Quite why red carpet, despite red being a communist colour is used was a subject upon which I pondered for quite some time. In the end, I assumed it was due to some sort of association with Catholic Cardinals, but I digress.
The event was hosted by Jennie Falconer, she was at a far smaller premiere I'd visited, perhaps the job of premiere announcer is contracted out like poet laureate. She was quite good initially, announcing when all the famous celebrities arrived, but towards the end she was flagging, the final arrivals were announced a full 20 minutes after they'd arrived so I have no idea what happened there.
A female violinist group played to start the evening off, now I'd expected it'd be Bond, Bond film, Bond violinists, it makes logical sense and they were certainly in the Bond mould however were not. A missed chance for shameless promotion methinks.
The first people to arrive were to producers, Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccolli. I had no idea who they were but I took some photos of them as practice.
Here's Michael Wilson, looking very much like a Producer:-
And Ms Broccolli, I feel very guilty at using this photo, poor woman looks as if she has the worst cold:-
In the background are presumably one of her children and their date, I have no idea which is which but while practicing for later pictures I took a few of them.
A string of cars arrived, mostly Mercedes and Aston Martins. Judi Dench arrived and went straight into the theater, which resulted in a few boos across the square. Her behaviour was a definate exception. She's far shorter than you would expect, no taller than 5foot6.
About midway through Daniel Craig arrived, looking exactly like you would expect Daniel Craig to look like. 5foot10 perhaps? He had his arm in a sling which I later learnt was due to him spraining or breaking a shoulder blade during filming. (I think the caption for this photo should read "THIS IS SPARTA")
This was the last photo I took, my camera ran out of battery so I am unable to show you any photos of Jack White whom I met. A nice guy who seemed impressed at how many people turned out.
I never got to see the Royals, had no desire to stay cold and they were ridiculously late, forcing the poor war veterans to wait out in the cold for them. I dashed off to the nearby Ciao cafe on Charing Cross Road and feasted on espresso and imported Italian Diet Coke.
In the future, I'll be sure to keep my camera battery well charged.
