CINEMANIA

CINEMANIA-

If you visit this blog often and have seen more than half of the films mentioned here, then you belong in a class of very special people, you are part of a minority called CINEMANIACS.

This is what this film/documentary is about, a handful of Cinemaniacs. Unlike the crossword puzzle geeks of "Wordplay", these Cinemanics all suffer from some sort of disorder; they are so obsessed with movies, that they cannot be away from the big screen whatsoever, they cannot hold a job or chose not to have one, they cannot have a stable relationship with someone not on the movie screen , some cannot afford to stay in their apartment but doesn't care.

The main characters presented here are; Jack, Eric, Roberta, Bill and Harvey. The film maker invite the audience into the lives of these cinemanics, we see their video collection, soundtrack collection, film memorabilia collection, programs from all sorts of film festivals and we learn a little bit of the problems and challenges of these folks.

Each one of them have very strong opinions and knowledge about every film ever made, from the title to the cast, from the directors to the technical staff, the story behind the film, the best quotes to the actual running time of the movie. One guy can just run the length of the movie right out of his lips as you name them, not just 2 hours or 3 hours, but actual numbers like 145 minutes and 20 seconds and so on.

You may not want to sit next to these folks in the movie theater, because they're not only obsess over seeing movies, but where they sit in the theater,as well as the size of the screen and the temperature of the theater. One guy says he would turn down wedding invitations, refuse any socializing, and even work his diet and motabolisim, because it may interfere with his movie schedule.

Roberta is probably the favorite of the Cinemaniacs here. She's an elderly lady who has a huge collection of programs from various film festivals. Once she sat topless in theater because it got so hot inside!

She was banned from returning to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's theater because she attacked the ticket person for ripping her admission ticket in half (you see Roberta collects all the tickets to every single film she's attended). A short while after she attempted to return to MOMA by putting on a disguise consisted of a wig and different color make up, however she was spotted right away by the theater staff.

Harvey owns a ton of movie soundtracks on vinyl records, all neatly put on shelf and categorized by composer, unfortunately he doesn't own a record player. Bill packs his meals to the theater so he won't waste time and money on food when he would rather spend it on watching some french film festival.

You might be able to relate to some of these characters, I know I do. I may have even seen an actual Cinemaniac in person. A Cinemaniac is the one you see every time you go the an art movie theater; usually they have poor hygene, they sit at the same seats, they often carry a little bag filled with movie magazines, allergy medication, a sweater to keep warm, all 3 meals packed and consist of peanut butter sandwiches, and all kinds of programs and schedules to the next movie they are going to catch.

Just look around the next time you are viewing something at an art theater, I bet you can spot a cinemaniac right off the bat!