You know those things that people say about a certain thing or place that are supposed to be trusted and believed without a doubt: foreigners don’t tip in American restaurants, old people smell funny and the French make great movies. These things you’ve been told. Yet, when it’s your turn experience what you’ve heard, things don’t always hold up. It’s all hype.
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ISA has a bunch of activities and excursions set up for the students. Last week, they took us to see a movie at the cinemas. I was really excited to because there were some French coming (we already met them) and it was my first movie. After knowing about how great French films are, I thought I was in for a treat.
The movie theatre was cool, with bright lights and an interesting set up. I wanted to get a snack but the French also employ the concept of “charging-outrageous-prices-at-movies,” so spending five Euros for a teaspoon of ice cream is as stupid here as it is in the states. The girls wanted to sit next to me (to practice their English of course) and we sat down for the movie.
The movie was “Lucky Luke” and it featured a lot of famous French actors and actresses. It was directed by a famous director and it cost a ton of money to produce. The girls were telling me how hyped up this movie was, but the reviews were mixed. My review: this movie was terrible. It was a comedy/adventure/drama/fill-in-the-blank movie, and it failed in all respects (I think, because it was in French with no English subtitles). The movie went in fifty different directions and the no-subtitles aspect didn’t help either. I had to have a friend (one of the girls) explain to me what was going on, but I didn’t want to ask her every 20 minutes. Of course, some parts were easy to understand, but even those segments were neither funny nor entertaining. Some of the dialogue was easy to understand, especially with the images, but the acting was noticeably lacking and the plot was hard to follow. Now, I don’t fancy myself a movie buff or critic, but I’ve seen enough movies to know a good one from a bad one, French or not. This one was terrible.
But aside from that, it was a good night. At the end, of the movie, we all walked out in awe of how horrible the movie was. We got on the metro and went our separate ways. I was speaking to one of the girls and when we reached the point of separation, there was a pause. This was the point where she expected me to engage her in that famous French act, the air kiss. I performed flawlessly… I think. Much better than the movie.
Photo- http://www.orgs.bucknell.edu/res_halls/RTK/KRSS/K3/ice-cream-cones.jpg
