Anyhoozle,
Haven't quite updated in some time. But I figure before I go to class I should give a little update and tell you all about my first movie theatre experience in the UK.
Last night I was invited to dinner and a movie by some of my new Scandinavian friends, most of whom I met at a house party off campus. Good bunch. I'm glad to have made acquaintance with the Europeans over the Brits over the Americans. They consider me their "Nice American" friend, which is a pretty good title have I suppose. I usually come awarded with this award when drunk, but that's ok, because their being hhhonest!
We went to see "Edge of Darkness." Not my first choice, but neither was "Wolf-Man" which was their second choice. But who was I to be fussy? I wanted the experience, and I got it. OK, if the movie were a little better, the experience would've been more well matched, but who cares. More on the movie later.
Walking into the theatre, I realized something that I liked better already: ASSIGNED SEATS! Great idea! You get there on time, you get the seats you deserve. No running around, no little kids switching. You go with a group, you're allotted seats somewhat close together. It's more anything goes in Britain, but somehow they take their movie theatre experience more seriously. Which is how it should be. Movies ALWAYS should be taken as seriously as a play or performance piece. Even if the movie sucks, there are always bad live performances to match.
One thing that HASN'T changed, however, is the amount of commercials and previews presented before the movie begins. The one plus side to that though is that the commercials are somewhat interesting, not the stupid ones made exclusively for the movie theatre. I also saw the best car crash and drinking commercials there. What I like about British advertising is that they don't play it safe; if they want to scare you, they are gonna fucking scare the shit out of you. The car crash commercial shows not only what happens inside the car, but also inside your body. You see an animation of ribs cracking, then internal bleeding, etc. Unfortunately you wouldn't see that on american screens. Then they follow it with a drinking ad, which shows incidents influenced by drinking, including screaming and fighting matches and the aftermath of sexual abuse. Again, why play it safe? Why candy coat it? I think America is so afraid of showing things as they are they have to make it so that when it actually happens the way it happens, people are surprised at the time of the act, which, in my opinion, isn't always the right time to be surprised. Sometimes, for morality's sake, you need to be surprised at the time of the action, but it's also good to be prepared. You don't want to get hit by car and expect hearts, four leaf clovers, balloons and rainbows to come out of your mouth while Dreamstreet plays in your ears.
Plus, nobody's talking/texting during the movie???????? WTF
I can't describe how the experience, in itself, of seeing trailers of movies that came out in America months before when you were there playing for the first time in a UK theatre. For the first time I saw a trailer for From Paris With Love, and I'm sure nobody in the UK's complaining about how long they had to wait for that. Lovely Bones? It feels like that movie came out years ago. Guess it was only a month. Still though.
I was asked that night whether I was going to the Forum (the school's club) or not. I said I was going to the movies. I don't think I find it odd that I'd rather see a movie than go to the club. That's not to say I dislike the club (it can prove beneficial) but movies are more adhesive; you get drunk at the club and you don't remember much. It's fun, but the next morning you continue. Sometimes you'll see a movie you come to hate, but when you choose to go the movie of your choosing it sticks with you. And you remember it better. A lot of nights I've been spending at the LRC watching movies that no one else seems to take out but me. It's like I got my own temporary collection. I also got to say, I fucking LOVE the selection of movies they have here at the Learning Resource Center. Since my discovery of it, I've been watching a film a day. I aim to watch all of the Woody Allen movies they have here (of which they have a lot), as well as the ones I had been meaning to watch back at home but have swept under the mat. Tomorrow I'll be watching McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which I had been meaning to watch for a long time but never got a round to see. I'm not sure why, especially when the star is this guy… on the left. Just wanna make sure nobody's confused
Right? Right? Right.
This evening I watched Donnie Darko, and I like it a lot better than I did the first time. Still don't exactly maybe probably don't understand all of it, but it's a breath of fresh air after you've seen his other projects. Seriously, why do people insist on giving him money. If he made personal films instead of stupid film essays and Twilight Zone ripoffs, he'd probably have more devoted fans. On the plus side, it's gotten me to get into pleasure reading again. For the past couple weeks, I've been seriously hating reading, almost to the point where I wonder why I even bother with English. All I've been reading is Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, and Samuel Richardson. It's not as though they're bad books, I just don't give a shit about it. I want to read Greene, Mamet, and Vonnegut. It's stuff like that reassures my interest in literature. Who knows. Maybe I'll like the older stuff again. Right now though that shit bores the fuck out of me.
Anyway. I like where I am with my movies. I like having the LRC's television by myself. I like that I'm taking the kind of film class where you watch awesomely provocative films like Near Dark, The Idiots, and Man Bites Dog. Sometimes I wish it were my major, but I'm just glad I can take as many classes as I want to on the subject, and that I am allowed the possibility to be with people who take it as seriously as it should.
Dublin this weekend. Yarp!
