Øst for Paradis - Our First Movie Experience

Sean and I had our first experience at the movie theatre Øst for Paradis a few weeks ago when the Aarhus Film Festival came to town. Are schedules happened to busy that week so we managed only one film, unfortunately. The movie experience at this independent theatre was definitely a great experience to be had. 

We watched a Czech Republic documentary called *Citizien K/Obcan K - it dealt with identity and censorship - this topic interested Sean because of his work and me as I recently read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It is a cozy old building. The theatre is on two levels and both floors have a cafe. You can order fresh baked pastries, hot coffee and cold beer (Sean really liked this), and there are copious amounts of liquorice candy varieties to be had. Unlike other theatres where (a) you arrive early to fight for a good seat or (b) you don't mind to be late knowing you won't miss much as you've got a buffer - the trailers. You won't get that here. There were no trailers, instead a Toastmaster introduces the film. In the theatre you get entrance to the screening a few minutes before as you select your seat(s) when you purchase the ticket.

This is a much better set up then what I've experienced before. How wonderful to be able to come a head of time to meet your date or a friend and have a visit before you enter the film or stay afterwards to discuss what you watched - you can always learn more about the film from having a discussion, especially when it the film is subtitled and you are bound to miss elements.  

*About the film: Michal Dvorák, Czech Republic 2012. Documentary, 72 min.

In an era obsessed with identification, the art group Ztohoven undertook an experiment to see how much could be achieved with your own and with a borrowed identity. The group’s members ordered official ID cards using fake identities, using passport photos created by morphing their faces together. Using their new identities, they showed how difficult it is for the system to tell us apart.

Two Hours of Danish Lessons a Day

The apartment that we've subletted is fully equipped. Really. It's brilliant. C&K left us not just the wine glasses and frying pans, but the balcony plants, dvd collection, and third year Psychology lecture notes.  The only thing that we had to add was a can opener.

There does seem to be a disproportionate assortment of chick flicks among the dvd collection.  But I'm starting to get into them in a way.  After a long day at work, followed by training and cooking dinner and what-not, it's a sure daunting thought of putting in a couple more hours of Danish language learning. So, sometimes I'll just pop in a chick flick instead.

It seems to be a good approach to learning when I turn on the Danish subtitles.  Everything is translated for me out loud as I "read" the movie. I miss a line here and there that I don't quite hear, and I miss some of the stunning visual effects, but it is amazing how many new words one picks up.  I also tried this with Phantom of the Opera, rather than a chick flick, but the difference there was that the characters were engaging and the plot wasn't trite and predictable.  So I found myself wanting to actually watch the film, and quite peeved when I missed a key plot detail because I couldn't understand it in Danish.

We also tried it the other direction, watching a Danish programme with English subtitles.  The trouble was, the English subtitles are completely incomprehensible. What on Earth does "You know how we management Johnnies get ticklish about the archives" mean?

Anyway, the point of this post is that you shouldn't ask me for any movie recommendations in the next month or two.