[personal profile] rm
The thing I didn't talk about last night in my Marie Antoinette post is the horrors of free screenings!

Sitting outside beforehand a woman comes up to me and asks if I have a guest with me, and since I say no asks if she can be mine. She's older, probably about sixty and I see no reason to refuse -- she's polite and clean and I know how eager I was to see the film, and so I'm happy to help her see it as well.

You can already see where I am going with this: I was wrong. In the hour plus we waited online together she complained constantly and was often rude. She went on and on about all the other free screenings she had been too, savaged The Prestige in a way that made it clear she simply was incapable of accepting any film told in a non-linear fashion and then, after an offhand remark about the SAG/WGA screenings, tried to pump me for info so she could go along that line to get people to invite her in with them. _THAT_ annoys me. I pay for that membership, and it's a perk of being in SAG (which I also pay for quite dearly). The theatre is always dead silent during films and people stay for the credits. None of this yelling and booing and exploding potato chip bag bullshit. I would _never_ take someone I didn't know into the DGA theatre; I take a guest whose company I enjoy or I go alone. I'm all for the free, and I'm a big ol' complainer, but the thought of this woman making her retirement about being outraged by free movies and berating the staff of the theatres screening them for not letting her in at the precisely the moment she wants (this happened repeatedly, she called staff members lazy and stupid as they tried to manage the line outside) just made me NUTS.

Luckily I didn't sit with her.

Ugh ugh ugh.

Date: 2006-10-20 04:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com
I sympathize. The screening I attended on Monday was one of those "free for members, but non-members can pony up a chunk of cash and be there". I'm a non-member, but as I like the organization, I cheerfully gave 'em the $17 for the screening and settled in to enjoy the film. Not so the grumpy old coot next to me, who had been brought as a guest-of-a-guest and clearly wanted to be anywhere but at the theater, as he fidgeted and checked his watch every ten minutes all the way through the film.

Still, the audience was, in general, far better behaved than the one you encountered (only bursting into laughter during Marie's daydream of whatsisname, the Swedish fellow) although they didn't stay for the credits, either. Boo.

I think that if I end up joining GenArt, I'm going to stick to members-only meetings. :-P

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