The more we live here, the more I realize the Vincent Vega theory of European living is pretty accurate. You remember his first scene during the whole Royale with Cheese discussion when he says it’s pretty much the same as the US but just with some odd little differences.
He also says this; “Well, in Amsterdam, you can buy beer in a movie theatre. And I don't mean in a paper cup either. They give you a glass of beer, like in a bar.” What he also could have said was that when you buy a ticket at the cinema you are given an assigned seat. Luckily, we figured this out the easy way when we went to see Million Dollar Baby a few months ago. The movie had been out a while and there weren’t many people there. So we thought it was pretty strange when two dudes walked into the nearly empty theater and proceeded to sit directly behind us. As they were sitting down, I heard one of the guys ask which seat number the other one had. I looked at my ticket again and noticed there was a row and seat number printed right on it. Nobody else ended up coming in so we stayed where we were and didn’t run the risk of having sat in somebody else’s seat.
The next movie we went to, In Good Company (I’m just saying the movie names here in case anybody has seen them and wanted to comment on it), was more crowded but still not packed. We got there pretty early and there were only a few people actually seated. Our seats ended up being right next to two young girls who were already there. We still didn’t know if anybody took the seating assignments that seriously so we decided to give the requisite one empty seat buffer to these girls. We didn’t know if it would be considered strange to sit right next to them in an almost empty theater even though our tickets requested it. However, as the theater started to fill up we noticed that it wasn’t accidental we were given seats immediately next to somebody. Everybody was just packing in the center about 12 rows back. It looked really odd. There was nobody in the front, back, or sides; just a big mash of people right in the center of the theater. I always likened theater seat selection to that of urinal choice. You want the best location without actually having to be next to somebody. As it fills up, math just takes over and you end up being next to somebody eventually if necessary. Of course, the people who were assigned seats right next to us eventually showed up and were a bit taken aback we weren’t following the rules. They just plopped down next to us with the verbal agreement we would all shift down if somebody else came for the seats.
By the third movie, we just went in and sat in our seats and conformed to the rules.
Also, they have intermissions in movies here. I actually like that quite a bit. You can just go ahead and drink that soda with reckless abandon because you know you’ll get a chance for a bathroom break in a bit. And I was very thankful to learn that the urinal selection rules are indeed universal.
They have assigned seating in Israel and I didn't know this. I saw Planet of the Apes and got there early-ish by myself and sat down. The theatre ended up filling up and a couple of guys came over and asked me to move in Hebrew. If you don't know many Israelis, their mannerisms are sometimes misinterpreted as being rude. I thought the guy was just being a jerk and trying to take my seat and I told him f off. They yelled at me a bit and then had to get the usher to tell me to move. When I finally figured it all out I was very embarrased... nothing like spreading goodwill towards Americans worldwide!
Tobin, July 15, 2005 07:07 AM:It's the same, but different. The sad thing is that in twenty years when you are back living in the lap of luxury in Seattle (it is summer so the weather is nice and we are all in a good mood), you will hardly remember anything but you will NEVER forget the movie seating thing.....