Shot dead for eating popcorn during a Black Swan screening

Now I am not saying there are any instances where violence is necessary. If there is one thing I have learned at the movies, it is that violence does not resolve anything. (In real life however...)

Sad story reported by the Guardian today, a man was shot dead in a cinema in Latvia for daring to eat popcorn during a screening of Black swan. Like I say, I do not condone violence...

I am afflicted by the Curse of the Popcorn. No matter what I see, who I'm with, what time I go, there is ALWAYS somebody that turns up just as the film is about to start, sits very close to me, and brings along a family size popcorn. There is just something about the whole popcorn eating process that is so wrong in the first place, and so incompatible with a cinema experience. The rustling, the crunching noise, the delightful regurgitating noise...

Past nightmare experiences include an ex turning up half an hour late for a screening of Brokeback mountain and munching through a huge box of popcorn, a woman turning up with such a huge tray of nachos, drink and popcorn at a screening of the Queen I thought she was intent on opening a Taco Bell franchise on the spot... but nothing beat the man who turned up twenty minute late at a screening of a particularly experimental black & white Estonian film at the London Film Festival, climbed over seats to reach his, took ten minutes to unwrap his coat... and proceeded to eat a farm size popcorn bucket.

So next time you are about to see that latest Jean-Luc Godard, and feel hungry while in the foyer... Please think about what film purist might be sitting next to you!