Quillan has a cinema: Le Familia, two minutes along the Grand Rue from our apartment. It shows some films as VO (original version with French subtitles).
Unfortunately my French is not good enough to enjoy most films in French so both films I’ve been to here have been VO. Tonight it’s La Voie de l’ennemi.
I arrive five minutes before start time and ask for a ticket. I am the first customer and the woman behind the counter explains that she will not or cannot sell me a ticket. Not yet. She needs at least four people to turn up for the film, otherwise it will be cancelled. Luckily we soon pass that threshold: eight people. We sit well away from each other in a theatre with about 200 seats. There’s no way they can make a profit from these screenings, not at six euros for a full-price ticket, and not with just eight customers (most of whom bought reduced-price tickets). The other VO film I went to here had only four in the audience.
It turns out that some of the dialogue is in Spanish, so for those bits I have to try and read the French subtitles. I’m sure it’s good for me.
This looks like one of the classic small back-street cinemas I remember from student days in Besançon and our somewhat later family stay in the 14ème arrondissement of Paris (métro Plaisance). 6 euros or less a pop is certainly a good price and great for you to be able to see VO English versions. I still struggle with understanding the soundtrack of French VO films without subtitle support, so you’re doing well, Stephen!
There are sometmes very small numbers at the theatre here too. I suspect it doesn’t cost as much to show a film these days as it did years ago. It would have been an interesting experience for you and so close to the apartment! Were you able to buy an ice-cream at the interval!?
When I go to the movies I always like to buy an ice cream. Not possible here, though. They sell movie tickets, bags of lollies, and nothing else. I took my own bag of crisps into the cinema, then felt ashamed of the noise I was making eating them. A man in the row in front of me moved further away, apparently because of my crisps noise.
Bizarrely, despite having a movie theatre along the road, I haven’t been once to a film – and I see their programme finishes at the end of June, so I had better get in quickly…
Ha, Ha. We had a similar experience when we visited Quillan cinema – Just two of us – needed four for the movie. 🙂