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Why We Opted to Turn the TV Off Plus Frugal Tips for Movie Buffs Nov. 18, 2007 One thing about Sophie and I is that we love to watch films. Generally speaking we watch a lot of them - new, old, a variety of genres. We're open, as long as they're good. In fact, mediocre films in a bizarre or edgy vane work for us as well. Think IFC or a large portion of Kiefer Sutherland's films. Strasbourg has a lovely old filmhouse, The Odyssee, which is offering a variety of second run and old films. We've already seen Tarintino's Deathproof and two Ingmar Bergman films this month. Actually, I went to the cinema on my own last night and saw the Bergman's Hour of the Wolf (1968). Sophie will see it tomorrow afternoon. Very cool film. The first Bergman film we saw at the Odyssee was last week. It was called The Silence (1963). Twice the movie broke and we all just sat and waited for something like 10-15 minutes until someone finally got up and informed the staff that the film wasn't working. The second time this happened we all just left. We weren't really sure if the film had actually ended or if it just broke close enough to the end to where it wasn't worth getting the projectionist again. If you live in the States, that probably sound totally unacceptable. But this is France. In France, it's typical. Once you get realize that's how things are here, it's fine. You just write it off as being part of French culture. Sophie had previously read the script for Persona (1966) and had watched parts of it on youtube. Now she can take advantage of the Odyssee's retrospective of Bergman's work. The cinema is showing 6 Bergman films this month and 7 next month. What a great learning experience! Persona will be playing next month. Sophie's first short film was based on one of the first scenes from Persona. For most of Sophie's life we haven't had TV. We'll that's not actually the case. We usually have a TV in the house but we rarely have cable, particularly after Sophie was about 9 years old. Cable offers channels like HBO and shows where cadavers are cut and that sort of thing and I just didn't want her flipping through the channels running into people having sex, soft porn or people being cut open. Okay, I really didn't want to run into the Nip and Tuck gore. It's just offensive to me. I'm not desensitized to it and never will be. TV is always trying to find the next over-the-top sensationalist exploitation smash hit, and well, I'm simply not interested in having it in my home. Also, it's far too easy for me to get addicted to the news. That being said, we love our films. I prefer watching them in the privacy of my own home. Unless there is a nice, calm theatre that's not too crowded on a regular basis. The Odyssee is my kind of theatre. Unlike television, films don't bombard the viewer with unwanted commercials telling us, and our children, that we aren't good enough just as we are - that if we bought such and such a product we would be more complete. I didn't want Sophie around that sort of influence. Americans live in a society where they are inundated with ad campaigns designed to make us feel less-than if we don't own their product. No, getting rid of TV doesn't totally eliminate the greed/need based culture largely derived from advertisers desire to get us to purchase their product at any price, but it sure doesn't hurt. If there is a particular show we want to see, we can rent it or buy it at the video store, borrow it from the library, or watch some of the best out takes of it on youtube. Trust me, we miss nothing. Frugal Tip #1: Libraries are great places to borrow movies. They are free, as long as you don't return them late. Libraries tend to offer a wide variety that varies from library to library. So, if you have seen just about everything at your local library, simply go to the next closest one and which will have a completely different inventory, since each librarian's taste will vary from the next. Libraries often carry old films that have won Oscars. One library we used to go to in the States had a huge non-fiction section and tons of BBC classics and detective shows. The library in Antibes, France has tons of really old films, like the original Dracula (1931) and they really specialized in any film that had anything to do with France - that seemed to be a main focal point for that particular library. The library here in Strasbourg tends to have a lot of odd older films, cultish films that you wouldn't necessarily know to get. Here in France we are only allowed to check out two videos at a time and the nearby library doesn't have the largest selection. That being said, it'll be quite sometime before we run through everything they have that we want to see. In the States we were allowed to borrow as many movies as books. This meant at one library we could check out 35 movies at a time. Frugal Tip #2: Watch films on youtube. If you don't know what you want to watch and you feel like going 'potluck' then youtube can be a lot of fun. We've found some absolutely fabulous films in their entirety on youtube. Films like Some Like it Hot (1959), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and The Thin Man (1934). If you haven't seen those films, you really must! We've also seen more recent films on youtube like The Butterfly Effect which Sophie had been dying to see and I'm really glad I didn't waste my money on. To look up movies on youtube we search 'full film', 'complete film', 'complete movie', 'complete film', etc. You get the picture. Frugal Tip #3: I like to own my movies so I can see them again at a later date if I so desire. I have found that I can buy an awful lot of good films at rather reasonable prices in the sale section of blockbusters. Oftentimes, if I like a film I will watch it more than once. In the end, it's cheaper for me to just purchase them, if they are on the sale rack already. Thanks! | 
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