Cinestar de Filmpalast

For many reasons, it was time that we found our local movie theatre. As one who prides herself as a “diehard” film buff, 10 weeks has to be the longest time I have ever gone without heading to the movies. I was way past the “let’s see a movie” withdrawal stage; as many of you know, I was easily up to 3 movies a day back in the US. No, I was past the point of even missing catching a flick at the local theater. And, that was unnerving me quite a bit. Hence, reason #1 to get a local movie theater scoped out.

Reason #2 is a basic survival technique: with the recent onslaught of hot weather we have been having in Düsseldorf, a cold A/C movie theater was starting to sound really attractive.

Having done some reconnaissance in the Oberkassel area where we live, I located a movie theater that appeared to have a number of screens and films. After chatting with a few expats, I quickly learned that the Oberkassel Cinestar de Filmpalast has the most screens devoted to “OV” films. For those of you not familiar with this term, it stands for “original version”. In Germany (unlike Seoul and Taipei), films made outside of Germany are dubbed into German, rather than having German subtitles. So, if we are keen to see the new Star Wars flick, I need to look for a showing that has “OV” at the end of the title. This is essentially telling me that the film is being shown in its original version: for US films, it will be in English. Otherwise, Darth Vader will be speaking in German (having now seen this movie and hearing the less than riveting dialogue, I am not so sure that English is a real requirement).

Once we knew the movie theater existed, how were we to find the movie showtimes? The typical ways of calling up the theater or reading it in the newspaper were not really an option, as they are in German. Thank heavens for the internet (theater has website in English) and GPS tracking (after doing some advance reconnaissance before our first movie experience in Germany, we found the theater is a mere 5 miles away). OK, #1 - movie theater identified – check. #2 - exact location of theater found – check. (I sound like Monica Geller as she is preparing for her trip to London for Ross's wedding - know which Friends episode I am talking about????) Now, we were ready to let the games begin…

Last evening, Buddy and I made our inaugural visit to the Cinestar Kino (theater). Unfortunately, the English language films are the typical Hollywood blockbuster types that do not always portray America very realistically (we had the same issue in Seoul and Taipei). Lots of films dealing with either guns or war, comic book superheroes, science fiction, and tough guys with fast cars seem to be the only US film exports. No wonder the rest of the world has such a skewed view of the US. (Joe and JoBeth – forget seeing anything even remotely resembling an arthouse film). So, what were our options?

· Krieg der Weiten (War of the Worlds)
· So was wie Liebe (A Lot Like Love)
· Batman Begins
· Star Wars: Episode III – Die Rache der Sith
· Sahara

Nothing really excited us, but the thought of a non air-conditioned apartment excited us even less. Star Wars it was!

It is so interesting to me how the simplest of activities, like going to the movie theater, can be so different in another country. Here are a few examples:

· Assigned seating – Buddy and I were not thrown off balance when the ticket sales guy asked us this question, “What seats do you want?” We also had assigned seating in movie theaters in Seoul and Taipei and loved it! According to Amber G., Colombian movie theaters follow a similar practice. You can buy your ticket, get your assigned seat, and then there is no racing to the theater to scope out your preferred seats. You can enter the theater just as the film begins and follow everyone else in an orderly procession to their assigned seats. Just makes so much sense….come on US movie theaters – get with the program!

· Sweet or salty? – When ordering popcorn, the question is not “with or without butter?” It is “do you want sweet or salty popcorn?” Not sure exactly what sweet popcorn is, but I suspect it is something like caramel corn. Either way, the popcorn is not as tasty, but again, we could make the adjustment. Better than the Taipei and Seoul options (dried fish snack or a bulgogi burger).

· Start time – If the movie is advertised as starting at 8:00 pm in the US (or in this case 20:00 - I need to brush up on my military time), the advertisements and film previews often start a bit before that. Well, last night’s film actually began at 8:20; it was so late in starting that we thought we had wandered into the wrong theater. Now, I can get on board with this, especially if I am running a bit late; I’ll always know I have this 10-15 minutes built in cushion of time before the main event begins.

All in all, an enjoyable evening at our local kino. What is coming up in the near future at our theater? Herr und Frau Schmidt…yes, I will even go see this….beggars can’t be choosers….