Movie Theater Experiences

[hearthesilence]

AMC Theatres is offering another perk for members of its loyalty group, AMC Stubs. Starting on July 9, Stubs members can buy tickets for 50% off the normal adult evening ticket price on Wednesdays, adding to the discounts already available on Tuesdays.

[hearthesilence]

MoMA screened what was apparently an updated restoration of Frank Borzage's Street Angel. They previously screened a 4K restoration in 2019, but according to Kehr, they've continued to work on it, similar to the continuous work they've done on what was originally the 2018 4K restoration of 7th Heaven. Very nearly a full house, with one obnoxiously inconsiderate jackass who decided to not only wear large and loud jangling bracelets dangling from her wrists, she kept them on the whole time and continuously jangled them every goddamn minute, even after one audience member shouted at her to stop whatever it was she was doing. This woman was sitting all the way in the back of theater 1, their largest theater, and even though I was sitting a few rows from the front, she was easily heard from where I was sitting and it definitely bothered other people around me.

To be clear, I'm pretty sure most people had no idea what was causing that noise. The person who yelled wasn't sitting near her and simply yelled out "will the person making that jangling noise please stop." I even thought she was sitting in the MIDDLE of the theater, that's how loud it was. I also gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking "this is so obnoxiously loud, no one could possibly be doing this willingly...maybe it's a disabled person or someone who needs a dog for some kind of disability, and it's a situation they can't help, like their special needs dog won't sit still and is rattling something on their leash."

When the lights went up and we all went towards the back, you could follow that noise, and it was soon clear that it was someone who was NOT disabled in any way, just some asshole with these fucking metal plate-like things for bracelets who could've taken them off and shoved them in her bag or simply wrap her wrists in one of the pieces of cloth she was wearing but decided not to even after someone audibly complained, and not surprisingly someone (maybe the guy who yelled at her first) was chastising her. You know how someone says they're "sorry" but don't really mean it, like they're fucking clueless or at least still feel entitled to doing whatever shit they did? That was how her perfunctory "sorry" sounded. Like she REALLY didn't get it.

[andyli]

Oh... the movie theater experience has significantly deteriorated in China following the pandemic, which is why I rarely go to the movies these days. The main reason seems to be that the average movie theater is so desperate to draw in customers it's willing to let go of (and even blatantly encourage) a lot of ridiculous behaviors that turn it into a circus. These include leaving the lights on, people chatting or tiktoking with their phones, eating loud and smelly snacks, pointing at actors and calling out their names as if it's some kind of contest, children running around (one theater I went to even had a slide and a sandbox set up in between the seats and the screen). Commercial screenings usually fare much worse than retrospectives/film festivals but one of my most absurd movie-going experiences actually came from this year's Shanghai IFF: the moment I sat down to watch Allen Fong's Father and Son, the seat suddenly began massaging my back and neck, giving off a constant mechanical noise that wrapped around my ears like any surround sound system would have produced. Since the film is rather quiet, this noise is all I can hear while it's on. The thing could not be turned off; an eye-scorching green screen on the armrest kept urging me to "scan the QR code" if I wanted to enjoy the service for the length of the entire show. Thank god it's only free for a brief trial period.

[Lemmy Caution]

interesting. I gave up on the Shanghai Film Festival years ago, as most tickets would sell out weeks in advance, as soon as made available. And many of the films I would want to see played at weird times or far flung theaters. I didn't realize there was still a Covid effect and maybe the SIFF would be worth looking into again.

It never helps that the SH Intl Film Festival takes place the last 10 days of June, which is traditionally the rainiest week of the year, prone to torrential downpours and flooding. Fortunately this Summer has been largely cloudy and rainy with only intermittent brutal days of 100°F with 50% humidity.

If you are in Shanghai or anyone, send me message here if you might want some Dvd's. I was here during the Golden Age of Pirated Dvd's, and probably have 1000 or more Dvd's. I'll be leaving China next May 2026 and need to start finding homes for these dvd's, as it would be a waste to throw them away. I could also send them anywhere just for mailing cost. Lot of arthouse and int'l films with both thin and thick covers with artwork. Most are high quality copies.

