Yes, it is. I went to see the new James Bond film, Skyfall, there yesterday, and remembered why I stopped going there about a year ago.
They play over an hour of adverts before the film starts. First, they played normal adverts, then trailers, then they switched back to normal adverts again! It’s enough to make you lose the will to live, or, if you’re susceptible to advertising like I am, run out and buy everything in the entire world, from a Kinder egg to a Mini.
As if that wasn’t enough, they randomly stopped the film in the middle for an interval, so that people could get up and buy drinks etc, thus disturbing the audience’s suspension of disbelief and spoiling the flow of the film. I’m sure director Sam Mendes, the screenwriters and the hundreds of people who worked on the film intended it to be watched in one sitting.
A cinema – already packed and making money hand over fist – that starts interfering with the viewer’s experience to make even more money is an insult to everyone involved – creators and audience alike.
To see OV or Omu (original language, i.e. English) films, go to Hackeshe Hoefe, the Odeon or one of the cinemas in the Yorck group for an enjoyable experience.
That’s it – rant over…
Filed under: Berlin, Film, Life in Berlin
