{"id":198,"date":"2003-02-24T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2003-02-25T00:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/uncategorised\/moviegoing_has_changed.html"},"modified":"2006-10-15T19:11:06","modified_gmt":"2006-10-16T00:11:06","slug":"moviegoing_has_changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/culture\/moviegoing_has_changed.html","title":{"rendered":"How moviegoing has changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Globe And Mail: This could never pass for a masterpiece theatre<\/a>. Probably everyone knows how moviegoing has drastically changed over the past five to ten years. Like David MacFarlane, I used to enjoy going to the movies. Now I dread it. Sure, I love the stadium seating and the large screens (who doesn’t?) but the whole movie-viewing process carries too much effort and frustration these days. Thankfully, a few civilised theatres remain in this city, but they are swiftly disappearing. Most theatres with any character or history in Toronto are either vacant or rubble. (Funny fact: Some of the older cinemas in Montr\u00c3\u00a9al have been “saved” and are now used to screen porn movies. I can’t imagine how odd it must be to watch hardcore pornography in the presence of the balconies and ornate mouldings which decorate vintage cinemas.)<\/p>\n

MacFarlane compares current movie offerings to The Bicycle Thief<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Made in 1948 on a budget that I doubt would pay for the catering on most movies today, [The Bicycle Thief] is a stunningly beautiful film — the simplest, most heartbreaking story, the most perfectly understated acting, the most evocative cinematography, the most steady direction and — above all — the most unflinching honesty. It has no sex, no violence, no special effects. Nothing gets blown up. Nobody gets murdered and put in a trunk. No one packs any heat or goes down on anybody else. Aliens, oddly enough, don’t show up.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just the very mention of The Bicycle Thief brings to mind its simple yet somehow compelling story, its leisurely pace, and the way it tells of human struggle with hardly a piece of dialogue. What a great film. If you haven’t seen it already, rent it, or buy The Bicycle Thief DVD from Amazon.ca<\/a>. You will not be disappointed. The Bicycle Thief is one of the highlights of modern cinema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Globe And Mail: This could never pass for a masterpiece theatre<\/a>. Probably everyone knows how moviegoing has drastically changed over the past five to ten years. Like David MacFarlane, I used to enjoy going to the movies. Now I dread it. Sure, I love the … Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crazedmonkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}