Curious texts on a Saturday night giving last minute directions to candle lit pathways, if you think you know where this is going, think again, far from an illegal rave this was an evening of Culture in a Community space.
What really took us back to the eighties wasn’t the fairy lights around the tree trunks, but the film that was being projected onto a white cloth between the trees, The Company of Wolves. This 1984 film was an adaption of one of the short stories in Angela Carter’s award winning book, The Bloody Chamber. All the stories in the collection were based on Fairy Tales with The Company of Wolves referencing Little Red Riding Hood. Although to quote Angela Carter “My intention was not to do ‘versions’ or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, ‘adult’ fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories.”
This is a complex film, that was rightfully nominated for four BAFTAs at the time and a truly wonderful film to watch in a wood, thirty years later in the middle of the night with a glass of chilled wine to hand.
After the film there were fireworks over the lake and at least one group watching opera on an iphone, it may not quite have been Glyndebourne but it was definitely the sort of thing that makes you happy to live in Chorleywood. Those not on the “guest list” this time round should do all they can to work out who might have been responsible and ensure they receive a text if this happens again.
