I saw “M” for the first time in a film class a few years ago. Not only was the film so gripping (especially the closing scenes), but it was easy to tell that it had affected a number of the others that had seen the film. When we left our class, and walked the empty halls of our school (it was an evening class), a few of us were whistling “In the Hall of the Mountain Kings”. I couldn’t get that song out of my head that night.
Seeing 2001 on a large screen the first day it was releashed in town with a packed theatre – total silence, total immersion, totally mind-blown. But I repeat myself – I have endlessly praised this film on this site, so that is it.
I don’t normally go to see movies by myself, but a few years back I had a gift certificate that needed to be used up by the end of the year (and, of course, I had forgotten about it until the last few days of December). I was in college and my fall finals were done, but everyone had already gone home and so I decided to use the certificate to see “The New World” before my family picked me up. I was nervous because I had never gone to the movies by myself and I thought it would be lame…
…I was wrong. It was awesome. It was a matinee and I was the only one there, so I had this HUGE theater all to myself. Plus it was my first time experiencing Malick, which itself was an experience (he’s working on a totally different plane than everyone else, which is amazing). A lot of movies hold special places with me, but this was an example of where a theater experience did the same. It was weird having a whole theater to myself for such a grand movie like “The New World.” It felt almost as if Malick had made the movie specifically for me. Great theater-going memory of mine!
I too saw The New World in an empty theater, save for my fiancee (now wife) and friend. It was kind of awesome.
My most memorable movie going experience is much less pleasant than all of yours have been. While watching The Last Samurai, some guy behind us kept talking and talking on his phone and to his girlfriend. Someone I didn’t know politely asked him to be quiet, but he refused. So, my friend started arguing with him, and they wound up agreeing to “meet in the parking lot” after the movie. When we got outside, three more guys ran up and attacked my friend. I’d not been terribly interested in getting involved in this little event, but I found myself punching one of them after they’d knocked my friend over. All three of the newcomers looked up, then took turns punching me in the face. It wasn’t pleasant.
The guy who’d started the whole thing had sort of stood there the entire time, his only contribution being the occasional half-assed attempt to punch the guy who’d already been knocked down. The other friend of ours who was with us, who isn’t a particularly tough sort, pushed him and he flew back like it was Arnold who’d pushed him, not some scrawny guy.
Anyway, there you go. Glad you guys get to remember good movie going experiences. Every time I go to the theater, this is what I think of.
I’ve had three.
Once, I went to see Showgirls while still in high school. I got a fake ID, and sat at lincoln square to see the sleaze. As the movie progressed, there would be sights of men looking at each other, embarrased at what we where watching. It was a classic night, and an example of how movies can make you feel in a dark theater full of people.
The next must be Batman. Summer of 89 was magical, we waited a long line across Loews 84th st. Once the Batman theme came on it was a great memory of my childhood.
The third had to be The Dark Knight. Amazing movie, the audience was floored.
“L’Avventura”
at a young age, maybe 5 or 6, my uncle would make me watch old horror movies with him; dracula, hammer films, corman’s etc…
seeing “pulp fiction” on a whim for the first time, and losing my innocence (figuratively). suddenly becoming cognizant that art existed in the world, and that i was interested it, and that my chosen art obsession would be cinema. then bringing everybody i knew that i could lay my hands on to see that film for the next couple of months over and over again, to introduce them to my road to damascus, and hope that they saw in it what i did.
quite simply, the film that changed the entire direction of my life.
Mine is Brazil, although this isn’t really because of the movie itself, enjoyable as it is, but rather because it was being screened with a short film by a local filmmaker. It was part of a program where a local filmmaker gets to pair his/her own short film with a well-known feature. It’s a nice idea, and a good way to get some exposure for unknown local talent while offering a chance to see some great older films in a theatre.
However, in this case, some friends of the local director played a prank on him. They switched out his film for another, which was some sort of montage mash-up set to lively, Bollywood-esque music. It began with all sorts of generic footage (flowers, pea pods, baking, random geometric shapes), but then it began to intersperse scenes of hardcore porn in with the stock footage. Not knowing what the actual film was like, I just assumed this was the short film we were supposed to be watching. I couldn’t really see why the director felt his goofy porn/stock footage montage was a good match-up with Brazil, but I never really questioned that I was watching the right film.
