You may or may not be surprised by this post. I’ve known it for a long time, but resisted to say it out loud. But the truth is, I’ve found love in France, as so many people do. This man I’ve found is so inviting, and always willing to spend time with me – I see him two or three times a weeks, and even when he has plenty of other things to do, he always finds a few hours just for me. He gets along tremendously with my friends and doesn’t mind when I bring them along to hang out. He makes me feel so many emotions – like I’m traveling the world, like I’m home in America, like I’m learning something new, like I’m safe from all evil things.
His name is the Cinéma Gaumont.
It’s true, folks – although I always had an interest in film and even dreamed of being a filmmaker when I was younger, it’s only been in France that my love for film as an art form has really flourished. Part of it is the fact that going to the movies is just so cheap. It’s less than 5 euro for anyone under 26 years old. It’s often cheaper than going to a museum, a concert, or even out to a bar for a drink. Your Friday class got cancelled? Why not check out that film that’s been in all Americans’ Facebook statuses for the last three months? Bored on a Sunday? There’s that new French romantic comedy your host mom wants to see – you might learn some new slang. Feel like hanging out with friends, but too cheap to go out for dinner and drinks? A slasher thriller awaits you.
At home, I averaged going to the cinema maybe two or three times a year. Now I go two or three times a week. I don’t discriminate between American and French films (the only two types shown at Gaumont – for Spanish/Italian/other nationalities, you have to go to Utopia). I only insist that I see them in the original language. It would have been an abomination to watch Django dubbed in French. However, I also pride myself on the fact that I can understand a French movie without subtitles, which was not true when I got here. And given how much the French government supports cinema – there’s a law requiring that at least 40% of films in movie theaters are of French origin – I’d feel silly not to take advantage of expanding my cinematic background.
One thing my study abroad program has really pushed is an appreciation for fine arts. Last semester we had tons of dance performances, art museum visits, and piano concerts which we were required to see. While I was grateful that all these lovely experiences were included in the cost of the program, I also had to admit that viewing the 10,000th interpretation of a Virgin Mary painting and watching bizarre dance performances without any music were often less than inspiring to me. However, cinema is an art form like any other – moving images, artistic shots, human portraits, all for the sake of telling a beautiful/heartbreaking/awe-inspiring story.
Cinema is my art form. I can only go to so many art museums without getting terribly bored, but I can always go see another movie. And I don’t just mean big blockbusters and Academy-Award nominees like Lincoln (which I saw this week.) I also mean Alceste à Bicyclette and Main dans la Main and Kirikou. I mean old Hitchcock movies being played as reruns. I mean some film I’ve never seen a preview for, but that looked decent, and I have a few free hours. I’m happy to regularly support the art form that I most enjoy, knowing that it will be much more expensive to do so when I go home.
When I leave France, a piece of my heart will be left at the Cinéma Gaumont, and I intend to leave it there. Sometimes you find love in the most unexpected places.