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!

[Sparklingbrook]

That's what I keep asking You.

[hackneybird]

OP stop defending the indefensible - you need to accept that both you and your friend were in the wrong. Fair enough the woman could have asked her to stop doing it more quietly but your friend shouldn't have been getting her phone out full stop. She must have been doing it pretty frequently to lists the woman off to that extent.

hmc Yes, I do think it's sad that more and more people think it's fine to use phones in cinemas. This type of low level anti social behaviour is totally self obsessed.

[wintertimeisfun]

thing is, most people have something that really bugs them and the slightest sign of it may tip them over the edge. i have a pet hate about the modern mobile phones however i wouldn't have done anything about it as i try to avoid confrontation when in a supposedly relaxed situation. i think the woman sounded a bit over the top although i admire her response tbh. i think too many people make love to their fucking phones, converstation killers. a friend of mine ALWAYS takes it out and starts fiddling with hers when we go out for lunch. i shout at her to put it away but she still gets it out and ie sends texts (that aren't urgent) perhaps it is my company...

[dollywobbles]

I can't imagine noticing someone looking at their phone for a couple of minutes, just to check the time.
Surely by shouting out the disgruntled woman would have disturbed more people than your friend did, OP.
None of the cinemas I've been to have been so dark that a phone screen would be a massive distraction. They have all been quiet though, so someone talking - even at normal volume - would be a distraction.

[sparklysilversequins]

She was rude. She'd have been wearing a bucket of popcorn as a hat if she had said that round where I live!

I find MNetters remarkably uptight about the cinema I have to say. Life goes on, within reason even if you are in the cinema.

[hmc]

Quite so dollywobbles!

[Suelford]

How much do you bet that all the people saying "I really don't think anyone is bothered by a phone light" are phone-checkers themselves?

[hmc]

And SSS (thank The Lord - a healthy sense of proportion returning, was beginning to think the world had gone mad)

[sparklysilversequins]

I am sorry but if you're noticing a small light on occasionally in a vast cinema then you are clearly not that involved with the movie, I never notice this and I go at least twice a month.

I bet those of you that think you'd say something would size up the opponent first wouldn't you?

[ElkTheory]

Of course you were rude. How else can you possibly characterise your words to the woman? Good Lord. And now you are ascribing all sorts of motivations to her, when all you really know is that she was disturbed by your friend's phone and asked her not to use it.

[RandyRudolf]

People are glued to their mobiles these days. Commuting to work, shopping, even driving, you see it in their hand ALL the bloody time. Two people stepped out in front of me the other day whilst I was driving. Both fiddling with their phones and not paying attention. Now that's annoying.

[sunbathe]

Maybe she can't help her voice?

[wintertimeisfun]

randy here here

[Iwilltrythisnamefornow]

All of them Suelford

[LessMissAbs]

ElkTheory if you are going to try the bossy controlling act in a cinema full of people by making a comment at the end, then you run the risk of meeting a person unafraid to call you out on it.

And judging by the comments she then came out with, which were pretty stereotypically passive aggressive clichéd rudeness, then she was being OTT.

I didn't notice any phone use at all. The only reason I was made aware of it was because this woman a seat away made a point of informing the whole cinema about her personal gripe.

And yes, she and her husband really did get up and move one seat along when my friend sat next to them in her allocated seat.

[JodieGarberJacob]

Yeah but they were probably doing something important Randy like checking how many Likes they'd got on Twitterbook

[RandyRudolf]

I have a colleague at work, a junior member of staff who carries her's around with her, texting, face booking, ringing her mum when she's out 'avin a fag. Unbelievable. I think some people would keel over and die if they were parted from it for more than a minute. It's as though it supplies the life force that runs through them

mini rant over

[nauticant]

I didn't notice any phone use at all.

I hate to break this to you, but it's not all about you.

[Suelford]

sparkly I go at least twice a week and I definitely notice every phone screen in my eyeline, however bright the phone, and however interesting the film.

A bright light in a dark room is distracting, end of.

[ThreeLittleWords]

I check my phone at least two or three times when I'm in the cinema. Never thought I was being rude before . I just hate going to the cinema and get bored very easily.

I'll send DH on his own next time

[sparklysilversequins]

OP she sounds terribly uptight. She's probably a MNetter .

[Suelford]

Maybe you didn't notice because she was angling the screen away from you, and into the face of this poor woman.

[sparklysilversequins]

Not for me. End of.

[Caitlin17]

I go more regularly than that and I do notice people playing around on mobile phones if they are in my peripheral vision.

Fortunately Edinburgh being Edinburgh has 3 independent cinemas which seem to attract audiences which are capable of being parted from their phones and of not talking for a couple of hours . The small Odeon is usually ok too. The 2 Vue multiplexes
are simply awful.

[WestieMamma]

I bet those of you that think you'd say something would size up the opponent first wouldn't you?

I wouldn't say anything to anyone as I'm scared of my own shadow. I would find it very annoying though so do applaud someone with the guts to say something.