The first time

Last night, over dinner with two good friends, both of whom are filmmakers, I asked the question, what was your first experience in a cinema ?

Alain – I went to a cinema, on the northern coast, near Caen, and they were showing archival war films. The seat was very comfortable, class. I said this is what I want to do.

Vimukthi – My mother took me to the cinema. The room was very dark, and like a lot of cinemas in Sri Lanka, there were coloured lights all around the screen. I kept looking around and I noticed everybody was staring at the screen. Something very exciting was going on. But the screen was dark and there wasn’t anything to see. I pretended to understand but eventually, I asked my mother what all the attention was about. She said « wait and see. »

Dacnar – It was film with and by Coluche, « Vous n’aurez pas l’Alsace et la Lorraine» (tr. You won’t want Alsace and Lorraine) a real ‘navet’ (tr. turnip). I laughed a lot.

Me – My aunt took me to see Superman in a beautiful old theatre, with my sister. I was very young and the seats were all red. After the film, she took me to Shangri La, a very chic hotel, to eat my first banana split. The banana split was excellent.

Oddly telling of our current work.