The Old Hack

On Sunday afternoon, our local cinema was showing the Michael Moore film, “Sicko” with French subtitles. We’d seen the film advertised about three weeks ago and had decided at the time that we would go to the Sunday afternoon screening.

The cinema here in Montmorillon is about the size of one of the salons of a multiplex in the UK – except there is only one screen, so that a full house would comprise maybe eighty people at most. We’d decided, therefore, to book in advance. That way, we had a chance of reserving the best seats in the house.

I had telephoned the cinema but was met with a voice message telling me what was showing at what times on which days and that if I wanted to book in advance I would have to visit the ticket office as no bookings could be made by telephone. Although the cinema is in the main street of the town, which we visit on an almost daily basis to buy bread or milk, we had never seen the cinema open, so were unable to reserve seats at the box office.

Sunday morning was a bit more hectic than we had planned for various reasons, so by the time we had walked into town, we got to the cinema with only ten minutes or so to spare before the scheduled starting time of the film.

“I hope we’re not too late for two seats”, I ventured to the young woman at the box office counter.”

“Not at all”, she offered, smiling pleasantly, “in fact you are the only people who have come to see the film.”

We took our tickets and walked along the short corridor to the auditorium, where we passed a young man who nodded “bonjour”, while a second young lady standing behind him came forward and examined our tickets before tearing them in half and ushering us into the cinema. “Sit wherever you like”, she said.

We settled into the best seats in the house, while the young man made his way to the projection room behind us and the young lady made sure we were comfortable before offering us sweets or ice cream from a tray. Even though we had consumed lunch just before coming to the cinema, we felt obliged to buy something from the tray.

So there we sat with our M&Ms and ice cream in the best seats in the house. Nobody joined us for the screening. We spent an afternoon watching a most excellent film, improving our French by means of the sub-titling and remaining outnumbered by the staff of the cinema - a quite surreal experience.

We were left with a small pang of guilt that if we had not turned up when we did, the staff could have had an afternoon off. But maybe they wouldn’t have been paid. In any event, their smiling, charming service was very much appreciated. Smiling in the face of adversity seems to be a welcome trait in these parts.