on seeing films alone
feat. appreciations from il cinema ritrovato
unlocking
I think I will always cherish my first solo movie theater experience. I saw Chantal Akerman’s Je, tu, il, elle (1974), and it turned out to be the perfect material for the moment.
The first third of the film follows Julie — the film’s narrator — in her apartment. Played by Akerman herself, Julie is heartbroken and depressed, and she stays confined to her bedroom for a long period of voluntary isolation. She rearranges her living space, writes and rewrites, eats spoonfuls of sugar out of the bag, and lounges in the nude (figure #1).
The next parts of the film then document the romantic encounters that arise when Julie finally ventures out into the external world. Her time inside doesn’t span the entire work, but it dominated my impression.
It’s not that I was in a season of life where I saw myself in Julie, but watching her simply do her thing, even if the thing was odd, struck a chord. If it’s possible to separate Julie’s alone-time impulses from the gloom that motivates them, then they become amusing and even inspiring. Our private spaces are special havens for radical authenticity. For doing things simply because we feel the urge.
(That Sex and the City episode where Carrie Bradshaw confesses her favorite home-alone ritual also comes to mind here. She stacks saltines, puts grape jelly on them, eats them while standing up in her kitchen, and reads magazines simultaneously. It’s her “secret single behavior.” Miranda’s version is putting vaseline all over her hands and covering them in Borghese conditioning gloves while watching infomercials.)
All in all, Je, tu, il, elle celebrated my first solo movie theater experience through its exploration of alone time within the world of the film. As I watched Julie dwell alone in her apartment, I sat alone in the theater, and both of us were there doing what we felt like doing.
fest
As I write now, I’m coming down from my first year at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato, where all I really did for a full week was see beautiful films in solitude. The festival was an incubator for meaningful alone time, and a number of films even dealt with solitude as a theme. In honor of that meta delight, I’m recapping just a few highlights:
summertime (1955) dir. david lean
This was the most glorious film to encounter as a girl from the Midwest who’s on a solo trip to Italy. Katharine Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, a secretary from Ohio who visits Venice alone for the first time. While the plot centers the romance she falls into, I appreciated absorbing Jane’s solo travel practices. She wasn’t immune to waves of loneliness, but she brought warmth and openness to chats with strangers, she took her camera around as a companion to witness her awe, and she always got dressed in something thoughtful.
little nobody (1935) dir. dave fleischer
Betty Boop and Pudgy the Puppy star in this endearing short that follows Pudgy’s crush on his socialite neighbor’s dog, Snooty. He shows affection but gets shut down for being out of her league and is deemed a "little nobody.” Everything changes, though, when he rescues Snooty from getting swallowed by a waterfall, effectively saving the day and winning the hearts of Snooty and her owner alike. Snooty and her owner walk away with the understanding that connection trumps exclusivity and isolation. Letting others in can even be life-saving. And Betty Boop articulates the power of connection through song: “Every little nobody is somebody to someone.”
safar (1972) dir. bahram beyzaie
A 12-year-old orphan recruits his friend for the same quest day after day: the search for potential parents. They journey through Tehran together, hungry and enduring repeated failures — yet the boy holds out hope and believes his parents are out there awaiting his arrival. The boy’s solitude as an orphan is a heart-wrenching and painful kind. For most of the film’s duration, the boy isn’t actually alone — he’s accompanied by his friend — but he’s fighting loneliness nevertheless.
The fairly random grouping that is Je, tu, il elle, Summertime, Little Nobody, and Safar happens to capture the complexity of solitude. How it can feel lonely, toxic, and unfortunate, or empowering, energizing, and like a gift.
Solo movie-going is almost always a gift.
i love summertime katharine hepburn is amazing in it. going to the movies alone is one of my favorite things to do it feels like a little form of therapy. i like having space to form opinions on my own instead of hearing what everyone else thinks right away. the first movie i ever saw alone was the grand budapest hotel back in my hometown and i still remember how special that felt.