Out-of-town shopping centres? (malls to our North American cousins) - I am not fond of them. There's a huge one on the outskirts of Sheffield. It is called Meadowhall. On the few occasions I have been there, I have had the strong sense that there are weird people in this world whose Meadowhall visits are of core importance to their sense of being. They have embraced the leisure shopping cult like Mormon converts - grazing at the food court, ambling along those marble corridors to purchase designer label clothing before driving home for pizza and ready meals.
Today we were there for two reasons. One - so that Shirley could buy some new winter boots and Two - to visit the cinema to watch "Sunshine on Leith".
This engaging film has grown out of a moderately successful British musical that cleverly incorporated a handful of songs by Craig and Charlie Reid - The Proclaimers. It is a feelgood movie that weaves together three love stories and occasionally bursts into song. It is set in Edinburgh and Leith which is the Scottish capital's less well-known working class port area.
Hope and resolution are found in the final scene when the entire cast and hundreds of extras bring the gardens off Prince's Street alive with a rousing rendition of "I'm Gonna Be" (Five Hundred Miles).
Soppy sod that I am - there were several moments during today's cinema visit when tears welled up in my eyes - and not just over the outrageous popcorn prices! "Sunshine on Leith" isn't about the gritty reality of the struggle to survive on the wrong side of the Scottish tracks but it is a stirring musical film that has a lightness about it which oddly reminded me of "Slumdog Millionaire" - positive and ultimately happy. Surely that can't be bad.
MALLS? Malls?
ReplyDeleteWhy have you gone all bleeding American?
You are right Earl. I shall change back to out-of-town shopping centres.
DeleteIt is great. Nothing wrong with a tear or three. I went to Meadow Hall for the first time early this year.
ReplyDeleteIt was way beyond me.
I heard that security picked you up in Meadowhall when you went berserk in the Oasis Food Court - all that choice!
DeleteI'll put the movie on our list. As for Malls - I guess they are warm and dry in winter... but call me old-fashioned possum, I prefer the high street shops where people know you by name. It feels more natural, somehow.
ReplyDeleteErr...don't they kill possums in New Zealand Kate or are you transmogrifying into Dame Edna Everage?
DeleteA good show always makes me feel better about life even if I'm already feeling good about it. I watched the video. It wasn't enough to make me feel better but it was enough to make me want to watch entire production.
ReplyDeleteI like malls better than driving to them. That isn't saying much.
David - if you do get a chance to watch "Sunshine on Leith" you may at times need subtitles because of the Scottish accents. As for modern mega-malls, they are an American invention. Would you please invent something nicer next time?
DeleteDownload/buy sunshine on leith the album. It's a classic.
ReplyDeleteMeadowhall - as you say, a psychologist's paradise ..... by the way, also features in the film The Full Monty I believe, when they go shop-lifting!
ReplyDeleteIf we're speaking about great gritty-ish but uplifting music-based films, you should check out Once. Wonderful film, wonderful music. You'll have to work out how to work that DVD player one of these days ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726SFblz9Lk
Oops, that was me in one of my multiple identities - speaking of psychologists ... ;)
DeleteSorry!
I never realized that the Full Monty was set in Sheffield.
DeleteCarol - most Sheffielders have mixed feelings about "The Full Monty". It was a funny film but the impressions it left of Sheffield were unfaithful to the real city we know.
DeleteYou mean, it's not full of flabby unemployed strippers? You surprise me!
DeleteCarol - yep, the lads are all unemployed ex-workers from the steel industry, which used to be Sheffield's back-bone. The dance rehearsal scenes take place in a disused steel workshop I think, though I'm sure YP could expand (verbally) and give us more details - maybe even a blog post on the various S.Yorkshire films that have been made, Full Monty, Brassed Off, Kes, ...?
Brian, I know I should pay more attention but you speak like you are a Yorkshireman, but your blogs are in Spanish??
DeleteHi Carol, glad to see someone thinks I still speak like a Yorkshireman - having spent 25 years now exiled in (sunny) Catalonia, many people say I'm losing the accent. My main blog (Tannu Tuva) is bilingual, with most posts written in both Catalan (you get off with just a warning for saying the S. word this time) and a kind-of-English, thus pleasing all my readers - both of them ... I will also try and pay attention and have a look at yours too :)
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