Saturday, June 10, 2006
Going to movie theaters,
Zurich is a peculiar place in this regard. You see the listings of movie theaters everywhere. All major newspapers run those lists as well. It is the same list -and same design- everywhere and it also includes porn movies. (Another weird thing: to have child films and porn on the same list)
I found the listings at 20 Minutes' web site very good. It gives you all the details (albeit in German) . You have many options, some with parking some very centrally located. They all seem to have state of the art equipment and nice seating and they all look very American. I think this is epidemic. When I am abroad, if there is time to kill I go to movies and I have recently been to theaters in Santiago, Lisbon, Athens and they all virtually the same.
For old fashioned cinema experience, one example is a movie theater called Uto Studio at Kalkbrite (on the route of tram 2 and 3). They run good films after they are taken out from the mainstream.
And for being a "better film lover", arthouse kinos give you a good option especially if you are fed up with the holywood releases. Those theaters are small but located centrally.
There are several film events during the summer. Last year there was supposed to be one in UetliBerg but then cancelled. I was anxiously waiting for it as the night view of the city would be a great background. I am told that it is cancelled due to the pressure from environmentalist groups claiming that the late night movies hinder the comfort of animals. I could not confirm that but if it is true, wowww ! Thanks to lack of animals, this year's intereting venue is the airport. (off-topic: I heard a similar story about the summer time zone practise. Swiss did not start it for many years because the cows were having problems to adapt! I guess that needs confirmation too.)
Films are played with original soundtrack and both German and French subtitles.
I don’t know and did not hear much about Swiss Cinema. Maybe there is not much to talk about. (But as with anything else, it is also very well documented and there is even a dedicated web site and many books) I noticed three Swiss films so far. One was about a kosher practicing Jewish lady who wants to marry but finds out there are only 3 possible candidates in Zurich. And the other was about the last day of Swissair. I wish I had enough German to understand these two.
A recent survey stated Zurich as the most expensive place for the movie-goers in Europe. However, Monday is the day to go for those on budget. You pay 12 franks instead of 18.
I found the listings at 20 Minutes' web site very good. It gives you all the details (albeit in German) . You have many options, some with parking some very centrally located. They all seem to have state of the art equipment and nice seating and they all look very American. I think this is epidemic. When I am abroad, if there is time to kill I go to movies and I have recently been to theaters in Santiago, Lisbon, Athens and they all virtually the same.
For old fashioned cinema experience, one example is a movie theater called Uto Studio at Kalkbrite (on the route of tram 2 and 3). They run good films after they are taken out from the mainstream.
And for being a "better film lover", arthouse kinos give you a good option especially if you are fed up with the holywood releases. Those theaters are small but located centrally.
There are several film events during the summer. Last year there was supposed to be one in UetliBerg but then cancelled. I was anxiously waiting for it as the night view of the city would be a great background. I am told that it is cancelled due to the pressure from environmentalist groups claiming that the late night movies hinder the comfort of animals. I could not confirm that but if it is true, wowww ! Thanks to lack of animals, this year's intereting venue is the airport. (off-topic: I heard a similar story about the summer time zone practise. Swiss did not start it for many years because the cows were having problems to adapt! I guess that needs confirmation too.)
Films are played with original soundtrack and both German and French subtitles.
I don’t know and did not hear much about Swiss Cinema. Maybe there is not much to talk about. (But as with anything else, it is also very well documented and there is even a dedicated web site and many books) I noticed three Swiss films so far. One was about a kosher practicing Jewish lady who wants to marry but finds out there are only 3 possible candidates in Zurich. And the other was about the last day of Swissair. I wish I had enough German to understand these two.
A recent survey stated Zurich as the most expensive place for the movie-goers in Europe. However, Monday is the day to go for those on budget. You pay 12 franks instead of 18.
