Thanks to cinema week! (3rd, 4th and 5th November 2015)

One of the things that us Latin American students suffer from the most is not being able to go to the cinema as often as we would like to. The prices of cinema tickets are sadly three or four times higher than our budgets, but taking advantage of offers like these is a good way of enduring the pain of it all.

During the month of November, a "cinema week" is held, where tickets cost just 2. 90€ instead of the usual price of 10€. Although this offer only applied to a period of three consecutive days, it was a great way of clearing my head of all of the school work I had been constantly thinking about (our exams are on the horizon).

It was a shame that I could only go once because my flatmate and I only remembered about the event taking place on the 3rd, and when we tried to go on the 4th, we weren't able to get tickets. We quickly learnt that, to be able to go, you have to buy your tickets online a couple of days in advance! It was incredible to see a line that was more than 50 metres long for the ticket office. Obviously, by the time that we arrived there, all of the screenings were fully booked, apart from the ones that started at midnight-ish, so we had to go home (and I ended up eating all of the sweets that I had bought for the film). The good thing about the situation was that we decided to buy tickets for the following day while we were there and we ended up getting seats towards the back because they were also about to sell out for the 5th too.

Source

We finally got to see a film the following day! Lots of people were taking "contraband" sweets and popcorn into the film with them because they are extremely expensive to buy there at the cinema (I thought that I was the only one who did this). One of the things that I like the most about going to the cinema in Spain is that half of the listings come from international film markets and the other half from Spain! I had the opportunity to see the film, "Mi Gran Noche" (the plot of which I won't spoil for you all), which I really enjoyed. In the beginning, I didn't want to see this film because I prefer Hollywood blockbusters, but my flatmate (a flamenco dancer from Barcelona) wanted to see the Spanish film so we decided to buy tickets for that one. It came as a huge surprise that I left the cinema having really enjoyed the film and my flatmate not having done. One of the things that influenced my opinion was seeing the Spanish culture being reflected throughout the film and seeing scenes filmed in places around Madrid that I had been fortunate enough to visit during my exchange. Just to ruin it a tiny bit for you all, I have to say that the famous singer of the song of the same name, "Mi gran noche", Raphael, makes an appearance in the film.

Another thing that I learnt on that day was that if I want to see a Hollywood-produced film in its original language, it will cost me lots more and I will have to go to the cinemas at Callao, which are much older and much more expensive. So, bearing all of this in mind, I think that it's for the best that I just accept that I have to watch them all in Spanish.

It's a shame that this cinema week has come to an end so quickly, but I know that I will end up buying tickets at the Méndez Alvaro Cinesa on Fridays because they only cost 5€, and, according to what I have heard along the grapevine, just 3€ on Wednesdays. Lots of really good films are about to be released and I don't want to miss a single one!

Photo gallery