My New-Film Experience is getting worse as years go by

[ChristineCB]

How many new films do you see that exceed, match or fall below your expectations? Some? Most?

I spent my teens and twenties seeing just about every new film I could - 350-400 a year wasn't uncommon. A slow year, maybe 300. For the last 3 years, however, that number has dwindled to a hundred, then dozens, and now, it's almost single-digits.

Part of this is because ticket prices have doubled AND theatres are packing in TV adverts, which I terrifically resent. I know theatres are trying to make money, but I resent paying money to see adverts.

But even during my New Film Experience heyday, so many of them fell below my expectation levels - two-thirds? 75%? More?

It's not that 300 films out of 400 are bad. It's that 300 films are boring. Then there will be 30 or 40 bad ones. Then maybe I'll see 30 or 40 that match my expectations. And then the remaining minority may exceed my expectations.

While I tried to avoid pre-viewing hype, those expectations are almost always built during the film itself - from the opening scenes into the meat of the story.

I'm lucky to live in a town with almost 9 months of some kind of film-festival going on - weekly, weekend or month-long events. And we have 8 months of nightly in-the-park classics being shown. I'm not left wanting for the Big Screen Experience but in 90% of those, the Big Screen Experience far exceeds my expectations, which are constructed in the same way as my New Films expectations are.

So if my expectations are The Problem, how can I find myself so happy with older but unknown-to-me films compared to new films? Do I make more excuses for old films (stagey acting? Limited special effects?) than I tolerate for today's version of perfection?

Is your New Film Experience different from mine?

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

Not really. I rarely go to the cinema nowadays... I think the last one I went to was "Gladiator" (which I enjoyed apart from the excessive volume in the battle-scenes)
I've said it before that I'm not prepared to spend money on going to see films with tortuous plots (made even-more difficult to follow because the actors mumble or are drowned-out by over-loud background music or noise...often the same animal!) and where computerised gimcrackery often substitutes for real imagination in film-making.
I usually wait until a modern blockbuster is shown on TV until I allow myself the satisfaction of hurling abuse at the screen and leaving halfway through - all for the sake of a few pennyworth of electricity.

[smiffy]

Originally Posted by ChristineCB How many new films do you see that exceed, match or fall below your expectations? Some? Most? I spent my teens and twenties seeing just about every new film I could - 350-400 a year wasn't uncommon. A slow year, maybe 300. For the last 3 years, however, that number has dwindled to a hundred, then dozens, and now, it's almost single-digits. Part of this is because ticket prices have doubled AND theatres are packing in TV adverts, which I terrifically resent. I know theatres are trying to make money, but I resent paying money to see adverts. But even during my New Film Experience heyday, so many of them fell below my expectation levels - two-thirds? 75%? More? It's not that 300 films out of 400 are bad. It's that 300 films are boring. Then there will be 30 or 40 bad ones. Then maybe I'll see 30 or 40 that match my expectations. And then the remaining minority may exceed my expectations. While I tried to avoid pre-viewing hype, those expectations are almost always built during the film itself - from the opening scenes into the meat of the story. I'm lucky to live in a town with almost 9 months of some kind of film-festival going on - weekly, weekend or month-long events. And we have 8 months of nightly in-the-park classics being shown. I'm not left wanting for the Big Screen Experience but in 90% of those, the Big Screen Experience far exceeds my expectations, which are constructed in the same way as my New Films expectations are. So if my expectations are The Problem, how can I find myself so happy with older but unknown-to-me films compared to new films? Do I make more excuses for old films (stagey acting? Limited special effects?) than I tolerate for today's version of perfection? Is your New Film Experience different from mine?

I'm lucky to live in a town with almost 9 months of some kind of film-festival going on - weekly, weekend or month-long events. And we have 8 months of nightly in-the-park classics being shown. I'm not left wanting for the Big Screen Experience but in 90% of those, the Big Screen Experience far exceeds my expectations, which are constructed in the same way as my New Films expectations are.
Christine,your town sounds like heaven.I have a friend who told me about a visit to friends in Sicily a few years ago where the high point of the week was friday evening in the village square and the free film show.Apparently at sundown out came the projector,kids, mums and dads,grandma and grandad,and even the teenagers,where they all sat for a couple of hours entertainment,what bliss.If we had the weather in this country I wonder if society would have evolved any differently.
I long for the bygone days of the local cinema (fleapit?)and correct me if I'm wrong but they didn't only show the latest releases,popular films would be shown again .
I don't think your expectations are the problem Christine,my personal opinion is that the powers that be think a movie these days has to be crammed full of special effects (not always a bad thing,technology has brought us some wonderful advances) and move along at 100mph to keep us interested,they don't take into account that some of us actually listen to the dialogue,and want to see the actors perform their craft.
I have always watched films with my family as they have grown up,and it is nice that my daughter is interested in the same kind of films I am,so much so that we are increasingly watching more classics than modern films.

not finished with this but I have a pressing engagement TTFN all the best

[smiffy]

OH no! that doesn't make much sense I've mixed some of christines text with mine,I'll edit it later,TTFN

[ChristineCB]

There is another contributing factor to my new-film abstinence.

