To Find this Woman in the Cinema Rude

[LessMissAbs]

Me and my friend were watching a film in the cinema tonight. She doesn't wear a watch and must have been checking her phone for the time - its a habit of hers to do this, or to ask people the time. I was sitting next to her and I didn't notice it.

There was an empty seat to her other side between her and a woman. The woman suddenly boomed out in the middle of the film, "If you want to play your phone, you can go outside and do it instead of in here".

It was mortifying, and she interrupted the film for me. I was really embarrassed for my friend, but we didn't say anything.

At the end of the film, as we were standing up to leave, I said to the woman "I don't really care if you were disturbed by a light during the film or not, I don't want to have to the film interrupted by your booming voice". She then started arguing back (she said something like "Oh you'd like to be a cheeky one, wouldn't you, and some other stuff) but we turned our backs towards her and her husband so that she was talking to ourselves, put on our coats and left.

Kind of ruined the film for both of us. Normally I find going to the cinema relaxing!

[Yamyoid]

If I went to the cinema currently, I'd check my phone every so often in case the baby sitter had tried to get in touch.
Would also check the time if I was worried how long the film had been on and it was getting late.
I see no problem with it.

[HaroldTheGoat]

Your friend narked her with the light
You told her you didn't care if the light disturbed her
She narked you with her booming.

This is all making a very good case for getting out a nice DVD next time

[Salmotrutta]

And yes - the clue is in the venue...

Dark cinema, therefore small beam of light shows up

[Sparklingbrook]

I never go to the cinema any more. It's too expensive, people are really inconsiderate, and it's just not a nice experience.

[Sparklingbrook]

I don't really understand checking the phone in case anyone had tried to get in touch.

[LessMissAbs]

Gosh, I didn't notice the light from her phone at all, and I was sitting next to her. I'm only guessing she was checking the time because I know she wasn't wearing a watch and had asked me it a couple of times before she went in. There was no noise from her phone.

I checked my watch a couple of times during the film by using the light. Gulp. I am clearly just as bad. It was quite a tense film (All is Lost) and it was kind of as a tension reliever, as that makes sense.

The woman was pretty aggressive in her tone, I found it much more disturbing than any light from my friend's phone, which as I say I didn't actually notice. It was as if she was thought she was talking to a delinquent schoolchild. Friend and I are both mid thirties.

I did notice the woman and her husband were sitting in seats directly next to my friend when we sat down in our (allocated) seats, but when she drew my attention by calling out in the middle of the film, they had moved one seat away. My friend later said they did it as soon as she sat down.

We are not the sort of people you wouldn't want to sit next to in the cinema, honestly!

[hmc]

Oh bless - yes it's terribly sad. What a terrible indictment of today's society

[Casmama]

There was an almost identical thread last week was there not?

Think maybe I am spending too much time on here

[hackneybird]

If you're concerned about a babysitter needing to get in touch put your mobile on silent but vibrate in your pocket.

[wintertimeisfun]

i don't go to the cinema anymore as there are too many things these days to distract people ie noisy constant pop corn, talking (less manners these days/concern for others), mobile bloody phones. op said it is a habit of her friend, i am guessing she got it out a fair few times. i would have probably moved. people are obsessed with their phones. i must be the only one in london with a shitty really old one which does me just fine

[SarahAndFuckTheResolutions]

Another phone in the cinema one.

I'm on the woman's side, your friend was rude and annoying and you were even ruder.

[hmc]

Not really yarn - because noise competes with the movie sound track - but the dim light of a phone? - not so much

[MorrisZapp]

They probably just moved to get a better view. Your watch is unlikely to have caught anybody's eye.

But mobile phone use in cinemas is poor form, that's why they have the ads with that guy in them.

[YouTheCat]

If someone got their phone out and just quickly checked the time I really don't think it would bother me and I am an absolute git for cinema etiquette. If it was more than a glance and then back in the pocket/bag I would be pissed off though.

[HaroldTheGoat]

Maybe if you didn't notice your friend was fiddling with it more than you thought?

I have checked my phone at the cinema too. Never got a booming though.

[wintertimeisfun]

i was supposed to go to the cinema oddly enough the other week but didn't as i had an asthma type cough and knew it would but the poor sod that was sat next to me so i stayed in and watch breaking bad repeats on netflix and cough my guts up quite happily and it was FREE!!

[yarn33]

Hmc, and the light competes with the light of the screen. Different things distract different people perhaps, but your argument can just as easily be applied to the rustling of sweets, so your comment was rather silly.

[ElkTheory]

YABU. I'm afraid your friend was wrong and the woman was perfectly right to ask her to leave if she wanted to check her phone. And then you were rude to her.

[Salmotrutta]

I don't know why people dont think their phone light shows up in a darkened room.

It's not rocket science.

Dark room=dark

Small light=small focus of light.

Therefore, small focus of light shows up in the dark.

[5OBalesofHay]

Yup, you were both rude. Maybe stay in with a dvd or get some manners. I would be irritated to sit next to you

[nauticant]

YABU.

But at least I now have some idea who the people are who think messing around with their phones during a film is acceptable.

[LessMissAbs]

No, there was no-one in front of them in either seat. They moved as soon as she sat down because they were irritated by another human being sitting next to them.

It would have been much more polite, if she really was unbearably annoyed, to have quietly said something like "The light from your phone is annoying me, could you stop using it please".

That way, no-one gets embarrassed, no-one else in the cinema gets disturbed, everyone still enjoys the film.

I mean, I didn't suddenly shout at the man next to me, whose arm brushed mine accidentally a couple of times, "Stop touching me you pervert" or turn round and shriek at the person behind whose foot jostled the back of my chair a couple of times. Neither did I rant at the person loudly eating popcorn two seats away.

Nah, if that sort of thing disturbed me, I'd stick to dvds at home.

[hmc]

Yeah if you like yarn, it was silly (humours odd person)

Christ on a bike some of your mobile phones must be nuclear powered! I think I need an upgrade

[Suelford]

Your friend was rude, and you were very rude.

I asked someone to put their phone away in the cinema last week, he had pulled it out and typed out a long text message, on full brightness, then opened up Facebook before I leaned down and whispered right into his ear "could you put that away please, it's really bright". Made him jump half out of his seat, it was brilliant.

[DoYouLikeMyBaubles]

I don't know what pictures some people go to but lights on ohones, especially iPhones at full brightness are really bright and disrupting.

I would have done the same as the woman. If your friend is that arsed about the time, tell her to get a watch.

And you started the argument anyway by commenting as you were leaving.