I remember that someone did an inventory of the ten loneliest things in the world before, and the fourth one was going to the movies alone.
In fact, I really enjoyed going to the cinema alone - dim environment, soft seats, strangers who didn't know each other. A person's cinema is like a gentle harbor for lonely patients. We can safely place our emotions in the joys and sorrows of the characters in front of us, unguarded and calm.
one
There was a time when I was envious of people who worked in movie theaters. Very naively thinking, their work is really happy, smelling the aroma of popcorn all day, just stand in place to tear up the tickets and hand out 3D eyes, maybe after checking the tickets, they can get into the theater to watch the small half of the plot for free, Putting it together back and forth is a complete movie.
But after I became a regular at the cinema, I didn't think so. After all, while the movie theater plays various plots, it is also a human theater in itself. Some people are here with their fingers interlaced, and some people go to the appointment alone and weep sadly. They should feel tired after watching too much.
And I belong to the third category. People who enjoy movie time quietly can get different degrees of emotional release in different movies.
The last time I watched "Paradise Cinema" in the cinema was at the Xiaoxitian Film Archive. A friend bought a ticket in advance, and that afternoon, I rode my bike to the cinema, picked up the ticket, and waited with my friend for the movie to start.
The director's cut version is much longer than what can be seen on the Internet, especially the second half, which feels redundant. During this time, I was a little drowsy. But later, I was moved again, and was moved by the friendship between the couple.
Crying in the cinema is a natural thing for me.
Perhaps, we don’t deliberately hide our emotions, but it’s just that we don’t know when to fully expose ourselves and become a manifestation of immaturity. Everyone always has parts that need to be digested by themselves, which cannot be fully delivered to family members, friends or strangers, but our tolerance is always limited, and we have to find a suitable way to ease and relieve.
I can tell you in all seriousness that there's nothing shameful about sitting in a movie theater crying, and you don't have to feel ashamed about it.
You and I are both ordinary people. Eating, sleeping, and crying are all ordinary things. It’s just that some things can be accompanied by friends, and some things need to be done by one person.
two
Slowly, I regarded watching a movie as a date with myself.
Movie theaters in my city always have plenty of couple seats. The red and gray sofa, with no rungs between the two seats, is more comfortable than the single seat. There are few people in the morning session on weekdays. Most of the time, I will reserve a seat at the back of the platform in advance, and enter with a drink and a small bucket of popcorn. Quietly find a spare two-seater and spend the morning away.
There are only two or three audiences in the huge movie hall, keeping a distance from each other, unable to see faces, and no identity. The most interesting thing is that maybe we will only have these 90 minutes of intersection in our lives, so we can release our emotions without any scruples.
I really like "The Thief Family" by Hirokazu Koreeda. The pace of the film is slow, like a lyric poem. The director uses a bizarre family combination to explore the relationship between people, relatives and relatives. Everyone is an independent individual, but they support each other when they meet.
But this is an odd family. The grandmother loves her granddaughter, but asks the girl's parents for money because she is staying with her; "Dad" and "Mom" have a complicated relationship, and many things happened after they met; "Little Daughter" He was abused by his biological parents, and after being taken in, he learned to steal from convenience stores with his "brother".
But there are more sincere feelings between them than the blood-related families. "Dad" can easily talk about taboo topics with "son", and properly guide and solve the boy's adolescent confusion; "mother-in-law" is on the beach. Looking at the relatives playing in the sea in the distance, he mouthed "Thank you".
I can clearly feel that in this reorganized family, they live at the bottom and steal not only the fishing gear, shampoo, and bread from the store, but also the missing emotions in their lives.
Walking home along the familiar road, there is a long shadow under the street lamp, there is a kind of comfort that I don't know how to describe. My heart, which was heavy because of the movie, suddenly became a lot easier.
three
Maybe it's an extension of myself, I love watching people who go to the cinema alone to see a movie.
They are of different ages and emotions, and they buy different types of movies and enter the corresponding theaters. I have seen a girl who cried from beginning to end in "Predecessor 3: Goodbye to my Ex"; I also saw a young man in his thirties who cried when he saw his grandmother in "Dream Travel". Of course, there were also people who followed "Shameful Iron Fist" and "Cohabitation in Time and Space" made their faces hurt from laughing.
I guess they might be glad they were watching the movie by themselves. You don't have to explain why you cry, and you don't have to worry about a certain point of laughter being too low. Just let yourself be frank with all your emotions, and treat these dozens of minutes as a vacuum in your life. Short and precious, lonely and abundant, like a gift from myself.
When I was still working in Beijing, I had less time to make appointments with people to watch movies. On the one hand, it was easy to be suddenly told that I needed to work overtime, and I would passively break the appointment; It costs a lot. So, speaking of it, I often watch movies by myself.
There are many young people living in the city who are alone. They all have a similar face, either energetic and looking forward to the future, or tired and fed up with work and life. Either way, I've seen them all while waiting.
We can make hotpot appointments, KTV appointments, and travel together with friends. There are many things we can do with friends, so I prefer to keep watching movies to myself. When the movie opens and the lights go down, I feel emotionally safe.
And, after living for more than twenty years, I have decided in my heart that the so-called "empathy" is a deceptive idiom. Everyone has their own experiences. Even if they encounter the same thing, the impact will be different due to their own tolerance and growth experience.
This may be the reason why most people are lonely, but loneliness is loneliness. This is an unsolved problem. But lonely people can also feel warm and safe in different things.
I like everything in the movie theater. I enjoy the whole world alone. I feel bored while waiting. I am fully engaged when watching a movie. Such an audience has only one, and this kind of order is very wonderful.
In my opinion, one's cinema is a refuge from complex life. It gives us a short time to repair, and it also gives us some kind of emotional and spiritual cues. All lonely people find resonance in their emotions, and the dark and unknown environment provides a relatively reliable private space. I am grateful to the people who invented and created the cinema. It is not only a social place, but also a place for lonely souls to look at each other and smile. and the sites they left. It's comforting to know that there are so many people like me, even when I feel sad sometimes. And this is some kind of small but definite happiness.
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