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The small coastal town of Broome, in northwest Australia, is an outpost in the vast Outback.
 There are no traffic jams and hardly any roads. There is only the massive Australian wilderness, where some houses are 500 miles apart and some driveways are 50 miles long.
There seem to be only two main sources of entertainment out here: the sunset at the beach and Sun Pictures.
Sun Pictures is a very different movie theater. The seats are park benches and deck chairs, but you're also welcome to sit on the grass.
It is the world's oldest outdoor movie garden. Sun Pictures was built in 1916 on the other side of the globe from Hollywood. All the big films were shipped here and the lonely Outback was dazzled.
Broome resident Pearl Hamaguchi has never traveled far from home. But in the Sun Pictures chairs, under the deep blue night sky, she has been almost everywhere.
"And we came back swooning over Gregory Peck," she recalled.
This is one of the few places left in the world where you can see two sets of stars at the same time.
"That was the only input we got from the rest of the world: Hollywood," said Hamaguchi, laughing, remembering what Sun Pictures meant during her childhood. "Of course, we all exchanged seats after the lights went off. [We were] smooching and holding hands."
Each night, dozens of people from around the world line up at the old wooden booth, with no computer in sight, and buy their tickets to the latest escape.
Sun Pictures is also a museum, exhibiting projectors that date back to the silent films, a portrait gallery of the celebrities who never knew about this place - even though they came here all the time.
Every once in a while, I'm told, you might find a non-ticket holder in your seat. That's why it's always a good idea to shake out your lawn chair to make sure there are no spiders or scorpions.
"We've only had a couple of scorpion incidents but no one's been stung yet," said Aaron Mestemaker, a tourist visiting from Michigan.
Sun Pictures is a shrine to movie history and a reminder that air conditioning and carpet are no match for grass and fresh air - even when the lizards steal the scene.
(Agencies)
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在澳大利亞西北部有一個叫做布魯姆的沿海小鎮，布魯姆鎮是澳洲廣袤的內陸地區中一個人煙稀少的偏僻的村落。
這里沒有交通堵塞，甚至幾乎沒有什么公路，有的只是澳洲大陸的空曠。兩戶人家之間間隔500英里是常有的事，汽車開出家門后要開上50英里才能上主路也不是什么新鮮事。
當地人的娛樂項目主要有兩項，一是去海灘看日落，再則就是光顧Sun Pictures（陽光電影院）。
Sun Pictures 是一家別具一格的電影院。影院的座位是由公園里的長椅和輕便折疊式躺椅組成的。當然觀眾也可以坐在草坪上看電影。
 這是世界上歷史最悠久的花園式露天電影院。Sun Pictures于1916年建成，從地圖上看正好在好萊塢的另一面（好萊塢位于西經118度，布魯姆位于東經122度，如果將世界地圖從國際日期變更線，也就是180度經線對折，好萊塢和布魯姆所在的經線基本重合）。當年的大片運到布魯姆，讓這個寂寞的小鎮第一次感到眼花繚亂。
當地居民皮爾-濱口女士從未出過遠門。不過正是在Sun Pictures電影院的座椅上，在深藍色夜空下，她幾乎神游了世界各地。
皮爾-濱口回憶說："當我們從電影院回來的時候還陶醉在格雷戈里-派克的精彩表演中。"
像Sun Pictures這樣可以讓人在繁"星"閃爍的夜空下欣賞電影明"星"大作的地方在當今世界可謂屈指可數。
"好萊塢是我們所接受的唯一來自外部世界的事物，"濱口笑著說，并回想當年兒提時代Sun Pictures給人們帶來的巨大影響。"當電影開演后，燈光都熄滅了，大家都在黑暗中悄悄地換了座位，（跟自己的心上人）牽手，接吻。
現在，每天晚上，來自世界各地的人們在Sun Pictures老式的票房前排起了長隊，這里采用了古老的人工售票的方式而不是電腦售票，大家爭先購買最近上映的電影的票子。
Sun Pictures同時還是一座博物館，展出的有無聲電影時期的放映機和明星們的肖像，盡管這些影界名流有些從未聽說過這個小城，但是他們的作品時常會到此一游。
有人曾經告訴我，偶爾你會發現自己的座位會被未持票的"朋友"占據了，所以你在就座前最好先晃一晃自己的躺椅，確保趕走這些沒有買票的蜘蛛或蝎子"朋友"們。
來自密歇根的游客阿蘭-梅斯特美克說："我們碰到過幾次蝎子占座位的事，不過至今沒人被咬傷過。"
Sun Pictures可謂是座電影史的殿堂，它還不斷提醒人們，空調和地毯根本無法與新鮮的空氣和草坪相比--即使有時候一些蜥蜴會和明星們搶鏡頭。
(中國日報網站譯)
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Updated: 2001-07-30 01:00
