Factors Which Influence One's Response to a Film Seen at the Cinema

Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood

"Norman Bishop* (angrily): I advise you to curb that wagging tongue of yours !

Robin (cheerfully): It's a habit I've never formed, Your Grace."


- from The Adventures of Robin Hood , ch.5 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/



I have been to the cinema a few times recently, & also in a cluster at the end of last year, & each time leaving I have thought not only "What do I think about that ?" but also "Why do I think what I think about that ?" This thought is reinforced when I can see a discrepancy between what I thought of a given film & what my friends & contacts thought of it. These reflections have led me to attempt to specify the factors that influence one's reaction to a film seen at the cinema. I say one's  not my  because I propose these aren't simply mine. Also, at the cinema because it is different seeing a film there from seeing it on dvd. Firstly, the picture is much, much larger. Second, one is seeing it with an audience of strangers. Thirdly, one has far less choice over when to see it. It's as if one was only allowed to read the book one is reading during specified appointment times at the local library, & the book is always in extremely large print.



Factors Which Influence One's Response to a Film Seen at the Cinema


1. How good the film is.


2. One's mood on that day.

It is certainly possible that the best film in the world will pass one by if one is the wrong way out that day.


3. One's underlying mood during that period of one's life

that period of one's life  being precisely that period which is demarcated by the duration of that underlying mood.


4. The state of development of one's taste

how experienced a film-goer one is, the level of sophistication of one's culture generally - which will affect how highly you rate what you have seen.

For instance when I saw a re-run of Pierrot le fou (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0059592/  ) at the cinema in or about 2001 it blew my mind so comprehensively that I came out thinking - in so far as I was capable of thinking at that moment - "Why do they bother making films after that ?!!? especially thrillers ?" The point being that unknowingly I had gone in having the perfect amount & kind of cinema experience to respond absolutely to that film at that time.


5. One's private/internal preoccupations

Whether something in the film chimes with these.

Still from 'Pierrot le Fou'

*this character is in fact called The Bishop of the Black Canons