Cinemas have never been more comfortable – big seats that wouldn’t shame the first class section of a jumbo jet, air conditioning and even a holder for your packet of popcorn. So why are we only allowed to sit in such opulence for two hours or so, meaning that a night out needs a lengthy prelude or long post-cinema spell in a restaurant or pub?
Money, of course, since the reason cinemas are able to supply such comfort is the throughput of punters from mid-morning to very late, each handing over £7 or so.
But the cinema is in competition with DVDs and movies on-demand, so must always provide a premium product - there is no room for apathy.
When I first went to the cinema, it really was a night out with a second feature at 7.20pm, Pearl and Dean and Kia Ora at 9.00pm and the main feature at 9.15pm, giving just enough time for a quick drink before last orders.
And what second features they were. A Roger Moore era Bond might be supported by a Connery outing, hollowed-out volcano and all. A standard Hollywood buddy comedy starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte might be supported by a film of Eddie or Richard doing stand-up – what a shock to the system that was! Or a Hollywood horror might be supported by a low budget Italian zombie fest with a visual and spoken language all of its own.
I miss those long afternoons and evenings in the dark watching two movies in the collective concentration a cinema audience provides – one so absent from the living room “Love Film” DVD evening in, before switching to Desperate Housewives. It was an education and a pleasure now gone forever.
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21 comments:
In Japan, the ever so gentle My Neighbour Totoro was released with the horrific, distressing Grave of the Fireflies. Both are great films, but as different as can be!
Resulting in quite a few screaming nightmares for Japanese children, I should think.
A nice bit of nostalgia, Mouth. The illustrations I've added aren't quite right as all four films were released as main features, but hey, who's nitpicking?
Second features used to keep the British film industry going, of course, they were subsidised...those were the days...
ole! cinema paradiso Mouth.
Yes things are not what they used to be and we have to live with the changes, sadly we'll never see again the Two for the price of One deal.
Can you imagine if we had Lawrence of Arabia followed by Cleopatra- 7 hours of cinema,for the same price plus an aspirin pill.(in case)-
With this outstanding lay out and a perfect choice of posters for your illustration, I see you are in the process of switching career-
Guy - the layout is all Zeph's (excellent) work. I just wrote the words about a little piece of the world that's gone.
O K,
poetic illustration then,I am not surprised bc poesy and nostalgia always get along very well-
The blogger format arranges the pics to some extent, but like all these pre-formatted thingys, it's got very set ideas about what you ought to want... so not much skill required, more patience.
I miss those terrible adverts for local restaurants.
Great book review, Mouth. How very responsive of you. This one's definitely on my Xmas list.
Best double-bill I ever went to was "Mothra!" (a giant moth ravages Tokyo), followed by "Attack of the mushroom people" (kinda self-explanatory that one).
One particular line of dialog has stayed with me to this day: "It's been raining for two weeks. It must be the rainy season".
Seems like I've just left one rainy season for another *sigh*
Well, actually MotM has sent me some book reviews as well, and they'll be published soon, so there.
Presumably the rainy season was quite encouraging for the mushroom people..
How's Normandy, then? Wet, grey and dark?
Yeah, that about sums it up. Just add cheese and apple-based drinks and you've got the whole picture.
I can't tell if it's the rainy season here, they locked me in until I complete and deliver the job bc I was suspected to spend too much time in the parisian bars-I guess being connected with Offside and gg didn't help.
please double-bill me if I am off-topic.....
correction: alcoholic anoymous
Ah, but Guitou, while you have the internet there is always escape...
Offie, no doubt the apple-based drinks are helping you bear it.
Just seen an interview on the TV saying that cinemas are going to be more 'demographic directed'. This was because a cinema chain has started showings for over-18s only, not to show sexy films but apparently because kids are disruptive and noisy. Hm. When I go the cinema it's always the bloody 30-year-old hotshots with mobile phones that disrupt, not to mention middle-aged couples who talk all through the film.
My mother worked in a cinema from about 1973 for twenty-two years. She was always glad that the Saturday morning kids' shows didn't show any X films as she reckoned there was enough sex and violence in the stalls.
Double features first became popular during the depression, for the very reasons touched on above, so now would be a perfect time to bring them back.
I've always regretted being born too late for newsreels in the cinema. At university I used to have a seriously geeky Pathé newsreel addiction. The library had them on VHS.
If you feel like getting re-addicted, Munni, cancel all appointments for a few days and look up 'pathe news' on youtube....
That should be zeph, unless I'm turning into someone else...
I watched 2 interviews on CNN :Bill Clinton-Bill Gates
Celebrity Double-Bills.
The Richmond Filmhouse on Water Lane, right on the river, used to do good double-bills. No Kia-Ora or Pearl and Dean, but it was still an enjoyable afternoon. Apparently the cinema's still going, but I don't know if they still do double bills. And a drink on the riverside afterwards is always nice, especially if the tide's high and you're trapped in the pub.
Zeth, maybe you're jutht developing a lithp?
Yeth, it mutht be that.
I remember going to the cinema for the moom landing.
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