| If an art lover is able to buy and collect paintings and
other such works, a film lover can only collect the residue of film images
in his or her memory, accumulate them and make them part of his own private
"collection". Cinemania is a documentary about several of the
most addicted and eccentric film-watchers in New York, obsessives who watch
films daily not merely for pleasure, but also as a psychological necessity.
They often cannot hold jobs and are on the verge of poverty, but absolutely
must watch films day and night, no matter the cost. These film fanatics
have seen 4000, 5000, 6000 movies and written them all down on lists that
attempt to collect, categorize and ultimately possess an abstract and fleeting
procession of aesthetic experiences.
There are some who, in their 40s, still live with their parents; while others live alone and lead lonely lives, relating to life on the movie screen rather than interacting with other people. All of these eccentric film-watchers have passed from having a passion for film to an addiction: film-watching has become an obsession that has taken over their lives completely. The reality outside the dark theater has grown to be almost non-existent; reality has been replaced by the projected images and the engaging fictions of the movies they see. Quoting one of our more reflective cinephiles, the daily consumption of films stems from a desire to "own" some piece of this artistic medium, which by its nature cannot physically be collected or owned. Collecting and keeping track of film schedules and even archiving their ticket stubs is the daily work of each cinephile; yet it is not possible to own a piece of this medium, which consists, essentially, of ephemeral sequences of light in motion. Each cinephile has developed his own systematic checklist, in an effort to organize an accumulation of knowledge about films and directors. The cinephiles profiled in Cinemania are living film encyclopedias. Cinemania is a feature length documentary and consists mainly of intimate
portraits of the five protagonists filmed in the style of Cinéma
Verité. The film will show each of their apartments, their private
spaces, habits and rituals, as these relate to organizing their film schedules
and their various collections.
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