Flicks on the road - cinema style
Popcorn, jaffas and dried fish #22
Travelling can be a diverse experience for every person. Some prefer beach holidays - me, me! Some prefer cultural treks and tours - also me but perhaps minus the trek. While others prefer a home away home - sometimes me, but not usually. One outing I especially love, whether it’s at home or away, is going to the cinema. As much as I watch the odd movie at home, nothing beats the experience of being in the cinema. With the mouth watering smell of freshly popped corn wafting through the foyer and the comfortable recliner seats, to the buzz of people coming and going, not to mention the entertainment of oohhhs, ahhhs and the laughter of fellow cinema-goers.
For as long as I can remember the cinema has been a great outing, even adventure. I booked immediately when they reopened after the first lockdown in 2020, and the second, and the third! I’ve even spent a New Year’s Eve in the cinema watching movies with other like-minded people.
One of my earliest memories of the cinema is being taken by my nana to see Return of the Jedi (I think it was, but could have been a different Star Wars movie) with a bunch of my cousins. I also remember my mum taking us to the drive-in every other Sunday night in the station wagon for a double-feature “tell them you’re 12, Nic”, she’d say so she didn’t have to pay for me while my older sister was hidden under the doonas that we would eventually fall asleep beneath while mum watched the second feature largely on her own. She was a single mum of three at the time, so who could blame her. Heaving that massive steel speaker into the back window (without breaking the window) was a massive achievement, and running over to the centrally-located candy bar with my little brother to get popcorn and snacks (Jaffas and Fantales mostly) while in our pyjamas is a great memory. We also made friends and played with other kids in between movies, mostly chasy and kicking the footy.
So when it comes to travelling, I still go to the movies all the time. The history of some older cinemas is something akin to museums and other cultural must-sees while on the road. If it’s raining and you can’t go on that hike or other outdoor adventure or you happen to have some downtime, what better way is there to spend the afternoon? I’d much rather venture out to a movie than spend the day holed up in the hotel/hostel room watching Netflix on a phone - unless of course you subscribe to luxury travel and have all the benefits that comes with it. In Hobart, I saw Bohemeian Rhapsody at the State Cinema that has been showing films since 1913. I toured the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and watched a movie across the road at El Capitan Theatre. I’ve even watched a movie outdoors on deck chairs at Sun Pictures in Broome, Western Australia. I spent more time gazing at the stars than watching the movie! Hands down this is the most unique cinema I’ve experienced in all my travels.
One of the weirdest cinema experiences I had was in China, back on that fateful trip in 1999. My Chinese friends took me to a talking picture theatre (as they described it) one afternoon. We got popcorn and snacks just like we would back home, except the snacks were dried fish and corn on the cob purchased at the roadside stalls. We climbed a narrow staircase and took our seats in very small theatre. I thought I was going to watch a new release movie all fresh and brand new. But what greeted me on screen, no trailers in sight, was Sylvester Stallone in 1993’s Cliffhanger. Next shock, it was dubbed into Mandarin with no subtitles, because obviously, who expected an Aussie girl to show up?
Lucky I had seen it before and could follow along. Then halfway through the movie, whoever had recorded this pirated version got lazy and the film was jerking all over the place! At one point the camera ducked as some people walked on by. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was the most hilarious thing I had seen and my first experience with pirated/dubbed movies. I went back to that cinema a few weeks later and saw another pirated movie. This time 10 Things I Hate About You starring Heath Ledger. I had never heard of it. It didn’t hit cinemas in Australia until a few weeks after I returned home. At least it was in English this time with Mandarin subtitles!
So no matter where I am in the world I still love going to the movies. Especially if there is a unique cinema experience to be had or a historical sight to see. Two of my favourite cinemas when attending university in Melbourne were:
The Astor Theatre - we kept the monthly program of films pasted to the wall in our uni sharehouse. It was here I saw my first Kubrick film - A Clockwork Orange.
The Valhalla Cinema (now known as Palace Westgarth) - an arthouse cinema with a regular program of non-blockbuster movies back in the day.
Both are still open and operating today, The Astor in the same way it has always operated as a single screen arthouse cinema, and Palace Westgarth as a mainstream cinema. I do love weird and wonderful movies so I love the option of having somewhere to go other than mainstream movie theatres showing all the latest blockbuster releases. Arthouse and indie films are my favourite, but if the mood takes me I will watch any movie dubbed into Mandarin, not just Sly Stallone!
If you want to know what I’ve been watching lately (not streaming), the last two movies I saw at the cinema were Freud’s Last Sessions and Argylle. By all means two vastly different movies both in style and genre and I couldn’t have loved both of them more. Argylle was as hilarious as it was outrageous - I hadn’t laughed so hard for a while, while Freud’s Last Session was so profound and thought-provoking I spent the rest of the weekend going down a rabbit-hole by googling Freud, his books, his daughter and C.S. Lewis!
Thanks for reading my friends, go to the movies, support your local cinema!
If you had to list your Top 5 favourite movies what would yours be?
Previously I would have listed mostly 80s/90s movies like Point Break (the original), The Breakfast Club, Reality Bites, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Clerks - my coming of age movies. I don’t know what I would list now as I’ve watched some great movies and some terrible ones. One of my recent “terrible” movies won a shitload of Oscars so who am I to judge?
I did recently hear that there will be a sequel to The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert so I am excited for that! I love Australian and New Zealand movies and if you can, you should watch more of them. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a NZ film by Taika Waititi, is a good place to start if you like comedy.