where 12 will do eh). I think the most important thing this film does is finally brings his story to an audience and Turing is finally starting to get some of the recognition he truly deserves. I honestly get emotional just thinking about him, if they ever invent time travel he’ll be my first stop.

One issue…okay this isn’t even an issue…certainly not with the film..it’s my issue…as i say i delved quite deeply into the story of Alan Turing before i saw this film and i’ve yet to decide if that was an advantage or a disadvantage. I will admit upon my first viewing of the film, a lot of my concentration was on seeing what parts of the story they actually put in the film and what changes were made. I think of course there was going to be some artistic license and some simplifications of the story, and i think when they do that they do it really well.

I had the odd niggles in the back of my mind going “oh i wish they’d told more of the story there..there’s so much more to that” but if they did that where i wanted them to the film would be ten hours long. Also with a few adjustments and changes (completely understandable for dramatic effect) sometimes i thought “oh…oh that’s not quite right..i feel like i have to tell people that’s not completely accurate” but you know what that’s me being INCREDIBLY picky.

That’s why i waited until my second viewing to do this. Once i’d come to terms with what was in it, i could sit and just enjoy it fully and goodness do i enjoy this film. It is absolutely remarkable and if there isn’t a large amount of recognition at the Oscars then nothing is right with the world!

In following the promotion of this film i can see every member of the cast and crew are so passionate about Alan Turing’s story and seem to have fallen in love with him just as everyone does when they hear about him. They wanted to do it right, do it well and wanted to get the story out there.

Benedict Cumberbatch, well..he’s just stunning isn’t he? Absolutely melts away into his characters and Turing is no exception. It is Alan you’re watching, not Benedict. And on a personal note as a big fan of Benedict’s I would just like to say how lucky we are that a man with such immense talent, such passion and care for the story he is telling and such a wide reach of admiration and influence, is at the forefront of this film. He knows the importance of this man and his story and goes to every length to make sure his life and achievements have been recognised (seriously, have you heard him talk about Alan? goes on for days it’s brilliant).

The whole cast is brilliant! Seriously fantastic! But i have to mention Keira Knightley because (i can’t believe i’m about to say this) she really surprised me. Don’t get me wrong i absolutely adore her as a person i have such a girl crush on her and i want to be best friends with her asap please and i admit now i’ve not seen everything she’s in so this is mainly a hugely ignorant comment but i have been known to think she was rather….same-y in things. I mean..hardly her fault..i suppose a lot of her characters can be seen as quite similar (again..by someone as ignorant as myself) but i must admit i did wonder if her Joan Clarke (another person to look up by the way..she is AWESOME! Girl power!) would slot into the sort of “same-y” image i had built up in my head. It really didn’t. She was magnificent. And the more i see her in the promotion the more i love her and i think i’ll make myself go back and watch her other work again.

One more thing! Alex Lawther who plays young Alan Turing, watch out for this kid because he is fantastic! He’s such a lovely lad and it’s so sweet hearing him talk about the film. What mainly stuck with me was how well he not only portrayed young Alan, but portrayed a young version of Benedict’s Alan. He seriously is brilliant.

Anyway…that was apparently me limiting myself so i do apologise for the waffle.

Also if you see the film…bring tissues…seriously i was a complete sobbing mess by the end of it…both viewings.

Oh! And buy the soundtrack. I actually have it on right now. Alexandre Desplat knocks it out of the park once again! It is seriously..beyond beautiful.

Sometimes it is the people that no one imagines anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine

The Imitation Game, set to hit cinemas in November (14th UK/21st USA) tells the story of Alan Turing and his quest to crack the enigma code during World War II.

UK Trailer

US Trailer

(They are slightly different)

Gosh, i’ve been waiting for this for what seems like forever. Having just completed a maths degree and with friends in computer science, i’m ashamed how little i knew about Turing before i heard about this film being made. Sure i’d heard his name briefly but i never really knew his full importance.

