On Tuesday, 28 September 2021, the world premiere of No Time to Die took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Originally, the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise was supposed to come out in April 2020, but the premiere was put off for almost one and a half years because of the pandemic.
I watched several red carpet interviews, and came across a few interesting phrases. Rami Malek, who played the villain Safin, answering the question about what the James Bond franchise means to him, described it as ‘a film that’s tethered to our cinematic fabric’. And Daniel Craig, describing his feelings about the long awaited premiere, said ‘a year ago that just felt like a pie in the sky situation’ and ‘it’s all gravy for me from now on’.
I saw No Time to Die a week later, on 7 October, the day of the Russian premiere, at the newly restored Khudozhestvenny, one of the oldest (and most beautiful) cinemas in the world. I loved the film for its allusions to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, for the scenes in the Italian city of Matera, for Lea Seydoux’s looks, for the opening titles to Billie Eilish’s song (which I’ve been listening to since April 2020), for the closing scene at M’s office, for Q, to name but a few reasons.
Speaking about the looks and going back to the royal premiere, Daniel Craig wore a pink velvet tuxedo jacket, from Anderson & Sheppard, Saville Row tailors. It divided opinions and, to my mind, was a classy way to stand out. I also liked the way they put it in the Evening Standard: ‘at least Craig stepped out with a bang’. No Time to Die was his fifth and last James Bond film, and he was the seventh actor to portray the character, if we count David Niven, who played in the 1967 spy parody comedy Casino Royale.
PS: I’ve realized that both phrases from Daniel’s interviews about the premiere that I mentioned above are to do with food. I’ve long since noticed there are lots of idioms related to food and baking in particular in English – involving pies, cakes, biscuits/cookies and so on. I’ll probably try and make a list some day.
19/11/2021
/Photo from https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2021/september/in-pictures-the-stars-walk-the-red-carpet-for-the-no-time-to-die-007-world-premiere-at-the-royal-albert-hall/