Saturday was Hayward’s hottest day this year, or so it seemed; so we went to a place where, for a fee, we could sit in coolth for a while. As a bonus, they showed us Hero (英雄), the most gorgeous piece of film we’ve seen in years.
Later: The following weekend was another scorcher, and we saw Vanity Fair, which stinks. Reese Witherspoon (who was so brilliant in Freeway) plays Becky Sharp on one note, and the plot is violently compressed for time. — Anachronism?: the regiment embarks for “Belgium” to meet Bonaparte. The kingdom of Belgium was created fifteen years after the battle of Waterloo; so what would the English have called that country at the time? Flanders, I guess, though Waterloo is not in Flanders proper.