clinging to the building clock’s hands, even as it broke and lurched forward. If there had been a decibel meter on hand, it would have shown that the only audio louder than the screams were the cheers and applause when Harold finally made it, in glorious fashion, onto the roof and into the arms of the woman he loves. It was an electric screening, and we all felt it. Whoever was in that audience, wherever we were from, or however old we were, or whatever god we believed in or sports teams we loved or food we ate, we were all Harold that day. We were all the underdog, all of us climbing that building for love. I’ll never forget that communal thrill-ride, or the smiles that strangers exchanged on the way out. We hadn’t just been told a story — we’d been through something, together. And that is the unique alchemy of cinema. Which leads me to the second thought I had when Edgar called: that there are two things SHARK SHOCKS being discussed here. There are the movies themselves, and then there’s the magic of seeing JON FAVREAU and DAVID YATES on JAWS them en masse. The additive reaction that FAVREAU: (Richard Dreyfuss) comes galvanises the memory of the experience. Not I remember seeing across old Ben Gardner’s boat that we can’t and shouldn’t enjoy movies at Jaws back in New in a midnight swim, just as Ben’s home, but it’s a far different and, arguably, York. I was eight head pops out of a hole in the inferior experience to the collective exuberance years old and boat’s hull, to terrify us all. It was of hundreds of strangers in the dark together, the movie was already a big reaffirming to see Chief Brody screaming, crying, laughing, existing. deal. It was such a phenomenon (Roy Scheider) reconnect with If 2020 has proven anything it’s that the that all ages went, but none his young son across the supper world is, in large part, a fucking nightmare. If of us were prepared for how table in a delicate moment. It’s there has ever been a time when people need to powerful of a story it was. an acknowledgement of our be reminded just how much we actually have in There were so many moments shared humanity that each of common, it is now. And that is something that in that movie but the ones that these scenes reached us all in only movies can provide. stand out the most to me were a glorious unity. I believe that when we are on the other Brody chumming the water and The film rolled continually side of Covid, there will be a powerful need the shark appearing behind him throughout the day, and I’d stay to be together. The cinema will, perhaps more without any clue that a pop-out for a second, then third and than ever before, be a place to celebrate, was coming. Popcorn flew. fourth screening. It wasn’t only to congregate, and to appreciate films and People screamed, then laughed. the film that kept me there — each other. The other moment was it was the audiences as they the opposite. The movie told came and went, the way they THE CLIMB us in advance that something lived, breathed and experienced was going to happen. They the story as it replayed over J.J. ABRAMS on SAFETY LAST were diving, searching the and over again — I loved When Edgar reached out about my row behind me blurted out, “Parachute,” just wreckage of a sunken boat anticipating how high they most vivid experiences watching before 007’s Union Jack chute emerged from with a flashlight. We all knew would jump, at the scary bits, films in the cinema, two things his backpack and Carly Simon started singing. something scary was going how much they would gasp, occurred to me. The first is just The moral there is that some audience viewings to appear. It didn’t matter. We how loud they would laugh how many varied and profound can be annoying. all still hit the ceiling when the when Hooper squashed his beer memories I have. I can recall the literal crying In short, there are just too many of these shark’s previous victim floated can to express his masculinity hysterics of the audience watching Airplane! memories to count. It is said that our most into frame. A packed house of to Quint (Robert Shaw). (I actually fell out of my chair laughing that day). enduring memories are made outdoors, in nature. shrieking adults makes a real We go to the cinema not just I remember the auditorium full of crazy shrieks Maybe. But movies are at least a close second. impression on an eight-year-old to be entertained, or moved, or of horror during the original Friday The 13th, There is one experience worth mentioning. SPOON-THROWING kid. There wasn’t a lot of thrilled. We go because sharing and the roar of applause when Richard Kimble It was a 2008 screening of Harold Lloyd’s Safety swimming that summer. these experiences together with survived the train crash in The Fugitive, and Last in Royce Hall at UCLA. A live organist DANIEL KALUUYA on THE ROOM others, makes what we witness when Doc, Marty and Jennifer flew away in the played along with the film, which is one of the When I watched The Room YATES: My most in the dark feel more meaningful, DeLorean at the end of Back To The Future. classic silent comedies. What was stunning — at the Prince Charles Cinema, vivid experience visceral, and complete. I nearly get chills recounting the house full of and inspiring and wonderful — was the audience I hadn’t heard of the film and of being in the As for my own movies, sobs when I was a kid with my parents watching reaction. The crowd — nearly a thousand people trusted a friend who told me cinema as however long I fashion and E.T. or when I was a parent with my kids during were there — was, even 12 years ago, accustomed to come with him. The next a teenager was shape an edit, a score, a script, Toy Story 3. Or, when, at ten years old at The Spy to all the cutting-edge, anything-is-possible moment plastic spoons were hitting the watching Jaws with my dad at with some of the wonderful Who Loved Me at the Avco Theater in Westwood, visual effects of the modern age. In short, they’d back of my head, the next moment after the ABC St Helens. It was a people I work with, the film I was on the edge of my seat as Bond skied seen it all. And yet here they were, actually that I was throwing the plastic spoons from cathartic joy to jump and scream ultimately, truly comes alive off the cliff at the end of the opening sequence. screaming — loudly — as Lloyd climbed the side the floor at the screen. I’ve never had so at precisely the same time as when it is finally put in front I actually gasped. And the jaded stranger in the of the building, fighting off the pigeons and much fun at the cinema. 300 other people, as Hooper of an audience.

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