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Now available for preorder:
The San Francisco Panorama.
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F I L M R E V I E W
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"200 Cigarettes" You should not see the film called "200 Cigarettes". When I went, the theater was almost full. I found a seat by the side exit, next to a fashionably dressed young couple sharing a bucket of popcorn. When I saw their popcorn it caused me to wish that I also had some popcorn. I got up, took off my jacket, and covered the seat with it. My seat was saved. I then proceeded to the snack bar and purchased some popcorn of my own. When I returned, there was something projected on the movie screen. It appeared to be the answer to a trivia question. I do not remember what it said. Something having to do with the small dog from television's "Frasier." I asked the fashionably dressed young couple what the trivia question had been, but they did not seem to understand me. It is possible that they were foreign. Eventually the film started. The theater was made noticeably darker, and the images on the screen were bright and colorful. I enjoyed the first part of the film a great deal, until I ran out of popcorn. As I placed my empty popcorn container on the floor in front of me, I noticed that the fashionably dressed young foreign couple were embracing in an obscene manner. I was not able to concentrate on the rest of the film. I began to notice all of the other people sitting around me, in the dark, thinking and doing secret things. I imagined that they were all as aware of my presence as I was of theirs. Now that I have obtained some distance from the situation, I am confident that this was not the case. At the time, it seemed quite plausible. I decided to leave the theater for a short time, in order to regain my composure. Unfortunately there was an usher standing outside the back door, and his demeanor was so surly that I was forced back into the darkness. I stood at the end of the aisle for two or three minutes, while a particularly slow portion of the film played out. When the characters began yelling at each other, I slipped back to my seat. None of the audience members indicated that they noticed. I watched the rest of the film, only half paying attention. The fashionably dressed young foreign couple had stopped embracing, and seemed to enjoy what we were watching. I do not understand why this was so. "200 Cigarettes" is not a good film.
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