Cinemania

Cinemania follows the daily life of five film addicts in New York. One is more severely afflicted than another, but all of them dedicate their whole lives to celluloid. Weddings and funerals take second place to Bertolucci and B films. The vast number of films screened in New York mean they have to use tight schedules and strict selection criteria. They even call the operators to check the condition of the film print. `Cinemania’ also involves a special diet of its own: running between two cinemas, a hamburger or an ice cream has to suffice. Jack eats little vegetables to spend less time on the toilet so he can see more films. The cinema survival kit used by Bill (a younger version of Woody Allen) is made up of peanut butter sandwiches, thermal underwear in case he is cold and pills to prevent a cold, back pain and anxiety attacks. Roberta looks like a sweet old lady, but is one of the most fanatical and most obsessive ‘cinemaniacs’. She has even been banned from some cinemas because of her aggressive reaction to the ticket tearers who dared to damage her ticket. Most cinemaniacs refuse to watch anything on video.To reassure all Rotterdam cinemaniacs: the video material was transferred to good old-fashioned celluloid.