Saturday 24 April 2010

The View from the Projection Box with Ritz Cinema projectionist Paul Winfield

How wonderful it was to see Carey Mulligan pick up Best Actress award at the Baftas in her first film An Education. If she goes on to win an Oscar as well, it will be truly stunning. Be sure a golden future in cinema is already assured.

Of course, the really big award ceremony – The Ritzys – are taking place in June! It’s our third Ritzy Awards Night; the members’ votes are being counted, and a very special night on the red carpet will be enjoyed by our special guests and the lucky members picked at random.

So, onto the films coming to The Ritz. Originally scheduled for release last year, the latest film from director Martin Scorsese – Shutter Island – reaches our screens this spring with an impressive cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley. Shutter Island is a psychological horror-thriller set in 1950s America.

I Love you Phillip Morris has already caused controversy in the States. It brings together Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in a true story of life, love and prison breaks.

Emma Thompson repeats her 2005 role as Nanny McPhee, the nanny played by Maggie Gyllenhaal who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war.

The versatile and lovely Sandra Bullock, who’s up for Best Actress Oscar, stars in The Blind Side – the story of a middle class family who take in a homeless teenager who has run away from a broken home and help him to realise his dream of becoming an all-American football player.

The Easter holidays fall in the period I’m looking at and all the family should be well catered for at The Ritz with the new Alice in Wonderland, Disney’s Princess and the Frog, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief.

Well, hopefully once again there is something for everyone at The Ritz.

Ritz Cinema projectionist Paul Winfield is a regular contributor to All Things Local - the Community Magazine for Kilburn, Belper and Ripley, Derbyshire.

Monday 12 April 2010

Life with V By Valerie Spencer Becks of Belper

I have decided to write The Homeowners Guide to dealing with an intruder or burglar in your home.

The first thing to do when you come across somebody in your home wielding a gun, machete, knife or similar item, day or night, is to not assume they are there for criminal reasons. They may have mistaken your house for theirs and you must assume that they are simply looking for the kettle to make a cuppa and have a balaclava on because they are cold.

Before taking any action, determine the level of threat the intruder is going to put you under as it determines what level of force you can use to remove them from your home. Stop them for a minute and ask them what their intentions are.

If they intend to simply rob you and leave you, let them to get on with it because they apparently won’t harm you. If they indicate they are going to rob and beat you up a bit, give them a bit of a slap and hope that will deter them. If they are going to attack you then you apparently have to wait until they do it before taking any action, because it might just all be talk. They might not get around to it, so in that case you are defending yourself against a non-threat. If they intend to attack you and your family, take a few moments to determine what you feel is reasonable force, hoping they haven’t actually gone ahead and done it already.

The well-being of the criminal who has broken into your private home must be taken into consideration - far above all threats to you, your family or your neighbours. Having said this I would just like to say that if anybody is in my house who has not been specifically invited, I will have a tendency to hit back and ask questions later.

I do apologise to any burglars in advance for this totally inconsiderate course of action and do hope that I will not cause you any serious damage because I am sure you broke into my home with the best of intentions!!!!

Isn’t it absolutely ridiculous? Perhaps if a few more burglars did get attacked by homeowners it might deter a good number of them from breaking in the first place - or is it just me who thinks like this???

Valerie is a regular columnist in All Things Local - The Community Magazine for Kilburn, Belper and Ripley with a combined circulation of 27,000 copies.