CINEMANIA (2002)

„These characters in Cinemania, have clearly crossed over some line and can no longer be considered normal or sane. After watching your film, we are ready to cross that line ourselves.“ (D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus)

„Are you prepared to alter your diet to avoid the need for toilet breaks, thus fitting in more movie screenings each day? Do you take changes of clothes to the cinema to avoid coming home? Can you live on peanut butter sandwiches for months in order to afford up to eight screenings a day? The individuals profiled in this probing but frequently hilarious documentary represent the most extreme cinephiles.“ (Melbourne International Film Festival)

„Unsettling docu about the civilians who virtually surrender everything else in life to attend up to five films a day. The non-narrated „Cinemania“ is an unsparing, if light touched, look at obsession, denial and where to find the cheap seats in Manhattan. The soundtrack’s French popsongs, all about cinephilia, add a dose of fun, as does the perfect finish, which finds the five protags in a small screening room, commenting snarkily on a rough cut of the pic we’re watching.“ (Ken Eisner, Variety)

„If Woody Allen invented these people as characters for one of his films, he’d be accused of gross exaggeration. Bill (who looks and sounds like a young version of Allen) scrupulously washes his glasses before each screening and arms himself with a large bag of peanut butter sandwiches, thermal underwear and pills for „sniffles“, back pains and anxiety. „My psychiatrist told me yesterday I have a compulsion,“ he reveals.“ (Sheila Johnston, Screendaily)

„Cinemania is potentially the most disturbing film of the festival, if you see yourself anywhere on the sliding scale between regular film goer and film buff. While all of this very amusing, Christlieb and Kijak aren’t in the business of ridicule. Theirs is a celebratory portrait of people who both love and are victims of film going culture, a film that’s by turns hilarious and saddening.“ (Miles Fielder, Edinburgh International Filmfestival)

„Anyone who’s held on to some movie ticket stubs or secretly plots to kill the person who takes 3 minutes to unwrap a candy bar during a crucial moment in a film will relate to this brilliant documentary film about the psychological compulsions of 5 obsessive cinephiles in New York City. What particularly stands out is how directors Christlieb and Kijak treat their subjects with dignity and respect…“ (Anji Milanovic)

„Jack Angstreich has a problem. He’s attended some 7000 film programs in the second half of his 32 years, but lately it’s been hard to keep up. Welcome to the world of Cinemania, the forthcoming doc by Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak on five of New York’s sultans of sitzfleisch.“ (Josh Goldfein, The Village Voice)