We get a two-for-the-price-of-one experience at the Pontedera Cineplex

Every once in a while, we get the urge to go out to a movie, and today was one of those days. We usually prefer American movies that have been dubbed into Italian, because the voices are clear and free of dialect. We have nothing against Italian movies, but the film makers want them to be authentic, so many of the characters have regional dialects. It is already hard enough for us to follow the dialogue even when the characters speak clear and plain standard Italian.

We also prefer movies that have quite a bit of action with uncomplicated conflicts between the characters, so Creed 3 was a perfect choice. The website of the Pontedera Cineplex said that today only, at 4:30 p.m., the movie would even be shown in English with Italian subtitles, so we’d be able to completely relax and enjoy the film. I felt a bit guilty that we wouldn’t be practicing our Italian listening skills, but the timing was perfect, as we are currently enjoying a mini-vacation in a condominium in Colleoli, just 20 minutes from the cineplex.

We’ve noted before that movies are not a very popular form of entertainment here, and thus we weren’t surprised to find that we were the only two people in the theater—not the first time this has happened. Once the movie started, we noted right away that there were no subtitles and the film was in Italian, not English. I went out and let the cineplex personnel know, and soon the lights came on and the film stopped. After about five minutes, a very apologetic employee came in and said the projectionist couldn’t figure out how to show the English version. No problem, we said, we’ll just watch in Italian, and we did just fine; the dialogue was not overly complex, and the movie was well done. Plus, we were given free tickets for another movie as compensation.

We had a memorable encounter some years ago when we were once again the only two people at an afternoon showing of Son of Mask, this time in Arezzo. The movie was pretty bad, and when it was only two thirds done, the film stopped and all the lights went on. We waited for about ten minutes, and then someone came in and told us it was over. We argued for a bit, because even though we couldn’t understand all the dialogue, it was obvious that the plot hadn’t reached the climax. But then we considered how awful this movie was (later I found out it received eight nominations for Golden Raspberry Awards, including worst sequel, worst actor and worst director), and we decided to go. On the way out, we mentioned that the film wasn’t over, but we didn’t mind leaving anyway. Again we were told that it really had finished. No, we said, it didn’t, but it was OK. Just as we got to the door, the manager came hurrying up to us and said, yes, we were correct, the film wasn’t over. He was sorry, please, we must go back and watch the rest. We didn’t want him to think we were upset, so we returned to watch the rest. After all, how could the theater personnel live with themselves if they thought that they had offended 100% of their afternoon customers?