Chapter

Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff has had a face lift; more than that, it is absolutely different from the place it once was - same from the outside (an old school building) but transformed inside to a swish, plush, glossy set of rooms one of which is a large restaurant/cafe, another an art gallery, another a theatre and two others which are cinemas. I never much liked Chapter in the past and I'm surprised that it is now so modern and welcoming; it used to be a place where artists and wierdos collected, where the rooms were uncomfortable - purposely so I felt - and where works of art and theatre vied with common sense for attention. In short, it was a poseur's paradise.
The art gallery is still full of a lot of junk (Tracey Emin would be at home there) and the theatrical events are, by their advertisements, avante garde to an excessive degree, too excessive to me. So I go there for the films.
In the cinemas in the city are films which are popular with kids and young people, especially during the holidays: Shrek, Toy Story 3, Avatar and so on; here in Chapter are films you may have read about in reviews when they reached London but don't reach the main distributors. Recently I have seen: "The Last Station" with a fine performance as Tolstoy from Christopher Plummer and another from Helen Mirren as his wife; "I am Love" with another fine performance from Tilda Swinton; "Greenberg" - dreadful; "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", a superb thriller from Sweden; and "Leaving" with a performance from Kristin Scott Thomas the like of which I have not seen many times - if any - before: it is subtle and scarilly OTT at the same time.
Seats are comfy, film quality good, dining before the film good though a bit trendy in its mainly Vegan food. Seats in the restaurant are comfy too, not like the old days when they were hard metal affairs whose flat place for one's bottom was a triangle - not with the point of the triangle at the front but at the back. I never tried one; they looked like the sort of thing the Stasi might have used for interrogation purposes.
I must try their Welsh burger and chips next time - vegetable burger!