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kieslowski wrote:Even at the marvellous National Film Theatre in London, I've been driven spare by some of the audiences there lately.

I went to the NFT for the first, and so far only, time a few months back when Los Olvidados was playing and there was plenty of reaction from the audience, especially when a chicken was killed (why do chickens always get it in films?), some audible recoiling in a moment of tension and a few 'wow's during the dream sequence. Personally I enjoyed it - it showed people were getting into it and made the whole thing more theatrical, a marked contrast with the apparent apathy I'm more used to. It seemed like a nice middle ground between silence and whooping and hollering.

Person wrote:Ouch!

Oops!

Rsdio wrote:I went to the NFT for the first, and so far only, time a few months back when Los Olvidados was playing and there was plenty of reaction from the audience

What you're describing sounds like the reactions of an audience acting as one, in tune with the film itself, which, of course, is great. My problem is when you get a few individuals noisily and selfishly distracting everyone else, and acting against the film in some way - like a few people who giggled and chatted through Floating Clouds recently. I mean, if they don't like it, they don't like it, but do they have to try to spoil things for the rest of us?

Hell, I sound like someone who writes in to Points Of View.

Of course, I wasn't disputing what you said, just relating my own experience of the place. I'm a bit saddened to hear it's not always like that though.

Rsdio wrote:Of course, I wasn't disputing what you said, just relating my own experience of the place. I'm a bit saddened to hear it's not always like that though.

Sure thing. And, to be fair, there have been great audiences there as well for, say, Annie Hall, some Laurel And Hardy comedies etc. But why can't things always be perfect, dammit?

kinjitsu wrote:Oops!

D'oh!

kieslowski wrote:My problem is when you get a few individuals noisily and selfishly distracting everyone else, and acting against the film in some way - like a few people who giggled and chatted through Floating Clouds recently.

At the very end of the screening of Floating Clouds I attended at the NFT, a chap sitting behind me expelled a sententious 'that was shit!', nearly ruining the entire thing.

kieslowski wrote:But what really gets my goat is that there's invariably a guy who, at every directorial flourish or writer's insight will bark "ha!" loudly and mirthlessly, purely, it seems, to let everyone else in the auditorium know that he 'gets' it. Jerk.

Gropius wrote:I think I may know the very man you are referring to. Every time I've been to the NFT, he always seems to be there, towards the front. Laughs loudly and inappropriately, has an irritating smoker's cough, and exudes a rather unpleasant odour resembling smoked meat mixed with strong cough sweets, detectable from several rows away.

I managed to catch Naruse's Yearning on a rare trip to London about a week or so ago, and immediately thought of this thread after realising that this guy was sitting right in front of me... Speaking of audience member reactions, Ken Russell sat down behind us for the second half of Irma Vep a day earlier and promptly fell fast asleep! Afterwards, he said he loved the ending - which no doubt awoke him from slumber with quite a jolt...

foggy eyes wrote:I managed to catch Naruse's Yearning on a rare trip to London about a week or so ago, and immediately thought of this thread after realising that this guy was sitting right in front of me...

If that's the same screening of Yearning I was at, then you may well be the brave soul who told him to shut up a few minutes in. And, thank heavens, he did. Wonderful film, by the way.

Gropius wrote:

kieslowski wrote:But what really gets my goat is that there's invariably a guy who, at every directorial flourish or writer's insight will bark "ha!" loudly and mirthlessly, purely, it seems, to let everyone else in the auditorium know that he 'gets' it. Jerk.

I think I may know the very man you are referring to. Every time I've been to the NFT, he always seems to be there, towards the front. Laughs loudly and inappropriately, has an irritating smoker's cough, and exudes a rather unpleasant odour resembling smoked meat mixed with strong cough sweets, detectable from several rows away. Or maybe that's someone else; there are probably several similar candidates. The elaborate description is evidence of how irksome I have found him.

