Let's go to the movies!

Just a block from the  apartment that we stayed in for a month on Boulevard Edouard Rey , there is a petit cinéma that is big on glitz.  It is very inviting and reminds me of the movie theatres I would see in old films when I was a child.  The type of place you feel as though  you need to dress up in order to fit in.  It’s called Le Nef, and as you can see from the picture it blazes with lights at night.  There is a handy  vélo stand outside because it’s quite popular for people to ride their vélos to the movies even at night. This picture was taken at about 22h (10 p.m.)

Le Nef

We had wanted to go to see a movie, but just had not gotten around to it with all the other things going on in town.  Finally, on Saturday we made our way.  The big decision was what to see,  always an interesting exercise for Steve and me.  There have been times that we have gone to the movies together  and then parted at the ticket counter, going to see different movies.  (It’s usually when the choices are between Predator and a chick flick.) But for this, our  first foray into a french cinéma, there was not much discussion.  Let’s see  Toy Story 3.  And surprisingly, it is not called by anything else here in France.  I’m not sure how it is presented in America, but here almost all the theatres are showing it in 3-D.  We arrived at the cinéma early since we weren’t sure about getting tickets and the glasses.  Pas de problème! We stepped up to the only ticket counter and managed to purchase the tickets @ 11,90 € each ($15.00!)  and the glasses @1€ (about$ 1.25). The glasses came hygienically packaged, and you keep them for your next visit to a 3-D movie. That may be a while for us with the price of movies unless we find a cheaper theatre.  I guess  the  video store  about 2 blocks away will be seeing us more than the cinéma.

We sat through some coming attractions, and then the movie started.  We had hoped we would get some help with subtitles since it is originally an American (english) film. No such luck. The movie was dubbed in french. I think they tried to get “dubbers” that sounded somewhat like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, but since they were speaking  in french it was hard for me to tell if they had succeeded.

Yesterday we found another cinema, Le Club  cinema, tucked into an alleyway  as we were wandering near our apartment.  It seems that Marilyn Monroe holds the same fascination for the French that she still seems to have for Americans.   Our next evening at the movies will probably be to this cinéma.

5 Club cinémas - Le Club

Since Steve now has a library card with la bibliothéque , he can borrow DVDs  at the branch  near  L’office de Tourisme de Grenoble.   We have been watching them with the original french dialogue and turning on the french subtitles option on the DVD player.  It’s getting better, but we can still understand better by reading than when we just listen.  Unfortunately, for now they still speak faster than our brains can process!

petit cinéma: little movie house

Le Nef: the nave

vélos: bicycles

Pas de problème!: No Problem!

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