Films in the flesh
Fri Nov 2020Experiencing the cinema after the pandemic
With the announcement of Bath being placed under Tier 2 restrictions, FilmBath Festival is back on at Green Park Station from 11–16 December.
We want to fly the flag for physical cinema screenings — why it is something worth cherishing, and why you and your loved ones should take this rare opportunity to catch some Covid-safe film screenings with us, in the flesh, this December.
The pandemic has accelerated the film industry’s move to online streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. Some people may be thinking cinema is dead, but the benefits of watching films — especially the kinds of films we screen at the festival — has a profound effect.
5 reasons for watching films together in real life
1. Opening up the whole world
Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie, I can live somebody else’s life for a while. I can walk in somebody else’s shoes”
Roger Egbert, Film Critic
Our films come from around the world and draw back the curtain on experiences, lives, and cultures far from our own. These different perspectives can even help us to make sense of our own lives.
2. Feeling connected
In 2019, a research project revealed that even chimpanzees benefit from watching films communally. “The research concluded that this sense of feeling closer from watching something with someone is ‘present in both humans and great apes and thus has deeper evolutionary roots than previously suspected’”.
3. Watching next year’s award-winning films today
Our films always go on to win awards the following year. Our audience love being ahead of the curve, which is why Nomadland and Supernova have already sold out. The next two films to sell out look like they will be Miss Juneteenth and Another Round, which is already an award winner: it was the audience’s favourite at the London Film Festival.
4. Infectious emotion
A good type of infectious. Watching a film at the cinema means laughing, crying, jumping, wincing, singing, and discovering things about the world with others who are perhaps complete strangers. At the cinema, these human emotions are shared and amplified between us, in real time; at home, on your tod with your cat, these cinematic sensations are nowhere near as powerful. Experiencing different emotions in this setting can even be beneficial when dealing with our feelings in real life.
5. Escape
If you let it, cinema allows you to take a break from our awfully complicated modern lives. For a little while, it allows you to escape from your smartphone, your job — even the person you’re sat next to. Unless you have regimented house rules when watching films at home, it’s all too easy to reach for your phone to see which actor’s been in what, what else the director has done, or what Reddit says about confusing plot twists. On the big screen, your focus is undivided, allowing you to be immersed in another world and give your brain a rest from ‘the usual’.