ROME - SPRING 2012
This year, for our spring trip to Italy, we had to go later than usual. Normally, we like to go in the March/April period. Our first grandchild was scheduled to be born in late March so we postponed the trip to later. As it turned out our friends in Italy told us that it was a very wet and cold spring so we were lucky. The weather that we experienced was very good with only one-half day of rain. The temperatures when we left were in the low to mid 90s which was unusual for this time of the year in Rome.
Coming later than we normally come enabled us to see certain things that do not happen at other times of the year. For example, we got to go to Spello for the annual flower festival (see the link above), were there for the `Republic Day' parade, saw the annual International Equestrian competition in Villa Borghese, saw many more American tourists than usual and saw a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show.
When we lived in Rome in 2004 we noticed that they were having a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the movie theater located in Villa Borghese. For some reason I can no longer remember we could not go. Whenever we return to Rome I always look to see if it is playing anywhere but it never did. We were always curious to see if the audience behaves and dresses in the same way they do in the US. In the US, the audience makes comments as the movie progresses, dresses as the characters and brings props for various parts of the film.
For those of you who do not know the Rocky Horror Picture Show, produced in 1975, it is meant to be a parody of science fiction and horror films but is probably one of the worst movies ever made. The film flopped but two years after its release it started playing midnight weekend shows all over the US. In DC, the Key Theater in Georgetown played it every weekend at midnight for about 20 years. When the Key Theater closed the Queen and I went for the last showing of the RHPS and all the characters that had come for 20 years were there.
According to the Internet, the movie was part of the Roma Tre University film festival and was scheduled to start at 10 PM. We took the subway there and arrived about 15 minutes before the show hoping to spot people dressed in costume. There were none. When we inquired about the show they told us it was starting at 10:30PM so we waited around. At 10:30 PM we went in - there was not ticket booth and everyone was just walking in so the film was free. In the theater all the people were dressed up and they put four chairs on the stage in front of the screen and had a discussion on the previous movie that had just ended. We did not understand anything that was being said and we were not ever sure we were in the right place.
The movie did start but it was not until 11:30PM. The movie is 100 minutes long so that we did not leave the theater until after 1 AM. Fortunately it was a weekend and the trains run until 1AM so we were able to subway home. There was an entire production that accompanied the movie. There was one person dressed for each part and on the stage they enacted each of the scenes along with the movie. They even had props. Half the time the comments shouted out along with the movie were in English and half the time they were in Italian. When Brad Majors name was said everyone yelled out `ASSHOLE' just like in the US. For Janet they yelled out `Weiss', her last name instead of `YOU SLUT'. The King and Queen out of habit yelled out `YOU SLUT”.
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