Hope this isn't frowned on, but it's a unique situation, and I don't know who else still collects Dvd's. 5 years ago a friend left Shanghai after being here 2 decades and he just left all his Dvd's near the garbage. Sad. He had removed and disposed of all the artwork and had the dvd's in sleeves albums. My closets are filled with dvd's in large plastic tubs. And I need to find a solution in the next 9 months. Not looking to make money, just hoping not to waste.

[Black Hat]

MoMA screened what was apparently an updated restoration of Frank Borzage's Street Angel. They previously screened a 4K restoration in 2019, but according to Kehr, they've continued to work on it, similar to the continuous work they've done on what was originally the 2018 4K restoration of 7th Heaven. Very nearly a full house, with one obnoxiously inconsiderate jackass who decided to not only wear large and loud jangling bracelets dangling from her wrists, she kept them on the whole time and continuously jangled them every goddamn minute, even after one audience member shouted at her to stop whatever it was she was doing. This woman was sitting all the way in the back of theater 1, their largest theater, and even though I was sitting a few rows from the front, she was easily heard from where I was sitting and it definitely bothered other people around me.

To be clear, I'm pretty sure most people had no idea what was causing that noise. The person who yelled wasn't sitting near her and simply yelled out "will the person making that jangling noise please stop." I even thought she was sitting in the MIDDLE of the theater, that's how loud it was. I also gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking "this is so obnoxiously loud, no one could possibly be doing this willingly...maybe it's a disabled person or someone who needs a dog for some kind of disability, and it's a situation they can't help, like their special needs dog won't sit still and is rattling something on their leash."

When the lights went up and we all went towards the back, you could follow that noise, and it was soon clear that it was someone who was NOT disabled in any way, just some asshole with these fucking metal plate-like things for bracelets who could've taken them off and shoved them in her bag or simply wrap her wrists in one of the pieces of cloth she was wearing but decided not to even after someone audibly complained, and not surprisingly someone (maybe the guy who yelled at her first) was chastising her. You know how someone says they're "sorry" but don't really mean it, like they're fucking clueless or at least still feel entitled to doing whatever shit they did? That was how her perfunctory "sorry" sounded. Like she REALLY didn't get it.

I thought it was a service dog.

[hearthesilence]

That would have made the most sense. She must've been squirming every minute (which is kind of unusual - the more I think about it, most people I know barely move during a movie). Maybe the bracelets made her uncomfortable, which would make her choice to wear them and keep them on even more ludicrous.

[Lowry_Sam]

You of course are operating on the assumption that she isn't a narcissist who thrives on any attention, even negative. My grandmother wore bracelets with little charms on them that I think were popular in the 1950s. The charms had all the names and birthdays of all her children and grandchildren and she always wore it wherever she went. Any time someone would mention the noise/fuss it made, she would launch into a discussion of each of the charms and what her grandchildren were doing.

[okcmaxk]

Put The Jingler next to Lincoln Center Laugher, unstoppable force meets an immovable object. One of many potential scenes from Cinemania II

[beamish14]

Put The Jingler next to Lincoln Center Laugher, unstoppable force meets an immovable object. One of many potential scenes from Cinemania II

I still see the guy in that documentary with the glasses and annoying voice at Los Angeles-area screenings, most notably at the Hammer

[Drucker]

Neither is any match for the (Mark E Smith voice) crinkly bag man at Metrograph.

[Never Cursed]

Going to see big hit movie KPop Demon Hunters on a Friday night appears to be the new "slasher opening weekend" experience

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Put The Jingler next to Lincoln Center Laugher, unstoppable force meets an immovable object. One of many potential scenes from Cinemania II

I still see the guy in that documentary with the glasses and annoying voice at Los Angeles-area screenings, most notably at the Hammer

You’re talking about Harvey. I sort of love him because of how strange his reactions are, but know several people find him annoying. I think he only goes to UCLA and the Nuart and mostly stays at home watching TCM.

