"What movie should we watch?" After everyone finished eating pizza, they went to a late-night movie theater nearby.
"I heard that you shot a movie in Los Angeles. What was it called?" Antonia asked.
"You're very well informed. It's called Rock and Roll High School, but it didn't do well at the box office and couldn't be released in New York."
"How about watching Apocalypse Now, directed by Coppola, they won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France."
Thinking of the news he saw on TV a few days ago, Ronald also wanted to watch the full version without the editing interface again.
"Four Apocalypse Now," Gene, who had received a higher salary for the protagonist, shouted to invite everyone.
"We don't have this one, please look at the film schedule." The conductor pointed to the film schedule on the wall.
It looks like "Apocalypse Now" hasn't been released in the U.S. yet.
Ronald looked at the schedule.
"Alien" - a science fiction horror film, this one is suitable for both men and women to watch together.
"The last show has started one hour ago." The conductor pointed at the time again.
This kind of commercial film usually opens during the prime time between 6pm after get off work and before 9pm in the afternoon, making it convenient for mainstream movie-goers. If it's too late, everyone will have to go home and sleep.
"What other movies are there?"
"That's an adult X-rated movie over there." The ticket seller was a veteran. He saw that the two men and two women were here for a two-on-two date, and recommended an X-rated movie. It's so late anyway, and the inspector won't be dedicated enough to work overtime to catch teenagers watching X-rated movies.
Gene didn't want to look, "Is there more?"
"Then there's only this old movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Today is a special show at their club. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it."
"Is there a club in a movie?" Ronald was a little confused.
"Yeah, they're crazy and come to the midnight show all the time. It'll be fun to watch it with them for the first time."
"Oh, really? Then let's watch this one too." Antonia seemed to have heard of this movie.
"Four tickets." Gene took out the money and paid for it first.
"This is a newspaper for you." The conductor handed out four expired newspapers along with the tickets.
The four of them looked at each other and shook their heads, "What is this for?" Ronald asked.
"You'll know when you get in."
"Welcome new friends to join our Rocky Horror Show viewing club!" A middle-aged man held a microphone and welcomed the four people into the screening room. The audience below began to applaud in unison, "Welcome!"
This club has quite an atmosphere.
"Hi, hello, hello," Gene said happily, high-fiving everyone along the way and finding four seats connected together to sit down.
Ronald glanced left and right, and many viewers were wearing gothic black eye makeup, and some men were dressed like girls. It was a wonderful experience.
The movie opens with a man and a woman reversing a car on a rainy night. Suddenly the car seems to hit something.
The audience in front of Ronald suddenly fell backward collectively. To match the car crash plot on screen.
"Oops," the on-screen protagonist slaps the seat.
The audience also hit the seats at the same time at the right time, making a neat "pop".
"I should have fixed the spare tire."
The audience collectively shouted "Asshole".
Spoiler alert this guy is a bad person.
How come you can watch a movie with your own dubbing? Ronald looked around strangely.
Gene and Lucy had a great time, yelling along with the club members.
The two protagonists on the screen get out of the car and it starts to rain.
The audience raised the newspapers in their hands and covered their heads.
Um? Literally water fell on my face. Ronald had a confused expression on his face. What kind of advanced technology is this? Can it rain in the cinema in conjunction with the plot?
Antonia also raised the newspaper, hit Ronald to remind him, and helped him lift the newspaper.
It turned out that someone was shooting water cannons from the aisles on both sides, and some spectators brought their own and used them to spray water into the sky.
The two protagonists on the screen enter an old castle, and an owner who looks like a vampire comes out to receive them.
"Where's your neck?" the audience shouted.
Ronald took a look and realized that, really, the actor had no neck.
He opened a coffin and used a duster to clean the cobwebs from the bones inside.
"So this is a horror movie" Ronald thought to himself.
Suddenly he started singing at the top of his lungs, singing some crappy old pop song.
"Is it a musical?"
"One, two, three, four" the audience began to chorus.
The host began to walk up to the stage in front of the screen and welcomed everyone on stage to sing together.
Soon, more than a dozen men and women wearing Gothic eye makeup and costumes walked up to the front stage and lined up in a row to sing loudly. The audience below also raised their hands and swayed left and right to cooperate.
In the movie, a man in a suit and tie appeared again and taught everyone how to dance, "First move your left foot, then jump to your right foot."
The men and women on the stage began to dance to the music.
"Hey, we're here." Gene pulled Lucy onto the stage and danced with them.
Hahaha, the audience burst into laughter,
"Let's go too." Antonia pulled Ronald up and also went on stage.
Ronald followed the rhythm, imitated the moves of the cosplayers in the club, and made silly dance moves. For a moment, he didn't know why, but he felt happy.
