It seems appropriate that the first movie I’ve seen in about three months was a movie about cinephiles, or cinepheliacs, or cinamaniacs. People who are obsessive-compulsive about seeing movies to the extent that it becomes their life!
Cinemania is actually a documentary. It centers on five individuals in New York City who travel from cinema house to cinema house in order to catch the as many of the best movies (in terms of the actual print, rarity, and artistic quality) as possible. And it is a challenge in such a place as New York, with its many museums, retrospective film houses, art houses, etc. The movie is really a fascinating look at a subculture that most of us never see at least from the inside. We get to look at the odd lifestyles and filthy apartments of these folks, watch their extremely eccentric behavior but also their encyclopedic knowledge about film. And really their passion (obsession) for the cinema shines through. At the same time you want to take these people away to a tropical island where there are no theaters and hope that they can resurrect lives in our reality, you also can’t help admire the amount of experience they’ve acquired at something they love, despite their odd quirks.
I think part of what was so intriguing to me personally about this movie was that I could definitely see a hint of myself in some of the qualities of these guys. Not that I have anywhere near their knowledge of film, or that I would watch movies all day every day if given a chance. But I often lament the fact that I don’t have time (or honestly motivation sometimes) to see even a tiny fraction of the movies I know are out there that I’m really interested in seeing. But this goes for books and restaurants as well. It’s like I’m an experience junky, but only in certain areas, and one that doesn’t really endulge his habit very often. As many people are apt to do, I sometimes daydream about what I might do if I suddenly had a million dollars. Aside from traveling, going back to school, paying off debts and the usual stuff like this, one thing that has always come to mind is simply not working and having loads of free time to do what I want and one of those things being just going to see movies, museum exhibits, etc. I think one of the things that appeals to people about Netflix is how you get to create lists of movies you want to see and then check them off your list as you go through them. I think this gives one a sense of accomplishment, but of course for some it’s much more important than others. Just heard a word for it that I’d never heard before – a “completist.”
We saw this movie (which is a very limited release) at the new AFI Silverdocs Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. This is a great place for any movie buff. They have film festivals there (currently there’s an anime one), they play lots of great older movies as well, and a lot that are just not wide release. The theaters themselves are not huge (or at least the one we saw Cinemania wasn’t), but they are not tiny either. Stadium seating and beautiful, huge chairs make for a very comfortable viewing experience. They have a cafe in the theater, although it’s probably not as nice as the one in your local art house, if they have one. The other great thing about this place is that they often have the directors or others involved in a given film give a talk at the end. This often happens in film festivals, but Cinemania was not part of one. The director, or rather one of the co-directors, Stephen Kijak, just happened to be nice enough to come give a talk at the end. This is in many ways better even than a commentary track on a dvd because you actually get to ask the director your own burning questions, or even argue with him, or give him insight into an interpretation that he might not have thought of before! We got to find out more up-to-date news about what was going on in the lives of the different cinephiles he profiled – since the movie was shot over a three-year period ending at least a year ago, maybe more.
Because this is such a limited release, the chance that you will get to see it any time soon would not be that great, except that we heard from Stephen Kijak that a DVD will be coming out in October with an additional 45 minutes of footage! The movie was 80 minutes but apparently they shot over 80 hours of video for it – yes, video, not film, sorry all you cinephiles out there who refuse to see anything shot with video!
It seems appropriate that the first movie I’ve seen in about three months was a movie about cinephiles, or cinepheliacs, or cinamaniacs. People who are obsessive-compulsive about seeing movies to the extent that it becomes their life!
Cinemania is actually a documentary. It centers on five individuals in New York City who travel from cinema house to cinema house in order to catch the as many of the best movies (in terms of the actual print, rarity, and artistic quality) as possible. And it is a challenge in such a place as New York, with its many museums, retrospective film houses, art houses, etc. The movie is really a fascinating look at a subculture that most of us never see at least from the inside. We get to look at the odd lifestyles and filthy apartments of these folks, watch their extremely accentric behavior but also their encyclopedic knowledge about film. And really their passion (obsession) for the cinema shines through. At the same time you want to take these people away to a tropical island where there are no theaters and hope that they can resurrect lives in our reality, you also can’t help admire the amount of experience they’ve acquired at something they love, despite their odd quirks.
I think part of what was so entriguing to me personally about this movie was that I could definitely see a hint of myself in some of the qualities of these guys. Not that I have anywhere near their knowledge of film, or that I would watch movies all day every day if given a chance. But I often lament the fact that I don’t have time (or honestly motivation sometimes) to see even a tiny fraction of the movies I know are out there that I’m really interested in seeing. But this goes for books and restaurants as well. It’s like I’m an experience junky, but only in certain areas, and one that doesn’t really endulge his habit very often. As many people are apt to do, I sometimes daydream about what I might do if I suddenly had a million dollars. Aside from travelling, going back to school, paying off debts and the usual stuff like this, one thing that has always come to mind is simply not working and having loads of free time to do what I want and one of those things being just going to see movies, museum exhibits, etc. I think one of the things that appeals to people about Netflix is how you get to create lists of movies you want to see and then check them off your list as you go through them. I think this gives one a sense of accomplishment, but of course for some it’s much more important than others. Just heard a word for it that I’d never heard before – a “completist.”
We saw this movie (which is a very limited release) at the new AFI Silverdocs Theather in Silver Spring, Maryand. This is a great place for any movie buff. They have film festivals there (currently there’s an anime one), they play lots of great older movies as well, and a lot that are just not wide release. The theaters themselves are not huge (or at least the one we saw Cinemania wasn’t), but they are not tiny either. Stadium seeting and beautiful, huge chairs make for a very comfortable viewing experience. They have a cafe in the theater, although it’s probably not as nice as the one in your local art house, if they have one. The other great thing about this place is that they often have the directors or others involved in a given film give a talk at the end. This often happens in film festivals, but Cinemania was not part of one. The director, or rather one of the co-directors, Stephen Kijak, just happened to be nice enough to come give a talk at the end. This is in many ways better even than a commentary track on a dvd because you actually get to ask the director your own burninig questions, or even argue with him, or give him insight into an interpretation that he might not have thought of before! We got to find out more up-to-date news about what was going on in the lives of the different cinephiles he profiled – since the movie was shot over a three-year period ending at least a year ago, maybe more.
Because this is such a limited release, the chance that you will get to see it any time soon would not be that great, except that we heard from Stephen Kijak that a DVD will be coming out in October with an additional 45 minutes of footage! The movie was 80 minutes but apparently they shot over 80 hours of video for it – yes, video, not film, sorry all you cinephiles out there who refuse to see anything shot with video!
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While “studying” at Leningrad State University, I went to Latvia twice. Once it was on one of those 30-hour stints via two overnight train rides with a few fellow students. All I remember from that trip was that it rained the whole time and that Riga looked almost western to us in comparison to St. Petersburg. They had these Penguin ice cream shops that looked like Ben and Jerry’s or some other western chain. The streets were clean, the people polite, the food edible.