Ever go see a movie in another country?

We saw The Young Poisoners Handbook in Covent Garden, Ridicule at the Minema Cinema in Knightsbridge and Seducing Dr Lewis in Montreal.
I know there are more, but ....

Although it was another country, I'm not sure that the UK would really qualify, as it wasn't foreign language, but.....

I spent a couple of years in the UK during 7th & 8th grade, I also spent many summers there as a child.

I loved going to the movies there. I'm not sure if they still do it this way, but they actually had an intermission where the candy lady would walk around with a box strapped around her neck selling candy, ice cream and drinks. Then the second half of the movie would start.

I would work very hard in school during the week so that I could earn my movie time on the weekends. It was a much different experience than going to the movies in Florida.

Well, I probably don't count because at this point I'm not sure what the "other country" is, but we do watch movies in Paris all the time. It's a fantastic city for cinema! American movies are mostly projected in "VO," with the English-language soundtrack and French subtitles. (In the provinces they are mostly dubbed in French.) If you happen to read French, you can watch an amazing range of movies from other countries with French subtitles. Otherwise there are two "curiosities" -- for me, at least. One are the (often very well produced) advertisements before the feature film ,and the other are the rare, charming occasions when the audience applauds at the end of the film.

I've seen a number of movies in France, but look for the VO (original version, hopefully English) with French subtitles. We got fooled once at a film I'd only heard of and saw it was VO, but once it started realized it was an Italian movie, so was in Italian, with French subtitles. OOOPS.

This past summer we watched Shrek2 in Cannes (in English). I enjoyed watching the subtitles too, and I'm trying to remember the name one character called another -- "ass" maybe? But the subtitle said "lapin" -- huh? Rabbit just wasn't the same as the English word!

I wanted to go to one of the summer outdoor movies in Greece, but never did.

When I was a small child we lived in Spain for about 10 months. It was extremely disappointing for my sister and I to go and see the animated film "Puss in Boots" and find out it was all in Spanish.

Also saw "Bird on a Wire" (with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn) in San Jose, Costa Rica. It was horrible, even in Spanish. Really terrible, almost almost funny.

There have been others but those two really stand out.

But weren't they at a porn movie in "A Little Romance"...?

A week ago in Vegas we saw Jack Cousteau's 3-D movie "Sharks", it was wonderful, educational and entertaining.

I saw one of the superman movies in Bogor, West Java.

For fun years ago (many), I went to see "West Side Story" in Madrid, which was dubbed in Spanish.
I also saw "Escape From New York" (dubbed in Italian) in Rome" and "The Passion" in Naples.
Certainly adds a strange dimension. Especially seeing Natalie Wood speaking "Good" Spanish when her Spanish accent was so bad in the movie.
What I think is the most interesting is seeing a well known actor, like Sean Connery for instance, who has a deep voice, dubbed in with a reedy tenor voice.

Yes I have and it was great fun. I've seen movies in French in Switzerland and Spanish in Mexico.

I choose "trashy" movies so my lack of language skills doesn't get in the way of the plot (or lack thereof). Think Wesley Snipes in that vampire series and the like.

Nothing brings out cultural differences like humor.

I saw the original "Odd Couple" (Lemmon/Matthau) in London (in whatever year that was when it came out). You can scarcely imagine a more Noo Yawk movie, and it got a very different reaction from the British audience compared to what I thought would have been a US reaction. As it was, they all laughed at things that I either didn't think were funny or that I was pretty sure were meant only to be passingly droll; and I ROARED at things when not one other member of the audience was laughing. It was disorienting, not to mention embarrassing.

Eventually, I found myself watching to see if the pacing was intended to allow for laughing when I laughed, or for when the British audience laughed -- and was somewhat reassured to figure out that there were more often brief, deliberate pauses in the action where I laughed than when everyone else did.

Doesn't mean the British audience got it "wrong," but for sure the emphasis was on different syllahbles.

Back in 1986 I went to see Crocodile Dundee in Australia. It had just been released there and hadn't come to the US yet so that was pretty cool. I was impressed that the theatre had a "countdown" clock in by the screen so we knew how much time we had before the movie started.

On that same trip I went to see, "Big Trouble in Little China," while visiting New Zealand. I bought my movie snacks and came into the auditorium, and an usher asked to see my ticket. I was surprised that I had an assigned seat!! I don't know if this is standard throughout NZ or unique to that theatre, but at least I got a good seat.

