demagogue on 10/6/2011 at 14:25
Yeah it's not a race thing per se because if you go to any suburban theatre, it has mixed races & the slight annoyances like any theatre (chatty teens) but you won't get talking like that one theatre. I think it was really that particular theatre, in a totally black neighborhood that goes back generations; and I could feel I could possibly be the only white guy in there. I really think they're relics of those neighborhoods. That's why I thought it's changing with demographic change and neighborhoods get suburbanized... It wouldn't apply to the theatres outside town or the blacks I went to highschool with. It's just a time I felt there's a real cultural difference here with how people act during a movie (also the barber & church but those are different stories). But I mean it's DC and the black neighborhoods there have deep roots; you can feel there's a way things are done that go back generations. That's a feeling whether it's true or not.
On the other end of the spectrum was watching movies in Japan. Holy crap they were stone faced; very little emotional reaction like you'd expect in an American theatre. (Part of that was them watching American movies; even dubbed they'd be culturally closer to me than them). Then you go to a theatre in the Arab Middle East, and what you notice is all the cat calls and wooos every time there's a woman on screen.
It's very possible I'm just over-highlighting those parts just because I'm comparing it to what feels normal to me from suburban theatres, and those are the parts that stick out in contrast.
Kuuso on 10/6/2011 at 16:16
In the history of cinema, audience was long free to move during the show, chat and eat/drink. It's only when they bolted the seats to the ground that they started getting some order into the place. The history of audience is quite fascinating.
Pyrian on 10/6/2011 at 20:08
I've noticed that opening-night midnight-showing audiences around here are pretty rambunctious, cheering, clapping, booing, and so on.
PeeperStorm on 11/6/2011 at 04:56
The simple solution to the cell phone/texting problem: A layer of chicken wire all around the theater in the exterior walls and ceilings.
Llama on 18/6/2011 at 08:28
Quote Posted by demagogue
Then you go to a theatre in the Arab Middle East, and what you notice is all the cat calls and wooos every time there's a woman on screen.
So you've been to the middle east just to watch the cultural norms of movie going?
demagogue on 18/6/2011 at 12:51
Study abroad. I spent a term in Haifa Israel then traveled to the surrounding countries.
Part of the idea studying there was trying to watch and understand the cultural norms in that part of the world though. (My minor was Middle Eastern Studies.) So in that respect you're not too far off. Just I was interested in a lot more than just theatre-going.
june gloom on 18/6/2011 at 16:28
Ignore him, dude, Llama's a pretty shitty troll. He's not worth the trouble.
Nicker on 18/6/2011 at 18:25
Shouldn't that be a cell phone in one claw and a crackly candy wrapper in the other?
theBlackman on 18/6/2011 at 23:33
I was amused by the lady screaming about 'her' rights while she violated those of everyone else.
But that seems to be the trend in the current society. Me first and fuck you!
Boxsmith on 19/6/2011 at 00:31
Why did you write that in bold?
