I`m not talking about comedies, of course, but about the serious films, dramas, tragedies, horror films and others. I`ve noticed for quite some time that inside the cinema halls, the people are anxious to laugh at just about anything. From shy giggles to ripples of laughter that burst out exactly when on the screen there`s nothing to laugh at.
Recently I attended a gala premiere -
Dogs directed by
Bogdan Mirică. The cinema was packed full with many people from our cinema industry and their guests. Theoretically, they were all competent people, familiar with going to the cinema.
Dogs is a good, tough film. It is well written, well directed, with great acting, with a tension which is skilfully built and led, in short, it is a remarkable feature film directorial debut. Up to a point, the entire audience seemed to be captured by the gravity of the situations on the screen, until, suddenly, two women sitting behind me, raised the flag of laughter. And that happened right after
Dragoș Bucur knocked
Constantin Cojocaru down, punching him furiously, strangling him almost to death. When hearing
Geo Visu`s line, “If you are smart, don`t be stupid”, the laughing waves increased. When the beautiful
Raluca Aprodu stood up from the gazebo where she was reading a book in order to greet the evil
Vlad Ivanov, some men with baritone voices started laughing with a connotation that only they knew. And what is worse is that when the same Ivanov hit
Costel Cașcaval`s head with a hammer, splashing the car with blood, a joyful state of mind captured almost the entire audience.
I really don`t get it!? I wonder if it`s a releasing of some gloomy instincts. Or an incapacity of understanding what happens on the screen. Is it a desire to watch only comedies and a denial of other genres? Is it ill-breeding? Honestly, I`d rather accept the type of reaction “kiss her, dude!” for some juicy scenes in other films.
I would need a specialist in the mechanics of laughter, like the philosopher Henri Bergson, to explain to me what happens in such viewers` minds, who unfortunately are more and more.
