Movie Theater Experiences

[swo17]

Not because of the film itself, but because teenagers ruin everything.

[Movie-Brat]

Cinemas in France have pulled Annabelle from theatrical release due to riots occurring at screenings

I hate teenagers in movie theaters.

[domino harvey]

This is a good excuse to repost one of my favorite videos on YouTube

[colinr0380]

Damning proof that Cannes audiences get worse with every passing year.

I like the final moments of that video though "Bye-bye! I'm so disgusted by the direction that the film took that I'm walking out on it..(when the end credits come up)".

[warren oates]

Woman Reportedly Maces Man Who Asked Her To Turn Off Her Phone During Film Screening. At the Mann Chinese, at an AFI fest screening of Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner. I might add that there's no clear indication she was arrested for this assault, which is baffling considering how many LAPD cops are regularly no more than a stone's throw away from the door to this place.

[domino harvey]

Some amazing comments on that article calling for the death of all women

[fantasy]

I went to go see Frederick Wiseman's National Gallery recently and it was surprisingly one of the worst crowds I've sat with in a while. Mostly elderly who seemed to be under the impression that since the film is about a museum, that you're allowed to comment on the art aloud or generally act as if you are in an actual museum. Even during the Q&A I could hear people behind me commenting on other people's questions like amateur art critics. Absolutely absurd.

Loved the film, however.

[ianthemovie]

Oh dear God...this makes me dread seeing National Gallery next weekend. Here in Boston it's showing at the Museum of Fine Arts, which is where I saw At Berkeley last year. One of the most irritating filmgoing experiences in recent memory. I had the misfortune of going on a day when a large group of UC Berkeley alums had been invited to screen the film. I was seated in front of two or three middle-aged women who commented constantly to each other throughout the film as if they were poring over an old yearbook ("oh look, it's the Berkeley arch!", "oh, that's the such-and-such building!" etc.). Any of the film's ironies and subtleties seemed to be lost on them as they were approaching it as some sort of rah-rah celebration of Berkeley (and in fact they did begin clapping and cheering during the sequence of the marching band at the football game!)

Much to my satisfaction, several of them eventually walked out of the film. I don't think they realized that it was going to be four hours long. Meanwhile an older couple to my left were convinced that there would be an intermission (and continually commented on this), in spite of the fact that all of the museum information about the film explicitly said "at the request of the filmmaker, the film will be shown without an intermission."

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I was seated in front of two or three middle-aged women who commented constantly to each other throughout the film as if they were poring over an old yearbook ("oh look, it's the Berkeley arch!", "oh, that's the such-and-such building!" etc.). Any of the film's ironies and subtleties seemed to be lost on them as they were approaching it as some sort of rah-rah celebration of Berkeley (and in fact they did begin clapping and cheering during the sequence of the marching band at the football game!)

Much to my satisfaction, several of them eventually walked out of the film. I don't think they realized that it was going to be four hours long. Meanwhile an older couple to my left were convinced that there would be an intermission (and continually commented on this), in spite of the fact that all of the museum information about the film explicitly said "at the request of the filmmaker, the film will be shown without an intermission."

Yes - stupid, clueless a-holes like the ones you describe above ruin the film theatre experience for the rest of us. It's posts like this that remind me of why I only go to see films in the theater 1-2 times a year these days (after having gone 2-3 times a week for years, up until the late 200X's).

[warren oates]

There are plenty of stories here about talking during movies (old person near-deaf narration, clueless person "wait, what happened?" questions, enthusiastic talking-back, angry ranting against, pointless yet persistent low-level chatter) and maybe a few accounts of inappropriate or excessive laughter, but not many about extremes in the opposite direction of the emotional spectrum. I'm talking about crying and not merely tearing or choking up -- full scale sobbing, blubbering, weeping uncontrollably, wailing continuously.

Last night a friend of mine swore to me that he once sat near a famous musician who could not stop wailing for the last 30 minutes of Schindler's List. Which put me in mind of my own movie crying story. Last year around this time I saw Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel 1915. I was probably the only person in that theater for whom it was first and foremost a Dumont film. Based on the bits of conversations I overheard, most were there out of a genuine interest in the artist's life, a few also because of Binoche. So I was a little surprised when numerous pockets of chattiness erupted almost immediately. I was able to shush down all but one. These two female friends obviously felt entitled to continue talking and clearly imagined that I actually couldn't hear them or that, if I could, I wasn't really being bothered by it (subtle Dumont sound work be damned!). So after about 5-10 separate and ultimately ineffectual shushings and one or two tries of ("Please be quiet"), I snapped. I got out my cell phone -- I know, I know -- I surreptitiously turned on the flashlight (this last resort has worked for me before and since, btw), I aimed it right at them and mustered in my best scolding whisper: "Would you two just shut up?"

And then I almost immediately felt like I was suddenly the jerk because they were both sitting there weeping in the dark, blubbering quietly to each other. Of course, they weren't crying the whole time, nothing excuses their previous talking and it did, for the most part, die down after that intervention. But, still, I felt like I had violated them somehow.

