Harry Potter 7, pt 1

Last Saturday night, after havdallah, I tried to go see Harry Potter 7, pt 1. What we underestimated was the large amount of people interested in seeing the movie in Israel.

The theatre was absolutely packed and even though there were two showings at 9:00 and 9:30, and another one at 10:30, we couldn't find six seats in a theater. So we bought tickets for the next day we were all free (we had already discussed it because one of my classmates had called us to warn of this possibility). Wednesday night it was.

We got there just before the movie was to start and got to our seats. The theater was packed. Last time I saw a movie, I had waited a few months before I had a chance to go see it. The theater was empty at that point, this was my first, real, "Israeli" movie experience. Culture Shock strikes again!

First of all, the movie just started and people were still filling the theater. Not normally a problem except that seats are assigned. Which meant that people had to continue kicking other people out of their seats for the first ten minutes of the showing. Then they wouldn't stop talking.

Even better was when there were scenes that were "racy". I put that in quotes because they weren't really racy, but the reaction from some of the people in the theater made it seem like this was over the line. This one kid kept whistling until people laughed and clapped for him. Then it took another 30 seconds for people to stop talking about his whistling, and then another 10 seconds for people to stop shushing each other.

This shouldn't have been an problem, but it happened a few different times during the movie.

Surprise intermission! I think I talked about this last time, when I wrote about seeing Inception.

At almost the midpoint of the movie, it doesn't really matter what was happening, the lights turn on and movie stops. The intermission lasts about 5 minutes. I'm not sure what it is supposed to accomplish any more. I have a feeling that it is something that has been happening for years.

After the last movie I saw, I talked to some classmates about it. The best idea we could come up with is that this was instituted a long, long time ago, when people could still smoke in theaters. It seems like just the right amount of time for someone who would have wanted to dig in their bags and light a cigarette. Fortunately, you cannot smoke in theaters. But like many things, this is something that is just too ingrained in the culture here to get rid of it.

You might be thinking, "Maybe it has to do with letting people go buy more snacks or go to the bathroom." I thought that too. But the break is not long enough for one person to really get to the bathroom and back. Even more so, for half a theater to get downstairs to buy some food or hit the bathrooms. Any other ideas? I can't think of a good reason for it.

Anyway,
The movie is still really new, so I won't spoil any of the story. I've been a Harry Potter fan since the fourth book came out. I can't wait to see the second half of this movie, and I'll probably re-read some of the books before that. This summer will give me a little free time! The good part is that I will be back in the states to watch the end of this series with Kait.