Berjuan — I was being sarcastic. lol
@MULEYHAVEN
Actually, for a stupid comedy, drunk is the only right way to watch it.
I watched a film with a friend who said it was her favorite. It wasn’t something I thought I’d like, but it turns out that I did. So the “right way” to watch is with an open mind and a willingness to enjoy it. That doesn’t always happen but someone, somewhere has presumably put a lot of work into making the film so if I’m I’m going to watch it, I should at least try to give it my attention. If I determine that I just can’t stand it, then I’ll check out – mentally and/or physically.
I also happen to like the Arclight. Leg room, stadium seating. I can’t stand it when some 6-foot tall guy with a big head sits in front of me and I spend the entire movie leaning in one direction or the other to try to see what’s going on. I don’t mind if the theatre isn’t full. And definitely no screaming kids.
First, movies aren’t backdrops for ongoing conversations and trivial banter, so don’t get together with your significant other or friends to watch a movie if you’re just going to be blabbing throughout it and not paying attention anyway. Just have a party.
oh! a sleepy night-framed tracking shot in new york is at least the right way to see….something. even if it’s just in retrospect and pigeons. :)
I wouldnt watch a porno at an ice cream social.
I happen to know muleyhaven in real life and he is always drunk.
Odi,
I thought you just enjoyed sex a lot. LOL
@ Matt Parks
Haha, at first I just thought you were anti-popcorn until I realized that it was Diner. I had a good LOL :)
Berjuan - did I deny that? ;)
I can’t stand it when some 6-foot tall guy with a big head sits in front of me and I spend the entire movie leaning in one direction or the other to try to see what’s going on.
Yeah, I hate crook-neck seating too, Carole. That’s the way it was in SO many little theaters in NYC back in the day (maybe that’s changed for the better since I left my hometown?…). That, and splitting the theater in half so you got squashed in like a sardine. REAL good in the winter when you have a huge coat and stuff.
I like the Arclight and most theaters in LA I’ve been too, even the revival ones, have been better than some of the ones I used to go to in NY.
Odi – I’ve slummed it in most of the theaters around here (and will happily do it for the right movie) but there are exceptions. A couple months ago I went to a screening at the silent movie theater and I can tell you, I’ll never be back. Fold up chairs with crusty old pillows? Thanks but no thanks. And I try to avoid the New Beverly if at all possible. QT really needs to spruce that place up if he wants my money (and how about taking credit cards?).
It’s funny, the majority of the films I see are in screening rooms but these two venues (along with the Spielberg theater at the Egyptian) are yucky to my delicate sensibilities.
A couple months ago I went to a screening at the silent movie theater and I can tell you, I’ll never be back. Fold up chairs with crusty old pillows? Thanks but no thanks. And I try to avoid the New Beverly if at all possible.
Yes, those chairs are awful and I haven’t been to the New Beverly in a while, but as I recall it wasn’t anything then to write home about. Too bad QT hasn’t changed it for the better.
As for the silent movie theater, I’m sorry but my ass hurting from a hard chair is not in any way going to enhance my experience of the movie I’m watching. I’d rather be sitting on the floor in that case. And bring my own damn pillow.
yep
YES, there are wrong ways to watch a movie.
Any piece of art is intended to be “received” rather than “used”.
-For example: pornography is used for masturbation, or living vicariously through an object on the screen. One could masturbate to “Tree of LIfe”, but that was not the intent of the film-maker. In other words, certain movies invite certain kind of thinking.
The HBO show Entourage is not art. Perhaps some of the technicians or actors on the show are artists, but the show is not art. It can’t be because its purpose is to live vicariously through the protagonists. The show was created to be used, consumed and thrown away, like the majority of episodic television.
The majority of blockbuster movies are created to be consumed in the same fashion: aka USED. That’s why the public will never stop demanding more mind-numbing films. It’s there to “escape”. It’s there to “kill time”. It’s there because “There’s nothing better to do” or because it’s “the shit” and “Bad-ass”.
WHICH LEADS US TO….the problem. This is why there are cinephiles and there are basic movie watchers. This is the reason that your parents don’t like Ingmar Bergman and your sister doesn’t watch TREE OF LIFE and your friends would rather not watch The Passion of Joan of Arc. It’s the reason that your Christian youth pastor hates NO Country FOR OLD MEN: Because those films cannot be used. They don’t serve the purpose of the consumer. They don’t encourage that wish-fulfillment method film-making targeted to young men.
So, you’re feeling horny: Is it wrong to approach Schindler’s LIst or a Reubens painting with the idea of using it for sexual gratification. Yes, that’s the wrong approach- it’s not the intention.
You want some action and violence to get some excitement going: so watch The VIrgin Spring for your action kick right? No, of course not.
Many are repulsed by the idea of watching an ‘old movie’. They hate it, but perhaps the way to approach older films is to watch them in their historical, political, social and cinematic context. CONTEXT CONTEXT CONTEXT. Should one approach a silent film expecting the complexity of “the Conversation”? No. Can they approach it incorrectly? Yes, of course..