[zedz]

I should probably log my experiences at the London Film Festival this year! Some memorably terrible audiences.

Cell phones went off regularly, people waltzed in quarter of an hour after the film had started (but with enough time to buy themselves glasses of wine in the foyer), I had a couple of old biddies behind me just keep on talking right into the opening scenes of La Sapienza (I told them to shut up. Don't know if I made them cry like warrenoates, but then I don't care), and a guy next to me texting as the credits of P’tit Quinquin started. His girlfriend told him to stop, so he did for thirty seconds, then started again as soon as the film proper began, at which point I told him to stop, and he actually did. I guess I'm more intimidating than his girlfriend!.

The weirdest form of bad behaviour was people incessantly getting up, going out and coming back in, as if London were the world capital of flimsy bladders. Worst case scenario for this was in Diaz’s magisterial From What Is Before, a six hour film which the festival programmers foolishly screened in a terribly cramped auditorium (so that everybody in any given row had to stand up to let anybody in and out) with no intermission (what the fuck were they thinking?). Inevitably, people needed to take comfort breaks (unless, like me, they had the foresight to actually go before the movie started, and the wherewithal to hold on until the bitter end), but there were literally dozens of comings and goings from the small audience, starting twenty minutes into the film. Some people came and went four or five times, which suggests that the BFI could have made a fortune with a urologist concession.

But the most spectacular interruption came in my final screening, of American experimental work. Very well behaved and patient audience, until halfway through the final film, when a guy in the row behind me suddenly started thrashing around, violently kicking the row of seats in front of him, and screaming and yelling. Chaos ensued and he was conducted out of the screening, with a later explanation that he’d had a panic attack. My own suspicion is that he’d fallen asleep and woken up disoriented, which might amount to the same thing.

[warren oates]

Don't know if I made them cry like warrenoates, but then I don't care...

Oh, I should clarify that I don't think I made them cry. They were crying because the film had genuinely moved them. But I did violate the privacy of their darkened theater zone of weepiness to let them know they should have shut their previously non-weeping mouths, like, a half hour ago.

[domino harvey]

Lately I've learned the joys of sitting near the front. Sure, your neck hurts, but most of the worst offenders (chatty kathies, petulant teens, and old biddies) seem to avoid the front couple rows if possible. Bonus for sitting in the front most row is no one possibly talking in front of you!

[criterion10]

I've been pretty lucky over the years, not really having to deal with any significantly annoying audiences in recent memory. Though my patience was tested during a screening of Foxcatcher the other week, with this obnoxious, fat fuck and his thirteen year old son, who both thought it was okay to talk at a lower voice through the whole movie, making obnoxious, on-the-nose comments and laughing at dramatic parts. The man even had this huge tub of popcorn that he kept swirling around and crunching on. And this was at an 11:30 a.m. screening at my local arthouse theater, no less.

The only reason I didn't say anything was because I was with my grandfather and didn't want him to be on the spot if an altercation broke out. (I suppose old age does have its benefits, because he couldn't even hear the chatter!) From here on out though, no way am I putting up with any more idiots like this.

[swo17]

Recently saw Interstellar in one of those large, noisy IMAX theaters, and I don't know if I was more surprised that someone two seats down from me brought a 2-week old baby with them, or that it was so well behaved that I didn't even notice its presence until two hours in! (And even then, just some very gentle whimpering for a moment.)

[FrauBlucher]

I've been pretty lucky over the years, not really having to deal with any significantly annoying audiences in recent memory. Though my patience was tested during a screening of Foxcatcher the other week, with this obnoxious, fat fuck and his thirteen year old son, who both thought it was okay to talk at a lower voice through the whole movie, making obnoxious, on-the-nose comments and laughing at dramatic parts. The man even had this huge tub of popcorn that he kept swirling around and crunching on. And this was at an 11:30 a.m. screening at my local arthouse theater, no less.

The only reason I didn't say anything was because I was with my grandfather and didn't want him to be on the spot if an altercation broke out. (I suppose old age does have its benefits, because he couldn't even hear the chatter!) From here on out though, no way am I putting up with any more idiots like this.

That sounds awful. I don't get why people feel the need to talk at a movie theater..... It reminds me of an episode I went through several years back, I went to see Diary of Country Priest, a very quiet film, there were two people in front of me loudly eating popcorn and slurping there giant soda's. It was very distracting.

[TMDaines]

Recently saw Interstellar in one of those large, noisy IMAX theaters, and I don't know if I was more surprised that someone two seats down from me brought a 2-week old baby with them, or that it was so well behaved that I didn't even notice its presence until two hours in! (And even then, just some very gentle whimpering for a moment.)

Two seats down in my Interstellar screening, I had an older Chinese woman yawning really loudly every five minutes during the last half of the film. I genuinely couldn't tell whether she was being a selfish cow, was trying to make a point to her companion about the quality of the film or was completely ignorant about the level of irritation she was causing. I'm going for the first option as she kept taking a phone out and texting.

