Jaws

JAWS or 'Dents de la Mer' was recently presented by students at the local college. It was thanks to them and their number that the cinema showed it at all, as a one off, on a night when I happened to be looking for something to entertain a wanton and distracted mind.


It didn't matter that it was in French. That was a bonus. I've seen if enough times to know what's going on all the time, but the point is that I'd never seen it on a BIG SCREEN.

Oh my fucking God!

"Il nous faudrait un plus gros bateau ..."

I still find the cinema experience magical - the anonymity (if you're me), the elaborate, theatrical decor (if you're lucky), the speed-bump of cheesy adverts with terrible jingles for shit you couldn't possibly want, the anticipation and the sitting in the dark, especially that moment when the lights are lowered and the curtains open a little bit more, the smuggling of alcohol (again, if you're me), the disappearing into the movie with its enormous sound and , well, yeah, that's the nail there, the immersion, aided by all the aforementioned ...

I enjoyed watching Jaws on TV, but I loved it on the big screen.

I recall that moment in Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbin's character is being dangled over the edge of a cliff by a prison guard. In the cinema, with the way the camera tilts, I nearly slid out of my seat and fell past Tim Robbins down into the ravine. There were people gasping. By comparison, when I saw it on DVD, I could have shrugged.


Corentin, if you do a vanity search one day and find this, thank you for your presentation at the end of the movie. You obviously love this film and I agree that the use of a real object for the shark rather than CGI makes it really scary and has allowed the movie to age well. Good point about not seeing the shark for the first 30 minutes too. The show/hide thing in horror seems to go in and out of fashion. I think either works when it's done really well. I was interested in what you said about trying the (major brand of) console game to deepen or continue the experience of the film. You illustrated how to play a console game by wiggling your thumbs. It sort of blew my mind, actually. Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying, but it sounded like ... lol ... like you were trying to justify playing computer games as part of the accreditation for the course. Fucking genius.

I do something very similar for a living.

I don't know how much novels have anything to do with your particular study of movies, but I recommend reading the original novel of Jaws by Peter Benchley. There's a really threatening, taut undercurrent to the book (no pun intended) where the shark isn't the only thing to fear, an element that is absent (but not missing, if you know what I mean) from the movie.

Ta.