Stepping Out

Last night, as I stepped out into the wintry wet with the satisfied glow of a class presentation success still tingling in the tips of my ears, I thought it the perfect time to sweep by the Professors place and whisk him off to the movies. He is lucky to live merely minutes away from Cremorne and the gloriously showy Orpheum cinema, a faithfully restored art-deco building, born in 1935, now lost in modern Sydney.

So it was that I found myself skipping puddles in the faint coloured glow of neon, the Professor in hand, as we dodged through the rain along Military Road, he in a trench coat (with trackies on underneath!) me in my little brown woollen coat. Gliding into the old foyer carpeted in patterned red and orange, lit with stained glass lights, I must admit that for all I could tell, WE were in a technicolour movie together!

With tickets to see “The Life and Death of Peter Selles”, we settled into our red velvet seats in the marvellous wonder of the Walsh theatre, where I was able to enjoy the childish feeling of excitement that always comes with the cheesy sound of cinema adds, then the gradual dimming of lights and tease of “Coming Attractions”.

It seemed fitting, then, that we should spend the two hours looking back over the life of a movie star; costumes, old studio sets, expensive cars, famous scripts and artistic tantrums. In the case of Peter Selles, the glamour and awe surrounding him was tarnished by the self-indulgence of fame and fortune, making his life somewhat of a miserable tragedy. The professor and I, however, stepped lightly from the scenes of our 1940s Romantic Drama and happily back into our 2004 Sydney life, but not before a kiss goodnight in the rain…