Sex and Stavanger

Tonight is the "Stavanger premiere" of the Sex and the City, which is a big deal because we just don't get the good movies here. There are always multiple showings of the latest Ashton Kutcher blockbuster of "What Happens in Vegas" and "10,000 B.C," but quality flicks (or even quality fluff) are hard to come by, for sure.

I love the movies. Because of my somewhat odd freelance schedule, I usually had a few days free. And whenever I had a chance, usually a few times a month, I would go to the biggest multiplex, buy a giant Diet Coke and box of popcorn. I would meticulously time the showings so I could try to catch two in a row, but the key was to get there before the lights went down.

Then I would choose the best seat in the middle of the second or third row---close enough that the movie was huge and larger than life, but not so close that I ever had to crane my neck---and settle back for some good hours of cinema time.

And then at the end, I don't hurry, I think it's important to read the credits. As a writer, with a byline, I think it is only proper to read other people's bylines, especially if I enjoyed it.

But here, in Stavanger, there are not daily matinees. And I am convinced that our particular theater is where rotten American movies come to re-coup their box office losses. It's really a chicken/egg sort of thing, I've decided. Norwegians (and other foreign audiences, I suspect) will buy movie tickets, any movie tickets, so have them buy the ones that need the dough back in the bank. They would probably buy tickets to the good movies, too, but those already make money in other markets, so the movie makers send their rotten ones for our viewing pleasure.

They also like to tease me with the movie posters. The people who run the movies here must put everything up on the wall, just because they get it in the shipments. Or maybe it's just a giant shipment of "here's what you can't have, suckas!"

So tonight is "Sex and the City." And yes, it's been panned by critics worldwide, but my friends who are fans say it's good fun. So a group of girlfriends here are getting together for dinner and cocktails and then we're going to see the movie.

I've always had a complicated relationship with Sex and the City. I lived in New York for a decade and my friends and heard about Sex and the City, but we were all young and poor and while we could afford shoes, booze and rent, HBO was not a part of any of our budgets, at least not until well through Season Three or Four. But we would gather on occasion to watch it at our more fortunate friends, the ones in finance who did have cable in their budgets.

Then, when cable became something I could write off on taxes (I was a pop culture reporter, after all) I would spend entire days watching the back-log of shows. It was pretty much the only television I watched because I was always out, working or well, doing things.

And now, when people talk about their devotion to the show, I always want to explain that my devotion is a little different. Many love it for the sexiness and the New York glamour, but my friends and I loved it for how it captured life there---Not necessarialy the shiny nights or the pretty shoes, but the actual kind of person who lives there. A little bit brave and resourceful and ultimately hopeful, all tinged with a bit of cynicism.

Also, the writers, especially in the middle seasons, didn't separate each one of the characters into types that are wholly one thing or another, the writers gave them types that are facets of every woman.

I think neurotic neat-freak when I think of Monica Geller, but when i think of Carrie, I think cautiously hopeful, clumsy, not so practical, kindhearted, funny. Samantha is powerful, straightforward and a great business woman. Charlotte is optimistic, slightly naive and traditional. Miranda is cynical, slightly acerbic and independent. but not one of them is any one way all the time.

And over the seasons, each one of them evolved. I'll bet that while there are certainly some women that think they are the embodiment of one of the four, I'll also wager that there are varying degrees of each of them in most women and the degrees probably vary at any give time.

Anyway, there are loads of thoughts I have about the show, that it was really a family drama in the sense that cities create their own little urban family groups and that it made it okay to talk about the real things happening. And that if one show showed Magnolia Bakery, you could be sure that the throngs of tourists would show up the very next day.

But in any case, whether or not the movie wins loads of critical award which seems wholly uncertain, I'm going to take my friend Nan's advice, "Ignore the haters. If you love the show, you'll love the movie. It's like going to visit some old friends. Old friends who dress way the hell better than you."