[A man stayed-put]

As there's been a flurry of activity in this thread, I've got to get this off my chest. On a trip to NYC in October I made a bargain with my (not particularly into films) wife that I would trudge round Times Square with her for the umpteenth time if we could spend an afternoon at Film Forum to see Hiroshima Mon Amour (which she, incidentally, really liked).

We sat towards the middle of the theatre and were in there pretty early, a couple then sat down directly behind us and after the man had spent what seemed like forever talking about what a terrible place Mexico is and how he would never visit there for fear of being murdered, they started moaning about being sat behind us (we'd sat down before them). They whispered for a while and then moved forward and sat right next to me. After a minute the woman announced that she thought it was just as likely that someone would now sit in front of them in their new spot. They moved back to the original spot behind us (I imagine as we were a known quantity, whereas the imaginary person in front of them may have been wearing an imaginary hat). He continued to moan about Mexico until the film started and then fell mercifully quiet, until about 10 minutes in when they both decided that any show of emotion in the film was really funny. Even worse, given that this was Hiroshima Mon Amour, they also found any repetition of dialogue hilarious. This lasted the entire film.

They were middle aged, it was a Monday afternoon and they had bought tickets for a French arthouse film from the 50's. As my wife asked in honest bemusement afterwards "What the fuck were they up to?"

I mention this as, coming from a place where we only really have multiplexes (one independent cinema that only occasionally shows interesting stuff) I kind of (clearly naively) expected a better, more invested, crowd at somewhere like Film Forum.

[Minkin]

the festival programmers foolishly screened in a terribly cramped auditorium (so that everybody in any given row had to stand up to let anybody in and out)

That sounds like the theater at the BFI where I saw The Man Between (one could only exit their row on the right side). Fortunately it was a wonderful audience of pensioners who enjoyed the War - and thankfully (despite everybody's advanced age), nobody had to get up and leave! That said, for some reason our seats were assigned, and the numbering wasn't intuitive (I think the numbering started at the far-side wall rather than the aisle!), so the usher came in and made everybody in the room rearrange themselves (about 30+ people).

What everybody else has been saying has been accurate for me. After complaining and forcing the local theater to actually show the credits to Fantastic Mr Fox, I decided it would be better (and cheaper) to just wait for the forthcoming DVD/Blu for movies I want to see.

[ianthemovie]

The bumps to this thread are reminding me of my experience seeing Zero Dark Thirty here in Somerville, MA, where audiences tend to be respectful and well-behaved 99% of the time. As the movie went on I began to notice some guy signalling his approval whenever any Afghan character was being shot at/killed/tortured. He got progressively louder as the movie went on, so that by the time the film reached the raid on bin Ladin's compound he was loudly cheering whenever an Afghan person took a hit. At this point another guy in the theater turned around and shouted, "Shut up, you racist fuck!" He actually quieted down at that point but for a second I thought a fight might break out in the theater. One of the rare instances I've seen where a movie has caused palpable tension among an audience.

[mfunk9786]

The worst filmgoer is someone who is unable (or unwilling) to whisper. When LQ and I saw Foxcatcher, there was a guy behind us who, when quietly whispered to, would just respond at a normal volume. It was unbelievable. If you know you can't whisper, do you just throw the baby out with the bathwater and become incredibly rude because hey, you don't know how to speak softly? Or is 'not knowing how to whisper' not even an actual thing? Signs and wonders.

[cdnchris]

Recently saw Interstellar in one of those large, noisy IMAX theaters, and I don't know if I was more surprised that someone two seats down from me brought a 2-week old baby with them, or that it was so well behaved that I didn't even notice its presence until two hours in! (And even then, just some very gentle whimpering for a moment.)

At every single Hunger Games film I've gone to with my wife there's at least one person that brings a baby that breaks out crying multiple times throughout the film. Every single one. And they are the only films where I've experienced this.

[mfunk9786]

That baby is engaging in its own brand of hunger games. *leaves forum*

[Swift]

One of the rare instances I've seen where a movie has caused palpable tension among an audience.

I've experienced something somewhat similar to this. We were watching The Guard which has quite a few instances of casual racism played for laughs. And they did indeed get the audience laughing, but this one dude in particular sitting near me was really into the racist gags. At no other point in the film did he elicit any laughter, but when those racist jokes appeared he was in full on uproarious, bellowing laughter and each time would last five seconds longer than the rest of the audience so that all we heard was him. You could certainly feel an uncomfortableness in the audience, possibly wondering whether it was ok to laugh along with a racist at racist jokes.

[Perkins Cobb]

There was a screening of the rare '60s sexploitation film The Satanist at Anthology Film Archives in October, wherein some tool pulled out a phone and began taking many photos of the screen near the end, presumably for wank material. Which might've passed unnoticed (he was in, or near, the back row), only the genius has a red light on his phone that flashes every time he takes a picture, momentarily red-tinting the black-and-white film. After too many minutes of this the programmer comes over and tells him to knock it off.