Shadows and dust

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2009)

Up until a few years ago, the Notting Hill Coronet was my favourite cinema in London. Not because they showed anything particularly special, but because, for a long time (and this sounds amazing now), it was the only cinema in the capital which still let you smoke in it. I even saw Hannibal there, and a couple of dodgy Shyamalans, just so I could savour the sensation of lighting up in an enclosed public space.
The best film I ever caught there, fag in grateful gob, was Ridley Scott's sword 'n' sandal smash. Before the turn of the decade, if you'd told someone you were making a movie about gladiators, they'd have laughed in your face, and quoted that line from Airplane! back at you. So to turn such a laughable genre into pure gold, one of the most purely entertaining films ever made, is no mean feat.
Neither is what I did on June 10 2008, around lunchtime, when I decided, after 20 years faithful servitude, to smoke my last ever cigarette. Just typing that feels weird. One day at a time.