Now, of course, there aren’t really rules to art, but some arguments can be made for classical and experimental/classical tradition. Arguments can be made as long as pattern and structure exist in some form. If you can draw a parallel, then one can argue for a correct approach to Cinema, Art, Composition, Theory, And, GOD DAMMIT, LIFE. LIFE LIFE LIFE. Questions of cinema bleed into morality. There’s no real way to separate it.
@Aaron
You’re right. People who like the movies we like are superior to everybody else! It’s so obvious.
Everybody but us is just using art. But not us. We’re receiving it. Every film we watch morally enriches our lives, like Funny Games and Enter The Void.
@Jirin, it’s not about being superior. It’s not a contest of intellect. It’s a social ambiguity: the mixing, misunderstanding, blending, using, receiving, misusing of art and consumption. The discussion is valid and must exist because we pay money for art. Or we steal it, or we see it for free on free day at a museum. As long as people pay money for movies, there’s a dilemma: Money pushes against Art pushes against Technology. It’s a natural tension, and, honestly, you cannot tell me that a movie has never been misused my yourself, myself or a large portion of other people. Some art pictures don’t do well because they are bad. Some don’t do well on the large market because the large market wanted a simple night at the picture show.
It is wrong to watch a film these ways.
1. Pan and Scan – You must always watch in OAR
2. Edited with commericials. Breaks, other than pausing to go to the bathroom and edits ruin a film.
3. Coming in half way through. Either wait for next showtime or if at home watch from the begining.
there are films of the past that were meant to be disposable that are considered great today. those were times before the existence of home video and “multiple platforms”- they truly were meant to be shown once and probably never seen again. many b-movies have been given critical respect over time.
what would be called “bad taste” is just a reflection of a limited interest in movies as opposed to an all-consuming interest. not everyone is willing to devote themselves to watching as many “important” films as they can.
Cinema going rights and wrongs:
Wrong way: Going to a multiplex/big chain cinema. Enjoy the annoying teenagers and shitty projection quality.
Right way: Nice, small scale cinema with decent seats and good projectionist(s).
Home theatre rights and wrongs:
Wrong ways:
-On a cropped/pan and scan DVD
- With more than 2-3 people. Make sure they’re friends or people who are like minded. There’s nothing worse than watching a movie with people who are addicted to Michael Bay and Judd Apatow movies.
- Watching the film on free to air television – Enjoy your 10 minute ad breaks and cut footage.
Right ways:
- Good home video transfer of a film you’re watching – No bargain bin public domain DVDs – Blu-ray/HD if you can help it
- Good dark room
- Snacks are optional
Cinema going rights and wrongs:
Wrong way: Going to a multiplex/big chain cinema. Enjoy the annoying teenagers and shitty projection quality.
Right way: Nice, small scale cinema with decent seats and good projectionist(s).
Home theatre rights and wrongs:
Wrong ways:
-On a cropped/pan and scan DVD
- With more than 2-3 people. Make sure they’re friends or people who are like minded. There’s nothing worse than watching a movie with people who are addicted to Michael Bay and Judd Apatow movies.
- Watching the film on free to air television – Enjoy your 10 minute ad breaks and cut footage.
Right ways:
- Good home video transfer of a film you’re watching – No bargain bin public domain DVDs – Blu-ray/HD if you can help it
- Good dark room
- Snacks are optional
Did anyone cite “With your eyes closed” as a wrong way?
Painkillers can warp an experience. Whether that’s good or not depends on the movie…
Odi – Have you tried the Landmark theatres in the Westside Pavilion? They actually have couches. I’d never seen that before. Not bad. It was a little disconcerting when a small earthquakes happened in the middle of the movie. Add watching a movie during an earthquake to my wrong ways.
It was a little disconcerting when a small earthquakes happened in the middle of the movie. Add watching a movie during an earthquake to my wrong ways.
Ha! A true SoCal (or Cal in general) experience!
I was in a bar in the middle of a Sunday afternoon (read LOTS of glass potentially flying right for my upper body) for my first “public” earthquake experience.
No, I haven’t tried the Landmark in Westside Pavilion. Will have to look in to that — do you have to sit next to people you dont’ know on the couches? In the dark? lol
Oh, that reminds me. When I went to see The Girl Who Played With Fire the power went out.
Everyone got vouchers to a free movie, but when I went outside, the entire street surrounding the cinema was flooded in four inches of water. I had taken the subway there.
mais1
Wrong way (for me) to watch a movie : computer screen.
Right way (for me) to watch a movie : Bluray disc on a large, wide screen HD TV, volume turned up (or if late at night, using headphones), no one else in the room.
In a movie theatre (the less people, the better)
Wrong way : Movies that have been dubbed, colorized, or cropped (aspect ratio). Old movies that have newly created soundtracks.