Today I'd like to share my favorite international moviegoing experiences (in chronological order, like the previous list).
1. Aladdin (1992) in Tokyo. This was the year my family was living abroad, and because movies were so expensive in Japan, my family literally only went to ONE movie in a theater that whole year. My Grandma Gene had sent me and my sister ALL of the Disney merch in advance of the film's release. I remember we had the step-up readers book, stuffed animals, and most importantly: the soundtrack, which we memorized and performed for our parents. I also remember I pronounced Jafar's name "Jaf-ee-ar" for some reason when I read the book. Anyway, to say I was primed to love the film is a bit of an understatement. I still remember feeling like I needed to pinch myself once the opening bars of "Arabian Nights" started (and I'm pretty sure I quietly sang along to all of the songs in the theater...).
2. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) in Bangkok. I got to live in Bangkok for a month after graduating from high school, since I had a friend, Pauline, who went there every summer to visit her dad. She invited me to come for part of the trip, and I was pretty lucky to have parents who agreed to allow me to go (despite the fact that I missed orientation for UC Davis!). Anyway, the movie itself was predictably terrible, but this experience stands out because before the film started, they played the Thai national anthem, and everyone in the theater had to rise and honor the king. The experience was bizarre; it was one of the times on that trip when I felt the most like a foreigner.
3. The Da Vinci Code (2006) in Göttingen, Germany. This was when I studied abroad in Germany for my junior year of college. I went to a decent number of films in Germany, but this one stands out to me for a couple reasons: 1. It was an "event" (I went with a group of American friends who had all read the book, so we were pretty excited to see the adaptation) and 2. almost all movies are dubbed in Germany (they don't like subtitles, apparently), so hearing Tom Hanks speaking German was super weird. I'd never realized how iconic his voice is! Also, in Germany, all movies that are longer than two hours have an intermission, so it was weird to experience that -- People buying beer and smoking in the lobby during those 10 minutes we had to hang out till we could go back into the theater.
4. Les Miserables (2013) in Surabaya, Indonesia. I lived in Surabaya for 10 months, teaching English as an English Language Fellow for the State Department. As with Germany, I went to the movies a lot during those 10 months, often as a coping mechanism for homesickness. I'm picking it out of all the movies I saw while in Indonesia because while I was watching the film, I remember thinking, "How much do these Indonesian audience members even know or care about the French Revolution??" while I was watching it. It was disorienting to watch a film about a historical event that felt so distant from the culture I was currently living in. Side note: As someone who did not grow up obsessed with this musical, this film did NOTHING to win me over. Good try, Hugh Jackman.
5. The Before trilogy (2014) in Paris, France. Once again, I am cheating, because I did not watch the trilogy in a movie theater. It was way better than that! On my first visit to Leah as a Parisian resident (she was living with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Urbain at the time), I had a wonderful time visiting all the usual tourist sights (the Centre Pompidou, Monet's garden, Versailles, etc.). But honestly, the best part might have been the day it poured rain and we decided to lie in bed and watch the whole trilogy back to back, projected on the wall. If you are a fan of this series, then you know. It was heaven.
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