Snoring at the movies

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 12:27pm

When I saw Albert Nobbs this morning a man in the front row (I was in the second and directly behind him) started snoring very loudly 10 minutes into the movie. This went on for several minutes until someone in the back screamed to wake him up.

About an hour into the movie he started snoring again and the woman next to me shook the back of his chair. He gave her dirty looks the rest of the movie and groaned anytime something he perceived as "gay" happened on screen.

What's the protocol when dealing with snoring at the movies. It's happened before but never as bad as this. Was it my duty to wake him?

[romantico]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 12:30pm

I would have gone to get an usher. I would have told them other patrons in the theater heard him as well. I would NOT ask him to be uiet. I learned this a long time ago. Anyone on their phone,talking,snoring, or disrupting the movie should be reported ASAP. Oh, and when doing so let the usher know how this is unacceptable.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 12:35pm

Do they even make ushers anymore?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 12:55pm

I wouldn't know where to find an usher at the movies...

I really didn't want to say something, especially with the anti-gay comments. I didn't know what situation I would get myself into.

I normally have no problem telling people to stop talking or stop texting, but snoring seems to be another issue.

[romantico]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 1:13pm

I guess the ticket clerk or whoever is working the concession counter would do.Frankly, I would ask for the manager. I went to a movie a couple weeks ago. It was an afternoon showing. Movie started at 4:00pm. By 4:10 the movie STILL had not started and people were getting pissy. No one wanted to get up and report it so I called the theater on my phone and told them to start the movie. They started it at 4:17.

Another time, they played the trailers and commercials with a black screen. We heard everything but no picture. When the movie started,there was no picture just sound. Several people left the theater to report it. They picked up the film without rewinding it so the audience missed the trailers and the first 5 minutes of the movie. So, people left again and complained for them to restart it properly,which they did.

So, when the employees of the theater screw up it is bad enough. Other patrons only make it worse.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 2:42pm

Back in the old days, they had matrons who were like Herman Goering in drag. They always had their trusty flashlight & always looked like Margaret Hamilton. You did not mess with them.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 2:48pm

In my experience it seems people either prefer to self-police or just stay silent (maybe they don't want to miss anything in the film?). But I used to be an usher and I got at the most two different people who came out of the theater to complain, one we could control, the sound was blaring extremely loudly. The other just seemed was more of a vent that the customer did not really care for a resolution, just being mad she had to be separate from her kids based on another group's seating arrangements. So there was never a direct complaint or reprimand of a customer by another customer, but there have been instances where we basically have told customers to buzz off when we witnessed their behavior during flashlight duty. Those are a bit tricky because they are usually dickish about it and think they are doing nothing wrong.

I personally have made trips as a customer when there is something technically wrong on the screen, like black screen or out of focus early in the trailers. Problems were always fixed. Sometimes I have seen other customers the moment the littlest glitch happened storm out to demand their money back, including for Inception which was ridiculous as it was a county-wide power outage due to rain that shut off the entire movie theater's power, so it was not in the theater's control. The power went back on in 5 minutes at the most and some many people made noise coming back, nearly leaving under the assumption it would not come back on despite management telling people in the theater to stay.

I have also seen people self-police, there was this person at The King's Speech who was talking so loud at the bottle of that my friend and I could audibly hear his comments, we sat at the top, until after not budging from a bunch of 'Shhh!s' in his direction earlier somebody just said, 'Shut up!' Whoever was his companion nudged him to just stop talking after that.

The theater I worked at pretty much everybody did work in every facet with exception to the projector. So if you see somebody cleaning the bathroom, giving tickets, or re-filling your soda, it is likely they are also an usher who will at worst be the middle-man to getting somebody who will service people.

My question to that customer would be, why the hell is he there? Did he just decide 'Oh, let me go to this period piece, I am sure it will be a bore. Perfect place for naptime!' Why go to a film that he clearly had an issue with based on his comments of the central plot-line? I would have just gone out and told a person working at the theater during the snoring part. That sounds beyond obnoxious.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 4:04pm

But be honest, wasn't his snoring better than the creepy looking version of Glenn Close on screen?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 5:25pm

Heh. I was thinking something similar. Normally I think it would be cause for complaint, but in this case, I think the snoring would have livened up this movie.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/28/12 at 6:00pm

Ha, yes I was worried that this thread would turn into a "of course he was sleeping: he was at Albert Nobbs!" thread.

I thought the movie was a bit of a mess, with way too many subplots going on. It felt like a 2 hour theatrical release of a 6 hour mini-series. I did think Glenn gave a very good performance though. SO much Mia; I mean she wasn't bad, but the movie just wasn't what I thought it would be.

SPOILER*******
The scene on the beach was hysterical!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 6:27pm

Albert Nobbs - what an odd movie.
(Spoilers)
Could someone tell me the point of the Jonathan Rhys Meyers character? He was supposed to be gay, having romps galore with that other guy, right? And Janet McTeer's character...what are the chances that Albert would bump into another woman-as-man - just how common was this? And the ending...um, why did poor Albert have to die after the bump on the head, and do ears really bleed in that situation? I guess these questions are rhetorical.

Glenn Close was great, don't get me wrong - I even would've been happy with an Oscar win based on her performances and a pat on the back after her illustrious career, but this movie left me a little frustrated.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 9:36pm

Was it an AMC theater? Their customer service people are the ones you complain to. If you're polite, you get results. They'll talk to the person disturbing the film and maybe even give you a free pass for another film. I can't even imagine seeing that film with those comments.


--Spoilers--
Jay Lerner, yes, but there's more. He's also a foil to Albert with his behavior. Who is the real man? The woman posing as a man or the man who can't even stay sober enough to get to his room without assistance?

As for the rest, the story is a fairy tale in the Hans Christian Andersen vein. It's a fluffy fantasy with a somber ending, like the original version of The Little Mermaid or The Little Match Girl. The blood was to make it clear that Albert had a concussion and needed immediate help.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 9:56pm

While we no longer have ushers, lately we often have a staff member welcoming us, introducing the movie and telling us not to hesitate to ask them for assistance if any is required. Of course going out to the lobby to get someone may interrupt the movie, but that beats the inconvenience of relentless snoring and other disruptive behavior.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 9:57pm

Thanks, trentsketch - it's only because I liked the movie that I care about the details I guess. I'm still not sure why Albert had to die, and what purpose it served...I wanted him to have a happy ending.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 10:04pm

Jay Lerner-Z, I liked the film, too. There is a long history of stories that punish characters for stepping outside of their given roles. I realized as soon as Albert went out with the young lady that there couldn't be a happy ending. Albert would be punished for having too much ambition and pushing social conventions too far. It's too much to say that Albert suffered from hubris, but there is a certain parallel to that tragedy structure. The fatal flaw might be impatience. If Albert had waited just a few months more, the shop was his on his own terms. Instead, he pushed too far too fast and was punished.

I can't imagine this story having a happy ending, but the death is problematic. Maybe it worked better in the novella.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/1/12 at 10:12pm

Also, I take it we are supposed to infer that Mia Wasikowksa's character took up with Janet McTeer in the end (for convenience)? Why couldn't that have been Albert?

Oh well, I guess it's time I got over it.