cultural narrative: week 1

Last night Genna and I went to see “The Hangover II” (or as the French call it, “The Very Bad Trip II”) in Champs Elysees.  Even though it was only going to a movie theatre, the experience was quite different than that of a theatre in the US.  

While purchasing my ticket I asked for, “un billet pour The Hangover II s’il vous plait”.  After receiving a very strange look in return, I tried again with “The Very Bad Trip II?” That time it worked.  According to my friend Faiz who is from Paris, there is not a direct translation for the word “hangover”.  I thought this was very interesting, because knowing a little bit of French, this is something I also noticed in the subtitles during the movie.  

Next Genna and I bought some candy and waited in line to enter the theatre.  I thought this was interesting because when we decided to go to the movie at 10:00, I didn’t realize that’s what time they would allow people to be seated.  At exactly 10 pm everyone began flooding into the theatre where we encountered another difference: we had the option of seating on the balcony or in the orchestra.  I was surprised to see that most people chose to sit in the balcony seating, and I was happy to sit in the orchestra.  I am not sure if this is a cultural difference, or just a nicer theatre, but the seats were amazingly comfortable! 

While looking around (in line and in the theatre) I noticed everyone was very dressed up, girls were wearing heals even.  I am used to heading to the movies with the mentality, “I don’t feel like going out tonight, let’s see a movie”.  This usually means I am in sweats and a comfy tee, but to Parisians, going to the movies seems just as much of an outing as going out for a drink.

After thirty minutes of previews, the movie finally began.  The next thing I noticed was the limited vocabulary translations.  During simple phrases that I could actually read the subtitles for, such as: “Come on Doug, really Doug?” The subtitle would be something like, “vraiment?” or “oui?”  They would not bother trying to make it something like “non Doug, vraiment Doug?”  I am curious whether this is because in French it makes more sense to skip out on certain words (because that is truly how they would phrase such things), or if it was laziness on the subtitle writers behalf, or if it was just not necessary to match up every word.  It makes me wonder if I miss out on certain small details when I watch a French movie with English subtitles.  

The last cultural difference I noticed was that French people laughed at everything.  Usually there are funny things said during movies that although the viewer knows it is funny, it is not necessarily laugh out loud funny - not to the French however.  There was practically constant laughter throughout the theatre.  It was kind of refreshing though.  It made me think how jaded people can sometimes be, when really it should not take much to make someone laugh.  This is actually something I would expect to be the other way around.  I’d say the stereotype is that American’s are easily amused and the French are too uptight, so this was pretty interesting to witness.

Going to the movies in Paris was something I did not expect to be all too different than going to the movies in the US.  However, there were a number of differences that stuck out to me.  The differences were not good or bad, just different and interesting.  I really love traveling and being in new places.  Part of me was worried that in coming to Paris people would be rude to me, not understanding me because I am American.  However, when you take part in something so natural, like going to an American movie, you especially notice the similarities between people.  The Parisian girl sitting directly to my right enjoyed the movie just as much as I did, laughing at the same parts, making similar facial expressions, and simply having a good time with the friends she chose to go with.  It is experiences like this that break down stereotypes.