Movie-going

As the title suggests, today's topic is movie going. I tend to see a number of movies while in the Czech Republic. At first glance, many of the newer theaters resemble any American multiplex with one very notable difference – they assign seats (I've also found out this is not unique across Europe). The assigned seating, however, is somewhat flexible. When the theater is fairly empty, people might just sit where they want, rather than where they are assigned. If the ticket booth is slow, the cashiers might even ask the patron where she wants to sit in order to assign a seat to their liking. If however, someone sits in someone else's seat 1 of 2 things happen. The "rightful" owners of the seat may elect to sit elsewhere or they may make a claim on their seats. I watched a couple of Spanish-speaking women take seats to their liking – indicated by their body language that they were not their assigned seats – at a very crowded Harry Potter premier last year, only to be asked to move to their assigned seats when the other ticketholders appeared. I can see pros and cons to this arrangement, especially when in relation to group seating. If the group purchases tickets together, they can insure to be seated together, instead of having to save seat like at movies in the US (often scrambling for seat-saving devices like coats and purses). At the same time, the group does have to buy their tickets together in order to be guaranteed group seating.

Yesterday I went to see Mamma Mia! No, I hadn't seen it yet and had nothing planned so…I enjoyed it, love the music, blah, blah, blah but this is not why I'm writing. The end was one of the oddest movie-going experiences I have ever had. Normally, when the credits roll at the end, people start to get up. In general, Czech audiences will stay a little longer, or I should say a higher percentage will stay longer, but many people will get up and leave. But not yesterday. They stayed put. Now, granted, the beginning of the credits include Meryl Streep and her "back-up singers" singing in full ABBA costuming. When the song is over, the offer another song and then the rest of the cast shows up in full ABBA-wear, as well. After that song though, the credits just go on with the normal song in the background like with most movies. Still no one moves. Then a few people, less than ½ a dozen get up. Finally, it is down to the song lists and where to get the soundtrack, people start to move and I didn't get out of my seat (thanks to the family sitting on the aisle) until the lights were coming up. It was just odd that no one, I mean no one got up until after those two songs were done. What did I miss? Was there a memo that I didn't get that we were supposed to stay for the songs at the end?

Oh, and if you want the creepy part of any movie-going experience, let me tell you about the anti-aggressive driving campaign out by the Ministry of Transportation. In a word or two, gory and explicit. They show these commercials before movies, with the other commercials and previews and after 10pm on Czech television. I won't go into too much detail but can send you links of on-line videos if you want to know more.