Movie Night in La Paz Outdoor Style
03 December 2012 | Joseph and Debi's house
Fred
Last night we were invited over to a friend’s house for a special screening of the Directors Cut of the classic Italian movie, Cinema Paradisio. The original was filmed in 1989 and the Director’s Cut was done in 1999. The movie is about a young boy that is fatherless and fascinated with the projection of films at the local cinema. There he befriends the projectionist and the story progress through the young boy’s life and ending with the death of the projectionist. I have simplified the movie but it is a must see. The director’s cut adds a section where the young boy, now a young man, falls in love with a beautiful girl. However the girl’s father does not want her to have anything to do with the boy so she is moved out of town and the boy is heartbroken but they finally meet again when the boy, now a middle aged man and movie producer, comes back to the village to attend the funeral. It is quite a love story.
Our host invited us and several others over as he was going to screen it on his wall over his pool as you can see in the picture. It was like going to a drive in movie only with chairs and wine and food! We really enjoyed the movie and the setting.
But first our trials and tribulations of getting there. We were to arrive at 6:45 so he could start the show at dark around 7. Well we left the boat at 6:15 giving us plenty of time to walk out of the marina and get a cab that is always at the gate. However, being Sunday evening the cab was not there. Not to worry, we can walk up the block and there will be one on the main street. Well we didn’t find one and started walking as I was sure that there would be one at the Hotel Perla. We did find a guy washing his cab and he agreed to take us so we jumped in. We took off and the traffic was fairly slow so it was slow going and I was getting nervous of being late. I noticed that his low fuel light was on and he was talking on his cell phone. We got to an intersection and a cop was directing traffic and noticed him on the cell and motioned him to pull over. Oh Great! I thought this will really make us late. The cop was talking to the driver but the driver kept talking on his cell. Finally he hung up and had a very animated conversation with the cop and talked his way out of a ticket. On we went and turned up the hill which is a cobblestone street with some really rough spots. I thought the cab was going to fall apart on the way up but we made it to the gate. No guard but there was an electronic gate device listing the owners. However our friends name was not on the list but Penny found the pedestrian gate was open so we paid off the cab and started walking. We quickly realized that we were in a place that we had not been before and the road was a dead-end complete with barking dog watching our progress. He was in the street with us but Penny scolded him in Spanish and he took off. I tried to call our friend’s phone but it wouldn’t go through so I called another friend whom I thought would be there and got through and he confirmed I had the right numbers. He called for us and our friend called and said to walk to the corner and he would come pick us up. We did and I realized that we were at the wrong gate and walked to the correct gate and announced ourselves to the vigilante (guard in Spanish) and he let us through. There was a truck stopped in the street and a young lady leaned out and said “are you Penny and Fred” which we replied we indeed were. So we jumped in with her as she did not know which house it was and I did. Of course I was sure we were late and holding up everything but as it turns out we were the first ones there. So all ended up well and we got a ride home to boot.