Hi Folks:
Sunday has wound its way around again, and that usually means our ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post, but Marcia’s still happily ensconced in editing her book of poetry and mostly all I get is an occasional nod or a “What’s that, dear?” Â For that reason, this week’s post will be strictly a ‘He Says’.
However, since yesterday marked our 92nd Monthaversary of being married, we did take some time off this afternoon to go to the movies. We wanted to see ‘Letters to Juliet‘, and while I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, I will say that it’s a wonderful movie and Vanessa Redgrave was stunning as always. It’s a little slow in places, but it’s also hopelessly romantic and features some wonderful scenes of the Tuscan countryside. I’ll admit it; I cry in movies, and this one warrants a few happy tears.
The movie is currently playing in two theatres in the Victoria area: the Roxy Classic Theatre, and the Star Cinema in Sidney. Not having been to either theatre before, we elected to go to the Star Cinema, and we’re glad we did! We’ve both been somewhat enamored with Sidney by the Sea since our first trip there last December, a trip we wrote about in one of our first blog posts. We’ve been back a couple of times since then (see ‘Patience Pants‘ and ‘Bears on the Loose‘, and looked forward to the opportunity to do so again.
Having been to more than one urban cinema complex with two dozen or more screens, the Star Cinema is an entirely different experience. I won’t use the word ‘quaint’ because it often has derogatory overtones; I’ll say ‘classic’ instead. It reminded me of the theatre in the Ontario town where I went to college… in that theatre, before each movie they would show a clip of the Canadian flag on screen while playing Canada’s National Anthem and the owner of the theatre would walk out on the stage before the film started to make a few announcements and to let everyone know there would be a short pause as they had to change the projector lens between the previews and the movie itself.
We arrived for our matinée a half hour before showtime… and the door was still locked! We could see someone busily occupied in the background and it was a pleasant day so we took a seat on the bench outside and waited. No long lineups, at least not on this Sunday afternoon. The door opened and I walked up to the counter with my MasterCard in hand. Well, tickets are only $8, but it’s strictly cash. Fortunately our bank was only a block away! The popcorn smelled wonderful but we decided to pass on this trip and made our way down the hall to one of the two screening rooms. No IMAX here – I would say the screen was about 5m/ 16′ wide, but it fit the scale of the room perfectly. We were the only two people in the room (we eventually had to share with about nine other people, but we didn’t mind) and it felt much like being in an oversized home theatre. If you happen to be a Gilmore Girls fan (we are), it reminded us both of being in ‘Stars Hollow’. There was a pre-show series of slides which featured some ads for local businesses, but these were interspersed with photographs of the area taken by local photographers. When the movie started we did not have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials and previews. The lights went down, the projector started, and we were watching the movie’s opening credits. What a refreshing idea!
All in all, we loved the movie and we also loved the experience of watching it at the Star Cinema. We’ll definitely go again.
Have a great week!
Hugs,
M&M