Standing Ovations - They've become like participation trophies for performances

Standing ovations are meaningless. Have been for a while, now. Worse than "Everybody gets a trophy'"

The standards for talent are in the toilet.

I couldn't agree more. It is really depressing. Time was that you stood up to indicate to the performers, or the author/director, that you would remember that performance for the rest of your life.

I swear we get five of these threads every year. It's a film festival thing, there's no deeper meaning to it beyond that.

Standing ovation used to be = One of the greatest performances you've seen or out of respect for a lifetime of work by some great talent. It's meaningless when everything gets one and they last forever.

Feels like they pay some of the attendees to start doing it and keeping it going for PR purposes.

Yeah these standing ovations have become so meaningless and depressing. At the Oscars, every acting winner now gets a standing ovation and it's the law that every black winner gets a standing ovation.

It gives attendees a chance to fart.

On Broadway there is no such thing as a non-standing ovation. Even the worst piece of shit receives an audience leaping to their feet. No exceptions. I do miss the days when it actually meant something.

People believe that, if they treat something as if it's the greatest thing that ever happened, then it [italic] is [/italic] the greatest thing that ever happened. That makes them happy because thereby they can consider their money for the tickets well-spent.

Standing ovations are our birthright and richly deserved.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't have the courage of my convictions when it comes to local theater, where I usually know all the actors and most everyone in the audience - I stand with everyone around me.

Away from home, i obstinately stay sitting, and I'm noticing more people doing the same. Not many, but some.

Meaningless choregraphed elitist circle jerks.

Remembering, sometime within the past couple years - (there was a thread about it) - ....The audience was standing for Madonna at one of her concerts. She noticed one guy remained seated. She pointed him out to humiliate him. She then learned he was disabled in a wheelchair.

When I went to the movies to see E.T. when it first came out, people gave it a round of applause at the end.

The audience is clapping for themselves for leaving the house. Aren't we special?! Everyone is the star of their own show. Today I played a charming date, an audience member, and a patron of the arts and I was terrific.

It's only a matter of time before Standing Os come to commercial flights.

I've read that pilots get 'Standing Os' after really rough landings.

Did Will Smith get a standing ovation the year he won Best Actor after assaulting Chris Rock on live television?

Yes he did R18.

On the flip side, you know a play or concert was not all that when a sizable % of the audience stays seated. I’ve experienced that a few times at off-off-Broadway productions that maybe shouldn’t have been born.

There is no film released in the last 15 years that deserves a 17 minute ovation.

They would even stand for correct answers on Jimmy Fallon's version of Password.

R20, in the olden days you'd have been able to tell the same thing because the applause would have been unenthusiastic and short.

A standing ovation was always reserved for what R4 said.

I doubt I could continuously clap my hands for two full minutes. After sitting for two hours, I'd get cramps in my legs if I couldn't stretch my legs when I stand up. These people must be robots.

R13 - I remember that clip. I think the person in the chair was a girl. Madonna wanted to know why she wasn't dancing. When she found out why, Madonna tried to apologize saying I'm glad you're here.

Apparently before and after filming of Cybill Shepherd’s sitcom, the warm-up guy instructed the audience to give her standing Os.

Further to R25

At big film festivals, for films in competition which are world premieres, it’s the event itself. They’re applauding to cement the significance of the festival itself, willing the event into significance. But it’s become a joke, everyone knows it’s a charade.

For Broadway audiences and the like, it’s self-flattery. They’re saying “I paid so much to see this and I know this is good!” It’s embarrassing. When everybody stands, it’s a good time to make an exit.

[quote]When everybody stands, it’s a good time to make an exit.

Excellent advice!

That Will Smith was given one the same evening he physically and verbally assaulted someone makes them over.

The way people went to check on Smith after he attacked someone was even more disgraceful.

The hands sont très sore

OP you are misunderstanding the situation

The audience is not clapping for the film or the creatives behind the film

They are clapping for themselves

ATTENDING the film premiere is the achievement

The actual act of watching the film is deeply unsatisfying. It’s just another movie. It is the same if it is shown at Venice, in a single screen theater in rural Washington state, or on someone’s iPhone while they are on the elliptical. Art in the age of mechanical reproduction.

The ephemeral moment is the applause. They are creating an ephemeral moment for themselves because what they are celebrating, watching a film at a film festival, is ultimately meaningless.

Two anecdotes come to mind.

One is from the Oppenheimer world premiere in Paris (Nolan did not want the film premiered at a festival). Following the premiere, one attendee marveled at the scene outside the theatre, where attendees stayed long afterwards, on the sidewalks, talking to each other about the film.

The other is an anecdote from a film critic in London who attended a press screening of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner forty years ago. The critic watched the film and thought, “Well that is all nice and good and now I have to go home and make sense of it.” The critic exited the theater onto Leicester Square in the rain… and was hit by the realization that they had walked INTO Blade Runner.

THAT is what gives films meaning. The visceral personal reaction. Not being in the moment with other people. Not applause.

Venice and Cannes are la la land. Completely disconnected from reality, even from Hollywood. At Venice Drew Starkey is the most important man in the world, Eliza Doolittle at the embassy ball. Tomorrow he goes back to being Harris Dickinson by Shein. I don’t begrudge these people the experience in the limelight, and surely after “Queer” grosses a total of five million worldwide and gets no Oscar nominations they will be amused at the fuss that was made. But for one night they felt very special.

R32 Beautiful post. Thank you.

Sorry if this is crude, but it tickles me when somebody refers to an erection as a "standing ovation".

Not the same thing, OP.

I'm skeptical about this 17-minute standing ovation' crap. I want proof. There is no way I would stand and clap for longer than a minute and a half. I saw OH, MARY! on Broadway last night, and everyone stood up when Cole Escola made their bow. It was deserved. But it lasted maybe a minute, if that, and my hands were already tired. 17 minutes? That's absurd, and most certainly a gross exaggeration.

I remember when it was unusual to see one. Then Broadway became mainly for tourists, and they started giving every performance a standing ovation. I’ve always thought it was more about convincing themselves that they’d seen something special than it about genuine appreciation. If you only go to the theater a few times in your life, how would you know an outstanding performance from a routine one?

R34 never heard that before haha