After it was over, some greatly chagrined person announced that we would now watch the actual short film. It was a modest student film about where the money in ATM machines comes from. I think I preferred the other short.
My most memorable experience at the movies had to be time time I saw APOCALYPSE NOW at the now-defunct State Theater in East Lansing, MI. About mid-way through the film, during the Do Lung Bridge sequence, a chunk of plaster about a foot square dropped out of the ceiling and bopped some woman in the sixth row on the head. All was chaos in the theater for a couple of minutes, with people running around in semi-darkness until the projectionist stopped the film and turned up the lights. Eventually an ambulance arrived and took the poor woman to the hospital (my understanding is she had a concussion but was OK the next day). The manager then told us that we had the option of either seeing the rest of the movie with everyone seated at the back of the theater, or getting a pass to come back some other time. Not wanting to see if anyone else was attacked by falling plaster, I took the refund. A week later, I was visiting my parents in Saginaw and saw the film all the way through at the Quad Theater; they had a better sound system than the State, but a rather disturbed gentleman with a bottle of whiskey was sitting behind me, and kept cheering on the U.S. soldiers during the battle scenes, encouraging them to “waste those gooks.” When Marlon Brando began philosophizing at length near the end, he left in disgust, much to my relief.
Either Dark Knight in Imax or Speed Racer (I know it’s bad), I wanna say Star Wars re-release in 1997, but I was 7 (so I haven’t lived through many memorable movies).
i saw “the shining” on the lawn of the stanley hotel in colorado. there was a couple dressed up as the two little girls standing in the hallway moving amongst the crowd asking if you would come play with them. it was a blast. and the huge crowd was amazingly attentive for the entirety of the film. it was part of the alamo drafthouse rolling roadshow program, never a disappointment. my girlfriend saw “the warriors” at coney island as part of the same series. for that event, if you so chose, you could participate in a pre-movie scavenger hunt where your “gang” had to make its way through new york to get to the screening.
The most memorable movie going experience for me – in college I had a group of friends who were a little adventurous in some of their activities, and a few of them decided that eating psilocybin mushrooms and going to see Fantasia on a big screen would be a good idea. I – for the record – was not one of the mushroom eaters, and this turned out to be a very, very bad (but definitely memorable) idea. During the Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence of the film, the roommate of my best friend jumped up in the theater, shrieked and started screaming Mickey’s evil! Mickey’s evil! He’s got the axe! Mickey’s evil! And then he started running up the aisle of the theater, pausing to throw up, then running again out into the lobby. I turned to my friend and said “We all need to get out of here NOW.” We got into the lobby, and Mr. Freaked Out was sitting in the corner, with his fingers in his mouth, muttering “Mickey’s evil” quietly. It is miraculous that we didn’t get arrested, and we managed to get Mr. Freaked Out safely out of there, and back to someplace he could calm down, which did happen, but it took a while.
“Time Bandits” 1981. I was 5 years old and it was my first time in a multiplex. I’ll never forget trying to keep my aunt’s hands off my eyes as she tried to cover them at the parts SHE thought were too scary for me!
I went to a screening of Wild Strawberries in Minneapolis at a Bergman festival very shortly after his death. I went alone, and there were many enthusiasts of all ages enjoying it either for the first time or for the hundredth time. The print wasn’t great, and there were sound problems, but the experience alone transcended all of the technical issues and I left the theater so sad about Bergman’s death, yet so excited by the fact that the power of a film like Wild Strawberries will be around and affecting us for a long time to come.
Most memorable for reasons not pertaining to the movie itself: when a woman violently vomited during the break-up scene in “All the Real Girls.”
Other than that, I’d have to say one of my most magical experiences was watching “Boogie Nights” opening weekend during an ice storm in a now-defunct shopping mall movie theatre. I went in not really expecting much and was basically stunned. Also, the fact that it was icy and stormy and abandoned outside made the movie seem even more isolating—especially the second half. I saw that movie several more times before it ended it’s theatrical run (and several more after) but that first time was special.
When I was 5 and I saw The Empire Strikes back for the first time in 1980. It was my birthday and we were late. We showed up during the Battle of Hoth, right when the AT-AT’s appeared. To me they seemed to be 1000 feet tall. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.
