(no subject)
Yesterday was the screening of Beyond the Rocks at the Tampa Theatre. I had been looking forward to it for ages, and I really enjoyed myself. There were a lot more people there than I expected, but we were early (I went with my dad) and got good seats before it filled up too much. The movie had live accompaniment, so before it started the organist decided to have a sing-a-long. It was pretty hilarious, because nobody knew the songs very well. All they did was flash up the lyrics without the little bouncy ball to help people keep time, so the people singing along were just randomly inserting words into the tune and then rushing to keep up when they realized they had run out of music but still had two lines left to sing.
When the movie actually started, there was a man sitting directly behind us who was talking along with the entire thing. As soon as anything happened, he would repeat it aloud to himself: "And here comes Rudolph Valentino... And here's Gloria Swanson in a boat... And oh! She just fell out... And then he saves her..." Every time a title card came up, he would read it out loud, too. After ten frustrating minutes of listening to him, I turned around to see why he was narrating the entire movie to himself. As it turns out, he was narrating the movie not for himself, but for the old blind woman that he brought with him. Why would you take a blind woman to watch a silent movie? The mind -- it boggles! I feel bad for the lady, too, because the man she was with kept mixing up the characters when he was describing the action. He confused an old widow for Theodora's sister, and for some reason he thought that Hector's jealous would-be fiance was Hector's sister. I guess he just figured that everybody was somebody's sister!
There were also some other annoying audience members in the form of people who laugh at everything. And by everything, I mean everything. Some parts of the movie were intended to be funny, and some parts just haven't aged very well and ended up being silly anyway. I can understand why people would laugh at that. Even a perverse sense of humour helps explain why so many people laughed when Theodora falls off a cliff. However, some people seemed to be laughing for no reason at all.
A group of men: *rides into the desert*
Half of the theatre: *starts laughing*
Bethany: *is very confused* *and also very irritated because this has been going on for the last hour*
I hope I don't sound like I had a horrible time, because aside from a few annoyances it was a lot of fun. Before the movie started, they announced some of the movies they have lined up for the Summer Classics series (this was the last of the Winter Classics). Thank goodness they are showing Gone with the Wind this year! I was so disappointed that they didn't screen it last summer. There was no mention of Lawrence of Arabia, though, so its chances don't seem very good. Too bad! This being my last summer at home and all, I was hoping they might show it.
When the movie actually started, there was a man sitting directly behind us who was talking along with the entire thing. As soon as anything happened, he would repeat it aloud to himself: "And here comes Rudolph Valentino... And here's Gloria Swanson in a boat... And oh! She just fell out... And then he saves her..." Every time a title card came up, he would read it out loud, too. After ten frustrating minutes of listening to him, I turned around to see why he was narrating the entire movie to himself. As it turns out, he was narrating the movie not for himself, but for the old blind woman that he brought with him. Why would you take a blind woman to watch a silent movie? The mind -- it boggles! I feel bad for the lady, too, because the man she was with kept mixing up the characters when he was describing the action. He confused an old widow for Theodora's sister, and for some reason he thought that Hector's jealous would-be fiance was Hector's sister. I guess he just figured that everybody was somebody's sister!
There were also some other annoying audience members in the form of people who laugh at everything. And by everything, I mean everything. Some parts of the movie were intended to be funny, and some parts just haven't aged very well and ended up being silly anyway. I can understand why people would laugh at that. Even a perverse sense of humour helps explain why so many people laughed when Theodora falls off a cliff. However, some people seemed to be laughing for no reason at all.
A group of men: *rides into the desert*
Half of the theatre: *starts laughing*
Bethany: *is very confused* *and also very irritated because this has been going on for the last hour*
I hope I don't sound like I had a horrible time, because aside from a few annoyances it was a lot of fun. Before the movie started, they announced some of the movies they have lined up for the Summer Classics series (this was the last of the Winter Classics). Thank goodness they are showing Gone with the Wind this year! I was so disappointed that they didn't screen it last summer. There was no mention of Lawrence of Arabia, though, so its chances don't seem very good. Too bad! This being my last summer at home and all, I was hoping they might show it.