Going to the movies

One of my great distractions and loves in life is going to the movies, I've always preferred films seen in proper big screen theaters. I particularly love foreign films and was an avid attendee of Portland's annual International Film Festival and looked forward to seeing lots in Paris.  However, in France, I end up seeing mostly English language films because everything that is not filmed in French already is obviously subtitled in French so all the international films are a bit of a challenge, something I had not thought through before arriving. But I have to say that I now try to keep up with reading the subtitles in French with the English films so I can acquire a bit more vocabulary.   I, of course, have seen quite a few French films as well as some Italian and Spanish ones with Gabriella's translation help. As I get better in French, I'm seeing more of those although I certainly still need some help understanding but I keep trying.  Some movie theaters only show movies dubbed in French so there's no need from the French to read the subtitles but I really hate dubbed anything, about 1/2 the TV shows here are dubbed American series, so we avoid those theaters. Paris is a huge movie-loving city.  There are large cinemas as well as tons and tons of very small, quaint places showing everything from the first silent films to the latest blockbusters. Paris is also a destination for the study of film where there are universities dedicated to this as well as  large collections of films for example at the Centre Pompidou < http://www.centrepompidou.fr/ > and Le Forum des Images < http://www.forumdesimages.fr/ >, but also bookstores dedicated to film, and just about anything else dealing with film one could hope to find in one place.   The experience of going to the movies is a bit different in Paris.  Once you have purchased your ticket, most often from a person inside the theater, although Les Halles is an exception with its new self-service kiosks and everything is inside and underground, you have to go outside and wait in the elements, standing in line until they are ready to let you inside. They most often don't open the doors until the actual time that the movie is supposed to begin or close to it.  It's very annoying when it's cold or rainy or you're just tired.  When they finally open the doors everyone then races in to get a good seat.  Most theaters do not sell anything to eat or drink, which was a real shock to me since eating popcorn at the movies is part of the movie experience for Americans.  I guess it saves on staff and cleanup time and definitely the cost of the film for movie-goers.  We did eat popcorn once at one of the few cinemas that sells it and believe me it will be the last time!  That was the worst stuff I've ever eaten and I just couldn't figure out in which of the last 3 decades it had been popped? Another annoying feature of Parisian cinemas is that the rows of seats are placed so close together that you cannot more your legs during the whole movie.  It's actually worse than being in the economy class on airplanes, which is hard to beat. I try to sit on the end of the rows so I can at least stretch out one leg. Even with the obstacles I've mentioned, going to the movies remains one of my favorite things to do and this weekend we saw Up in the Air and Sherlock Homes.