Main Cast: Jack Angstreich, Roberta Hill, Bill Heidbreder, Harvey Schwartz, Eric Chadbourne
Release Year: 2002
Country: DE/US
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak direct the documentary Cinemania, concerning five individual New Yorkers with self-styled movie obsessions that border on the psychotic. Living on disability is Eric Chadbourne, who is an obsessive collector as well as viewer; Harvey Schwartz, who has memorized countless amounts factual data like movie running times; and Roberta Hill, who is such an aggressive audience member that she has been kicked out of several theaters. Unemployed and living in denial, Bill Heidbreder is into European art films to a serious degree, while the somewhat self-aware Jack Angstreich lives off of an inheritance and claims to keep a schedule of watching five movies a day. The conclusion appropriately features the five subjects screening a rough cut of the documentary and offering their comments. Shot on digital video, Cinemania contains a cinema-themed soundtrack provided by witty French indie pop band Stereo Total. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
Cinemania is a sporadically fascinating foray into the world of five insanely compulsive New York City moviegoers. Any longtime New York film fan will recognize both these people and the venues they frequent. Filmmakers Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak choose their subjects wisely. The five have wildly varying degrees of self-awareness. Harvey Schwartz, with his unique whinnying laughter, and Roberta Hill, who was once banned from the Museum of Modern Art after a violent encounter with a hapless ticket taker, display little interest in self-examination, while Jack Angstreich, who gets the most screen time, seems to devote a great deal of time and energy to justifying his unusual lifestyle choices. In addition to devoting large chunks of time, like the others do, to scheduling, so that he can see the most obscure films every day, Jack calls curators in advance to discuss the quality of prints, and states proudly that he's the only subject in the film who actually has the phone numbers to all the projection booths of the venues he frequents. His response to people who claim that he's not living in the real world is a lament that serves all of these essentially sad, lonely people equally well -- "Who would want to live in this reality?" Unfortunately, the filmmakers, shooting on digital video (much to the chagrin of their subjects), are determined to keep things light and amusing. They're successful at it, but Cinemania might have been a more edifying experience if it really delved into the roots of this obsession and explored whether the obsession followed from social inadequacy and unhappiness, or to what degree these filmgoers' devotion to cinema, at the expense of all else, contributed to their current state. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Cast
Jack Angstreich - Himself
Roberta Hill - Herself
Bill Heidbreder - Himself
Harvey Schwartz - Himself
Eric Chadbourne - Himself
Richard Aidala - Projectionist; Tia Bonacore - Usher; David Schwartz - curator; Michael Slipp - Neighbour
Credit
Stephen Kijak - Director, Angela Christlieb - Director, Stephen Kijak - Editor, Angela Christlieb - Editor, Robert Drasnin - Composer (Music Score), Stereo Total - Composer (Music Score), Angela Christlieb - Cinematographer, Gunter Harfgarn - Producer, Gunter Hanfgarn - Producer, Tom Blankenberg - Sound Mixer, Stephen Kijak - Sound/Sound Designer, Mario Pego - Sound/Sound Designer, Manuel López - Sound/Sound Designer, Jennifer Packard - Sound/Sound Designer, Dietmar Post - Sound/Sound Designer, Heiko Schendel - Sound/Sound Designer, Stephen Kijak - Screenwriter, Angela Christlieb - Screenwriter, Gaetan Rousseau - Additional Cinematography, Johannes Sabinski - Post Production Supervisor, Stephen Kijak - Production Supervisor, Avi Weider - Production Supervisor
Cinemania is a 2002German / American documentary about five obsessed cinemaphiles, who, throughout the year, each see two to five films a day.
Cast
Eric Chadbourne - A cinephile who lives on disability benefits, and who vociferously prefers musicals and romantic-comedies to foreign films. He is the only profiled character in the documentary who has succumbed to watching films on video, of which he seems to own thousands (the others steadfastily refuse to watch TV under any circumstances; Roberta Hill states that she "only has nightmares in video.")
Harvey Schwartz - A cinephile who has traits found among those with Asperger syndrome, who lives on disability benefits. According to Jack, Harvey has no discerning taste in film and will watch just about anything, including The Amazing Crab Monster. Can quote the exact running time of every film he's ever seen from memory; owns hundreds of soundtrack LP's, but doesn't have a turntable.
Bill Heidbreder - A cinephile who defines his taste in film as "effeminate" as he prefers "relationship" films to action films. An NYU grad student and amateur philosopher who lives on unemployment benefits.
Roberta Hill - An obsessive-compulsive woman who, according to Jack, "is so far in the prison [of cinephilia], that to me, it's just a hopeless, Sisyphean lifestyle." Has kept every piece of film-memorabilia she's got her hands on for what appears to be the last five decades, including ticket-stubs, programs, fliers, a promotional bottle of water from an independent film called Water, and promotional plastic cups from Last Action Hero and Jurassic Park. Roberta has been banned from many theaters for her rude and uncouth behavior, which has included attacking ushers who have torn too much paper off her ticket-stubs.
Jack Angstreich - The most heavily-profiled member of the quintet, Jack's justification for his abnormal behavior is to not deny what he considers to be a "visionary" lifestyle, that there is no "correct" way to live, and really has no interest in real-life beyond the cinema. Claims that he wouldn't want to make love to Rita Hayworth unless he was doing it in black-and-white. Living off an inheritance, Jack sees upwards of five films per day (and claims to have seen over 1,000 films in eight months at one point), and eats a voluntarily constipating diet so he won't be interrupted while watching a film and have to go to the bathroom. Jack keeps elaborate spreadsheets of every film he's ever seen and every film playing within the tri-city area.
