On my list of cool American things to try out as soon as I had the chance, was going for an outdoor movie screening. The kind where there is a projector set up, and people are out on the grass with chairs and pillows and blankets, and watch old movies. Nothing of this sort ever happened in India, not to my knowledge at least, and it sounded like a perfect date night opportunity to me.
I am glad to report it indeed was! 🙂
When I read that Timeout NYC was organizing a rooftop movie session, I immediately signed up for the first favorite movie that appeared on their first list for the summer, Casablanca. I first saw Casablanca when I was a teenager and it has since been one of my favorite movies of all time.
When I first met the guy, he had casually asked me to list my favorite movies. Casablanca was the first movie on my list and he had piped up ‘mine too!’. It was one of those moments about meeting him that I remembered very fondly.. I even put it in our wedding invite! Imagine my dismay when he told me later that he was ‘trying to make an impression on me’ 😐 Luckily, by then he had his own favorite moment to associate Casablanca with (we had spent a lazy afternoon watching the movie together entangled on the couch in our PJs).
When the screening day arrived, it was cold and rainy and it did not look like they’d go ahead with the screening. But they put out outdoor space heaters and handed out rain ponchos and extra blankets, and we went ahead. We curled up on the lawn chairs with popcorn and champagne, holding hands under the blanket, and watched this old romantic movie. 🙂
Watching Casablanca in the rain in NYC huddled under blankets with popcorn and champagne went right up that list of perfect NYC moments with the guy. 🙂 I am not sure why, but we didn’t do this all summer, until it occurred to us that we probably should, and we booked tickets for one of the last movies of the summer, Top Gun.
Top Gun was a trip down memory lane. It was love at first sight with Tom Cruise when I first saw this movie back in the late 90’s. It was already one of the “old classics” back then, and I remember being so in awe of pilots.. especially ones with a leather jacket and ray bans! 😉 It isn’t a particularly great movie, but the memories alone made it a worth while watch.
I am really looking forward to the next summer of NYC rooftop cinema! 😀
~ Annie.
