There’s a small cinema chain in Finland called Riviera, which I’ve grown to like lately. It’s more expensive, and the screen is smaller than at a regular cinema, but it’s a pretty cute little cinema which has a bar, some snacks and drinks available. Frankly, I’m not too fussed about cinemas, but Lea prefers slightly nicer seating and services, so we’ve started to go there, whenever possible. It’s a small cinema so it’s hard to get a seat booked.
We managed to get our seats yesterday and went in to see Napoleon. It was actually the second movie of the day, we started the day off invited by Mika (Orasmaa, DOP) to see his latest film he DOP’d, There’s Something In The Barn, which I liked very much. It’s a fun Christmas elf / folk horror comedy from Norway, which brought me thinking a lot of the Finnish band Tonttu and their album Kabouter Dämmerung, one where they describe all the mischiefs elves can come up with.
Anyway, in the evening we hauled our asses through freezing Helsinki to Riviera, but gotta say, we got served shit, and left eventually feeling sour. It’s funny how little things a service needs to do wrong to lose a customership. Tickets were already pretty expensive, and we bought a bottle of wine to go with them, so it turned out to be a 100€+ film screening, which is not unheard of nowadays anyway, but for that you would expect at least a decent service.
The lady behind the counter was smiling alright, but her attitude to the crowds was rather unfavorable. Eventually when we popped out of the cinema to get some snacks, she stared us blankly while we were choosing the snacks, and after we laid over our order she stared us like two idiots, asking “what do you want”? We asked if the order could be brought to our seats or do we get it from the counter, to which she asked “what order”? I repeated what we wanted and she stared us down like we had our brains leaking out of our noses and informed us, without apologies, without explanations and without any recognition of the fact that we just paid over 100€ to watch a goddamn movie at her establishment, that “kitchen’s closed”.
Now, I understand that kitchen can be indeed closed, and respect that wholeheartedly, but treating customers like they are pieces of shit in a small, specialized and unique cinema with a cute local vibe is what I can’t stand. I come to expect to be treated like shit in multiplexes, but these tiny establishments are there because we want to share a nice evening, not just to see the film.
Anyway, pissed me off and lost two paying customers to that establishment. Luckily they have two of those – this one was the one in Punavuori area – so maybe we’ll find ourselves better treated in the other one.
It’s getting really cold in Helsinki, a weather I can actually appreciate – at least the city looks pretty and nice and clean with all the fresh snow falling. I also went back to the gym for the first time in months – I mean, I did do some workouts at Hilton in Astana, but first time back at the crossfit gym, it’s always a rude awakening on the body.
Oh, and what about Napoleon? Yeah, ultimately an epic movie that left you emotionally a bit detached and cold – the big battle scenes are beautiful, especially the one over the ice is phenomenal, but Joaquin Phoenix’s performace doesn’t really work for me. There’s something mundane and uninteresting in him, which is a surprise, given how great he often is in his movies.
Vuorensola.com 