The Pandora Cinema in Avignon

As the days have become colder, wetter and windier, sightseeing has become less fun and while we have been visiting more museums, we have begun to miss some of the activities that we used to enjoy in the 'big city' such as going to the cinema.

Looking through another foreigner in Provence's blog, Pauline stumbled on a very interesting piece of information that although most foreign films are dubbed in French - especially the mainstream Hollywood movies, in Avignon, there is a cinema called the Pandora that shows films in the original language. The French identify them as 'Version Originale' or VO for short, which you will find next to the title where the films are advertised.

This discovery caused much joy as we have been able to catch the latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One. While not a Star Wars geek, watching the latest Star Wars movies on the big screen is something that I would not voluntarily miss - having seen the first Star Wars in Leicester Square as a kid, when it first came out. We certainly enjoyed Rogue One. Driving 40 minutes to Avignon to catch a movie and a meal was a treat.

Last Saturday, we watched 'The Great Wall' with Matt Damon as a European mercenary in the 11th century, looking to steal gunpowder, but then taking on more than he bargained for by joining a great elite Chinese army to fight monsters trying to breach the Great Wall. Nothing to exercise the little brain cells, but good enough to pass a wet Saturday afternoon. A lot has been said about the inclusion of Matt Damon whitewashing a Chinese movie, but since this is a fantasy, not historical, and we increasingly see Asians in Hollywood blockbusters, this is surely only a commercial decision to make them appealing to a wider audience that would not watch it otherwise.

Yesterday, we discovered that there is also a small Cinema in Vaison-la-Romaine, only 10km away, called Le Florian, that play VO movies as well, plus another in Nyons called Arlequin. Le Florian is currently playing 'La La Land' and being anything, if not decisive, we went to see it last night. Well, we had expected to like it since it is supposed to be an uplifting comedic musical, but both Pauline and I felt that it fell well short of the hype. Emma Stone was pretty good, but the songs and dancing were pretty lame and it felt long. As we are clearly out of step with popular opinion and with 14 Oscar nominations and various awards already, perhaps it is a sign that we are getting a bit crotchety in our old age.