Día del Espectador

Our cinema of choice: Yelmo Vialia-Málaga

Every Wednesday in Spain, cinemas participate in "Día del Espectador", "Day of the Spectator". All tickets including 3D movies are reduced to half price - effectively €3,90!! Compared to Sweden's 120SEK (€13.40) for a normal film entrance, it is not even a third of the price.  Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, on Tuesday I got a haircut for €7. The cheapest I ever got in Sweden was for 260SEK, €29 - more than four times the Spanish price. In Mainz I could get mine for €15, still more than twice the price. Nonetheless, one thing to watch out for is popcorn and drinks. A medium portion with beverage can cost €5, more than the ticket! As a result, its normally better to eat something before, or watch the movie at a time when you aren't hungry - a difficult moment to find for many!

In any case, my friends and I have been using nearly every Wednesday to enjoy the newest in cinema, and of course, always dubbed in Spanish.  It began with Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom, followed by El Lobo de Wallstreet (pronounced "Wall-eh-street"), La Gran Estafa Americana (American Hustle), and most recently, Lego Película (Lego Movie). 

The degree to which I understood all of these movies varies.  Lego Movie was by far the easiest where I understood about 85% of what was happening. In comparison, American Hustle was extremely difficult to follow since the majority of the movie is based on its dialogue. I probably understood 50-60%, so basically I didn't really know what happened.

However, the film I enjoyed watching the most was, The Wolf of Wallstreet, for its strikingly brusque and controversial representation of the lives of Wall Street brokers as well as Leonardo di Caprio's excellent interpretation of, "The Wolf". Mandela featured fantastic acting and for those of us who did not read the autobiography, a great insight into Mandela's life. From what I could take away from American Hustle, the film was of a very high quality but requires patience to watch. The essence of the film lies in the intrigue of the plot and the relations between characters - probably best represented in their native language... Last but not least, Lego Movie was a blast.  Filled with clever humor and dashes of satire, it was a celebration of imagination and reminded me of when I would create my own Lego movies as a child :)

To come back to the pricing, one can't help but notice the overwhelming amount of competitive pricing everywhere.  Many restaurants in the shopping mall with the cinema caught on to the half price movies by offering half price food.  For example, there is a montaditos (small sandwiches) place known for it's 100 varieties. On Wednesday all of them cost only €1 and as an added benefit, so does the beer and tinto de verano. Next door, you can go to Burger King and use the the coupons that you receive from the movie tickets.  On the beach in Pedregalejo, the part of town where the school is, there is an Italian restaurant where from Monday to Thursday all pizzas cost €5, down from the usual cost of up to €10. Of course, it isn't hard to imagine that these places are the ones that become completely packed.  Telepizza, a chain similar to Dominoes, had an offer the 19th and 20th of February: €1 for a small pizza, and only for three boring types. The pizza isn't even good, we tried it. Nonetheless, at 20:30 there was a queue of people traversing the entire store and continuing outside. Cheap food is popular everywhere, but I can't help but infer a connection that the economic crisis might have on this money saving craze.