| In the earliest days of cinema, the silver screen came by its name honestly, but projected light is only the most obvious thing that it reflects. At its mimetic best, the cinema holds up a mirror to the hopes, fears, dreams and desires of an entire society.
Yet, many movie lovers will be aghast to see aspects of themselves in Cinemania, a recent documentary about five obsessive New Yorkers for whom movie-going is not just a pastime but a way of life. All of these characters – and they are most certainly characters in the best sense of the word – schedule their lives around the various film festivals, retrospectives and dozens of other screenings that take place in the Big Apple each week. These oddballs may share extreme viewing habits and lack certain social graces, but they nevertheless make compelling subjects for a feature film due to their distinct tastes, passions and eccentricities.
There’s Roberta Hill, the irascible middle-aged woman who collects multiple copies of every cinema program she can get her hands on. There’s Bill Heidbreder, the Francophile who longs to marry a French woman so he can move to Paris, where the movie-going opportunities are even better than those in New York. There’s Harvey Schwartz, who indiscriminately buys dozens of film soundtracks on LP, even though he doesn’t own a record player. There’s Eric Chadbourne, who laments the fact that pleasure isn’t a more important consideration for most critics writing about the movies. And then there’s the ringleader, Jack Angstreich, an independently wealthy cineaste who thinks harder about his relationship to the cinema than any of the others.
As Cinemania delves into the unorthodox lives of these five unique personalities, we begin to see that their obsessions with the movies have completely overwhelmed their lives. Only Bill holds down a regular job, while Harvey, Eric and Roberta are said to be collecting disability pensions. Of course, Jack doesn’t have to worry about money, so that may be why he seems to be the least neurotic of the bunch – the rest are perpetually worried about where their next movie ticket is coming from.
Cinemania, like so many documentaries today, walks a fine line between celebrating its subjects and ridiculing them. I can’t say that I don’t sympathize with these people, but I’m afraid to admit that I do – I once watched 49 feature films in eight days at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival. It was the first major festival I had ever attended – how could I help myself?
Anyway, I know how cinephilia can spiral out of control, though I no longer have the physical or mental stamina for that kind of punishment. Nor would I want to process that many stimuli even if I could. While I enjoy the ways that movies enhance my life, I can’t see the pleasures of the cinema as an adequate substitute for all the pleasures of life. I suppose the people in Cinemania would call me a mere dabbler, but I relate to these misfits even though I’d like to think that I’m neither as obsessive or as socially awkward as any of them. It’s probably a defect in my own character that I judge them this way, although the film must take some of the blame for leading me to that judgment.
Still, I imagine most movie lovers share the anxieties and obsessions of these cinemaniacs to some degree. We all know what it’s like to have a film ruined by an incompetent projectionist or an audience member who insists on talking in the quiet parts. Some of us get upset when prints are scratched or when a film with a stereo soundtrack is played through a monaural sound system. Of course, the people in Cinemania are completely intolerant of anyone who disrupts their viewing pleasure and have uniquely elitist solutions to dealing with such problems – the deleted scenes on the DVD are a treasure trove of shocking but hilarious stories about some of our heroes’ proudest moments in the cinema.
Personally, at the end of Cinemania, I felt that I knew these people well, but moreover that I’d come to know myself a little better. For cineastes looking for similar illumination, I can give the film no higher recommendation. |
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