John Waters’ FEMALE TROUBLE at a midnight screening, 1989. I was astral planing for 90 straight minutes.
Also, seeing YELLOW SUBMARINE when I was super-young. I spent years dreaming entire sequences that weren’t in the film.
Going to the local cine-club, back in 1979, age 12, with a dozen of friends, all of them older than me, to see a film called Bogard, 1975 action movie, being there with all the hood bad guys, probably 50 guys, just to discover that the film presented was Casablanca, with Bogart, Humphrey…
5 minutes into the movie we were only 5 o 6 guys, all my friends gone, 15 minutes and we were 2…
i finished the movie alone in the auditorium… loved it and from then on devoted to cinema…
Can’t do just one, there’s just no way, but here are the main ones:
Seeing APOCALYPSE NOW from the front row of the balcony at the Uptown Theatre in Washington D.C. I don’t think I’ve ever been the same person since.
I saw Abel Gance’s NAPOLEON with the full orchestral accompaniment at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. My buddy and I were dazzled, and as we drove past the Lincoln Memorial on the way home, the lights inside the Memorial went out. Our visual overload was such that we were kind of silent the rest of the drive.
I saw Guy Maddin’s BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! in NYC with the full band, Foley artists, “castrato” and narrator. A wonderful exciting thrilling experience. I was told by friends that Lou Reed fell asleep at the screenings he was narrating.
A screening of 2001 at the Uptown Theatre in Washington D.C. on a Saturday afternoon. The place was empty, I sat in the 5th row center, and was blown away.
I’ve already answered, but I’m going to sneak another one in. Which I guess would have been easier had I not began with the words, I’ve already answered, but when I was 12 my brother took me to see U2 Rattle and Hum with his friends and everyone was smoking and drinking in the theatre. And back then I actually liked U2 so it was awesome!
it is so hard to chose; I have a lot of great moments. I have finally settle with this one as a quite memorable one. When i used to live in canada, i called my friend “L” and asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with me and see “el crimen del padre amaro” because it was mexican and i hadn’t seen it and the cinema showing it was the one close to her place. The thing is that there was a big snowstorm, my first one and it had a very hard time in going to her place; and then we had a very difficult time in getting to the movies since we were not used to snow storms (she is colombian) and we obviously missed the movie, so we asked instead for two tickets for the only movie available which was “city of god” (cidade de deus). We saw quickly the movie poster and we though it was going to be a cute movie since we only saw the couple at the top and we assumed the gang were just “a bunch of friends” (we should have watched carefully)… oh boy; that was a big surprise when the movie started. The show was at midnight and we were shocked to say the list; but still we enjoyed the movie. Good times.
Three films come to mind:
As a young child: GOLDFINGER. The film that got me enthralled with movies.
As a older kid: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Saw it on first release in 70mm.
As a young adult: Chinatown. I was shocked at the ending. My favorite film of all time.
Screening Half Nelson at the Angelika, being totally blown away by what I saw and heard (the amazing music by Broken Social Scene), and then having the director, Ryan Fleck, stand up for a Q and A after the credits rolled.
fight club. my jaw was on the floor.
It’s lame, but watching Grindhouse with my sister. The most “fun” I’ve had watching a movie.
Seeing Stalker at the Charles theater in Baltimore last year.
Watching Star Wars when it first came out in 1977. I was in awe of the special effects, the characters, the score, story line, and production design.
A Saturday night, a long time ago. I went with a friend to a screening of Paul Leduc’s “Latino Bar” at the NFT2 on the South Bank in London.
I was weighed down with Godard at the time (as customarily I am, even though I admire the man, because watching him always feels like a fucking blood transfusion) doing research on several of his works for a dissertation. And then Paul Leduc’s film washed through me like a miniature, benign tsunami. It was everything my eyes and my ears and my heart weren’t focused on. And I loved it all.
Peter Maides
I was 19 and thought I enjoyed watching movies… then I saw Zazie dans le Metro at Cinema CNC in Prince George, BC, while attending college and came to realize what a movie could be. I had never seen anything like it: it has humour, good characters, weird camera effects, a zany plot, and subtitles. Yes, I am pretty sure that this was my first subtitled film, and I enjoyed reading the text. This was the beginning of a life-long love of cinema. I now teach at this college, run Cinema CNC, and tell my students about Zazie!