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!

SDT I'm honestly struggling to believe that some of the posters on here have actually been in a cinema in the past decade.

IWNBU because the other person is a racist is an absolute masterstroke and should get this thread to 1000 posts.

I haven't been to the cinema in ages because of all the anti social behaviour, and it isn't worth the money.

sparkling

Add message | Report | Message poster Sparklingbrook Fri 03-Jan-14 23:31:21
Why was she checking the time in the middle of a film though?

Add message | Report | Message poster Sparklingbrook Sun 05-Jan-14 17:38:30
It is possible to see your watch from the glow of the cinema screen. I have checked my watch many times during crappy kids films.

I wonder where the hell you all go, I've never had a film spoiled by anti social behaviour.

On her phone and annoying people Randy.

You see I think checking the time or checking for messages (if there is a good reason to- e g a new mum) discreetly is not messing around with your phone. And discreetly is the key. Doing anything else with your phone is. So there are shades of grey. As I've said I find other things people do at the cinema more annoying. Before phones people still talked, got up to the loo, shifted about, rustled, munched, slurped, coughed sniffed, kicked your seat. It's all annoying.

OP I have asked this before but you didn't respond so I'll ask again, when you are told to turn your phones off before the movie do you not agree that it is wrong for your friend to have got her phone out for whatever reason? Was she wrong or not? I want to know your stance on this basic fact - forget the woman booming or that you didn't notice blah blah blah - what is your answer to this question?

Obviously I can't speak for others on this thread, LessMissAbs, but I can assure you that I have been to the cinema plenty of times in the past decade - and yes, I have noticed people messing around on their phones, and I have found it distracting.

You don't want to believe that people find phones in the cinema annoying - because if you admitted that it is bad manners to engage in very distracting behaviour, you would have to accept that you and your friend were in the wrong, and you just can't face that.

We paid loads for good theatre seats only to have the idiots in front constantly light up their phones like torches in the darkness. Really distracting.

I politely asked them to stop it at the interval and got a snotty response.

The woman in the cinema had no business booming.

And the crappy childrens films I have seen there was so much noise, getting up and down and screechy kids I could have got my laptop out and nobody would have noticed or complained Randy.

As I say I never go to films for grown ups. Not worth it.

Phones are very distracting in cinemas.

In our local cinema people make and take calls during children's films - they don't respect children's right or ability to enjoy something uninterrupted.

So ignorant.

But that's not the question you asked originally. You asked why she had to check the time in the middle of a film. Probably for the same reason you had to except she didn't have a watch, only the phone.

If anyone did it at the Theatre I would be evil. £65 a ticket, and if I was on the stage i would be .

Oh, so she wasn't enjoying the film because of being sat with loads of screechy kids at a film she didn't want to see Randy?

I would challenge any adult to sit through Alvin and the Chipmunks without a glance at their watch.

From this thread I have learned no one should be using their phone regardless of the film they're watching even if you're bored. Others may not be and you could disturb their viewing. Also, just because others may be being noisy or anti social doesn't mean you should add to it too.

Not my words, just gathered from the various posts on this thread.

After a recent cinema etiquette thread where I annoyed people I've been sitting on my hands for days but I've finally cracked.

I've no comment on the OP because I don't think we're getting the full picture.

However:

1. I've been mildly disturbed by people who check their phones during films, but it's never been that bad. I'm more annoyed by tall people who sit bolt upright or people who shift from side to side so I have to keep changing position to see;

1. I've never said anything to a phone checker but when someone else intervened with the girl sitting next to me in 300 I was really grateful. However, she was an egregious offender who was texting ostentatiously because she wanted to make a point to her boyfriend about the choice of film. If it had been a one-off I'd have felt sympathy for her but I still wouldn't have stood up for her because the man was fucking scary;

1. I have done it myself, once. I dropped my purse on the floor and switched the torch on to find it because I'd either have been thinking about it all the time and missed the film (which would have been a tragedy since it was Snow White And The Huntsman ) or would have forgotten it and walked off at the end of the film. I was instantly told off by a member of the phone police, who I suspect get as much enjoyment from a cinema visit out of telling off other people as watching the film. There was no point arguing, though if I had, I'd have had to congratulate him on his reflexes because I'd found my purse in about 15 seconds and still he managed to get his outrage in first. However, explaining that to him would have disturbed people even more. I still hate him though and want him to die ignominiously. Just like the cunts who berate frail people for having a trolley with some cat food and a box of teabags in the basket-only line;

1. I hate talkers except for the odd: 'what happened there?', seat kickers and the person behind who once put his feet on either side of my head;

1. I am an enthusiastic whooper in silly action films. This proved to be very controversial on the last thread. Apparently some posters expect you to be as silently respectful during Die Hard as you would during an Ingmar Bergman;

1. I broadly agree with Mark Kermode but he can be a superior cunt.

LittleMissSunshine I answered that on p 33 (and also round about p7 if I remember correctly)

STD You don't want to believe that people find phones in the cinema annoying

Wrong - I would find ringtones annoying, perhaps even constant game playing with beeping, but I find interfering with peoples texting too personal for me. Its just something I wouldn't be comfortable doing. *

because if you admitted that it is bad manners to engage in very distracting behaviour*

It is bad manners to engage in very distracting behaviour. But that's not what my friend was doing. The bawling woman overreacted.

you would have to accept that you and your friend were in the wrong, and you just can't face that

I sat during a film with my phone switched off, next to my friend who to my knowledge, did not engage in anti-social behaviour during the film. I got a hell of a fright due to a loud booming woman attempting to talk to my friend as if she was a child.

What is it that you suggest I did, right there in the cinema that wouldn't have disturbed the enjoyment of the remaining 99.9% of cinema goers further? What else are you meant to do in a cinema, other than sit and watch a film in peace?

I would rather poke myself in the eye before watching Alvin & the Chipmunks. For that, you have my sympathy

Not my words - you're far too modest RandyRudolf . It's like the thread's been visited by the Dalai Lama.

Cheers Randy. DSs are 14 and 11 and go to the cinema on their own now. For all I know they may be on their phones throughout.

nauticant. There has been so much crap written on this thread, I think it could be an early 2014 classics contestant

limitedperiodonly I was instantly told off by a member of the phone police, who I suspect get as much enjoyment from a cinema visit out of telling off other people as watching the film. There was no point arguing, though if I had, I'd have had to congratulate him on his reflexes because I'd found my purse in about 15 seconds and still he managed to get his outrage in first. However, explaining that to him would have disturbed people even more

Very similar to what happened in my OP. Before the phone police intervene, the light was on for less than 15s. As a light of that intensity of that duration would have induced severe sunstroke in this particular cinema, obviously.