Hi °C | Lo °C As more people turn their living rooms into shrines to television, settling into their armchairs every night to gaze at the huge, glowing plasma god which dominates their domestic vista, I am heartened by the trend for movies that insist on cinema attendance.
3D HD 50-inch TVs are all very well - though, actually, they're also ugly, overwhelming conversation-killers - but for films like The Tree of Life, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Life of Pi, nothing they offer comes close to the cinematic experience.
I took my daughter to the stunning Life of Pi this week, and we were both still gasping, saucer-eyed, when we came out. It's not just the awesome panoramic visuals and thundering surround sound of such films which excites, it's also the atmosphere of a dark, whispery theatre full of equally thrilled strangers going through the same emotional torrents. I'm a lover of television, but there are some parts it just can't reach.