I just saw The Aviator in Rome. I'm looking forward to seeing it in Inglese!

Singapore also uses the system of assigned seats - when you purchase your ticket you choose a seat from a screen at the ticket office. American made movies are shown in English with Chinese subtitles.

We've also seen movies in NZ - with assigned seating as mentioned above.

Oops forgot - also saw movies in Kuwait (censored of course) and Dubai.

Lots of times, but the best was Star Wars in Merida, in the Yucatan.

Cassandra, I've had that same experience with the humor culture gap.

Cassandra, Marilyn
I've had the humor culture gap here in California. Quite a number of years ago I was visiting a friend in a small town in Northern California. It had one movie theatre and they were showing one of the Monty Python movies. There were a few times when we were the only ones laughting.

I've seen several free movies at the National Gallery including last Nov. Fellini's brilliant La Strada. I've also seen movies during travels in Asia when I was in the service.

A great number of years ago I went to see Charles Bronson in Death Wish in London. As you will recall, in the movie, Bronson a former bleeding heart liberal, takes the law into his own hands after his wife is killed by robbers. He walks the streets inviting muggers to attack him. He then proceeds to pop each one with his trusty six-shooter.

I thought to myself, "Boy, this is going to go over like a lead balloon with the gun hating Brits in the audience!" I really thought they might walk out of the theater, as my date wanted to do.

To my amazement, as the movie closed the audience stood and gave the film a standing ovation.

Go figure ---

Just recalled another memorable foreign movie experience. I was working in Egypt, and went to a local theater to see an American film. It was in English, subtitled in French, and it also had subtitles in Arabic. Since the audience could not understand the English or read French, and many could not read Arabic, those that could read Arabic loudly translated the words to their friends over the soundtrack during the whole show. So loudly we could hardly hear the English.

Great fun, anyway.

In Paris in the summer, there are free outdoor movies in the Parc de la Villette. Whole families take blankets, wine or whatever. Great fun!

I saw About A Boy in Ireland, but the real fun for me is going to see a movie in Melbourne, Australia, which I've done several times.

Always take the Gold plan from a local theater chain there that entails a private entrance through the projection room, a private lounge room with your own included drink bar and popcorn dispenser and a big comfy couch or recliner with drink hoders and tables in an elevated row at the back of the usual cinema. A semi-plush treat for around $5 US more. Saw one of the LOTR and a few others like this.

In one of the Scandnavian countries we went to a movie, before the show started we had wine in the lobby and had another glass at our seats. Our seats were assigned but we didn't know and when another couple stood in front of us and said we were in their seats we were "outraged" and mumbled about their nerve, just because they must come there every week, it's not "their seats"! We moved down the aisle and watched a pretty steamy Roman Polansky movie. I heard later when it opened in the US it had been tamed down alot. Only later did we find out that there actually were assigned seats. I owe that couple an apology.

BTW,the odd part was all of the assigned seats were clumped together in the middle of the theatre but no one moved to one of the many empty seats where it would be more comfortable, except us.

Recently saw Neverland in London. As a teen, we used to watch movies in La Napoule at an open-air theatre that was not a drive-in, but a "walk-in." You took your picnic and your blanket to sit on the ground. Saw Cabaret in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, cannot remember it was so long ago, too young at the time to appreciate irony of seeing that movie in Europe.

Several years ago I watched "Wag the Dog" in Skopje, Macedonia with Macedonian subtitles. If you will recall that was about a US president manufacturing a fake war on Albania in order to distract the voters from a brewing scandal.

My friends thought the movie was pretty stupid -- but then the next summer I think, Macedonia was embroiled in a conflict between Slav & Albanians! Talk about life imitating art

I remember seeng M*A*S*H, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the Graduate in movie theaters in Aix-en-Provence when I was a student there -- can I say it -- 35 years ago. They were all dubbed in French!

