Watching films in 2020. A year like no other and how it has changed me as a film lover.
Some people like to cook at home, seldom going out to restaurants to eat. Films are like food; you can stay at home to watch or see them at the cinema. Some cinemas are like Michelin star restaurants while others are fast food joints. My 2020 started like so many others in January on a high seeing Uncut Gems at the Prince Charles cinema. Like a scene from the 1930’s people queued up outside and around the corner waiting to get into the Prince Charles cinema.
More films followed at the cinema as January and February are fertile for film lovers as decent quality films get released. The March hit, lockdown, cinemas closed, and home viewing was required. In this new situation got going with streaming new films with my first rental being Vivarium. Others quickly followed. Of course, I had watched films on Netflix and Amazon before but where I did it was a case of re-watching films I had already seen at the cinema. Occasionally ones I had not seen at the cinema if I thought that they may not have benefited hugely from being seen at the cinema. When we got through that awful first wave of the virus, cinemas started to open again. I will not lie I was wary about going back into a cinema.
I did go back, not out of any undying love for cinema theatres but habit. My relationship with going to the cinema stretches back decades. Even on holidays abroad, I would sneak off to a cinema. Even if the film did not have English subtitles at least I could admire the architecture of the cinema.
But as I have outlined in another Medium post how my love for going to the cinema has morphed into a habit not a love. It is a social activity; with friends it is much easier to say do you fancy seeing Renoirs The River at BFI rather than ‘do you want to come my place to watch a film on my television.’ During that time when cinema’s opening, I stayed local, going only to one cinema nearby. The audience has on some occasions, been me alone, another couple or about six. Honestly, once the lights dim, how many people there are in the cinema does not bother me. It is just me and the screen in front of me that is the relationship I want.
But again, the next wave of the virus struck, cinemas closed again so it was back to the streaming services. Watching new films now on streaming services was more normal. New habits were forming, I looked forward to new releases coming out. I was not in that mourning zone where you watch a film at home and keep thinking what it would look like on a big screen. I take the film in front of me and judge it on that basis. If the film in front of me is on my large TV, then that is fine.
What has changed? well, I will continue to go watch films where I can at the cinema, but I will no longer be that person who looks down on the alternatives by decrying other forms of viewing other than the cinema as somehow lesser. If I write or read a film review, I do not believe it relevant to talk about where you have seen it, what the screen size, was it the Odeon Leicester Square or the IMAX. Despite, the gloomy forecasts, cinema going will survive but more of a Michelin star restaurant experience that people will do less often throughout the year. I used to have very rigid views on the right place to watch films like back in 2014 I said of one film
“This is not one for the tragedy described as home cinema”
Fast forward to 2020 I am in jealously looking at another film fans home cinema set up.
The other re-discovery I have had in 2020 was LetterBoxd, my other blog post is about how I got back to together with LetterBoxd after a few years apart. They have a great community of film lovers who are welcoming to all no matter how you watch your films, at home, in the cinema or on your Ipad. You can also see what films I watched in 2020 over on my, LetterBoxed page.
As we move into 2021 in London. The cinemas are once again closed and when the reopen I will go again to my local cinema complimented with the occasional visits to BFI Southbank. The pandemic changes you I believe, gives you a new perspective and an opportunity to change. My change is to embrace films wherever they are screened, at the cinema, streamed, on TV or through a VR headset. Here’s to another year of watching films.
