If there are two institutions which cultural critics make a living off of proclaiming being past their best before dates, it’s romance and the cinema. True love is dead, depending on whom you talk to, as it was killed by either online dating, hook-up culture, man-children, women (always just blame them!) or baby panda videos. (There’s no need for real love after your heart explodes watching a small black and white bear sneeze, sleep, or basically just exist.) As for the cinema, if you believe what you read, that great temple to moving images has gone the way of the dodo. Illegal downloading, shootings, crappy films—cue the nostalgia for a bygone era. Like at the turn of the century when you talked through films, came and went as you pleased, and smoked inside theatres. Sounds ideal! But, never fear! A San Antonio man has proved that both intuitions are alive and well in 2013, with “Charles Casanova Worlds Greatest Proposal.”
Thinking they were in for a preview of the next Weinstein hit before a screening of Warm Bodies (poor souls), the audience at the renowned Almo Drafthouse was treated to something different. Instead of a peek at some new Jennifer Lawrence film, a video began to play proclaiming “the world has been devastated by a loss of love.” With poor sound quality and awkward shots, so begins the story of Casanova on a quest to marry his true love. Facing gangsters who try to kill him because they “just don’t believe in love,” the “film” ends with the ominous phrase: “The fate of the world comes down to one small question.”
At this point the film’s star, Charles Hutchinson, then popped out of the projection booth and surprised his girlfriend, sitting in the audience, to marry him. Down on one old fashioned knee and all. See, magic does still happen at the movies. Her answer? No spoilers, watch the video below.
