I've now been to see movies in theaters more times in 10 months living in Germany than I usually go in the US in several years. It's been interesting to see how people in another country watch movies.
We watched Behind the Candelabra at the Union Theater in Kaiserslautern several weeks ago. It's a very small theater with just one screen and several steps to enter the theater. I was amazed at how much room there is in the seating for one's legs (it doesn't take much with me, apparently!). I ordered a small bag of popcorn and was amazed at how cheap it was -- and I was pleased to find out that it was lightly salted and not sweet as sometimes the popcorn might be coated in a light sugar glaze.
Last night, a group of us took met in Landstuhl to visit the Broadway Kino. Parking was across the street...in a dirt lot! We had to dodge puddles and I secretly wished that the lot was paved since I wasn't planning to get muddy feet. The neat thing, though, is that one of the German guys in our group told me that he grew up in a rural town of 600 people just down the road and he drove his family's tractor to the theater once when he was a kid! How cool is that? Maybe I should have had my tractor shipped here so I could be cool like that too (as an aside: I've seen tractors drive through downtown Kaiserslautern before, which is funny considering it's a city of 100,000 people).
We decided to watch the original version of Ender's Game (in English). Movies that are in their original version are marked OV or OF, "Original-Fassung." If the movie has subtitles, it might be labeled OmU, "Original mit Untertitel."
The interesting thing about German movie theaters is that seats are assigned. So, if there will be a group watching a movie together, it is a good idea to buy tickets together. We told the cashier we wanted x many tickets. He printed them out and we individually paid.
I also found out that some theaters have different prices for seats. For example, the seats farther back might cost more. I don't think that the Broadway Kino does this; it's just bigger theaters.
In the theater itself, I was again pleased to see that there is a lot of leg room. There's even a shelf on the seat in front of the viewer; this is where people can set their snacks.
And, to be very German: when people leave the theater, they dispose of their trash in different bins for recycling. There are even crates to receive empty soft drink bottles (yes, you read bottles -- my friends bought their Cokes in glass bottles!).
I might just go back and splurge on some more movies. The Broadway Kino has 5 euro movies on Tuesdays so that's a contender.
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