Museums and libraries to reopen
Museums and libraries will reopen on May 29 although with restrictions. Normally, May 31 would’ve been Museums Day with free access and special free bus routes, but there’s no mention of it here. Items also mention drive‑in cinemas, which I didn’t think still existed.
EmilyG 16:25 on 2020-05-22 Permalink
I don’t think there are that many museums within walking distance of me. The radio one perhaps.
Alison Cummins 18:37 on 2020-05-22 Permalink
I saw C.R.A.Z.Y. af the Boucherville Ciné-Parc in 2005. Lots of fun, very social.
It’s still around, as are the ones in Saint-Eustache and Saint-Hilaire.
Dhomas 06:52 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
There are no longer any drive-in theatres showing any films in English in/around Montreal. My understanding is that they used to be able to show the film in either language by simply broadcasting the English and French audio tracks on separate radio bands, but they had to stop that practice when the film industry said they had to pay the license twice (once for each language). This made it unprofitable, so they stuck to French only. Not sure how much of this is true, as I don’t remember where I heard/read it.
I used to go down to St-Albans, VT, about once a year to go watch a film (in its original language) at the drive-in, but they closed that one too a few years back. It would seem like now would be a good time for a resurgence in drive-in theatres, though.
Dhomas 06:59 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
Oh, and @Alison Cummins, they tore down the screens at the Boucherville drive-in theatre last year, so it’s permanently shut down, sadly. It’s a shame because I’m sure they could have come in handy this year.
Alison Cummins 11:00 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
Dhomas, that’s too bad. I saw a story that a 4-month-old infant lying in a baby tent was run over by another car while the parents were packing up. (See, very social. You drive in, set up your picnic and watch the movie with your friends.) That may have been the last straw if the cinema was already not doing well.
Boucherville is still listed in cinemamontreal.com, which is where I got my info that it was still open. So the other two might not be open either.
I don’t like to watch dubbed films and that’s been their staple—american movies dubbed in French. But every now and again they have a Quebec film.
Raymond Lutz 11:42 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
Here in Drummondville (we had two screens!), the digital transition killed the drive-in theatre : the mandatory high def (and high powe)r projector cost in the 100 000 $.
Blork 15:12 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
I have a thing for drive-in theatres and airports. When I was a teenager there was a drive-in near the city airport and I learned of a dirt road off the airport road that looped around behind the drive-in, and by going off the dirt road and through a ditch you could basically sneak into the drive-in without paying. I did that a bunch of times and never got caught.
I also spent a few years flying gliders, and one of the fields where I’d fly was next to a drive-in (different town, different drive-in). You don’t fly gliders at night, obviously, and drive-ins don’t operate in the daytime, but they were notorious for starting the movie before it was fully dark (especially if it was a double feature), and one evening just at sundown I was coming in for a landing and I looked over and saw that the movie was already playing on the drive-in screen. So I am probably one of the few people on earth who can claim to have watched a drive-in movie while flying a glider. (OK, I watched maybe five seconds, but still…)
Blork 15:16 on 2020-05-23 Permalink
Ha! The drive-in from the second story is still there!
https://goo.gl/maps/e4pj5d5ee3aBCrty6
Dhomas 08:42 on 2020-05-24 Permalink
@Allison Cummins: apparently, the closure had been planned prior to the tragedy with the 4 month old:
https://www.lareleve.qc.ca/2020/04/20/cine-parc-boucherville/
In looking into drive-ins this week, I found that the one in Saint-Eustache (www.cineparc.mathers.ca/) now plays English movies on Thursdays.