Your best experiences/memories from visiting the cinema (picture house/theatre)?

My most memorable experiences were in the fifties when I was a kid an in the sixties when I was a teenager.

My earliest memory of seeing a film on the big screen is The Searchers, and I loved it. And I will always love it, because it probably changed my life before I understood what that change meant. I probably saw it at a drive-in, because that was what my family liked to do in those days.

Another from the fifties I remember seeing was Old Yeller (saw it in a beautiful, old, perfectly restored theatre) and, oh, it broke my heart, and I loved it then, and I love it still and always will! That was a fantastic experience, not only because of the film, but because of the awesome beauty of that theatre. I long for that kind of viewing experience instead of the cineplexes so common today.

I also vividly remember seeing (at the drive-in) The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Mole People, and The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I cherish them, silly as some of them are, because they were wonderful childhood experiences.

Jumping ahead to the sixties, there are way too many films to name, so I'll stick with the ones that were the most profound to me and did, in fact, change my life and started me on a path to becoming a director (in chronological viewing order):

1) The Dark at the Top of the Stairs - seen in my small hometown theatre, a film about a small hometown that began the stirrings in me that were finalized when I saw:
2) Splendor in the Grass - seen in a city in an old-fashioned beautiful theatre; another film about a small hometown, which I fell in love with and came out knowing that I had to become a director.
3) Through a Glass Darkly - another I saw in my small hometown theatre, which mesmerized me with the knowlege that film could not only be a narrative, but also a visual work of art.

(There are tons more from the sixties, but I'll stop there.)

Back when I was a teacher, I once rang in sick and went to the cinema to see a marathon showing of Star Trek 1-7. Something like 22 hours straight in the cinema. The funny thing was that some of the older students from my school also showed up. We practically walked into one another and basically said "Okay, you don't tell anybody at work I was here, and I won't tell anybody you guys were here, deal?" Worked, too. Fun times.

My best opening night:

Alien (1979)

Not really a best moment, but Ted Kennedy sat right behind me when I saw Titanic. Afterward, I took my nephew to the men's room (long movie) and he and Ted waited in line for an opening. When one became free, both senator and nephew went for it. Nephew won!

Lived in a small Swedish town and my memory is not always correct concerning years.

First movie to my knowledge was my father taking me to a Disney shorts cavalcade matinee at Teaterbiografen.



First full length movie was Mary Poppins, I've seen it many times since then, I was too young to understand so my mother whispered the plot to me.


Those were nice red neon lights (Röda kvarn - Mouilin Rouge)

First movie sneaking in under age was Live and Let Die 1973

First movie when father, mother, me and my brother was small, Disney's The Jungle Book, with Swedish dubbing.

First movie when father, mother, me and my brother when we could read subtitles was Close Encounters of a Third Kind, Daddy payed and was stunned by the sound effects. 

On September 8, 2001 I visited a drive- in for the first time. It was a blast hanging out with my BFF in her car, munching on popcorn, fries, and ice cream while watching a triple feature of The Animal, The Others, and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back.