British Library and Adèle Blanc-Sec
Apr. 27th, 2011 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA list of awesome things we saw in the British Library yesterday:
We then walked nearly three miles to the Odeon cinema on Holloway Road to see Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec. C'etait un film tres bizarre et hilarant - and that's about as far as my French will go. It was of a similar style to Amelie, with over-exaggerated characters, an omniscient narrator, and slightly stylised acting - only it also had dinosaurs and mummies. The mummy Patmosis was by far my favourite character - his expression and tone of voice were fantastic, and he was very funny. The whole thing was extremely silly, but Adele herself, as her name might suggest, acted as the dry white wine amidst all the madness, cutting a capable, no-nonsense swathe through it all, though demonstrating enough flaws to remain sympathetic. Highly recommended.
- Jane Austen's writing desk
- A letter from Ada Lovelace (I didn't previously know she was Byron's daughter), describing the concept for the first computer program
- Scott's diary, open to the page describing Captain Oates' departure from the tent - "..he said I am just going outside and may be some time, and we have not seen him since..."
- Milton's commonplace book, full of research for his historical and political writings
- a composition draft of Handel's Messiah
- handwritten Beatles' drafts of Help!, Yesterday, Ticket To Ride, Hard Day's Night, and Michelle (the last actually written on the back of an envelope)
- pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notes, written left-handed from right to left
- 1800 year old papyrus fragments from St John's Gospel
- really beautiful painted Buddhist scrolls - particularly the Garland Sutra
- Shinsen heika zui - "newly selected pictorial guide to flower arrangement" - 97 exquisitely drawn examples of Japanese flower arrangements from 1698
- A Keepsake From The Cloud Gallery - 15 Chinese watercolours from 1750, depicting people ascending into the clouds to gain immortality
We then walked nearly three miles to the Odeon cinema on Holloway Road to see Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec. C'etait un film tres bizarre et hilarant - and that's about as far as my French will go. It was of a similar style to Amelie, with over-exaggerated characters, an omniscient narrator, and slightly stylised acting - only it also had dinosaurs and mummies. The mummy Patmosis was by far my favourite character - his expression and tone of voice were fantastic, and he was very funny. The whole thing was extremely silly, but Adele herself, as her name might suggest, acted as the dry white wine amidst all the madness, cutting a capable, no-nonsense swathe through it all, though demonstrating enough flaws to remain sympathetic. Highly recommended.
