And yes, I know I know, you have to keep looking left and right and up and down, trying to keep up with what's going on. But again, that's the price you pay. Rather than just watching and viewing like some middle aged film critic, you INTERACT with the beautiful motion picture doing its dance right in front of you. You are a participant. You get as much from it as you put in. And when you're down front -- you get to see the beautiful detail that the cinematographer has slaved over, you get to see the bags under the eyes of the actor who did his fifth night shoot in six days, you get to see all the beauty, ugliness, pain and passion in ways you never had before. You get to be in the movie.
"Shall we sit in the front row?" one friend will inevitably say to the other, before they both laugh and sit in the middle row. The middle row has many pluses, like comfort, and a wide, pretty frame, not to mention the cute girl in row six; but that's not why you go to the movies. You go to the movies to be a part of a motion picture which, if you sit close enough, you become a part of. You get to experience a living and breathing movie unravel before your eyes.
Go be a Kid In The Front Row. It's better than you think. It's better than you remember. You loved it before some boring old friend/lover/relative/film critic made you sit in row eleven. The neck pains are your war-wounds. They're there to remind you that you made the effort. You went where the magic was.
The last time it happened, it was me and some friends watching The Dark Knight but I must admit it was better than I feared - certainly an intense experience so perhaps I should give it a go again sometime...
ReplyDeleteMost persuasive! If I had done that while watching The Town this weekend, I would have missed the guy texting in front of me and the guy coughing behind me. Really? You came to a crowded theater with a cough? Good job!
ReplyDeleteI hate going to movie theatres these days. People can't seem to grasp the idea that it is, indeed, a moving picture. Front row is my favorite, but the people I'm with are always making me sit in the middle, where someone will be chewing loudly behind my head and some asshole is texting in front of me.
ReplyDeleteI really like your post, therefore I had to comment (you know I’m hard with commenting), one thing that make me suspicious: this sounds so terminal (for me), proof me wrong please, btw. it’s deep in the night at the moment I’m reading this, so have indulgence please.
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