How Much Do People Hate Going to movies with Mainstream Audiences?
This might be a bad example because I know a lot of people don’t care for Tarantino here, but the audience was the worst part of seeing Inglourious Basterds for me. Every time an action scene occurred the audience of high school male teenagers were ejaculating with joyfulness. It is like they just got out of a screening of Transformers 2 and thought that was the best film ever, then walked into Inglourious Basterds and were even more amazed because they haven’t seen any of Quentin’s fast paced action scenes in their life. The thing that disturbed me is that is what that type of audience wanted to see the whole film which would have made the film extremely dull. Say what you want about Tarantino, but I’m sure he wouldn’t be happy if this is what the film was being made into rather than his usual pop culture references (in this case Third Reich propaganda filmmakers) and dialogue fulfilled narrative. The action scenes certainly belong, but if he threw in anymore it would have diminished the quality of the film. As with any Tarantino film the dialogue is key for the plot to unfold, and the audience that I was with didn’t seem to get that. That is what pisses me off about mainstream audiences, teenagers who have no sense of decency in particular.
I couldn’t help myself, I applauded at the end of Drag Me to Hell .
I like watching movies with audiences. Makes me speak of audience reaction with some amount of authority, and divide it from my own. For instance, in the famous Brad Pitt scene from Burn after Reading , I can tell you that a wave of shock flowed from the front of the theatre to the back, whereas a ripple of laughter emitted from me as a central source, radially outward, until the wave and the ripple combined into the true experience of what that scene was—on the first day it was released, before that scene was spoiled to others. Contrarily, I can also say that people were laughing at Observe and Report though I was absolutely horrified, and that I was laughing at Antichrist though everyone else in the theatre was stone silent . Ergo, better perspective on the ways cinema affects different people.
Another fun point: I saw A Serious Man both in a mainstream theatre and an arthouse theatre. In the mainstream theatre, there was few people and they hardly ever laughed. In the arthouse theatre, it was nearly full and the crowd was riotous.
—PolarisDiB
Seeing a film with an audience can be an incredible experience. Some examples from ME:
1. I caught Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at a matinee at The Magnolia in Dallas. When the film started it was me and maybe seven other people in a rather small theater.I sat near the top and could hear the projector the whole time. Anyway, after about twenty minutes people started getting up an leaving. First one, then another, and another, until there I sat, as images of memories disappearing ran across the screen complemented the disappearing audience in this theater, and I was at last alone.
I had to smile. It made the film better.
2. The first time I saw The Exorcist was at The Granada on Lower Greenville in Dallas. It’s a movie grill, one with a balcony you could still smoke in back then. That plus beer plus me in my college years made it the best place to see a flick. In any case, whether it was the place or the beer or the film, every person sitting there that night laughed the entire time during the film. People (including my parents, who saw it during its first run) talk about it being the scariest movie ever made, but we couldn’t stop laughing.
3. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: So I’m a Tolkien geek, and I’ve read more books on Tolkien than the professor ever wrote himself, so I was predisposed to loving these films (even the theatrical versions,the first two of which aren’t that great). So I took that Friday off and sat down at 10:00 am for the first show at the best digital projection in town with a packed house. A packed house at 10:00 am. Needless to say, it was an incredible group experience—people sobbed when Frodo told Sam to go home, writhed in discomfort when Shelob crept up behind Frodo, and actually jumped up and cheered when Legolas slid down the oliphaunt’s trunk.
4. The only other one I have that jumps to mind immediately takes me way back to the 80s when U2’s Rattle and Hum was released—I saw it with some friends at the Lakewood theater (which is still there and better than ever). During the musical numbers people got out of their seats and danced in the aisles. Danced in the aisles. A film about music that made people dance in a darkened theater.
You can’t pay for that kind of experience. Any of them. They’re organic, spontaneous, one-of-a-kind, ephemeral, and priceless.
The bad experiences are horrible, but can’t keep me from loving (and going back to) the theater.
what the hell is wrong with applauding at movies?
Den, I never understood that either. What’s right about it? It’s not theater or live music. There’s nobody to applaud. Applause signals appreciation to the creator and it seems silly if there’s nobody actually there. Unless the filmmaker (or someone involved in the production) is there, I’m not applauding. I guess I also applaud at film festivals but that’s because generally the programmers are there too and it signals appreciation for what they’re doing.
But, otherwise, going to films with “mainstream audiences” (whatever that means) can be fun. I like audiences that interact with the movies unless it’s completely inappropriate.
Mainstream audiences are almost as annoying as arthouse audiences.
“Rocky Horror” automatically becomes the exception, with water, toast, lines yelled….you expect it.
I don’t mind applause at the end of a film, even if it is not a ‘sneak’ with names in attendence. It’s just a communal “thank you” for a good job and for having given us a good time. Karma.
When I saw “Joan of Arc” the first time, it was a great moment. The print was in 35mm, very fine quality, but it was silent as in “silent”: no music at all.
Half-way in, the film got some accompaniment: a man in the third row snoring with increasing volume. He was a good, funny snorer, so people let him go for a bit, but someone did finally rouse him.
An isolated moment like that I can live with far better than some moron on his ’Berry or phone, or people whose lives depend on getting another 32-ounce Coke in the middle of the film.
If the “mainstream” moviergoer is someone who views film as a weekend disposable entertainment, then I find applauding more commonplace with individuals that actually go to see vintage and indepedent cinema; films that wouldn’t attract the “mainstream” film audiences of today. Everytime I’ve been to the Silent Movie Theater, New Beverley, Castro, etc. there’s been a standing ovation at the end of a film; though I’ve never participated in the applauding, I understand it’s a display of showing one’s appreciation for something they’ve obviously just enjoyed.
I would say in Vermont there is some amount of applause in about 40% of the movies I see. It’s so annoying
During the new Harry Potter, at one point Dumbledore says “Harry, you need a shave!” Someone in the audience justifiably reacted with “what?” to which someone on the other side replied “I know, right?” I thought that was hilarious.
On the other hand, at the opening of Inglourious Basterds people laughed pretty much every time Brad Pitt said something about killing Nazis. It got really annoying after a while.
i love going to movies with audiences full of normal people
:(
I like seeing big blockbusters with a packed mainstream audience because it’s an experience, but for movies I know the mainstream audience is less likely to appreciate, I’d rather watch it in a different cinema. What I hate is watching older movies at revival houses (like the Red Vic in SF) because a lot of people aren’t there because they actually like the movies enough to dismiss some of the more outdated aspects of them, but are just off the street looking for something to do. Then you end up surrounded by a lot of idiots laughing because they can’t appreciate the art of the film or any film at all, while I’m actually trying to watch a movie I really like on the big screen. That’s a horrible experience.
There are a number of things that piss me off about multiplexes – small screens, limited film selection and popcorn without real butter. The audience, however, is not one of them. Movies at their purist are meant to be communal experiences (yes, there are exceptions). The vibe of the audience, particularly in comedies and suspense, is part of the reason seeing a film in the theater is preferable to seeing a film at home. If a movie is great, why not applaud at the end? If the movie sucked, rip on it on this site, but who cares if someone else enjoyed it. We should be championing great films, but for everyone, not just a select few. Let’s not be elitists about this.
the worst, the WORST. Someone crunches a piece of popcorn, the movie is dead. Some sips a drink, the mood has died. You talk, you get up to the bathroom, you whisper, text, ANYTHING… and i’m ready to slit my fucking throat.
And don’t even talk to me about fucking applause.
I know this is “kinda of” an elitist attitude to have, but there are some really dumb mother fuckers out there in the mainstream.
It’s not so much the mainstream aspect which makes an audience annoying; it’s rather the teenage aspect, mainstream or not. The cinema is the place where slasher movies a la FRIDAY THE 13TH begin to make sense.