We get 2-3 weeks of marketing blitz before new films hit, and then I have to endure crowds, sit in whatever seat's available (instead of Favorite Location), etc. Or wait until Week 2 or 3. But by that time, another marketing blitz has hit and I (along with 99% of movie-goers) have forgotten what's now showing.

There are so many excuses NOT to go to see new films now.

[ChristineCB]

Originally Posted by smiffy ...sounds like heaven...

Our new-film festivals are weekenders or week-long events, four or five a year, it seems. But we have City Park series (like our current Christmas films series), and then our 9-months-of-summer series, too, where 5 or 6 nights a week, some film is shown in some city park. They have large air-filled easily-portable screens, with PA towers at the 4 corners of the ampitheatre so 800 or 1200 people can watch Vincent Price try to scare his wife to death, only to extole us all to scream, scream like your life depends on it! The tingler!!

It's an incredible experience to sit out in the flickering dark and have a park-load of people howl and scream and even the sleeping kids get up for it.

I'd never seen OPERATION PETTICOAT on the big screen. Or DRACULA, JAWS, WITNESS FOR PROSECUTION, etc. But they have about 200 classics a year in some old downtown moviehouse or some city park, and I'm such a huge fan of the big-screen experience.

I don't really think it's just MY expectations that causes the problems. I tend to agree that modern film-makers have too many shortcuts that pervert or prevent a quality product from gaining my attention. I don't understand how they can so continuously fail to recognize this, however, and enact superior changes to their film.

[PS68060]

I am always put off a film by the usual hype (over-hype). Like Casino Royale, the more they bang-on about it on TV the less interested I become.

Meanwhile other films are not even mentioned and get one showing, on a Thursday afternoon in a cinema 40 miles away.

My home town lost it's cinema in the great bingo rush of the early seventies so I never had the convenience of a cinema I could walk to. Sadly it is now in ruins.

www.n-le-w.co.ukÂ*Â*Newton-le-WillowsÂ*Â*EarlestownÂ*Â*BurtonwoodÂ*&nbspnewton-le-willows.org - The Curzon Cinema, 28th October, 1935

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by smiffy my personal opinion is that the powers that be think a movie these days has to be crammed full of special effects (not always a bad thing,technology has brought us some wonderful advances) and move along at 100mph to keep us interested,they don't take into account that some of us actually listen to the dialogue,and want to see the actors perform their craft.

You're right Smiffy, too many Hollywood film-makers do just cram them full of special effects hoping that we won't notice that there's no real plot and certainly no decent characterisation or dialogue. We do notice. But the films aren't aimed at us. They're all aimed at the teenage market who haven't seen these films when they were first made so don't realise that the original versions are often a lot better.

Steve

[ChristineCB]

And this begs the point - are my best New-Film Experiences behind me? That as I get older, I'll only have an ever-lowering opinion of New Film Experiences?

And as the Western World's population is aging more quickly, what ARE these power-brokers thinking of - making more banal and more caringless New Film Experiences for us?

If so, they can raise the ticket prices and show more TV commercials, but this has to mean they'll have a smaller audience that pays for their garbage. It's what they ask for, it's what they deserve.

[smiffy]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook You're right Smiffy, too many Hollywood film-makers do just cram them full of special effects hoping that we won't notice that there's no real plot and certainly no decent characterisation or dialogue. We do notice. But the films aren't aimed at us. They're all aimed at the teenage market who haven't seen these films when they were first made so don't realise that the original versions are often a lot better. Steve

I think you've hit the nail on the head steve (again) there aren't enough films aimed at us.Would I be right in saying that most multiplex cinemas have some kind of tie in with the major film producers?
The multiplex has killed local cinema,and unless you have a car it's not always easy to get to an out of town development.
The young are fed a constant stream of high budget,over hyped,action packed,special fx extavaganzas,and just like chinese food (no offence meant I love chinese food) ten minutes later you're hungry again,jamies school dinners applies very well here,give the young the right thing and they'll grow into far healthier,more well rounded human beings.
Media studies are more popular in schools now ,they should be compulsory so children can see there once was a golden age of cinema and theatre.

[Wolfgang]

I do not seem to be able to watch everything I tape so hardly go to cinema anymore. At college I would usually go at least once per week, and sometimes catch occasional weekday matinee so at my peak I would go about 300 times. I have not been at all this year to see new film.

Do you live on farm, Christine?

[ChristineCB]

Wolf, no, we don't officially live there - it's an hour away but every time I go, it's always a vacation for me. I can spend 2-3 days there and, at first, I'm too hyper for it, and by the time we need to leave, I'm the one trying to think of ways to stay! That Christmas House on BritFilms is startlingly similar to our farm-house - two stories plus an attic, and a real storm shelter, fit for any of Dorothy's relatives. A great porch where Sky Watching is about the second best thing to do out in the middle of nowhere.

[Wolfgang]

Well judging by your avatars it seems to keep you in shape. If I ever get married I am going to buy my bride some land to work.

[ChristineCB]

I'll use our local city park tree-of-lights for seasonal avatar. But it's not working the land - it's volleyball, swimming and tennis that does that.

[Wolfgang]

It is very important to get plenty of exercise. It is inspiring to come across someone who takes their health seriously.