So I am reminded by the puffing Poirot of yesterday's post of the large amount of puffing that there is in the television dramatisations of the works of A. Christie generally. Presumably luvvies have the same dispensation to smoke on sets as they do on stages, which last dispensation they seem to take great delight in flaunting.
But the film in the box (reverse) illustrated is a first for me. A film with a warning that it contains images of smoking. Perhaps that is why the film is a PG. How long will it be before there is legislation about warnings back and front of A. Christie dramatisations on telly? Was she a puffer herself? G. Simenon certainly was.
A film which had been remaindered by Surrey Libraries and which turned out rather well, despite my being rather dubious once I had found at that it was a cartoon. But a cartoon - 'The Illusionist' from a screen play by Jacques Tati - which got various things absolutely spot on, in particular rooms in cheap hotels. Whoever made the thing must have spent quality time in such places.
There was also lots of puffing. The story was partly about the decline of a variety artist during the death throes of the variety industry - a story which reminded me of D. H. Lawrence's story about same, 'The Lost Girl'. And which reminded me that I do not see why variety should not work now. Why should a music hall not work now? A salle polyvalente where you can eat, drink and socialise and be entertained at the same time. Has television spoiled us for the real thing? While there might initially be trouble getting enough artistes to make a go of it, there are an awful lot of dance & drama schools out there which could start repurposing their output for variety. And at the other end of the business, pubs are already moving in this direction: not enough to have food any more, with quite a lot of them are adding entertainment of one sort or another.
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