I get an awful feeling in my stomach when I know I’m going to a film that appeals to teenagers. I Usually see more adult-oriented films, but Avatar was a midnight showing the day it came out. The audience was packed toe to toe with loud, texting, annoying teenagers. I think shutter Island will be about half and half. It should be a bit more tolerable
I actually asked the owner of Ye Olde Independente Theatre if I was allowed to take cellphones from txting teenagers and smash them, pointing out to the owner that although that might be gratifying to me, it might end up disrupting the movie anymore.
He said, “Oh no. If someone keeps using their cellphone, smash that fucker right in front of them.”
—PolarisDiB
lol
The arthouse audiences can be just as annoying, if not more so. People are so fake, and make it a point to laugh loudly at subtle jokes that shouldn’t really make them have that sort of reaction.
Yeah, I don’t have much of a problem with “mainstream audiences” (I’m not even sure what that means, but it sounds derisive to me, anyway …) unless, of course, someone’s texting or being obnoxious in the typical fashion. As far as applauding, it doesn’t really bother me, even if it is for something like Avatar. I mean, we ARE talking “mainstream audiences” as the OP so gleefully labels them, so what kind of buffoon would expect “them” to act differently? And I’m not going to go all “Robert Fripp” on them (or Keith Jarrett, heh) and storm out of the theatre or something because there isn’t complete silence during the “holy ceremony of cinema”. Pfft, there’s enough pretentiousness floating around without that … though I will vocally call someone out (no pun intended) on using a cell phone during a film (unless they take it outside of course, I mean, sometimes there ARE emergencies, so you have to allow for that) and I’m usually not very nice about it.
“The arthouse audiences can be just as annoying, if not more so. People are so fake, and make it a point to laugh loudly at subtle jokes that shouldn’t really make them have that sort of reaction.”
THIS.
True, Branduponthebrain… especially if they’re teenagers.
Brandupon: Agreed. A middle-aged couple tried their damnedest to talk through the entirety of Antichrist, as she was apparently too stupid to comprehend ANYTHING she was seeing and he I guess fulfilled some need in his soul by providing constant play-by-play.
XD
@ Ralch – This isn’t quite the same, but I saw Hamlet a couple years ago and the middle aged to old people laughed all the time – and I’m guessing forcedly, because you really have to have studied Shakespeare to get his jokes and if you’ve read a joke over and over it really loses its impact – while most of the teenagers just sat there like “what the hell is going on?”
As my grandma says: there’s no manners these days….
It’s not only mainstream cinema. You find different kind of assholes in all kind of cinemas but assholes after all. In the city I live in there are only two arthouse cinemas and most of the times you can meet there the smartass who raise his or her voice (talking to the companion) to say something very pretentious about the film: “Wowww that’s so woody allen!!”. "Look at that shot…it really shows how… ". “I think this movie is trying to says this or that”. etc etc etc. All this during the film. Awful. It’s common too the high class lady who goes to arthouse cinema because is an “art-lover” but keep talking during the movie all the time. Though of course that are unfair generalizations but you get what I’m saying.
In the other hand in the mainstream cinema I always find the yuppie guy that CAN’T TURN OFF HIS FUCKING CELLPHONE and of course the teenagers.
Anyway I’m talking about this kind of things. The laughings, the silents, applauding are very natural in the movie theater experience so I don’t get what you are talking about. However I remember once being a little bit mad when the people laughed at Revolutionary Road (don’t remember what scene) when I was sad. Now that I read Polarisdib talking about “better perspective on the ways cinema affects different people.” that make me think (maybe the film was a bad film…. maybe I read it wrong…) but hey…
Might have been me who laughed at Revolutionary Road…sorry.
BRANDUPONTHEBRAIN, that film deserves much more love :(
muleyhaven
The Applause at the end of Avatar made me wanna vomit. Why do People clap at Movies? It’s not like James Cameron is sitting in the front row…… I hate when audiences hinder the movie going experience by laughing at dumb jokes, not appreciating good movies, and Loving bad ones. Every time I walk out of a movie some idiot always has something stupid to say about it.
What pisses u off about going to mainstream theatres??