Hi

I normally go to see movies when I'm travelling. I have been to movies in the US, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa etc. It is a bit fun to go to the movies in Thailand. The national anthem is played before the movies and everybody gets up from their chairs. It is fun to see the people that hasn't experienced (or heard about this before). I also remember seeing a movie in KL in Malaysia. The movie was subtitled in what I think was Malay and Chinese and it was of course a bit confusing

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com

On our first trip to Paris, some thirty years ago, my husband and I went to see Woody Allen's "All You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask". It was an English soundtrack with French subtitles. First, we were surprised to find that it was customary to tip the usher. Then we were surprised when the movie began to find ourselves laughing out loud alone just a few seconds ahead of the rest of the audience. On a lot of the really funny lines, the audience were laughing so loud that we would miss the next spoken line and since we didn't read much French, some of the humor was lost on us. I still remember the evening vividly, and I remember we had to watch the movie again when we got home to see what we had missed. However, what I don't remember is why on earth we ever decided to spend a few of our very precious hours in romantic Paris watching an American movie!

Yes - we have been to a couple in London and seen a bunch in Paris. FYI - Paris - like NYC - is a very cinema town. As well as the first run movies (English laguage movies shown in english are noted VO in the ads - usualy at the big first run cinemas on the Grandes Boulevards) there are alwasy as least a few themes festivals (by actor, director, genre etc) running - which we often enjoy more. In festivals the movies are always run in their original language - just check the papers for one you would enjoy.

"(English laguage movies shown in english are noted VO in the ads - usualy at the big first run cinemas on the Grandes Boulevards."

But again, don't be fooled into thinking that VO means English, they are often just as likely to be Spanish, German, Italian, or even Japanese movies in THOSE original languages with French subtitles -- no English within a mile of them!

I went to a movie in a small town in Italy last October, "Shall We Dance" with Richard Gere. They don't do subtitles often. It was the only theater in the center of town and our only choice. It was dubbed into Italian which is the norm in Italy.

My biggest surprise--there was an intermission in the middle of the film. The projector was stopped at the end of a scene, the lights came up, and we had 2-3 minutes for a quick bathroom break or candy run. My friend told me this is normal for all theaters throughout Italy.

She also told me that many cinemas in Italy are closing, even in larger cities. Cable TV and videos are taking their toll.

Yes, from time to time. I remember seeing one of the Star Wars movies in Glasgow years ago. Most recently, we saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Oban, Scotland last summer -- not far from the areas around Glenfinnan and Loch Shiel where parts of the movie were filmed and through which we had just driven a day or two before. Also, it was a tiny little theater that seated about 30, so it was almost like watching a movie at home.

Years ago, during a semester abroad in France, my roommates and I went to lots of movies during the weekday, student discount showings. Many of the American movies were in English with French subtitles. Many times we would be laughing out loud, while the French audience was stone quiet. Either the translation was poor, or the joke was "too American" for them to understand. I also remember that our French classmates were given the assignment to attend these movies to help improve their English.

A footnote about "humor culture gap": When we went to see "Fargo" in North Carolina, we had just moved here from the Midwest. You could tell who, in that movie theater, had ever lived in the Midwest by who laughed at what. Native Tar Heels "got" some of the basic absurdities, of course, but not things like Marge pulling her parka around her at 0 degrees, saying "feels like it's gonna get chillier" and some of the phrasing that's pure MidWest.

("Gonna leave 'im home or gonna take-with?")

I was impressed in Canada, they have these "salt stations" with several different flavor salts and you hold your popcorn over a grate and shake away...I thought it was neat anyway...

Saw "Little Women", the OLD version, with Kate Hepburn, long ago in a little town in Japan. I remember the Japanese script subtitles flowing vertically along the side of the screen and not horizontally across the bottom. I also remember how hot a summer evening it was, with everyone carrying and using a nice paper fan in that old-fashioned building which had neither heat or A/C!

Quite some time ago I saw "Tootsie" when we were in Ravenna, Italy. It was dubbed in Italian of course. What fun!

The Italian TV is hystercial, I can't stop laughing.

Gladiator in London at Trafalger Sq.

Patrick is correct. VO just means original version - the movie will be shown in whatever language it was originally made.

Went to see the movie 10 with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek, a long, long time ago. Not a great movie, but it was in English with Greek subtitles. The experience of being on a date with a gorgeous Greek boy, sitting in a deck chair under the stars on a rooftop in Corfu Greece was very memorably. Ah!!!

Twice--the first time was in Italy and, fortunately, it was in English with Italian subtitles. The next time they dubbed in Italian and, though I speak a bit, I only caught about 25% tops of what was being said. It was fun, though. If you are familiar with the voices are so different that it's rather comical. That and watching the lips move for one second and the dubbing go on for several more (or vice versa).

