CINEMA PARADISO:The cinema isn't the first place you'd think of taking an infant, but baby-friendly screenings of off-beat movies at Dublin's Lighthouse Cinema are proving popular with parents, writes ANNA CAREY
I’VE NEVER SEEN SUCH behaviour in a cinema before. I’m in the Light House Cinema, enjoying Nicole Holofcener’s excellent new film Please Give, but the person sitting next to me won’t keep quiet. At first he just hoots enthusiastically at the screen, then he tries to stand up but falls over, then he starts waving a squeaky plastic giraffe, and finally he ends up sitting in my lap, grabbing my hand, and biting it.
But strangely enough, I don’t mind. Because my fellow cinema-goer is just six months old, and also happens to be my nephew, Arlo. He’s just one of the babies who regularly attends Babes in Arms, the Light House Cinema’s fortnightly baby-friendly movie screenings. Every two weeks, parents (usually mothers on maternity leave, although there are quite a few fathers at this screening, too) make their way to the Smithfield cinema to enjoy a movie on the big screen, safe in the knowledge that no matter how noisy or active their babies get, none of the other cinema goers will bat an eye.
“We’re delighted with the way the screenings have gone,” says Light House co-founder Maretta Dillon, who launched Babes in Arms earlier this year. “It’s answering the need people have to keep doing things they did before they had babies, but with their babies.”
Business journalist Simon Carswell and his wife Vanessa, on leave from the Royal Irish Academy, are at the screening with their 12-week-old daughter Amy-Rose. “We don’t get to go to the cinema together at night any more,” says Carswell. “So this is a brilliant opportunity.”
Krista Magnuson and her eight-month-old son Anton have been attending Babes in Arms since it began. “The first time, Anton was on my lap facing the screen, and when the light and music came on, his little face just went ‘oooh!’ He was rapt the whole time.” Now, however, Anton prefers to sit and play or crawl on the floor beneath the screen. He’s not alone. “Louise used to sleep in my lap during the film,” says Kate Fitzgerald, whose daughter is eight months old. “But now we have to sit in the front row because she’s a bit more active and she likes to get on the ground with her toys.”
The social aspect of the screenings is very important. Parents chat and have coffee in the cinema’s cafe before and after the film. And the screening itself just isn’t the same as watching a movie at home. “It’s an event,” says Magnuson. “You’ve left the house, you’ve made the effort to see a movie with other people, it’s a communal experience. And that sort of thing becomes a little more significant when you’re stuck at home on maternity leave.”
At the screenings, the volume of the film is slightly lower than usual, and the lights are slightly brighter. The atmosphere is very relaxed. The youngest person at the Please Give screening is eight-day-old Kate, who’s there with her parents Paul Murphy and Marcella Hannon. “We’ve been to screenings in other cinemas as we also have a 17-month old, but it feels a lot more laid-back here,” says Hannon.
Kate slept through the film, and although some babies got a bit noisy, it wasn’t particularly distracting. “The first time I went I was convinced Arlo would squawk through the whole thing and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the film,” says my sister, Lisa Carey. “But it’s always been fine and I’ve never missed anything.”
Other bigger cinemas also offer baby-friendly events, but in most cases they offer very mainstream fare. Most of the mothers I spoke to said that the offbeat nature of the Light House’s film choices was a huge part of its appeal. Dillon says they avoid films with subtitles, as parents mightn’t always be able to look at the screen, but recent films have included Greenberg, Crazy Heart, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Apparently, the latter went down very well with the baby audience. “Arlo seemed to be actively enjoying that one,” says Lisa. “I don’t know whether it was the bright colours or the bosoms on display, but the cinema was eerily silent for that one. I think all the babies enjoyed it.”
Babes in Arms takes place every second Wednesday at 11am at the Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7. For details, see lighthousecinema.ie or tel: 01-8797601
