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The Demise of the Movie Theatre

"Of Buggy Whips and Celluloid

Technology is depriving us of what makes movies special: each other

by James Burrus

I have seen the end of film, and while it may not be pretty, it is certainly sharp. Movies aren’t about to disappear. As long as there is an auteur with a digital recording device and iMovie on his or her Mac Book Pro, there will be movies.

But movies will not be immune from the carnage of digital isolationism and the loss of what amounts to the soul of cinema: its social element.

Oddly, this will not be due to a lack of quality. Quite the contrary; the end of movies will be projected in high-def digital glory on walls and plasma screens and laptops and cell phones across the nation.

Because as the technology gets better and cheaper, more and more people are bringing it home—and therein lies the danger. If you think NetFlix is giving theaters a financial Charlie horse, Blu-ray discs, players and projectors are set to turn the once-communal experience of watching a movie into a relic of the past, just as pulling into the local drive-in for a burger has become an icon of the Good Ol’ Days.

I know this is true because my film aficionado friend, Pablo “Keelsetter,” told me so. In fact, there’s a lot more to the loss of the group experience of watching a film. As he wrote in his film blog—found at moviemorlocks.com:

“…there is a collection of pheromones and audible and physical communications emitted by a large crowd of people reacting to a film that can definitely accentuate the experience. Also, let’s face it: true immersion into a film is more likely in a theater where you cannot pause the action and where your silence and attention are part of the understood bond of that setting.”

In addition is the demise of viewing a story told via a classic medium: film.
Just as a gearhead can tell by the sound of an idling motor that he’s in the presence of a 1968 Cobra Jet Mustang, a film connoisseur appreciates knowing details like aspect ratios and print quality. Because they matter in the same way aspiration and compression matter in an engine or brush strokes matter in a Van Gogh painting..." Continued here

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Gregory's Reviews

I had to talk about "Last Year at... " I've seen some wierd stuff and this is in the top shelf. I saw it as an Existential meditation on the breakdown of time and tonality. The only character that was alive was the camera. It's a comedy! And how about those sparkling earings? What cinamatography throughout. And I want to know who choreographed the match stick games?... Roman was Great! Poor guy, certainly not a child molester but he was short! Joel once showed Knife In The Water and the Thin and Fat one. They were quite beautiful as is all his films. I remember Repulsion a couple of years ago, Great! Jack and Jake, " Where'd you get the midget?" "You're a pretty nosey fella eh? You know what with do with em? We CUT off their noses."
Looking foreward to Contempt and Planet,

You Bloody Baboon!
gregory

And Furthermore

I'm looking forward to re-watching The Twilight Samurai. I really
liked the character of Kayo in Love and Honor - and I find myself
wondering how much of that is because I've met Huong. I find that in
the past I was reasonably boorish in regards to how I viewed people's
actions. Essentially I wouldn't always see the reason they did
something, just that they did it. So in the film Kayo dutifully
served her husband at home - but what I noticed wasn't that she was
doing it entirely because she cared for him.

Also, when Mimura yells at his aunt to not disparage his wife - to me
it's because he respects his wife and no matter what, will not allow
others to say ill of her - even if there is just cause. In the past I
don't know what I would have interpreted his actions to mean, but now
I think I recognize them.

Hmm.
Chris

Love and Honor

to IFS
date Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 10:07 AM
subject Love and Honor

Huong and I saw Love and Honor last night and really liked it. It
seemed entirely believable to us. The gossipy, unhelpful relatives
fit exactly with how Huong describes her family.
After the film I mentioned to Huong that I felt Kayo truly loved
Mimura and that he wasn't aware for the most part what she felt for
him. Huong said 'The person who wrote the story knows exactly what
they want in a relationship.' She went on to point out that Mimura
never disparaged Kayo, even when he suspected her misdeeds. When his
Aunt came to gossip he defended his wife strongly.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was how strong a
character Kayo really was. On the surface she is the dutiful wife,
but what I noticed the strongest was that she was dutiful out of love
- not obligation.

Anyways - great film. Later this week we're going to go rent The
Twilight Samurai (I saw it at IFS a few years ago and liked it then)
and The Hidden Blade.

Thanks,
Chris

Our Mistake

We are not perfect here at IFS, so we do sometimes make mistakes. But when we find out about any problems with our schedule or website we like to try and correct them. Thanks to Jana Woodard for catching this one regarding the film ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, showing on Oct 31st and Nov 1st.

"Dear Film Buffs,

Both of Roman Polanski's parents were not killed during World War II. His mother died in one of Hitler's death camps, but his father survived the war period.

When the war ended he was reunited with Roman, who had been hidden with relatives in a remote part of rural Poland.

Father and son were no longer compatible, and Roman eventually sought living quarters apart from his one remaining parent.

Sincerely,

Jana Woodard"

Bomb Threats, Christianity and Global Warming...

We here at IFS occasionally come across some interesting documents. For instance, a friend over at Landmark Theaters showed us this actual manager checklist in case of a Bomb Threat:

And the occasional Boulderite will write us a recruitment letter:And, you know, sometimes we forget that not everyone loves the films we screen as much as we do, so it's nice to be reminded: