Voyaging

We spent the afternoon visiting my brother and the kids in Newbury. This meant hiring a car since Scott kindly drove down Fred's kayak and the wedding presents from Inverness a month ago and we needed a car to move all these goods back to West Norwood. Fred and I don't drive in London - there's no need to have a car in the city (and I don't drive), so it's a rare occasion. So rare that the lead for my iPod is now obsolete and everything happens by Bluetooth. We motored along listening to the new Moby album.

It was fabulous seeing the Newbury family. Alfie's stringing a few words together and his talent on Angry Birds is astounding! He's only 2 and a half!! Kitty was really into her books and very smiley. It would have been good to stay a little longer, but we had to get back on the road for the second instalment of our London Film Festival Norwegian adventures.

Tonight's film was at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square, a far different setting to the Renoir last night. This one had a red carpet for starters, and smartly dressed bouncers, and people shouting for autographs. This wasn't for the film we were going to see, though. This was for "The Double", written and directed by Richard Ayoade, who was being interviewed by a host of people on the red carpet as we waited patiently for our film to be called.

When the fuss had died down, our line was ushered into the cinema via the red carpet. Once in the auditorium, the film, Kon-Tiki was introduced by the producer and the handsome actor who plays Thor Heyerdahl, Pål Sverre Hagen. They also answered audience questions after we'd watched the film. The directors couldn't be there since they're both working on the new Pirates of the Caribbean film, having been talent-spotted after making Kon-Tiki. Pål said that after Kon-Tiki, the directors said they wouldn't work with water again, but... Other tidbits of info:

- the raft in the film is the replica that's in the Kon-Tiki Museum (which I've been to) - they sailed it in the open ocean
- in reply to "was that his own beard?", Pål told us there was a beard machine: you stick glue on to the actor's chin, you make him wear goggles, then you put "beard" into the top of the machine and fire it at the glue around the actor's face, shaping it with a hairbrush.
- there were a great deal of sharks seen on the original Kon-Tiki voyage, but only one was seen when another Norwegian team recreated the voyage in 2006. Thor Heyerdahl was an environmentalist and was appalled at the state of the oceans during his later voyages (all the rubbish he came across, for example). In the 1950s, the seas were still thriving and unspoilt.
- there is a Norwegian-language version of the film that was shot at the same time. Each take was voiced again in Norwegian. Pål said he learnt a lot about his language and English and that English was better at expressing emotions.
- the producer worked on the film for 14 years and was urged on by Thor Heyerdahl himself, who wished for his story to inspire a new generation

It was a fabulous film. I won't be getting on a raft anytime soon, but I will read Thor's original book (which sold 50 million copies in the 1950s!) and dig out his Oscar-winning documentary from 1950, which he filmed whilst on the voyage.