So that's where HerrShreck has been recently. Been missing him on the forum for ages now.

kieslowski wrote:If that's the same screening of Yearning I was at, then you may well be the brave soul who told him to shut up a few minutes in. And, thank heavens, he did. Wonderful film, by the way.

Funnily enough, that brave soul was sitting next to me. Film was indeed sublime, and the final extreme close-up of Takamine a complete knock-out...

Reinstate the draft!

(...and a John McCain ad appears at bottom)

domino harvey wrote:Now this is an audience reaction

Quite similar to the Film Forum Contempt screening I attended.

domino harvey wrote:Now this is an audience reaction

I'm glad to see Stringer Bell saved the day.

Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

Mr_sausage wrote:Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

I think for a movie like Prom Night, enjoying a crowd like that is the only reason to go at all. Otherwise though I'm with you

Barmy wrote:Quite similar to the Film Forum Contempt screening I attended.

For much amusement, imagine a lively bat-shit insanely vocal crowd of teenagers at your favorite arthouse movie, except INTO it.

"DON'T YOU DARE SELL OUT YOUR YOUR PERSONAL ASSPIRATIONS AND WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY! NO, NO, NO.... Ohhhhhhhhhh! Dana, Are we going to Starbucks afterwards!?"

It works even better if it's something by Tarkovsky or Bresson.

Cold Bishop wrote:

Barmy wrote:Quite similar to the Film Forum Contempt screening I attended.

For much amusement, imagine a lively bat-shit insanely vocal crowd of teenagers at your favorite arthouse movie, except INTO it.

"DON'T YOU DARE SELL OUT YOUR YOUR PERSONAL ASSPIRATIONS AND WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY! NO, NO, NO.... Ohhhhhhhhhh! Dana, Are we going to Starbucks afterwards!?"

It works even better if it's something by Tarkovsky or Bresson.

I'm picturing teenage drinking games where you chug a beer every time there's an unopened door on-screen.

domino harvey wrote:

Cold Bishop wrote:

Barmy wrote:Quite similar to the Film Forum Contempt screening I attended.

For much amusement, imagine a lively bat-shit insanely vocal crowd of teenagers at your favorite arthouse movie, except INTO it.

"DON'T YOU DARE SELL OUT YOUR YOUR PERSONAL ASSPIRATIONS AND WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY! NO, NO, NO.... Ohhhhhhhhhh! Dana, Are we going to Starbucks afterwards!?"

It works even better if it's something by Tarkovsky or Bresson.

I'm picturing teenage drinking games where you chug a beer every time there's an unopened door on-screen.

Now that's an idea...

Mr_sausage wrote:Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

Comedies and horrors are better in packed theatres but almost anything else is better in beautifully silent emptiness (so you can day-dream you're in you own giant screening room...)

Mr_sausage wrote:Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

Not at all. I love it when that happens, which is why for most films, I usually wait a few weeks for crowds to die down before I see it in the cinema (unless it's a film I know won't be in cinemas long).

Most recently, I enjoyed Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day with exactly one other person in the theater. Fantastic.

Oedipax wrote:I'm glad to see Stringer Bell saved the day.

Every time I see a trailer/promo for that movie, I keep wondering if the guy in the shadows who creeps up on everyone might actually be Omar. Indeed.

Mr_sausage wrote:Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

For some reason I've long had this desire to be by myself in an empty theater and have made it somewhat of a "goal". The closest I've come is myself and one other person. It's always dissapointing when you think you have it and a bunch of people show up at the very last minute

Morbii wrote:

Mr_sausage wrote:Am I alone in my preference for watching movies in empty or near-empty theatres?

For some reason I've long had this desire to be by myself in an empty theater and have made it somewhat of a "goal". The closest I've come is myself and one other person. It's always dissapointing when you think you have it and a bunch of people show up at the very last minute

I don't mind a few people but as near to empty is the preference. People turning up at the last minute always happens to me, not too long ago I went to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and I was alone and sitting pretty. About two minutes before the film went up about twenty people poured in talking.