“Each into a several world”

Film has turned into a private experience.  What was once done in public is now an activity from which we exclude the world.  Yes, of course, the quality of even the best home theatre cannot approach that of a film, but most of us don’t care about that.  Filmgoing has much about it that is solitary, even when we sit next to friends.  But we share that experience in a different way than we do at home.  Film audiences affect our viewing of a film, and that becomes inseparable from the film itself.  I could go on; the fact is, going to a film is superior in every way to watching something at home.  But that’s not how we live anymore.  And the really terrible thing is, there’s something in me that likes it that way.