Sunday February 21st 2010

Last night we finally made it to the cinema. This was our third attempt, at the previous two, we had turned up only to find that it was sold out. Most people buy tickets on line but with no local bank account or credit cards that is not going to be possible for us for a while. We wanted to see Invictus so we drove to the cinema at around 1 o’clock to buy tickets for the 9.30 pm showing. We particularly wanted to see it because it was in the “VIP” suite and this intrigued us – what did that involve?

Well, it was sold out, so we decided instead to see “Up in the Air”. Not least so that I could drool over George Clooney. But more of the Cidade Jardim Cinemax and George later.

We love going to the cinema, and it is interesting to compare different attitudes to movies around the world. In the UK, growing up, the movies were a big treat. My mum didn’t drive so it was a bus ride into the “big” city and in those days. There was an intermission with the lady standing at the front selling ice-cream. Another huge treat. Strawberry, I recall was the favourite.

When we went to Manila the cinemas there were very noisy and distracting. No such etiquette as keeping your mobile phone switched off. And here’s something very interesting about Manila. They had a continuous program so you never bothered to find out the start time of the movie, probably because the timetable was never adhered to anyway. You just turned up, went in, watched the end of the movie, sat through the trailers and adverts and then watched the start of it. When you got to the point at which you had come in, you simply left. It didn’t matter that you were disturbing anyone else, everyone did it.

The only people that got really annoyed were those holding video cameras, filming the action in order to make pirate videos. If you bought a really bad pirate video, they didn’t even bother to chop out the bits where other cinema goers were walking in front of the camera, so every now and then, you would see the black shadow of people walking along the bottom.

Then we discovered “Louie’s”. Louie, I believe was the son of a wealthy Filipino family who had sadly died at a young age, I think in a car crash but my memory might be deceiving me. No matter. The family wanted to create a memorial to their son and built a cinema, naming it after him. Whether it is still the same today I don’t know, but it was an oasis of civilization. You had to be a member, and membership entitled you to so many tickets a month. This was pre “booking on line”, so it involved sending the driver to collect tickets, but everyone turned up on time – most of the time, watched the film and left. There was a bar and because we were members and entitled to so many tickets per month, we actually saw a good number of films.

In Turkey, there were two 60 seat cinemas in our apartment complex. This was very sociable and we went there a lot. There was a good restaurant and because we could walk across the road, it made a great night out. Although the two salons were small, they had large reclining chairs – rather like seats in First Class on an airplane. On Friday nights they served (albeit not Pol Roger) sparkling wine. We had never come across anything like it. They even showed pretty good films!

In Sweden we went to the movies a lot, especially once we had our lovely Filipino au pair and could actually go out with each other. We quickly mastered the art of buying tickets on line and you could even pick a seat. Great in theory until they changed the auditorium, at which point it was a free for all, but on the whole the system worked.

In Paris I don’t think that we ever went to the movies for the simple reason that the movies were dubbed. Everywhere else we have lived, there are simply sub-titles, but that is not good enough for the French. It is very bizarre watching a favourite actor but not hearing their own voice. If we could have been bothered, then we could have driven into the centre of Paris where they showed films “VO” Version Original, i.e. in the original language with sub titles, but with still young children it was a bit of a hassle so we didn’t bother.

Cinema in the States was simple and fun. Big screens and lots of them. Popcorn in huge oversized bags and a bucket of ice with a splash of cola costing $ 10 and you are all set. We went very often, and the four of us have even been known to co-ordinate it so that we all would go and watch a different movie , meeting up afterwards.

But back to Cidade Jardim. We settled for George Clooney and screen number 2. We had booked actual seats, which was very civilized, so we could turn up at 6.50pm for a film starting at 6.50pm. We love to be right at the back and that usually involves turning up at least half an hour early in the United States. So we had a drink before and went in. Seats at the ready, back row. What a lovely treat; a double seat, optional arm rest, leather, partially reclining with a leg rest and very large – bliss. Mind you at US$ 24 a ticket, we were expecting something special.

Now if only we had known, we would have brought the bottle of wine in with us.
With standards like this in screen number 2, what delights await in the VIP suite? That will be a treat for another day.