Compost Studios

We’ve lived in Belgium nearly two years and just made it to the movies for the first time. Yes, we live exciting lives here in the capital of Europe and mostly spend our Friday nights curled up with a Netflix rental.

But E-Grrrl loves penguins and has been interested in seeing the movie Happy Feet since it was released about a month ago. Looking for a way to liven up the after-Christmas break, we went online looking for a theater showing Happy Feet in English. Kinepolis at Bruparck in Brussels was the place.

Tickets cost the equivalent of $10 each, and we purchased them online, printing out a receipt that was then scanned to produce the tickets at the entrance to the theater. The theater complex was huge, with more than twenty screens showing movies in French, Dutch, and English. We walked up an enormous spiral ramp to get to the second floor where our film was being shown.

Because we weren’t sure what traffic would be like heading into Brussels on the Friday night of a holiday weekend, we’d allowed lots of time to get to the theater and ended up arriving early. We then queued for popcorn (another $20) and were surprised when they asked whether we wanted salt or sugar on it. Sugar? How unusual. We got sugar for the kids and took ours with extra sodium. Yum, yum.

We were seated in the theater about 20 minutes before the scheduled 5 p.m. showing of Happy Feet. Soon the lights dimmed and the ads and previews started. Despite the fact we were seeing a children’s movie, the previews were geared mostly toward adults, which meant that during the 20 minutes before our movie was scheduled to start, our kids saw non-stop film excerpts containing nudity and sex scenes, a teenage girl in red lingerie stripping for her boyfriend, guys in thongs, and some scary violent scenes from sci-fi movies that had them covering their eyes.

At 5 p.m., that set of previews ended and a new set started, including previews for Bridge to Terabithia and the next Harry Potter movie, which were both a bit dark and spooky for such a young audience. Our movie didn’t start until almost 5:15 p.m.

The movie itself was OK and had fun moments, though the plot sputtered a bit as the film spread itself thin over multiple messages: “it’s OK to be different,” “be true to yourself,” “have courage in the face of adversity,” “consider the circle of life,” “question religious authorities,” and “don’t give up on getting the girl.”

The big surprise for us was that there was a 10 minute intermission right smack dab in the middle of the film. What? An intermission in a movie that’s barely 2 hours long? Whatever. E and the kids headed to the restroom where they paid the equivalent of 40 cents each to use the facilities. While we’re accustomed to paying to use the restroom in many settings in Europe, we didn’t expect to have to pay for them in a place where we already had dropped $60 on admission and snacks.

Afterwards we stopped for dinner and had Belgian-style “Mexican” food—which means salsa that tastes a lot like ketchup and frites and salads served with the entrees. There wasn’t any trace of the hot, spicy sauces and seasonings or the refried beans we expect with Mexican food in the U.S., but it was a good dinner nonetheless. On the way out we paused to admire the Atomium in all its night time glory. It’s one of our favorite Belgian landmarks, and we’d never seen it at night before, each of its globes crisscrossed with neat lines of white-blue lights. E and I will have to make a trip to the movies on our own soon. Must. Find. A. Sitter.

December 29, 2006