I'd better change my name to RoofNOtrouser

because Rooftrouser is just too ironic a name for someone who keeps losing his strides. Anyway enough of my shopping woes, suffice it to say that I ended up making two visits to Brighton on consecutive days as a result of my trouser troubles, during which I also managed to see two very interesting films.

Julie Delpy @ SF Apple Store promoting "2 Days in Paris", 2007/7/29 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First up was 2 Days in New York, Julie Delpy's sequel to her 2007 film about a French woman taking her American boyfriend to meet her family: Two Days in Paris.

La Delpy is an amazing film-maker in my opinion, perhaps deserving comparison with Woody Allen as an auteur. She not only writes, directs and acts but also has a hand in the composition of the original score. She employed her own mother and father and they turned out to be among the best things in "Paris". I particularly loved it because I recognised so much from my own painful introductions to a French girlfriend's relatives and friends long ago.

Sadly, her mother (who played Marion's mother in the first film) has since passed away but her wonderful, eccentric larger-than life actor father is still with us and features strongly in Two Days in New York. It loses a little for me in moving from an environment I'm familiar with, and it felt a bit chaotic structurally, nevertheless it was very enjoyable to be re-united with Marion (Delpy), her nymphomaniac sister Rose (played by Alexia Landeau) and Manu (Alexandre Nahon) her boyfriend, who is also an "ex" of Marion. Both Landeau and Nahon also had a hand in Delpy's screenplay.

PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 19: (L-R) Alexia Landeau, Chris Rock, Julie Delpy, Albert Delpy, Alex Nahon and Christophe Mazodier attend '2 Days In New York' Paris Premiere at Mk2 Bibliotheque on March 19, 2012 in Paris, France. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The story has moved on from Paris and Delpy is no longer going out with Jack but has another American boyfriend, divorced father Mingus (played by Chris Rock), she also has a child from her previous relationship, as does Mingus.

Chris Rock's performance was a pleasant surprise, being relatively understated in comparison to Delpy's "family" which worked nicely as a foil to the excesses of Jeannot, Rose and Manu. I have previously come across him in manic, shrill, action-movie mode but there is clearly a lot more to him as an actor than I gave him credit for.

While I perhaps didn't like this quite as much as the first, I enjoyed it very much and hope Delpy and her "family" return. If it was 2 Days in Herne Bay with this lot I would definitely pay to see it.

The following day, while briefly being re-united with my new chinos (a trew story), I also took in the most promoted and talked about film of the moment: Prometheus. This is where Ridley Scott has been re-united with the "Alien" franchise and, his iconic film being the first of that series, this certainly warrants some interest. Prometheus is not exactly a prequel though, more of a pre-pre-prequel as it would, and perhaps will, take two more features to join up to the saga of the ill-fated Nostromo.

Its pedigree is an awful lot to live up to and inevitably there has been some disappointment expressed by many reviewers. It is though, I feel, an undeniably big event film which at times spectacularly delivers the kind of cinema experience that is expected of a sci-fi blockbuster. It has of course been shown extensively in 3d and Scott is careful to promote that, however he did let slip in an interview that the 2d print is beautiful and I wouldn't argue with that. I think I will probably settle for that and not see both versions as I did with Avatar. I've now seen enough 3d to conclude that I always prefer the 2d version even where the use of 3d has created interesting moments. The loss of light and colour for me is too much of a trade-off and I hope that it will be recognised that it is no  more than a gimmick and is not "the future of cinema". Most films look better without it, although I have no objection to the existence of films made purely for the process. I think there is probably a place for the occasional "fairground ride" film made solely for spectacle, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Any film with any pretention to grown up plot, character development and cinematographic beauty needs to give the old dark glasses the boot however and this is without addressing the issue of composing for 3d effect which inevitably impacts on the director's and DPs vision.

Anyway... I loved Prometheus because it looks beautiful, allowed me to escape from hosenverlustshmerz to a whole new world and is a good example of one of types of film I go to the cinema in the hope of seeing. Indeed it complements the Delpy/Allen species of film to make up the two extremes of film experience I love, on the one hand adventure, spectacle, scares, drama, special effects and on the other romance, comedy, and well-written intimate character driven pieces with relishable dialogue.

Cropped image from this file. Ridley Scott in New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Depite the criticisms, Prometheus was clearly set up to be the first of two or three films and I hope the series continues. I was not wholly happy with it myself but I'm not quite sure why. Certainly Alien was an impossibly hard act to follow. The claustrophobic horror, the design, the "monster", the android character: These are things that no longer have the shock of originality and this is not the fault of Scott or the cast but are simply inevitable. "Prom" has all sorts of echos, including monstrous alien "birth", a sentient android etc but can't be expected to beat the original at its own game.

Where it does score is in some of the lavish lovingly shot views of the moon and the ship which are indeed beautiful. I hope there's more to come and, if not entirely satisfied, am more than happy to have a big sci-fi film back on the screen. I should also mention that there is some real quality in the cast too, especially Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender,  although one area traditionally poor in these big SF films is the dialogue and this is no exception.

It just occurred to me that I already want to see both these films again so that must be a good sign!