The Quest for Company at the Cinema

A 7pm screening at a suburban Sydney cinema.

As the opening scenes of the new film The Boys Are Back unfold, the main character has just discovered his wife has terminal cancer.

A couple scurries in late through the darkness into the row behind, shuffling into their seats with the sound of multiple plastic bags and a heavy cargo of popcorn and beverages.

Then suddenly, a woman's voice pierces the plot, asking urgently, " Do you want a drink? I've got a drink. Are you thirsty?? Where do you think THAT is?? I reckon it's Ulladulla..."

This scenario is unfortunately a common one nowadays.

If Seinfeld had his Low and High Talkers, then this character should have been christened simply The Talker.

The idea of the cinema began circa 1895 with the Lumiere Brothers' public screening of one of the earliest motion pictures at the Grand Cafe in Paris.

We surely should know by now how to participate in the concept.

But perhaps, after 114 years, humans have tired of the notion of sharing the art of film with others in a public environment.

Maybe, just maybe, people are not-so-secretly desiring to transform their nearest cinema into their own private loungeroom - a plush but somewhat stained loungeroom filled with house guests.

The Talker's fixation on everything but the film's sombre storyline was fascinating from this perspective. If, for example, we in the audience had been visitors in her home, she would have proven a most outstanding hostess.

Her running commentary was lively and engaging.

However, we were not her guests. And she was certainly not our hostess.

Her behaviour dragged my thoughts away from the screen's sad saga and to the sound of social isolation, merely a row behind me.

Have we become so cloistered that we no longer remember how to behave when we are in the company of more than one person??

The Talker spoke at a regular volume and it was as if, as simple as this sounds, the rest of the audience did not exist and she was having a friendly chat on the street.

I wondered if cinemas had become a replacement for the dinner parties of old. I wondered if people are feeling so lonely these days that they are flocking to public places like the cinema in a Quest for Company.

A hunger for human interaction satisfied, all for the price of a movie ticket.

Alternatively viewed, she may have, as simple as it sounds, blinkered herself to the rest of the audience. It seems to me that the more the world's population increases, the more blinded we are to those around us. 

Whichever the case, the action in the audience should never steal the spotlight from the action on the screen  -  or the stage for that matter.