Summer in February

I had a free ticket for a preview of Summer in February, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.   I had hoped to get a seat at the Courthouse Cinema in the West End, but they were fully booked, and the only other place they were showing it in London was at the Odeon in Greenwich.   So I booked it and thought about how I was going to get there in time afterwards.

In the event, it was very easy to get there.   The Northern Line to London Bridge, and then the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich, which is a state-of-the-art station near the Dome; incredibly spacious with all the latest gadgetry, and at the moment situated in the middle of nowhere.   There is a bus station attached to it, so that you just come out of the station and there are all the bus-stops.  

The Odeon is about a mile away, and it was obvious that the station is not going exist in isolation for long.   Everywhere there are buildings going up, and I imagine in a few years time, north Greenwich will be a thriving area, with lots of new shops and offices and a large number of posh estates.

I arrived at the cinema in very good time, and indeed, I needn't have worried if I had got there just two minutes before the film started.   At all the other previews I have been to, the cinema has been packed, and anyone who arrived just fifteen minutes before the start probably wouldn't get a very good seat - more like one at the front and on a far side.    But at Greenwich, there were only about 20 people there, so I could have had an excellent seat whatever time I arrived.

The film was rather sweet.  Set in the beautiful Cornish countryside just before the First World War, it is based on the true story of a circle of artists known as the Lamorna Group, who were part of the Newlyn School.   Bohemian and carefree, they spent their time painting each other (sometimes nude) and enjoying being artistic.   Into this group came the slightly unstable Florence Carter-Wood, played by Emily Browning, who had ambitions of becoming a famous artists, but also wanted to escape from her father.   The result was a love triangle, involving her, the later famous A.J.Munnings  (played byt Dominic Cooper) and the agent for the Lamorna Estate, Gilbert Evans (played by Dan Stevens), which ends in tragedy.

Based on a book by Kent teacherJonathan Smith, with the part of Gilbert being played by one of his former students, it is beautifully scripted and filmed; it would be worth going to see for the scenery alone.   But it has a serious storyline which makes it even more memorable and worthwhile.

Until the final credits, I was unaware of the fact that it was a true story; I believe A.J.Munnings and the other famous artists Laura and Harold Knight, later deleted this episode in their lives from their official biographies.   Only Gilbert Evans wanted to remember Florence, and the film ends with a touching scene when he returns to Lamorna form Nigeria and lays flowers on her grave.