If you’re like me, you often find yourself alone at the cinema ticket line. Try as you might, you just couldn’t sell your partner or your friends on the Jacques Tati retrospective or the 6 hour Hungarian black and white epic. Of course, your friends blamed a lack of cash, prior commitments, or a head cold.
But you chose to go alone. Deep down you know that your willingness to brave the theater solo and your eclectic film tastes are both byproducts of the same personality trait. If you don’t give a flip what people think about your strange love of South Korean dramas, why should it bother you to make that solo march down the LED-studded aisle?
The theater is the last public activity that we can do by ourselves. Darkness. Anonymity. And yet, I still sometimes feel a sense of loneliness when I go to the theater alone. Come often and people start to recognize you. I wonder what the cute concession girls think, transactioning my small popcorn and medium diet coke for one. When the lights go out, we might as well be the only person in the room. But when they come back up, we’re left with questions, theories, moods, impressions — all screaming to be discussed. And if we don’t talk about it with our fellow-film goers, we’re missing out on the communal nature of the cinema experience. So you have to ask yourself a question: is seeing this film by myself worth more than not seeing it at all?
Does it depend on the genre? I’m not sure I’d go see a cheesy action or horror flick by myself. Think of all those zingers lost to the air! And what about the weighty think pieces? Some of the most enriching experiences come from post film dinner conversations. One of my fondest recent memories was the conversation I had with Jason Lehel, the Film Talk’s very own Gareth Higgins, and others at the local brewpub Bosco’s after screening Gaia at the Nashville Film Festival. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Jason was the director.
What do you think? Will you go see a film by yourself? Are some genres more communal than others? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Tony Youngblood is the current Foursquare Mayor of the Belcourt Theatre, a film and music snob, and producer of the experimental improv music blog and podcast Theatre Intangible. His favorite films include Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray, Abbass Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us, Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician, Lee Chang Dong’s Oasis, and Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap.
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There’s no way I’d go to almost any movie with anyone other than myself. For one thing everyone I know would look at me as if I had blood pouring from my eyelids if I suggested we go see a movie that I’d actually _want_ to see.
And for another, if I gave them the same look for their suggestion we go watch Transformerballs 9 I’d *still* be the one who is clearly wrong-in-the-head.
Equally would my taste and that of my friends’/ wife’s/ family ‘not quite gel’.
…I saw 300 “alone” in a packed cinema. It was the longest movie I ever saw, but as I left (a little before the end) I glimpsed only awed and overjoyed faces mesmerised by the crisp and colourful vomit on the screen before them (in my opinion).
I would have *hated* to have had to share further time with a friend -or worse, “friends”- who rasped melodic all the way home reminiscing on favourite parts or shouting “SPARTAAA” in my ear.
..Not that I never like ‘popular’ movies, but to be honest I rarely do. And unless it’s the most-publicised-movie of the day, chances are none of my friends would think of going to see it anyway.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was possibly the only set of movies I saw with others in the past 10 years (I loved the first one and hated the 2nd two.. until I saw the extended versions -then enjoyed them).. oh, and the new Star Wars too (of which I enjoyed the first 2 and found the third pointless).
So, for my sanity and for those close to me, it’s best we part ways at the kiosk and never speak of what occurs when the lights go down.
I am rarely able to accurately articulate my thoughts and feelings of a new film within 24 hours of the viewing, and find myself feeling vulnerable when trying to process aloud just minutes or hours after the film. That said, I do prefer to watch alone, and believe that my feelings of loneliness in the theater or in my basement often enhance my emotional experience with the film. Especially if I find myself in conflict and turmoil after experiencing “The New World”, or sucked into the black hole of despair at the end of “Romeo & Juliet” while Thom Yorke repeats “We hope that you choke”, or the odd sense of joy and gratitude after a Jim Jarmusch film, I often feel incapable of sharing the experience legitimately and genuinely. However, with a trusted few, I have been known to immensely enjoy a “Mystery Train” or a “Badlands” in ways that were dependent on those in the room with me.
I definitely have preferences for certain directors. Bergman – alone. Kurosawa – shared. Dreyer – alone. Tarantino – shared. Coen Bros. – shared. PTA – Alone. Kubrick – Shared. Coppola – Shared. Tarkovsky – alone. Kazan – alone.
Genres. Westerns – shared. French New Wave – alone. Silent – alone. Documentary – usually shared. Sci-Fi – shared. War – alone.
subscript – I cannot watch more than two films per week, in order to give them the due process I feel they deserve. I am incapable of enjoying a film festival. It gives me the feeling of gluttony.
anyway – thank you Tony Youngblood for your inquiry of an individual’s quirky relationship with the cinema…
[...] see if anyone is looking. Nevertheless, I’ve finally definitively answered my own question in my previous FilmTalk article on seeing films alone. Children’s films are the worst type to see by yourself — [...]
I have absolutely no problem going to the cinema by myself, and it’s not because I can’t find anyone to go with me. I just go. If there’s something on and I want to see it, I often go by myself rather than organising it as an event. I’m the same with a lot of things – gigs, exhibitions etc. Sometimes I want to do these things with other people, other times I like to go alone. I find it strange that people feel awkward about it. The only time I wouldn’t go is when a relatively ‘big’ film is in its opening weekend.
I was the same way growing up – in fact i preferred seeing films alone = gave me time to mediate on the experience afterwards etc; i’m slightly more social now and so enjoy going with friends – alas for my wife cinema is a light entertainment medium and so no serious pics with her!