sultanahmet diaries

movies in istanbul

last night, h. and i went to taksim to go see "the aviator." it was opening
night here in turkey, so i thought it might be fun to go see a movie. we
like to watch movies in english with turkish subtitles, so we both can
enjoy the film. i've been watching a lot of turkish TV and movies (on TV)
that have been dubbed in turkish... it's good to listen to, but i did like
seeing a movie on the bigscreen in english.

in turkey, when you buy a ticket for a movie, they assign you seats,
which is completely different from the US. i'm used to showing up
early to get good seats.... so last night, i kept asking h. "should we go?
should we go to the movie now?" we arrived very early, but i didn't
know we already had seats..... h. laughed when he realized why i was
so anxious to get to the theater..."but we already have seats!" ohhhh...
ok......

an usher shows you to your seat, someone is selling popcorn and
sodas inside the theater, and lots and LOTS of turkish commercials
are shown. tooooo many.

the biggest difference, however, was the intermission that came out
of nowhere. i guess they just pick a halfway point to stop the film,
but the lights came up in the middle of a scene and at first i thought
something was wrong. did the film break? is something happening
outside? nope... just an intermission. people got up, got more drinks
and popcorn, and everyone came back in 5-10 minutes. very
bizaare! i personally don't like intermissions since they break the
flow of the film, but who knows? maybe a snack break is nice.

posted by camille @ 2:17 PM