The last movie you saw Thread

[Frelga]

I keep not making it to see it. I hope it's still running next weekend.

[Alatar]

<aside>I really hate the American habit of applauding/commenting at movies. Its not live Dammit!!</aside>

[Inanna]

#and Indian habit

[Primula Baggins]

When we lived in L.A., studios used to run "sneaks" of big upcoming releases at big theaters in Westwood Village just south of UCLA. Studio people would fill the rows in back, often including the director. We'd stand in line for hours sometimes, often with no idea what the movie was even about (Raiders of the Lost Ark? What kind of title is that?). In that setting, wild applause and cheering made sense. Raiders got it. So did E.T. In those pre–social media days they handed out buttons as we were leaving that said I SAW E.T.

[Lalaith]

What an odd thing to dislike, Al, imo.

Well, commenting on/talking during a movie, yes, that's annoying. Be quiet in a movie theatre! But responding to the movie in other ways doesn't seem odd to me. Crying, laughing, applauding, gasping, etc. are all natural responses. It's still a social experience in the same way that seeing something live would be; it's also different, of course, but you're still sharing in the movie with others. It's a way of acknowledging that we've all just seen something excellent. (Applause doesn't always happen, btw. In fact, most of the time, it does not, so, when it does, that is something special.) This movie was special.

The theatre was about 3/4-full. Only the front section was kind of empty. There were several black people in the audience. We were witnessing the racism that faced black people in recent history. We were witnessing the discrimination against women that we faced in recent history. (Not getting into how those things still exist in some way!) I know there were times when I flinched, honestly, because something was so ugly in the movie that it was hard to watch.

Hidden text.

When Katherine breaks after being called out for being gone for 40 minutes (to use the colored restroom) and finally speaks up about the discrimination, the audience applauded. When Dorothy tells Mrs. Mitchell in the restroom scene, "I know you probably believe that," there was an audible murmur through the audience. Ouch! You know? But it's true. At the very end, we all applauded because, dammit!, those women deserved applause whether or not they were there to hear it.

[Primula Baggins]

It's a big contender for Best Picture and other major awards at the Oscars in two weeks, so I'm betting it will stay in theaters at least until then. I may yet get to see it!

[Frelga]

<aside>I really hate the American habit of applauding/commenting at movies. Its not live Dammit!!</aside>

No, but people in the theater are.

[Sunsilver]

I don't mind them applauding. One of the best movie experiences I've ever had was the premiere of Return of the Jedi. A BF managed to get advanced tickets for the first public screening, and everone in the audience was a rabid Star Wars fan. The first couple of rows were reserved for people dressed in Star Wars costumes, and there were some darn good ones, too! There was a Princess Leila and a Yoda that easily could have passed for the real thing!

We were so hyped, we applauded the first time our favourite character appeared on the screen, and also gave the movie a rousing round of applause at the end. Some of the best lines in the movie also got applause. (forget which ones, though. I remember a similar thing happening during first screenings of the LOTR movies at the Gathering of the Fellowship Conference in Toronto, though to a lesser extent.

It's something people tend to do when they're really happy/pleased with a performance, even if it's not live.

Treating the theatre like it's your own living room, OTOH, and chatting away with your friends...

[Alatar]

It's just at weird to me. Applause is for the performers not the audience. If there are no performance it's like sitting at home watching a movie and saying "Well done Viggo, nice performance ". He can't hear you so what's the point? I accept that this is something you guys like to do, but I don't understand it. Feel free to carry on without my approval!

[yovargas]

Applause is for the performers not the audience.

Disagree. It can be for the performers, but it can also just be a spontaneous expression of excitement. I'd be really surprised if people on your side of the pond didn't do something when something really exciting or surprising happened on screen. I wouldn't expect the Irish to be all stiff-upper lip when they get emotional.

(For the record, in my experience, the applause thing is pretty rare and only really happens when the movie gets the audience really emotional.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I have very seldom been moved to applaud at a film (of course I don't go to that many). Hidden Figures the only one that I can think of in recent times.

[Maria]

I agree with Alatar about applauding for movies. It's kind of weird.

[Alatar]

Applause is for the performers not the audience.

Disagree. It can be for the performers, but it can also just be a spontaneous expression of excitement. I'd be really surprised if people on your side of the pond didn't do something when something really exciting or surprising happened on screen. I wouldn't expect the Irish to be all stiff-upper lip when they get emotional.

(For the record, in my experience, the applause thing is pretty rare and only really happens when the movie gets the audience really emotional.)

The occasional cheer maybe? Never applause. It just feels stupid to us!

As another aside, however I feel about cinema, I cannot abide the Broadway tradition of cheering when someone you know comes on stage! Ffs they have done anything yet!!!! And this is a piece of theatre, not a concert. Way to kill the immersion!

[Dave_LF]

<aside>I really hate the American habit of applauding/commenting at movies. Its not live Dammit!!</aside>

I've been an American for some time and I don't know that I've ever seen either one...

[Frelga]

Ok, now I'm curious. In your part of the world, when watching sports on the TV, at home or in a bar, do people cheer?

[Beutlin]

Sports broadcasts are an altogether different medium and experience that often require a modicum of active emotional investment. When I go to a bar to watch a football game, I go there partly for the collective experience (same goes for watching a game live in a stadium). When I buy a movie ticket, I do so to watch a movie on a big screen, and not to experience other people’s emotions (comedies can be excluded here).

[Túrin Turambar]

People occasionally applaud in movies here. Like yov, I see it more as a form of active participation for the audience than a message to the actors. People cheering when watching sports on TV is the same thing.

[Lalaith]

Like others have said, applause at a movie is unusual in my experience. (There is a racial stereotype that I could discuss here that is an exception, but I probably shouldn't get into it. So I won't. ) And I don't know about people cheering for a beloved actor in a live production. I would consider that very poor form.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sounds a bit like classical music experts who complain when the less-experienced members of the audience clap between movements of a symphony.

But that used to be regular practice.

[Primula Baggins]

I like the silence between movements, particularly if the work is something that builds from movement to movement. But I don't worry about it so much at a movie. Generally, in a movie, if the moment is one that demands silence, everyone feels it and is silent. In symphonies and long choral works, though, some people feel the social obligation to applaud ahead of, or instead of, any actual response to the music.

I've been lucky enough to be part of an audience so well trained that they did not begin to applaud at the very end of the work until the conductor (Helmuth Rilling in this case) lowered his baton. And he didn't do it for a loooong time. This was at the end of Dvorak's Stabat Mater, a long meditation on Mary's grief over the death of Jesus that the composer wrote after a year in which two of his very young children had died. I'll never, never forget that moment, and one unthinking person could have shattered it. Two thousand people were there, and no one did.

But it wasn't a movie.