One way to get a feel for what it's like is to not use the headset when watching an in-flight movie. If you can imagine doubling what you've just comprehended, you'll get an idea of what you might take away from the movie in an unfamiliar language.

Judging from the English-language movies I see on TV here with French subtitles, the subtitles are often not a very accurate rendition of the original. Humor, especially, is hard to translate, and sometimes the people who write the subtitles don't even try at all.

My husband and I thought it would be fun to go see Star Wars: Episode III while in London, as the movie's release date coincides with our upcoming trip. Does anyone have any recommendations for an interesting movie theater in London (something more atmospheric as opposed to an American multiplex-feel)?

All the time! The two movies we most enjoyed seeing in Paris were Blade Runner (in 1982) and Pulp Fiction (1994). I was a student in Paris in the early 1980s, so ended up seeing Diva there at a little theatre near the Sorbonne where it had been playing for a year.
In Brussels, the most interesting movie we saw there was Princess Mononoke. Of course, in Brussels you get the bonus of French AND Dutch subtitles for English language movies.

i ran out to see begnini's pinocchio in florence when it first came out, thinking how lucky i was to be one of the first to see it, and in the original language.
it had to be one of the worst movies i'd ever seen!!!

In Uruguay we saw TITANIC with Spanish subtitles. I thought it was quite distracting.

In Ireland we saw A BEAUTIFUL MIND. Loved the movie, but the experience was less than ideal. Cell phones going off. Teenagers passing the phone between them, actually talking on it. Never experienced that in our small town movie theater!

Sadly, it seems a lot of people in the UK seem to think they're in their own living rooms when they go to the cinema, to judge by the way they talk and eat and so on. There may be enthusiasts' theatres with the ice-cream lady at the interval and the giant organ rising from the floor (I think the Odeon Leicester Square may still have one, but I don't know how often it's used).

In other countries I notice some differences - in the Netherlands, there's an interval in the main film sometimes, when everyone goes out into the foyers for a coffee or an ice-cream (and for a really interesting theatre there, try the Tuschinski in Amsterdam).

I saw Amadeus in Helsinki and I could not get over how amazing the seats were and the sound system....the beginning with the music was amazing to me at the time beause it sounded so rich. The seats were like comfy car seats. I always think of Helsinki when I see the movie.

My friend saw a classmate of ours who was in a few movies when we were in school...got to his head a bit and when in Italy the movie was dubbed on Italian TV...he had the campest accent, total revenge . SO much for Mr Macho.

In Switzerland you get assigned seating. If the theatre is not full we will go and sit by ourselves in the non assigned seats while the Swiss sit all together in the middle. OV (original language) versions are shown in say English with German and French subtitles. There is a break halfway through according to the time, it might be halfway through a sentance but they will restart the movie slightly before the break.

The Club seats in Melbourne Crown Casino are great Clifton!

The most talking I have heard during a movie was while I was seeing a movie in another country to me, in LA.

Many times. I think it's very nice to have an intermission during a film, so the smokers can go outside and smoke and everyone has an opportunity to use the rest rooms.

BC

"The most talking I have heard during a movie was while I was seeing a movie in another country to me, in LA."

Wow. That is so surprising. We stay for some fairly long periods of time in LA, and I love going to the movies there. Part of the reason is how seriously everyone seems to treat it. I never hear talking, and it's the only place where usually no one gets up and leaves until AFTER the credits. I always figure it's probably because everyone knows someone listed there.

Donetsk, Ukraine saw Ladder 49 dubbed in Russian. John Travolta is great in any lanuage. Dec 2003.

On the whole I prefer not to see English language films while I tour on the European continent. If the film is any good I will have seen it, or we be able to see it, here in London. But because I like to go to bed in one country and awake in another I do look out for what to do on my last evening in a foreign city. My first choice is classical music, or ballet, but failing that, or in the old days when I worked in foreign capital cities, I liked to go to classic British films. Cinemas in Central Europe almost always show these in English, with subtitles in a national language, and it is strange and pleasing to sit amongst others enjoying a film while they do so. Sometimes even non-classic films: I had missed the second Harry Potter film, so was glad to see it, with many children around me, in a big cinema in Novi Sad, in Serbia. We left chatty and cheerful. But I do ask tourist offices whether their city has a cinema-museum with shows of Anglophone classics. So I saw Ben Hur in Belgrade, and the Alec Guinness film the Ladykillers in Budapest. Budapest has a good museum-cinema, and as the film ended this perfectly normal showing a busy house of mostly young Hungarians burst into applause. I was proud to be British, and impressed by the quick uptake of the others in the audience. And there is a snag: I have to delay my laughter at jokes until fellow-viewers have read the joke, as I feel boastful if I laugh on time.

