Pirates des Caribaes

I decided to go to the French cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. There were two reasons for this: 1 because I really wanted to see it and couldnt wait any longer and 2 because I was curious about seeing an American movie dubbed in French in a French theater. I was not disappointed on either count.

First of all, French theaters do not serve snacks or drinks. That is the key difference between the French and American cultures: we eat at any and all opportunities while the French never seem to eat at all, unless you count smoking. Thus there are not cup holders in the seats. As a matter of fact, there is nothing snazzy about the seats in general. No rocking chair-cup holder-arm rest mobility action. Its just rows upon rows of living room chairs, soft and fuzzy, but with very straight backs.

In addition, we watched several trailers, and only one of the movies was an actual French movie in French with French actors. The rest were either Fantastic Four-type American films or German movies with French subtitles. There seems to be a big market for German films in France, as there's an entire theater in Dijon that only plays German movies with French subtitles.

After the trailers, the theater turns the lights BACK on for a moment, then slowly lowers them back down and you get that little ad for the theater, like Welcome to Cinemark, or what have you. Usually there's a little star or filmy thing that's the theater's mascot ... well at this theater the mascot is Pinocchio with a pickaxe. Pinocchio. And in his hand a pick axe. And he rides a roll of film to the movie theater. I was and am extremely disturbed by this image, and do not understand what a weapon-wielding Pinocchio would have to do with the movies. Only in France, right? But the more and more we experience of French culture, the more I also understand why they import so much of ours: theirs really sucks.

So, on to the movie. It was fully dubbed, and I didn't really notice their mouths moving at drastically different rates ... I had trouble imagining their voices as being different than what I was hearing. Plus, Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't really need actual words because it doesn't really have any dialogue to speak of. Or, like, any that means anything.

Well, I've got to go back to class ... can't wait to see Pirates in English to compare. Anyone see it yet? I've got a little bet going regarding a scene I swear would not be shown in the U.S. version ...

Jennie