Cinema plus ch 1
Going to the cinema is one of my absolute favourite things to do, certainly in my top three favourite things. I love films and I love the experience of seeing films on the big screen in the dark with the loud sound system. It’s been several years since I’ve been going to the cinema alone. Whenever I tell people I’m going to see a film the inevitable questions and horror occur.
‘I’m going to see ________ tonight.’ ‘Oh! Who are you going with?’ ‘No one, I’m going on my own.’ ‘Oh. I’ll go with you if you want to see it tomorrow.’ ‘That’s ok, I love going to see films on my own, no problem.’ ‘Oh. Well I want to see it anyway, fancy going tomorrow with me?’
Don’t feel sorry for me. I wasn’t inviting you. I love going to see films on my own. I love absorbing it and making my own mind up about it. I don’t need anyone giving me twenty questions to find out whether I knew what was going to happen before or after they did. I don’t really want to know what someone else thinks of it until I know what I think. Other people opinions too soon cloud your own and can ruin something that you actually thought was good, or even just appreciated in some way. There are few people who I can tolerate going to the cinema with and even then, I’ll just go, I don’t need chaperoning or the presence of someone else so that I don’t look like a loner. I am a loner. I’m not saying I don’t have friends or enjoy the company of others but I also enjoy my own company. I don’t understand this ridiculous stigma of not wanting to go on your own. I’m a big girl, I’ll be fine! In this environment, I can really get particularly pissed with someone who ruins the experience for me.
1. Rude latecomers.
I once sat waiting for a film to start, in the days when I still went with my husband. The film started and about 10 minutes in, four people strolled in whispering loudly to each other. They decided, of course, to sit in my row. Because we were sitting near the aisle, we had to get up to let them in. When three of them had gotten in, they discovered that there were only three seats together and the first man in said to me ‘Could you move up please?’ I quietly replied ‘You were late. I’m not moving.’ They looked quite put out when the three then had to get up and sit somewhere else.
These are the rules about lateness. When you are late to the cinema, you come in as quietly as possible. By opening the door, you have already created a disturbance, a minor one and a distraction to all the other viewers who got their behinds there on time and particularly those of us who love the experience of being at the pictures. You ought to be creeping to a seat, one where you have to ask NO ONE to move and bend while getting into it so as not obstruct the view of anyone sitting behind you. You don’t talk to your friends, you don’t open anything until there is loud music or noise in the film and then you can enjoy the experience. I thought everybody knew that.