Not a Jingler, but there used to be a notorious Rustler at screenings in Los Angeles. She was a former actress named Robin Menken who was Country Joe’s ex-wife and featured on the cover to his album Together. She’d carry books and notepads in plastic supermarket bags and would rustle through them at screenings. She was incredibly rude on top of that as well! Haven’t seen her for a few years, but if she ever sat near me, I would move.

[yoloswegmaster]

Anyone else notice that an increase of people laughing at things that aren't funny during a screening? I was at a screening of Blue Velvet and there was this guy sitting a few seats away from me that was laughing at everything, and I get that the film has funny moments but you would have honestly thought the guy was watching Borat by the way he was laughing constantly. I also remember at a screening of Ikiru that there was this couple that was laughing loudly though a very emotional scene, and I remember everyone just turning their heads at them and they just ignored it and acted like they were doing nothing wrong. I genuinely wonder what the reasoning is behind this.

[Big Ben]

Blue Velvet is one of those films I can't help but wonder what kind of person would laugh at the whole thing. I mean the droll absurdity of Jeffrey presenting an ear to the cops always gets me but the other stuff? Especially with Frank? What an unbearable experience that must have been.

[domino harvey]

Anyone else notice that an increase of people laughing at things that aren't funny during a screening? I was at a screening of Blue Velvet and there was this guy sitting a few seats away from me that was laughing at everything, and I get that the film has funny moments but you would have honestly thought the guy was watching Borat by the way he was laughing constantly. I also remember at a screening of Ikiru that there was this couple that was laughing loudly though a very emotional scene, and I remember everyone just turning their heads at them and they just ignored it and acted like they were doing nothing wrong. I genuinely wonder what the reasoning is behind this.

Don’t go to the Music Box in Chicago!

[Mr Sausage]

I saw a 35mm print of Blue Velvet back when Dennis Hopper died, and there was one dude in the audience that laughed at everything Frank Booth said. Just seemed to think he was hysterical. So I’d guess this is not a new issue.

[therewillbeblus]

I think Frank gets some funny moments - the scene at Ben's in particular (extreme preference for Pabst Blue Ribbon, "Here's to your fuck, Frank" etc.) - but I believe it's intentionally absurdly funny at times so that, when juxtaposed with his incredibly abusive, frightening behavior, that just accentuates the horror of it all. I can't imagine someone laughing out loud at more than a couple of bits - and the gag is that, if you do, you should be even more horrified that you laughed at all when Lynch turns us back to the unpredictability of his violent potential. It's like Jeffrey's boyish sexual desire for Dorothy becoming 'real' when that sex involves violence and eventually she winds up naked and insane at his house, disrupting his life completely and placing him in a role that he didn't intentionally sign up for. The whole idea is the 'real' breaking through, so I think the humor works with Frank the same way the innocent 50s dressing coats the town and the fantasy vs reality of sex plays out. It's there, but in brief pockets and for larger (radically unfunny) payoffs

[Beloved Aunt]

Everything with the "well-dressed man disguise" is also A+ Lynch humor.

[black&huge]

Anyone else notice that an increase of people laughing at things that aren't funny during a screening?

i feel like I have noticed this easily in the past year however I can't pinpoint any specific examples out of the many multipex screenings I've been to in that timeframe but I'm sure of it. I have noticed the opposite of people not laughing at things that are supposed to be funny. Basically Eddington, The Monkey and One Battle After Another I was with mostly silent audiences. I think the culture of humor has definitely changed and even thinly veiled satire will go over people's heads young and old alike.

[soundchaser]

I went to a rep screening of Mulholland Dr. almost ten years ago and some folks in the crowd thought every second of that film was hilarious. Maybe it’s just a Lynch thing.

