Movie Going in France

Posted by Bridget Lux Jul 22, 2007

Movies have a greater power in our society these days than I think many of us realize. There are those films that are obviously produced for political purposes, such as “Sicko” or “Fahrenheit 9/11,” but for me, it was a film made for entertainment purposes that changed my life. “An American in Paris” features Gene Kelly and a very young Leslie Caron, but it was the setting that intrigued me. I fell in love with the little cafes and even the tiny apartments, the patisseries and cobble-stone streets.

That first viewing of “An American in Paris” was years ago, and since then, I’ve sought out films, along with books, based in Europe. When I told friends and family I was moving to Europe, at the time, I was planning to head to Italy. It wasn’t long after the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun” had come out, so many assumed that was my inspiration. Little did they know the seeds of this trip had been sown many, many years ago.

Even now that I live in France, I seek out movies set here. I’ve recently seen “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” which takes place in Paris and Grasse, among other French locations, I also watched “Ratatouille” and plan to rewatch “To Catch a Thief,” which actually takes place on the Riviera.

Movie going is much different in France, however. OK, so the biggest difference revolves around the lack of concessions. I feel very American when I say this, but popcorn, Junior Mints and other snacks are as much a part of going to the movies as the films themselves. Not so, here in France.

But that’s not the only difference. Since my French is not good enough for me to watch a movie in French, I go to the theaters that show films in their original version. The problem, however, is that I’m drawn to movies set in Europe and they often have portions in foreign languages. In the U.S., I imagine, those portions would contain subtitles. Not so, here. The English portions have French subtitles.

Last May, I watched “The Da Vinci Code” and yesterday I saw “2 Days in Paris.” Both films have large portions in French. Of course, both times, the people I was with spoke French, so they didn’t have any problem following the films. Another time, a friend and I went to “The Black Book,” which we thought was going to be in English, but turned out to be in Dutch with French subtitles! Ugh. Nearly three hours of concentrating incredibly hard on the subtitles gave me a huge headache. My friend, naturally, was Dutch.

So, while my movie going experiences here in France have been a little more challenging than I’d like, it is the differences of living in France that make it interesting and I wouldn’t have it any other way.