"Hahahaha", the dance ended, and Ronald laughed with everyone.
"It turned out to be an exploitation film."
Hey, Ronald seems to have remembered something important, and is desperately trying to grasp this glimmer of inspiration.
Antonia pulled him off the stage again and returned to his original seat.
"Today is our Rocky Horror Picture Show viewing club members, Larry and Holly's big day. Today is their 150th time attending the theater -"
The host turns the microphone to the audience
"Rocky Horror Show..."
Two other members took out two small cakes with 150 candles on them and asked them to blow them out.
"Can you watch the same movie 150 times, Antonia?" Ronald felt a little incredible when he heard the record of 150 movie viewings.
"No, but they don't count as watching a movie. They are purely entertaining themselves."
"150 times is a big number, and it would take three years to see them once a week. Don't they have somewhere else to go?"
"Yes, in certain neighborhoods in New York, teenagers don't have anywhere to go at night. If they tell their parents to go to a bar, then the parents should be worried. But going to a movie theater with a group of old friends to watch a bad movie is more reassuring."
"Yes, they are all teenagers." Ronald looked around again. Under the gothic black eyeshadow, they were actually boys and girls in their teens and twenties.
After the movie ended, Ronald specifically talked to the president of the Rocky Horror Picture Show Club and the host. Since the film was released in 1975, it has been continuously played at midnight screenings.
This film has a weird style and did not do well in its first run. However, the mixed style and lots of jokes attracted young audiences in New York, and many theaters continued to show it at midnight. This in turn led to the trend of midnight movies, which continued to be shown until 1979.
“But we may not be able to watch it here next year.” Finally, the club president lamented, “The high school students who grew up with this movie have all graduated this year, and the new generation of young people have their favorite movies again.
The box office began to decline, and theaters said they wanted to replace The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a new film. In the end, we fans could only keep one or two theaters showing it. "
That glimmer of inspiration seemed to be right in front of him, and Ronald stood there, trying hard to catch her.
"Ronald, what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about the script again?" Lucy looked at Ronald with admiring eyes and asked.
The inspiration seems to have flown away again.
But the script?
Just now, I was dragged on stage by Antonia to sing and dance. My originally depressed mood became very happy. This seems to be written into the plot of the Jewish student Doris. Doesn’t she lack a motive to get rid of her overly controlling mother and bravely go on stage to sing?
"Yes, you gave me great inspiration, Lucy, thank you." Ronald thanked Lucy, took out a small notebook and began to jot down his thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm glad I could help you, Ronnie, can I call you Ronnie?"
"Pull it, Lucy." Gene caught up from behind and pulled her away. "Antonia is right, you are indeed not Ronald's type."
"Antonia, what are you looking at?" Ronald couldn't help but walk over and ask as he watched the Italian girl holding Jean's Polaroid camera and laughing so hard at the smaller X-rated ticket window.
"Look at this..." Antonia pointed to a poster, "Hahahaha, I was laughing so hard."
In front of me is a small poster with the title "Hot Lunch"
It turns out someone actually made an adult film using the black slang meaning of hot lunch.
"Pfft..." Ronald couldn't help but squirt.
"Look at the director's column...hahaha." Antonia laughed so hard that she couldn't straighten up and grabbed Ronald's arm to keep her balance.
"AL Parker...hahahaha", Ronald couldn't help but spray again.
This is directed by Alan Parker. Maybe the "Hot Lunch" project was reported in the media, and an adult film producer discovered the business opportunity and quickly made a movie to increase the popularity?
Ronald shook his head.
"Take a picture of me too, I'll keep it." Ronald asked Antonia to take a snapshot of the poster for him.
I don’t know how to figure this out. Ronald plans to report it to producer Da Silva.
"Don't tell them, otherwise there will be more trouble." Ronald pointed at Jean and Lucy.
"I understand."
"Hey, what are you two laughing at? Are you laughing so happily?" Gene finally found the two of them laughing and ran over from afar.
"It's nothing. We were laughing at those people just now, and we were acting in the movie in the audience."
Everyone walked out of the theater and prepared to go home.
"Where do you live, Antonia? I'll take you there."
"Little Italy, my home is right next to it. No need to send it away." Antonia declined.
"Lucy and I take the subway. The lines in Harlem are open 24 hours a day, but your car is not safe."
"Okay, that's it. I'm very happy today, thank you." Ronald said goodbye to everyone on the spot.
"What was that inspiration?" Ronald thought as he drove. "Midnight show, teenagers, long-term screening."
"Squeak..." Ronald braked suddenly. Aren't teenagers the target audience for "Rock High School"? Midnight screenings can be shown for a long period of time, attracting teenagers in New York to watch movies. And it just so happened that the New York movie theater wanted to show a new movie...
