The modern cinematic experience faces a sustained dilemma. Once offering new models of seeing intended to tempt back waning audiences, the cinematic spectacle has become a parody of itself. An ethics of experience has supplanted film-viewing itself in the discourse surrounding the medium. Martin Scorsese acknowledged this shift in an infamous 2018 interview, drawing a distinction between auteur-led “cinema” and the gaudy “theme parks” of modern superhero films. This dichotomy reproduces itself at many levels in the current state of cinema, both from a standpoint of cultural critique and for enterprises that seek to offer experiential alternatives to theatrical releases.
swimming against the torrent BY LUKAS OSCAR LACEY-HUGHES 50
Secret Cinema, a London-based events company, is such an enterprise that has flourished in recent years and has made a particular comeback since the end of the pandemic. Spectators are offered a host of experiences accompanying classic blockbuster films, screened at initially undisclosed locations that are revealed as part of the merry-go-round of the viewing, generating viewer interaction and a level of covertness unavailable in the usual cinema-going experience. The experiential promise of a unique screening is complemented by the types of films that Secret Cinema usually shows: immensely popular blockbusters with established fan communities. Rather than undercutting the esoteric and covert promise of the endeavour, Secret Cinema doubles down on its eponymous guarantee by allowing its audience to experience something they are already familiar with. The secret is itself the experience, which is conceived entirely outside of the particular film being shown. The promise of secrecy marks the inability of the usual theatrical cinematic experience to satisfy the normative