We all know the sights and sounds of the supermarket. The little blip the scanner makes when your groceries are being processed. The wobble of the trolley wheel and the way it glides around corners like a boat. The way your eye skips and skims from product to product, concurrently bored and excited by the possibilities, the choice.
It’s small wonder that supermarkets have been so visible in the history of cinema. They are the epitome of man made: a vast structure, filled with individualistic products, all bearing the hallmarks of design, purpose and desire. We see people fall in love here, wheeling each other around on trolleys like tandem bicycles, and in some cases, we see people’s lives falling to pieces. In the movie 2012 (2009) you actually get both: characters canoodle by the bran-flakes, before the ground is very literally rent apart. In Chronicle (2012), the supermarket is a place for characters to learn about themselves, to test their newly acquired telekinetic skills. And in Superbad (2007), it becomes the site of the Holy Grail, a bottle of gold-flecked vodka... To read the full piece by Nick Hilton, buy a copy of issue #1 - available in the shop now. Comments are closed.
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