When I worked in Bangladesh in the seventies the French Institute had weekly showings of films in French with subtitles in English. They took as their resource the whole history of French cinema (which is no small matter) and my friends and I had a good time. They carry on in Karachi, but the British ceased twenty years ago, as south Asian audiences took to hiring videos. I see that as not at all the same kettle of fish: in a crowded cinema people of two cultures or more come together to enjoy and applaud good work, as a social occasion. The Soviets did much the same forty years ago in Karachi, and drew good crowds to films of great opera – though I am afraid the Battleship Potemkin went down poorly in Dhakka in the seventies. You never can tell. Some cinema owner in up-country Bangladesh found an old copy of a heroic English adventure tale, set in the lands beyond Peshawar, about 1944, where Kenneth Moore accompanied a threatened Indian prince through tricky territory on a decrepit single-gauge railway. The threat comes from armed Indian nationalists, and the stiff upper lip wins through. The audience of ordinary countryside Bengalis though it was lovely, and rooted for our well-bred hero in the face of the uppity natives. I resisted the temptation to give them a speech afterwards to say they had cheered the wrong party. After all, they simply cheered the heroes, as anybody might.

I insist on English language, not dubbed. Forty years ago in Berlin I tried seeing the Laurence Olivier Richard III, dubbed, but the jokes did not survive translation.

In 2003 I included in a holiday four days at a film festival in a spa in Slovakia. Several films were showing at any one moment, and often they were shown with subtitles in English (it costs a lot to subtitle new films in Slovakian), so I could fit in three films a day, with about a discussion a day with film-makers. The sunshine, food, and cheap living were Slovakian, but culturally the days were international. There was a horror film from West Bengal, and two Swiss documentaries and a discussion on Swiss film funding that left me envious: why can not the British fund good film like that ? Bad feet have slowed me down a great deal, and I did not leave Britain in 2004, but my plans this year include a week in May to June at the leading Romanian festival, in Cluj-Napoca, where I shall stay with an old friend and see a nurse twice a week. Then I can pop over to Serbia for day excursions on a museum train to see two monasteries, and on an old narrow-gauge train, now refurbished, that climbs on figure of eight track to the frontier of Bosnia. The publishers Bradt have put out the first ever guide book to Serbia, and it is very good.

Oh dear, I seem to be off-topic.

ben.haines@btinternet.cvom

Patrick, I was really surprised too. We were only in LA for five days but we decided that we had to go to the movies while we were there because it is LA! We also picked a Hollywood type movie. So maybe because we went to see Americas Sweethearts there was talking because the film was so dire? Seriously the theatre was about 1/3 full and I swear half of those people were having a bit of a natter at some stage during the procedings. As well EVERYONE was eating or drinking something that made a noise. It was at some multiplex just a street or two off Hollywood Boulevard. I haven't been to the movies anywhere else in the US so this remains my only experience.

In my research for the future trip to Switzerland I found a movie festival at the main train station in Zurich: movies in native languages subtitled in German. If something in English or Russian I may go!

I saw Death Wish in Paris a zillion years ago. The title there was A Man who Does Justice in the City. Saw Fargo in Paris too. It's great to see foreign subtitles and feel a foreign audience reaction to an American movie.

Two completely different memories about seeing movies in other countries ...

About 25 years ago (could it be?), my ex husband - Israeli - and I - American - went to see one of the James Bond movies in Tel Aviv. The two of us may have been the ONLY two in the theatre who understood the English as the rest of the audience was either busily figuring out the plot in (loud) Hebrew, cracking sunflower seeds and dropping them on the floor and rolling empty soda bottles on the floor. No wonder I can't even remember the name of the actual movie !!

On a totally opposite note, last September,my daughter and I saw "Motorcycle Diaries" in a theatre in the Mayfair section of London. Not only were the seats reserved but they were wonderfully upholstered and rocked back and forth. It was a struggle to watch the movie (as good as it was) versus taking a well-needed nap.