I've been thinking about one's relationship with cinema, and how it is formed; recalling the history of my cinemagoing experiences and the impact they had on me. The first film I can remember going to see was Tom Thumb which was released in 1957 so I suppose I must have been very young. I can't remember too much about it, but I have far more vivid memories of Ben Hur and Spartacus, released, I think, in 1960 and 1963. My mother loved wide-screen spectaculars and we went together to see many others including King of Kings, Becket, The Fall of the Roman Empire and The Lion in Winter, all lavish historical/biblical epics. My father was fairly deaf, so rarely went - I remember him going to see Rocco and his Brothers, an Italian film about boxing which had subtitles, so was manageable for him, but not much else. He died 25 years ago - how he would have appreciated the subtitle facility available on television now! Not to mention movies-on-demand.
When I was old enough to go to the cinema without an adult I managed to see many of the best-known 1960s British films, Zulu, Morgan, a Suitable Case for Treatment, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Charge of the Light Brigade and many others, including B-films of all descriptions, mostly Hammer horrors and science-fiction. though I remember a sleazy little shocker called All Neat in Black Stockings. The B film, of course, was a major part of one's filmgoing life, mostly they were terrible, but occasionally proved an unexpected treat.
In 1969, I spent a summer working as an usherette in a local fleapit. I sold tickets, tore them in half, put them a length of string threaded through a darning needle, showed people to their seats and sold icecreams from a tray - everything, in fact. The films were usually double bills, ancient horrors, Swedish sex films, science fiction, a wide range of foreign films and old movies of all descriptions. I could, and did, sit and watch everything - I remember seeing chunks of Ingmar Bergman's Shame several times, but never succeeded in putting the various parts together. I still haven't seen the whole film. Towards the end of my time there the cinema closed for 'refurbishment' and reopened soon after as smartly redecorated multi-screened cinema, one of the earliest. I was hired for the opening night, and the first film to be shown there was Anne of the Thousand Days a stodgy, bloated historical epic featuring Richard Burton as Henry VIII. Things were never the same and I left soon after. I have very fond memories of the place (pre-rtransformation) - it was a haven for the old, lonely and dispossessed. I would regularly see an old chap sitting on his own on a quiet, wet afternoon in a near-empty cinema with a transistor radio clamped to his ears, happily listening to the cricket. The seats in the back row were doubles, something I'm sure hasn't existed for decades. The odd stink bomb would be set off, couples would snog away in the double seats, film fanatics were able to see the most obscure and esoteric foreign films and impoverished students could receive an education in the history of cinema. It was a small, local cinema which anyone could pop into at any time - it may have been down-at-heel, but it was well-loved, and provided a useful service. The regulars, I'm sure wouldn't have been welcome at its replacement, and probably couldn't have afforded it anyway. It was a happy summer.
The seventies, were, of course, a golden age. I remember going to see The Godfather, McCabe and Mrs Miller, and many others. I feel very proud that I saw the famous double bill of Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man, both great films, when first released. I went many, many times to the cinema - I was at college, there was a fleapit nearby and I often used to bunk off in the afternoon. I remember being the only person in the cinema for Fellini's Satyricon and seeing WR, Mysteries of the Organism several times, for some, now-forgotten reason.
My cinemagoing ground to a halt in the mid-Seventies when I started having children, but restarted as soon as they were old enough to go. To be honest, my memories of that period are somewhat hazy, but I do recall taking the older two to see Superman II when they were 3 and 5. It was the younger one's first film and he sat silent and awestruck all the way through its 2 hours - he's never looked back and remains a huge film fan.
Throughout the 80s all of them went to see everything - I asked my third son the other day what his first film was, as I'd forgotten, and he reminded me that their father had taken them to see ET but the queue was so long they couldn't get in, so along with many other weeping children, went to see The Dark Crystal instead at another cinema. They did, of course get to see ET eventually, along with The Return of the Jedi and many other 80s spectaculars. There was a fleapit down the road (now closed of course) so the three of them occasionally used to go on their own, and were sometimes the only ones in the cinema, watching stuff like The Emerald Forest; apparently someone would still go round with an ice-cream tray for their benefit.
Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts were other favourites. I always tried to take them to see as many reissues of old favourites as possible. Although they saw a great dela on TV there's nothing like the big screen.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a major event in our family. I'd read all three volumes to them at bedtime so we all went along during its first week. The cinema was packed an hour before it was due to start and a girl behind me started furiously kicking the back of my seat. I turned round and her apology was heartfelt - 'I'm sorry', she said, 'I'm just so excited!' The atmosphere was electric and the film didn't disappoint - I still feel the first one is the best, but I
suspect that's because it was the first and had the element of surprise - no one knew what to
expect.
My children remain film fans, though most of their viewing is done at home on DVD. But they still try to get out to the cinema and I often find myself providing a taxi service to the nearest multiplex. I don't really mind as it's an excuse to go to the cinema and I sometimes end up seeing films I might not otherwise have gone to. I'm drawing the line at Pirates of the Caribbean III, though - I went to the second one and was bored senseless. But I feel quite proud of teaching them to love film - I know it'll be something they always have.