[Matt]

There is some psychological basis for laughter as a stress response, a way of relieving tension or discomfort, or a way of masking vulnerability. But I think it's also become more socially acceptable for people's emotions to be dysregulated and to laugh reflexively at things we don't understand, as if to show others that we are in on the joke even if we don't actually understand the joke. But then there's also people increasingly treating public spaces as extensions of their living rooms—using phones everywhere, watching videos in public without headphones, taking their dogs into stores and restaurants.

To me it's nothing new. I was at a screening of Gaspar Noë's I Stand Alone a good 25 years ago and there was some guy laughing very loudly through the whole thing.

[bearcuborg]

I was a regular at the Music Box in Chicago back in the 90s…I don’t remember laughing being an issue at that venue-except when I finally saw Rocky Horror Picture Show on a return visit home in 2010…the audience yelled at the movie constantly. I know the midnight crowd for those screenings are pretty wild-but my date said that exact experience wasn’t what she was used to with other midnight showings at theaters in Philly.

I’m planning on seeing One Battle After Another there this week. But I guess I’m prepared…

I’m not surprised with the Lynch stories you all shared. But the Kurosawa reaction baffles me. Some people, like elephants can just be jerks I guess.

MoMA screened what was apparently an updated restoration of Frank Borzage's Street Angel.

Very nearly a full house, with one obnoxiously inconsiderate jackass who decided to not only wear large and loud jangling bracelets dangling from her wrists, she kept them on the whole time and continuously jangled them every goddamn minute, even after one audience member shouted at her to stop whatever it was she was doing.

I’ve also had bad experiences here, sometimes museum members will wonder in and out like it’s a fucking exhibit.

[hearthesilence]

Mulholland Dr. is funny just as often as it is disturbing, and it clearly comes off as intentional, especially when the jokes are aimed at the entertainment industry. It's not until the final act that the humor has been completely left behind.

Blue Velvet on the other hand always seemed trickier to interpret, possibly moreso when it came out - I get the feeling for a lot of viewers, it may have been their first encounter with Lynch, and even if it wasn't, they still may have been completely unsure as to whether Lynch was being sincere. Once he became a better known figure, it became clear he very much believed in the "wholesomeness" of that world (Mark Frost himself often used "wholesome" to describe one half of the duality he saw in Lynch's personality) and speaking as someone who grew up in places ostensibly like that, it's possible to be of two minds of that world where it can feel like a comforting home and yet be something to be deeply wary of. I always got the impression Blue Velvet comes out of that tension, but both sensibilities can seem so far apart that one may be inclined to believe in only one side of the equation, and I can see how that can make the film a laugh riot: the film either becomes ridiculous in a way it doesn't quite grasp or it's looking down and laughing at something it's depicting.

[bdsweeney]

The oddest/uncomfortable experience I’ve ever had with this phenomenon was during a screening of ‘Taxi Driver’ possibly sometime back in the late 90s.

It was the scene where the convenience store is robbed and Travis shoots the robber. An audience member laughed heavily at the moment when the store owner started to beat the robber’s unresponsive body.

I was unnerved.

[Never Cursed]

Anyone else notice that an increase of people laughing at things that aren't funny during a screening? I was at a screening of Blue Velvet and there was this guy sitting a few seats away from me that was laughing at everything, and I get that the film has funny moments but you would have honestly thought the guy was watching Borat by the way he was laughing constantly. I also remember at a screening of Ikiru that there was this couple that was laughing loudly though a very emotional scene, and I remember everyone just turning their heads at them and they just ignored it and acted like they were doing nothing wrong. I genuinely wonder what the reasoning is behind this.

I tend to experience this the most at the younger, hipper, more expensive rep theaters that play edgier stuff and attract a patronage that operates at a somewhat sarcastic distance or remove from troubling material. When I lived in London, this was more common at the Prince Charles than the BFI. Now that I'm back in NYC, this is by far worst at Metrograph and not a serious problem at places like (the rep screenings at) Film at Lincoln Center or Film Forum. I took care to see Kurosawa's Ran for the first time with an audience that was older and more attuned to the movie specifically because I knew Peter was in the movie and didn't want constant giggling at his performance.