Movies have always been a huge part of our life. When Nabil and I were in college, we would scour our apartment for loose change and if we were lucky enough to accumulate $2.50 for two tickets (student discount), we would head off to the local cinema (two screen maximum) and hunker down to get lost in other people's stories. We are indiscriminate. We love all movies. Fantasy, drama, cartoons, science fiction, foreign films, quirky independent flicks, summer blockbusters. Our passion for moviegoing has never faded. When our daughter was born we would time our film escapes to mesh with her nap times. By the time baby two arrived, we could afford a sitter, and movies were once again our escape mechanism. And with baby three, movies became a family affair. We have passed our passion on to our kids and we are all avid movie-goers.
The good news is that movie theaters, like shopping malls, are generously sprinkled throughout the Ankara province. There are four multiplex theaters within a ten-minute drive of our apartment. They are big monster theaters, with up to 12 large screen viewing rooms and comfortable lounge chairs. A ticket is about half the cost of movie ticket in US cities, but there is no senior citizen discount. The concession stands are well stocked, with a Ben & Jerry's franchise and a cappuccino machine in most. They offer similar package deals on snacks and beverages, though we haven't taken advantage of these. I don't know if they have found a way to avoid the rancid warmed over flavor of movie popcorn, but there are definitely fewer popcorn-eaters in the audience than in US theaters.
The bad news is that all of these theaters offer the same films, with even less variety than in US multiplex cinemas. Worse yet, only about half the films are English speaking. About a quarter are produced in Turkey and the rest are foreign films, dubbed in Turkish. The genre of US films that do run in Turkey are primarily of the blockbuster, crash and burn variety...gangster, sci-fi, car chase and disaster films. We have seen THE DARK KNIGHT, SPIDERMAN, THE BOURNE LEGACY and SAVAGES. But the subtler films that speak to the variety of life experiences in the US are in short supply. We desperately miss those films. More importantly, this skewed distribution algorithm really misrepresents US culture, giving the impression that gangsters and drug lords are on a rampage wreaking havoc in our cities and suburbs.
There are a few other important differences that movie goers have to get used to in Turkey. When purchasing tickets, you also purchase assigned seats. Great in theory, but the theaters don't use a common numbering scheme for their seating arrangements and trying to locate the assigned seats can be an embarrassing challenge when you are climbing over people who don't understand a word you are saying.
The previews are also more limited. They also play more commercials than most US theaters feature prior to the start of the feature film. The commercials rely on comic elements, run on for two minutes or more and some are so long, that you begin to wonder if you might have wandered into the wrong film. And of course,mother English speaking films are dubbed in Turkish. When watching a foreign film dubbed in English, I am never distracted by the subtitles. In fact, a few minutes into the film, I actually forget that I am reading, and it seems as if the characters are actually speaking in English. On the other hand, when watching an English speaking film, subtitled in Turkish, I cannot ignore the subtitles. I find myself trying to decipher the words on screen and match them to the dialogue and then get annoyed by the disconnect.
The most difficult adjustment has been getting used to "intermission breaks". Apparently, Turkish marketeers have decided that they can ramp up concession sales by scheduling a break in the film that allows patrons to take a second look at the goodies they offer. (Or perhaps, the Turks have small bladders or are heavy drinkers and cannot hold their water for the entirety of a film.). Whatever the reason, at some arbitrary point in the film, the movie stops abruptly, a muppet style character appears on screen and barks a message, and the theater goes dark. Then the lights come up and everyone exits the theater. The break lasts about 10 minutes, and then just as abruptly, and often without any warning, the film starts up again. It is a maddening ritual, made worse by the poor timing of the breaks, which usually come just as the film is picking momentum. Totally immersed in the flow of the story, you find yourself rudely awakened, and reminded that you are back in the real world, and in fact, not in the comfort of your own reality, but a foreign one!
My next challenge is to figure out a way to get international access to Netflix. If that can be accomplished, we will be able to get our fix of independent films in the comfort of our home, without commercial breaks or intermission. In the meantime, we will seek sanctuary in the theaters of Turkey, just as we have done in the US for so many years.
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