Achievement Unlocked: Revelation. On a boat.

Sometimes films don't start at the cinema until after 18:30 on days when I finish work at 16:30. So what's a boy to do?

Can't hang around in Leicester Square reading and taking in the atmosphere because it's all shut and there are no other benches. Can't hang around at the cinema* because getting there 90 minutes early would just be a bit weird. Can't hang around in the pub because, well, cider in central London seems to be just about the most expensive liquid ever put up for commercial retail.

So now rather than take the fastest most direct route (which would be my natural preference) I've taken to slower means of conveyance. Mainly boats. It did take me some time to realise that you can get in a boat on the river Thames but now I'm getting one every week. Mostly the trip is either from St Catherine's Dock or the Tower of London down to Embankment. 

In the winter months it's a bit concerning, being in this floating capsule assaulted by rain and wind. However now that we've had some nice weather i've taken to sitting on the back of the boat in the shade watching the river banks whirl past. It's at this point i sort of wish Google had invented the estuary version of Street View; Google River View.

As i relaxed watching the buildings of the south bank drift past i noticed that several of them are all very reminiscent of the buildings in A Clockwork Orange. For example the Festival Hall...

or the National Theatre...

both have stylistic echoes of Thamesmead where the film was shot.

As the boat dwindled on I realised anew the care that Kubrick took in crafting the look of all the city sections of the film. From the Korova milk bar and the abandoned theatre, through the underpasses and over the walkways, in the prisons and institutions there is not a stray building or corner that does not fit with the vision Kubrick wants to present you of this dystopic suburbanite future.

Few directors take that care, for Kubrick the architectural style was as important as the casting or the dialogue. Particularly in A Clockwork Orange this is important because the estate where Alex and his Droogs live is an area that both confines them and defines them.Where they can do ugly things watched over by ugly buildings. Where their hearts can be empty vacuous concrete nothingness as the buildings are. The tall buildings that even on the brightest day throw long dark shadows for the Droogs to play in; a bit of the old in-out and some ultra violence. Where people are too afraid to confront you and the crimes never catch up to the criminal.

Then all-of-a sudden the boat deposits me at Embankment. I have to make a judgement call as to whether to walk or get the tubes. I'll take the tubes. It seems ever so slightly safer down there.

*My only cinema of choice these days is the Prince Charles in Leicester square. Not only the only independent cinema in central London but just about everything i want from a cinema.