seeing Bond in France

Upon my brother's arrival, one of the first orders of business was to see Skyfall (it came out earlier in France than in the U.S., which is strange considering Les Mis will come out here months later than everywhere else. Even though it's about France. I'm not bitter.). So after riding up to the Bastille on top of the mountain and braving a true blizzard (and I know blizzards), we dried off a little, put plastic sacks around our feet to keep them dry in spite of our decidedly not waterproof shoes, and found the movie theater.

Joining the mob of people crammed into the foyer of the theater (any personal space issues have to be left in the states. This is France, where you don't smile at people but you should expect your face to end up in their armpit.), we eagerly awaited the inevitable opening chase scene. They finally let the ropes drop, and everyone ran into the theater. The huge, plush seats of even the budget theaters in France really do put ours to shame, although I guess I'm more used to the dollar theater folding chairs.

As the trailers started rolling, we both had a terrible realization: we hadn't checked whether this theater played movies in French or English. The first theater we'd checked was in English, but we just ran into this one because we saw it was starting right then, and we didn't even look for the VO signifying version originale or you'll be able to understand this one (I'm fine with normal French conversation, but dubbing still throws me off. Apparently I rely a lot on lip-reading). There was nothing to do but wait and see, and eventually the opening chase scene began. The running and heavy breathing and shooting was all very exciting and suspenseful, but it was doubly suspenseful because NO ONE WAS TALKING and we had to wait five minutes before it became apparent that they would be speaking... French.

Sooo we climbed over the people next to us and left, while I used some really good French to ask for a refund (I'm pretty sure it involved making up a verb and some sign language, but we did get the refund)! And off we went to the first theater, where we got tickets and then embarked on the longest, most epic hike ever made inside of a building. No joke, this theater was some kind of labyrinth, and it took us probably close to ten minutes to get from the entrance to our theater. We may have been underground in an ancient secret Roman tunnel for all the stairs and creepy hallways we went through.

Thanks to the maze, we missed the first few minutes, but thankfully we'd already seen them and knew that no talking had happened. And then I got to sit back and enjoy the only time when I actually feel smart in France-- I understand the movie a split second before they can read the sub-titles, and I make sure to react in that split-second with a fitting gasp or laugh just so they know how smart and English-knowing I am.

I'm sure they were all very impressed with my English-knowing.