"My First Visit to the Movies", by Sebastian

Sebastian aka Mr. Dante Fontana, PCL Contributor:

"As for us kids brought up on the countryside - (in my case: on an old farm my parents took over in 1970 to live the green and back-to-nature life many were aspiring for those days) far from cities, super markets and the fruits of the commercial society – going to see a movie at the cinemas were so much more than just that. It was an adventure out of proportions. It meant going to the big city, Lund.
My grand-mom and other relatives from my dads family resided in Lund, so going to Lund almost always meant sleeping over.
Now I know Lund is not a very big city. Not even by swedish standards. But it is a city. With an impressive cathedral and a pompous and pulsating university its centre definitely has an air of big cityness. And for us country kids it was probably even more so.
”McDonalds!”, I could hear myself saying as we we’re driving into the city. But not loud. I wouldn’t want my parents to hear me take such a foul word into my mouth, which of course now was already watering.

So my memories of my first visits to the movies are entwined with alot of other feelings and many other ”my first” experiences.
Somewhere between 1974-1976 I was taken to the cinemas for the first time.
I know I went with my dad to see a Tarzan matinee - I also know I saw Flåklypa Grand Prix and a Lucky Luke matinee around that same period of time.
But these are all experiences I can’t remember much of.

So my first vivid cine-memories are the Olle Hellbom adaption of Astrid Lindgren’s ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta” (aka ” The Brothers Lionheart”) and Martin Rosen’s animated ”Watership Down”.
Both these movies touched my nine year old soul. Both movies scared the shit out of me. I guess that these movies were the first two to confront me with the concept of true evil in life – despite (or thanks to) the fact that both of the stories are fantasy tales in made-up worlds.
At the age of nine I was very aware of death. I knew people could die. But what I think these two movies made me realize was that there are forces and instincts somewhere in the human body which moderated the wrong way actually can make you want to hurt or take the power of someone else.
These experiences and feelings were of course not all good. But they made me open my eyes.

The scene in ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta” where Katla, the dragon, comes crawling up over the hill still makes my blood cold (actually I never saw the full scene the first time. I remember telling my mom I needed to go pee when the first sound of Katla reached my ears. And I made sure to stay in the restrooms long enough …).

Clip uploaded by mongosen

I don’t know if we went to McDonald’s after ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta”. But I was quite sure my parents were right. They serve death."

--Sebastian aka mrdantefontana--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.