Feeling at Home, at ‘Home’

Manchester has a new arts venue, confusingly named ‘Home’.

Already, I’ve encountered the problem of statements like, “we saw it at home”, “we’re off to home” and “great time at home last night”. I get round this usually, by adding the preface, “the arts venue, not where I live“. Hopefully this confusion will dissipate once people get to know the place – the arts venue, not where I live.

This new centre, houses two theatres, a five screen cinema, exhibition space, bars and a restaurant, and it’s the new ‘home’ of the old Library Theatre and Cornerhouse cinema.

The official opening was last Thursday, but Clare and myself went to an early performance of the first play to be performed here, ‘Funfair’, the Saturday before, and we took Elliott to a screening of ‘Blade Runner’ the day after, so we’d had chance to have a look around before all the hoopla of the official opening.

The venue itself is great, with a good location just on the edge of the city and lots of space to wander around and explore. Obviously, everything is shiny and new and the design appears to be very minimalist with bare concrete walls and lots of glass – very modern but perhaps a little cold and inexpressive.

But hey, maybe that’s the idea, after all the test of this venue, won’t be the wallpaper, it’ll be the stuff going on inside.

The opening itself was blessed with glorious sunshine and we were excited to hear that Danny Boyle, one of the patrons of Home, and Oscar-winning director of such films as Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire would be there to cut the ribbon. So, we stuffed our DVD of Shallow Grave in Clare’s handbag and popped down to see the show.

There was lots of colourful characters and music so we had a great time, Elliott even managed to get a selfie with Mr Boyle and got him to sign our DVD – though Elliott did forget to take the pen we gave him, but Danny Boyle had one himself, which was lucky.

Now we’ve been to ‘Home’ (the venue, not the …) a few times, I can say how much I like it. I love cinema and the theatre, so this is a welcome addition to the already vibrant arts scene in Manchester. Even though the architecture is new, shiny and a little cold for my taste, the energy and vibe is quite warm and exciting, which can only be a good thing.

It’s actually quite ‘homely’.

Chris

Psycho

If I mention the film ‘Psycho’, what do you think of?

If you’re anything like me then you immediately think of the famous shower scene and Bernard Herrman’s powerful music that accompanied it. The music is a key element to this wonderful film and on Friday we got the opportunity to experience it live.

The Bridgewater Hall, in Manchester, showed the film, but with a live orchestra playing the soundtrack.

I was curious how this would change the experience of seeing the film. Would it enhance it, or would it distract from it. I was also looking forward to seeing the film with a live audience as I’ve only ever seen it on television or DVD and I wanted to see how an audience reacted to Hitchcock’s tricks over 50 years after it was first shown.

On the whole it was a great evening. The film stood up well, though there were certain elements that are now a bit dated and got a laugh, such as the psychologist at the end explaining everything in detail so the audience have no doubts what went on. There was also a scene where Vera Miles discovers a tiny fragment of paper that just happened to have the exact information that proved the victim had died in that room, even though the killer had scrubbed and mopped the room thoroughly- how lucky!

It’s actually a film that still manages to create a sense of dread, which all good horror films must do. The plot is still effective and the performances still hold up today.

The real surprise though was the music. Hearing it live was a massive difference, the sound of the strings filling the large space of the Bridgewater Hall was wonderful, yet you never felt torn between watching and listening. The two blended together beautifully.

Apparently Herrman used a smaller orchestra to keep the costs down, so there was no percussion or brass section, it was mainly done with strings. This adds to his achievement though as you never miss them.

I’d love to see something bigger with a live orchestra, something like ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ would be amazing. My only quibble is that the screen was a little small for the space and the dialogue echoed round the auditorium a bit, but these are minor points.

It’s a very strange feeling going home humming the accompaniment to a brutal murder.

Mother, what have you done!

Chris.