At the movies

It strikes me as being a rather peculiar state of affairs, to live in one of the poorest countries in the world and yet be able to watch the latest James Bond film on less than a week after its US release date. Lusaka has little in the way of cultural distractions. Actually, Lusaka has no cultural distractions whatsoever; aside from the cinema. Rachel and I are not yet so culturally impoverished that we would plan our lives around the release of a film, but we have taken to going to the cinema most Wednesdays and so, by happy coincidence, an hour or two ago, we watched the first showing in Lusaka of Quantum of Solace.

The first film we saw here, quite a few weeks ago now, was Mamma Mia. It provided ninety minutes of light-hearted relief which we desperately needed. And so we determined that we would make going to the cinema a regular event, partly for the escapism, but also because we can walk there and it is all there is to do here anyway (and it is the only place we have found in Lusaka that is air-conditioned). It is very reasonably priced too at the equivalent of two pounds a ticket; so it is one of the only things, perhaps the only thing, which is cheaper in Zambia than it is in the UK.

We have had quite a lot of success with the films we have seen, at least, we are yet to see something that has made us think that weekly outings to the cinema are not such a good idea after all. New films appear frequently enough that we have not yet had to watch the one about a talking dog (though we have had to sit through the advert for it a few times) and the selection available seems to divide itself fairly neatly between serious, though rather violent affairs and children’s movies, neither of which we particularly mind watching (we have, however, had to draw the line at the film about the talking Chihuahua and High School Musical 3 where children’s movies are concerned).

Those of you who have not yet seen Quantum of Solace I would certainly recommend it (though my criteria for watching films at the cinema are somewhat skewed – they just have to be showing on a Wednesday afternoon for me to watch them). The critics who could not find a plot were not looking hard enough; while it was certainly understated and played a secondary role to the general violence and mayhem that abounded throughout the film, its subtlety rendered it all the more gripping. Having no aspirations towards film criticism I think that is quite enough of that.

It is typical of Africa that while I am able to go to the cinema any night of the week it has taken me nearly two days to get onto the internet.