Saturday evening--May 13, 2006
Saturday evening May 13th
Aside from going to local markets, one of the more interesting things to do in a foreign country is to go to a movie theater. We are so accustomed to our rather insular perspectives of life, that we fail to appreciate how different things are in the rest of the world. That evening we went to the movie theater in the German Colony--one of the oldest in the entire country. I remember going to this theater on my first trip to Israel in 1967 and it is still housed in the same building. Upon entering the building, one finds oneself in the middle of a thriving cafe, full of tables and lots of people talking over each other to be heard. Smoking is illegal in restaurants, but no one pays attention to that rule yet, so we chose not to sit down. We went up to the ticket window to purchase our tickets and were delighted to be offered our choice of assigned seats (how civilized!). Many of the patrons who entered the theater came in with glasses of beer or wine--as this is perfectly acceptable. We chose water and a box of popcorn--very plebean it seemed. The movie was called "The World's Fastest Indian" and starred Anthony Hopkins; it was in English (actually Austrailian) with Hebrew subtitiles, but could just as easily have been in French, German, or any other language. Israel has a small but very vibrant local film production medium, but imports many films from around the world to supplement their internal output. Israelis are very foreign-language film oriented, unlike most Americans who wouldn't dare to admit they've seen or liked a foreign film. Contrary to initial expectations of the movie's content, based upon the title, we saw the story of an Austrailian 70ish gentlemen who loved his Indian brand motorcycle and who dreamed of racing it, before he died, on the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah. Hopkins' character portrayal was wonderful as usual and this was a sleeper of a movie--great acting, storyline, cinemaphotography, and moral teaching. In addition to a terrific movie, Rae-ann was treated to her first official movie intermission--the film actually stopped midway and the audience went out to resupply themselves with food and drink (and to use the restrooms of course).
After the movie, we went back to Ben Yehuda Street where we listened to an impromptu concert by some Asian choralers, saw far too many young people smoking, had some scrumptuous gelato, and later in the evening (around 11pm) grabbed a falafel and superb schwarma for dinner. Schwarma is usually lamb and turkey that cooks slowly on a vertical spit and that gets put into a pita with hummous, tehini, salad, chips, hot sauce, and maybe pickles. Need I say more...???
Aside from going to local markets, one of the more interesting things to do in a foreign country is to go to a movie theater. We are so accustomed to our rather insular perspectives of life, that we fail to appreciate how different things are in the rest of the world. That evening we went to the movie theater in the German Colony--one of the oldest in the entire country. I remember going to this theater on my first trip to Israel in 1967 and it is still housed in the same building. Upon entering the building, one finds oneself in the middle of a thriving cafe, full of tables and lots of people talking over each other to be heard. Smoking is illegal in restaurants, but no one pays attention to that rule yet, so we chose not to sit down. We went up to the ticket window to purchase our tickets and were delighted to be offered our choice of assigned seats (how civilized!). Many of the patrons who entered the theater came in with glasses of beer or wine--as this is perfectly acceptable. We chose water and a box of popcorn--very plebean it seemed. The movie was called "The World's Fastest Indian" and starred Anthony Hopkins; it was in English (actually Austrailian) with Hebrew subtitiles, but could just as easily have been in French, German, or any other language. Israel has a small but very vibrant local film production medium, but imports many films from around the world to supplement their internal output. Israelis are very foreign-language film oriented, unlike most Americans who wouldn't dare to admit they've seen or liked a foreign film. Contrary to initial expectations of the movie's content, based upon the title, we saw the story of an Austrailian 70ish gentlemen who loved his Indian brand motorcycle and who dreamed of racing it, before he died, on the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah. Hopkins' character portrayal was wonderful as usual and this was a sleeper of a movie--great acting, storyline, cinemaphotography, and moral teaching. In addition to a terrific movie, Rae-ann was treated to her first official movie intermission--the film actually stopped midway and the audience went out to resupply themselves with food and drink (and to use the restrooms of course).
After the movie, we went back to Ben Yehuda Street where we listened to an impromptu concert by some Asian choralers, saw far too many young people smoking, had some scrumptuous gelato, and later in the evening (around 11pm) grabbed a falafel and superb schwarma for dinner. Schwarma is usually lamb and turkey that cooks slowly on a vertical spit and that gets put into a pita with hummous, tehini, salad, chips, hot sauce, and maybe pickles. Need I say more...???
posted by Scottland at 6:47 PM
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