Le happy ending
Last night, EPI and I decided to take in a movie. There’s a French film festival currently on [organized by the superactive Alliance Francais – props to them] and because EPI and I share an enthusiasm for French films we were both really looking forward to it. The film was called Ne Le Dis à Personne and was reported to be good.
So we head for Háskólabíó, buy our tickets, and get some popcorn. Were slightly disappointed to find that the film had been relegated to the smallest theatre, down in the basement next to the toilets, with those horribly uncomfortable seats that have absolutely no springs left in the cushions. I kind of expected we’d be alone in the theatre, but no it was packed with high school kids. Not that we minded – they all seemed to be in good spirits and during the previews only two cellphones rang and nobody had their feet up on the seats near us and there was no screaming or throwing of popcorn or anything.
So anyway, the previews start, hum-de-hum-de-hum, and we’re already halfway through our popcorn, and finally – finally – the movie gets underway. And within two minutes it becomes obvious that this is the wrong movie. So I look at EPI and EPI looks at me and we just kind of shake our heads, you know, because this is only the third frigging time this happens to us in the last few weeks. [Casino Royale started out as Home for the Holidays and it took them half a frigging hour to correct their mistake, and when we went to see Little Children we were instructed to leave the theatre after the previews because – oops! – they’d screwed up and Little Children was actually showing in another auditorium but unfortunately it was already well into the movie and they couldn’t rewind and, well, hard luck, eh? Tja.]
Incidentally, have I mentioned that it is virtually impossible to go to the movies here in Iceland without some sort of stupid annoyance like this? If it’s not the wrong movie, it’s that the subtitles are missing, or they belong to another movie, or they’re not in sync [try watching a movie where the subtitles are always thirty seconds ahead of the action], or they forget to turn the lights out, or there are black blobs all over the screen, or they clip the movie right when it ends without letting you watch any of the credits, or if all of this is OK you can be sure that either a) somebody squeezes into the seat beside you and proceeds to eat a huge order hamburger and fries with the accompanying deep-fry smell and rustling of bags etc. or b) there’s no paper in the ladies’.
So anyway, we both just shrugged and figured we wouldn’t have to do any of the complaining this time around because this was clearly a class outing for the high school kids who were probably supposed to do an assignment and they’d be quick to ring the alarm. Which is precisely what happened. So while the teachers, students, et. al. hung around upstairs trying to sort out the issue with the teenaged cinema staff, EPI and I finished our popcorn and proceeded to watch the movie they had put on, which actually started to look rather promising. And which in fact turned out to be excellent, Paris je t'aime, a series of five-minute vignettes, blog posts on film if you will, by a bunch of famous and not-so famous directors who give their take on love in Paris. I can highly recommend it. And we got comps to the other film as well. Score!
THE WEATHER HAS BEEN ANNOYING AS HELL
Last night we had one of these kinds of incidents, only much much worse. [You can watch it here if you want.] The embankment down by the shore was actually severed so the waves crashed on land, sending huge rocks and sea gunk flying and flooding the nearby road. Serious stuff. We’ve had one low-pressure area after another come through, meaning it’s been frightful stormy, then a few hours of semi-calm, and then stormy again. Thankfully temps have risen a little bit so we don’t have that killer windchill now, but it sure is blowing out there now with buckets of rain coming down. And running is no fun in this weather. Currently 7°C [45F] and sunrise was at 7:23 am sunset at 19:48.
One more thing: Before I quit tonight I must pass on this link to you: Knut’s blog [via Timbo]. Proceed with caution, though, you may just find yourself overwhelmed by the cuteness. PS make sure you watch the video.
So we head for Háskólabíó, buy our tickets, and get some popcorn. Were slightly disappointed to find that the film had been relegated to the smallest theatre, down in the basement next to the toilets, with those horribly uncomfortable seats that have absolutely no springs left in the cushions. I kind of expected we’d be alone in the theatre, but no it was packed with high school kids. Not that we minded – they all seemed to be in good spirits and during the previews only two cellphones rang and nobody had their feet up on the seats near us and there was no screaming or throwing of popcorn or anything.
So anyway, the previews start, hum-de-hum-de-hum, and we’re already halfway through our popcorn, and finally – finally – the movie gets underway. And within two minutes it becomes obvious that this is the wrong movie. So I look at EPI and EPI looks at me and we just kind of shake our heads, you know, because this is only the third frigging time this happens to us in the last few weeks. [Casino Royale started out as Home for the Holidays and it took them half a frigging hour to correct their mistake, and when we went to see Little Children we were instructed to leave the theatre after the previews because – oops! – they’d screwed up and Little Children was actually showing in another auditorium but unfortunately it was already well into the movie and they couldn’t rewind and, well, hard luck, eh? Tja.]
Incidentally, have I mentioned that it is virtually impossible to go to the movies here in Iceland without some sort of stupid annoyance like this? If it’s not the wrong movie, it’s that the subtitles are missing, or they belong to another movie, or they’re not in sync [try watching a movie where the subtitles are always thirty seconds ahead of the action], or they forget to turn the lights out, or there are black blobs all over the screen, or they clip the movie right when it ends without letting you watch any of the credits, or if all of this is OK you can be sure that either a) somebody squeezes into the seat beside you and proceeds to eat a huge order hamburger and fries with the accompanying deep-fry smell and rustling of bags etc. or b) there’s no paper in the ladies’.
So anyway, we both just shrugged and figured we wouldn’t have to do any of the complaining this time around because this was clearly a class outing for the high school kids who were probably supposed to do an assignment and they’d be quick to ring the alarm. Which is precisely what happened. So while the teachers, students, et. al. hung around upstairs trying to sort out the issue with the teenaged cinema staff, EPI and I finished our popcorn and proceeded to watch the movie they had put on, which actually started to look rather promising. And which in fact turned out to be excellent, Paris je t'aime, a series of five-minute vignettes, blog posts on film if you will, by a bunch of famous and not-so famous directors who give their take on love in Paris. I can highly recommend it. And we got comps to the other film as well. Score!
THE WEATHER HAS BEEN ANNOYING AS HELL
Last night we had one of these kinds of incidents, only much much worse. [You can watch it here if you want.] The embankment down by the shore was actually severed so the waves crashed on land, sending huge rocks and sea gunk flying and flooding the nearby road. Serious stuff. We’ve had one low-pressure area after another come through, meaning it’s been frightful stormy, then a few hours of semi-calm, and then stormy again. Thankfully temps have risen a little bit so we don’t have that killer windchill now, but it sure is blowing out there now with buckets of rain coming down. And running is no fun in this weather. Currently 7°C [45F] and sunrise was at 7:23 am sunset at 19:48.
One more thing: Before I quit tonight I must pass on this link to you: Knut’s blog [via Timbo]. Proceed with caution, though, you may just find yourself overwhelmed by the cuteness. PS make sure you watch the video.
Labels: Rants, Social concerns
posted by Alda at 11:30 PM
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