Back at the beginning of the month Mark Kermode did a vodcast on his blog about whether a film being released simultaneously on DVD, pay per view TV and at the cinema made you think any less of that film.
The film that sparked the comment was Philip Ridley's Heartless and Kermode is a bit of a Ridley fan (vodcast is at the end of this post).
I'm also a bit of a Ridley fan, familiar more with his plays than his films, but really wanted to see Heartless so the debate interested me. Yes for me there is a type of Pavlov dog reaction when films are announced as going straight to DVD, a bit of snobbishness comes into play, there I've admitted it. But now I've actually seen Heartless it has changed my view slightly.
You see I really wanted to see Heartless on the big screen. I like the experience of sitting in the dark with no distraction. But Heartless was perhaps a victim to it's simultaneous release and was only on at a very few screens here in London for a short period of time and at silly times for those of us who have a day jobs.
I did try to see it, dashing out of the door of the office like a greyhound after a rabbit at the stroke of 5pm one day only to find my cinema of choice was closed for premiere that night.
So I was forced to watch it on Sky Box office at home, yesterday afternoon.
I drew the curtains to darken the room as much as possible but, I'm sorry, it's just not the same sat on my sofa nursing a mug of tea and knowing I can pause at any moment for a comfort or snack break.
And I'm not sure I can do a review justice because I'll never be able to separate out the environment of the watching experience from the film. For example, I scare easily but wasn't scared at all and I've read one review in which the reviewer confesses to jumping out of their skin.
Yes simultaneous release gives more viewing options but it only works if those are real viewing options ie not having cinema screenings for one week only at times only the unemployed and students can get to.
I'm going to come back to the review. Will post a link when I do.
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