esrosedotblog

This is film festival week in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs International Film Festival

I used to go to it. John still does.

That means that I will be home alone the rest of this week. Not making dinner! A mini vacation.

I did go to the PSFF at the beginning. I found enough films to go see and liked about half of them. A reasonable success rate. The Fest is particularly valuable because of the international aspect. These are films that will never make it into distribution in the United States and even then appear in large cities.

But I will not be going.

I don't much like being with other people. Not in the "watching a movie" sense.

The invention of Netflix and the DVD have been a boon for me because I can see what I want to see when I want to see it. I can be my own film curator. And I can stop the film anytime that I think it sucks. What is more, I don't have to put up with the smell of popcorn or the chitter chatter of people talking during the film.

I don't go to any movies any more for these two reasons.

I have become a lazy old fart and don't much like being out of the house for stuff like that. Four hours shot for a 50/50 chance that I will like what someone else picked to show.

The low point, the day I decided never to go back was when I was waiting for a film to start and some woman leaned over her seat to ask "what is your favorite film?".

For some reason this just totally pissed me off.

And I never went back. It doesn't take much to set me off if I am borderline anyway.

I don't have "favorites" and I don't really want to talk to strangers about them if I did.

I know this is petty and silly and a prime example of my agoraphobia but it is a pretty good excuse for staying home and seeing the films I want to when I want to on DVD. Without having to talk about them to a stranger.

Labels: films