Going to the cinema in Paris is a citywide pastime. Here most people go at least once a week and you are never far from a cinema. The Parisians are effusive about their cinema and always have strong opinions on films especially french ones.
One thing that surprised me when I first moved here was how many french made films there are. Obviously I used to pretend to be all high brow in Dublin and go to french films in the IFI, so I was aware of their existence but there are tons of new french films released here every year. I hear tell this is due to government sponsorship etc etc, and people who work on films here are paid even when they are not working, to keep the trade going etc.
#thingsiloveaboutparis
Anyway this national obsession with cinema has resulted in the subscription card. All the cinema chains have them, I'm a UGC girl myself. This means you pay 20 euro a month and you can go to the cinema unlimited amount of times. I just recently upgraded to the 35 euro a month option which means you can bring someone with you. Today I went with fashionbomb Claire to Les Halles and we saw Nine and Valentines Day back to back. (not much to report on either film, Val Day wasn't as bad as anticipated!). At 10euros normal price a ticket, that card just paid for itself in one afternoon!
#annoyingthingsaboutparis
If you want to go to the movies in Paris, you need to book in advance if possible, because they run all the films in the same time frame, so its always a mad house when you arrive to get your ticket. Also they do not let you into the theater until the exact time of the film, which results in long tense queues as people jostle to be the first into the cinema... seriously annoying! Then every film there is the couple that arrive late and start demanding that others move so that they can have a seat together.
Anyway as I am now making more of an effort to assimilate (probably not the right word, I'll never be thin or miserable enough looking to be mistaken for a real Parisienne!) I have promised myself that I will go to more french films, as I have been very lazy about going just to VO (version originale ie English) films for a long time now. At least two in the near future are spiking my interest...
2 comments:
I like the subscription card idea. But it does sound like they need to rethink the process of getting people into the theaters.
Its a nightmare. You have usually eaten all your popcorn before the movie starts!
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