Having watched each trailer now a number of times ( i wont say what number but it’s forever increasing), it seems hard to tell if there will be a topic of main focus for the film. Well, i assume it will be the breaking of the code but bare with me). By that i mean, there’s a range of events hinted at throughout the trailers and i suppose it’s not yet clear if any will fully take centre stage.

As a friend of mine said, it is a 2 hour film about something that took an extremely long time as it is seemingly telling from when Turing began his work on the code up until (i believe) the end of his life.

As i say, as someone who spent the past 3 years doing a maths degree i know that the general reaction to anything maths is to recoil and run as far away as possible and if you say you are studying it out of choice you will get many looks between “rather impressed” and “you have three heads”. So of course there will be some slight artistic liberation (as there is with every film that is based on a true story) to tell the story and tell it right but still fully engage an audience and make sure everything is understandable. So considering the varied nature of the trailers…it’s looking promising so far!!

Those of you unfamiliar with Turing, (i would count these as spoilers but it’s not as if it’s not all out there anyway) he was, along with unfortunately far too many others at that time, prosecuted for being gay. We see the US trailer briefly hints toward his sexuality and the fact that it was considered illegal. As his punishment (which sounds wrong even typing it now) he chose chemical castration, designed to significantly reduce his desires, rather than go to prison.

Now i can’t give much at this point because my knowledge here is extremely limited, but it is believed that he tragically took his own life.

Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Turing here, read a heartbreaking letter, that Turing himself wrote, at a Letters Live event last year.

This can be found HERE and is certainly worth a watch. Benedict had also done some filming by this point too so i’ve been using this as reference of how his voice/accent would be when the film came around!

Other cast members include Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong and Charles Dance, all of whom i’m greatly looking forward to seeing.

I also believe, though i’ll have to double check, that Alexandre Desplat is doing the score for this film which excited me hugely. He has some gorgeous soundtracks including both of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films. The music in the trailers seems fabulous already so i’m very much hoping to hear the full score when it’s available.

Turing believes machines think,

Turing lies with men,

Therefore machines do not think.

Yours in distress, Alan. 

 

Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?!

Pirates of the Caribbean!

The other night a couple of my friends and i decided to marathon the first 3 Pirates films! (We know there’s a forth but…it didn’t hold as many memories for us and it’s just not as good…) We used to watch them ALL the time, one friend who joined me is a very big Johnny Depp fan, i myself have been slightly in love with Orlando Bloom for the past 10 years (and counting…i love him) so between us we found many excuses to watch it!

I admit we spent a lot of our time going “this first one came out 10 YEARS AGO?!” and swooning over various memories we had of our time together watching them! But gosh..they really are such good films aren’t they!

I remember seeing At World’s End in the cinema with everyone, it was so long there was an INTERVAL!

I know there are some people who will say they should have finished after the first film, and alright i do see where they are coming from, i think the second film clearly runs into the third film and although i even admit myself that the third film at some points just seems to go a bit mad…i just love them! You have to admit even if you’re not a fan of the 2nd and 3rd film they have some brilliant moments and some brilliant characters! Bill Nighy as Davy Jones for example! You can’t fault him! And Johnny Depp well….you can’t really fault him in anything can you..he’s always completely brilliant in everything! (as you can see my Johnny Depp fan friend had an influence on me…mostly lending me film after film of his. I recommend all of them.) Oh! And can’t forget Geoffrey Rush! He’s awesome!

Also, if you’ve not seen the bloopers for the 3 films…head to YouTube they’re hilarious!

Some of our biggest memories watching the films was the soundtrack! Especially some tracks from At World’s End. Thanks to the wonderful Hans Zimmer of course! Here’s some of the particular favourites! I think even if you’ve never seen the films before in your life you can appreciate these gorgeous tracks!

One Day

Parlay

I Don’t Think Now’s The Best Time

Up Is Down

I heard rumours they were making a 5th Pirates is that true?! Hmm..i guess we’ll see!

“Drink up me hearties yo ho!”