Quantum of Solace

Once again it is 0330 and I can't sleep. Late November 2008

Not surprisingly, my American Foreign Service friends have never been to the movies here in Tirana. Last night we decided to check out Kinema Millenium and watch the latest James Bond Blockbuster, Quantam Of Solace. Impressive, since it JUST came out in the US a week ago! So we drive to where we believe the theater to be and immediately parked because you can park anywhere here, although US Diplomatic plates don't hurt either...

Shivering in the 45 degree weather, we turn onto a side street just of of Skanderbeg Square and find the Kinema Millenium. Nestled in front of two lovely, circular cafes, is the box office. Since I don't start Albanian language lessons until Monday, my friend asked for three tickets for the 1730 showing. I hear her say the word for "three" and then the woman in the box office who is actually wearing a chic red uniform pulls out a seating chart and asks where we would like to sit. We choose the middle, row six, seats seven, eight, and nine.

We enter the theater lobby to find the concession stand, boasting the ususal candy and popcorn AND espresso, beer and wine! We order two diet cokes and a fizzy water for me. Taking our beverages we enter the theater and another woman in a chic red uniform tears are tickets and directs us to our seat, just like an usher at a Broadway show. By the way we paid 500 LEKE per ticket (about $5.00).

The theater is large and all the seats are red, embossed with the Vodafone logo and jingle, Është momenti yt. Është Vodafone. The lights go down and we see two previews (Nights in Rodanthe and Body of Lies). Quantum of Solace begins in English with Shqip (Albanian for Albanian) subtitles. The sound and quality are great and the screen is enormous. As a big movie buff, I was VERY impressed and will be going quite often to the movies. Did I mention the Tirana International Film Festival begins on 1 December? Finally, I thought Quantum of Solace sucked!!