Monday 1 November 2010

A northern movie theatre

Have I ever mentioned the movie theatre up here?  Because I don't think I'll ever be to one that's quite the same.  Here's a little description to give you an idea of what it's like....
1.  It boasts two screens, and plays anywhere from 2 to 4 movies a night (generally a 7pm showing and a 9pm showing.  Middle of the week they often switch which movies are on early and which are on late) The two screens are rooms that have  50 and 80 seats (approximately, having counted while waiting for a movie to start) each.
2.  If you show up before the exact time the movie starts, they will have cable shows playing onscreen.  Sometimes cooking shows, sometimes documentaries, you can never guarantee what you'll see, but it's definitely cable.
3.  There's never any commercials/previews at the start, the movie simply starts exactly when they say it will.  You learn not to show up late!
4. The owner of the theatre will often pop in and watch part of the movie with everyone (since it's rare to be completely sold out of seats).  He then makes comments about the movie as he opens the exit doors at the end and chats with people as they leave.
5.  Every eleventh movie is free if you save your stubs.
6.  Up until a couple of weeks ago, the movies were still shown on old-school film... that sometimes just stopped running or melted onscreen.  Which also meant that it took forever to ship up and sometimes a movie was shown at the same time as you could go out and rent it from the rental store.  Apparently they just bought digital projectors, which means we might even get to see movies at the same time as they are released down south!
7.  Small as the theater is, you never really go there alone, you'll always meet someone you know in the audience.  Last time I went randomly, I even got a ride home from a friend who I realized was a row ahead of me, but didn't notice her until the lights came on after the movie!
8.  Unlike the fancy theaters in other places, here there is no touch-tone phone message about movies, or computerized voice telling you things if you phone the theatre.  Instead, the owner leaves a new message every day about the movies that are currently playing at what times.  He tends to be a bit of a character.  One time his film reels were late arriving, so he went on for a while about how bad the post office is and that he was re-playing a film from a few weeks ago, to call back tomorrow to see what he decides to play then.  Just last week, after listing off the movies for that night, he mentioned 3 of the four movies for the friday as well, said he forgot what the other one was, laughed, and then started a monologue about the dump fires and what he believes should be done about it.  We discussed this guy at work the other day, and many of us believe he's probably the most influential, or at least the most listened to news source in town, cause he can say WHATEVER he wants, and a lot of people listen to him.  Even if you're not going to the movies, it can be interesting to call the theatre just to see what the day's message is!
9.  If you go through the lobby at the end of the movie, the owner's dog is there to greet you.

I don't know if I'll ever find a theatre quite like this again.

1 comment:

Esther said...

give me the number, this post makes want to call and hear the recordings!