Adventures in Anal-Retentiveness
Since I've had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to go back and do some of the research that would be necessary to do my cinema year in reivews prior to 2003. As often happens, this got somewhat out of hand. Ultimately, it involved three steps:
[1] I started by reviewing the CWRUFilm schedules for 1996-2004. This let me fill in a bunch of movies I saw prior to the start of my lists on Memorial Day 1998. Since I was already there, I filled in date info on my lists for 1999-2003, as I didn't actually log those on my initial lists.
A few movies I knew I'd seen at the CWRUFilm weren't on the official schedule, mostly things that had been sneak peaks like Grosse Point Blank. A quick query to jumpinfool, long-time projectionist for CWRUFilm, led to me getting pictures of the projection log from the theater, which apparently dates back to the late 1970s. I quickly nailed down dates for the few movies in that category.
[2] I went through my movie ticket stub collection and organized it by year. From this I was able to identify a number of movies from 1996 through 1998 that should have been on the lists. In most cases I was able to fill in the dates too, which I used to update the list through 2004. However, there were a dozen or so ticket stubs that had either no date or an illegible date, and a really tiny handful that couldn't be read at all. Many more had faded. Frankly, I should probably dump them, as I have all the data I need, but given that they all fit in a single gallon ziploc bag, there's no pressing need.
Note: the oldest ticket stub in my collection is the only one that predates 1996 - Golden Eye at the then brand new ten-plex in Grand Forks on December 2, 1995. I have no idea why I kept that stub.
[3] I didn't get religious about collecting ticket stubs until the lists started in 1998, so I went through Box Office Mojo for 1996-1998 and identified mainstream movies that I knew I'd seen in the theater. Obviously I don't have an exact date for these, but I do at least have a release date.
Of course, just having a release date isn't super helpful. Back then movies potentially played for months, even if they weren't giant blockbusters. As an example, according to my ticket stub my high school girlfriend and I saw The Truth About Cats & Dogs on May 23, 1996, which apparently opened on April 26. I'm not saying it never would have been playing a month later nowadays, but it certainly would have been on vanishingly few screens at odd times. Also, I grew up in North Dakota. Art-house films in particular opened much later there than elsewhere in the country, assuming they opened at all. If I recall correctly, Schindler's List, which won Best Picture and Best Director for Spielburg, did not open in North Dakota until after it won Best Picture, a gap of more than three months from initial release. Even if I'm misremembering the precise details in that case, the point is that I likely did not see many movies on opening weekend, so a ticket stub with no date only gives me a vague range.
Those three steps filled in 1996-1998 pretty effectively. I'll probably repeat [3] for movies prior to 1995. I went to movies relatively rarely, and they were mostly mainstream, so that'll probably remind me of quite a few. My parents may remember a few more.
As far as filling in more dates from 1998-2003, the one big gap left is the Cleveland Cinematheque. I didn't attend the Cinematheque until after my lists were started (Dark City, 1999) so I know all the names of the movies, but I don't have dates for 1999-2004. Unfortunately, years ago I thought to myself "why on earth am I keeping all these old Cinematheque schedules" and I recycled them. Since the Cinematheque didn't have tickets with the movie name / date until they moved into their new theater in 2015, that means that nailing down dates is difficult. However, it may not be impossible - I still have my calendars for most of those years, and I usually wrote the films on in advance. I may troll through my old posts from that era to see if I referenced anything back then. We'll see how anal retentive I get.
On a side note, there are obviously limits to this method of retroatively creating lists. For example, I saw the movie The Game at some point in college, probably after it's 1997 release. However, it's not on any of my lists, it's not on the CWRUFilm schedule at a time I could have seen it, nor is it on the projection log so it wasn't a sneak peek. I don't have a ticket stub. Did I see it in a first run theater? It seems unlikely, although maybe I went because it was David Fincher's first film after Seven. Alternately, maybe I watched it on cable at my fraternity house. I might even have rented it. I'm not sure, but I know I saw it. I actually had a similar problem with Seven. I first saw it when my high school girlfriend and I rented it. I feel like I might have seen it at CWRUFilm later on, and it certainly played at a time I could have gone, but I can't recall for sure. Memory is a fickle bitch, as always, and history, even (or especially) personal history is rarely certain.
In any event, pulling this information together doesn't in any way guarantee I'll do film year in review summaries for back then. If I do, they'll look pretty different from my usual yearly summaries, since most of those movies have been (justly) forgotten. Still, it was a fun exercise.
[1] I started by reviewing the CWRUFilm schedules for 1996-2004. This let me fill in a bunch of movies I saw prior to the start of my lists on Memorial Day 1998. Since I was already there, I filled in date info on my lists for 1999-2003, as I didn't actually log those on my initial lists.
A few movies I knew I'd seen at the CWRUFilm weren't on the official schedule, mostly things that had been sneak peaks like Grosse Point Blank. A quick query to jumpinfool, long-time projectionist for CWRUFilm, led to me getting pictures of the projection log from the theater, which apparently dates back to the late 1970s. I quickly nailed down dates for the few movies in that category.
[2] I went through my movie ticket stub collection and organized it by year. From this I was able to identify a number of movies from 1996 through 1998 that should have been on the lists. In most cases I was able to fill in the dates too, which I used to update the list through 2004. However, there were a dozen or so ticket stubs that had either no date or an illegible date, and a really tiny handful that couldn't be read at all. Many more had faded. Frankly, I should probably dump them, as I have all the data I need, but given that they all fit in a single gallon ziploc bag, there's no pressing need.
Note: the oldest ticket stub in my collection is the only one that predates 1996 - Golden Eye at the then brand new ten-plex in Grand Forks on December 2, 1995. I have no idea why I kept that stub.
[3] I didn't get religious about collecting ticket stubs until the lists started in 1998, so I went through Box Office Mojo for 1996-1998 and identified mainstream movies that I knew I'd seen in the theater. Obviously I don't have an exact date for these, but I do at least have a release date.
Of course, just having a release date isn't super helpful. Back then movies potentially played for months, even if they weren't giant blockbusters. As an example, according to my ticket stub my high school girlfriend and I saw The Truth About Cats & Dogs on May 23, 1996, which apparently opened on April 26. I'm not saying it never would have been playing a month later nowadays, but it certainly would have been on vanishingly few screens at odd times. Also, I grew up in North Dakota. Art-house films in particular opened much later there than elsewhere in the country, assuming they opened at all. If I recall correctly, Schindler's List, which won Best Picture and Best Director for Spielburg, did not open in North Dakota until after it won Best Picture, a gap of more than three months from initial release. Even if I'm misremembering the precise details in that case, the point is that I likely did not see many movies on opening weekend, so a ticket stub with no date only gives me a vague range.
Those three steps filled in 1996-1998 pretty effectively. I'll probably repeat [3] for movies prior to 1995. I went to movies relatively rarely, and they were mostly mainstream, so that'll probably remind me of quite a few. My parents may remember a few more.
As far as filling in more dates from 1998-2003, the one big gap left is the Cleveland Cinematheque. I didn't attend the Cinematheque until after my lists were started (Dark City, 1999) so I know all the names of the movies, but I don't have dates for 1999-2004. Unfortunately, years ago I thought to myself "why on earth am I keeping all these old Cinematheque schedules" and I recycled them. Since the Cinematheque didn't have tickets with the movie name / date until they moved into their new theater in 2015, that means that nailing down dates is difficult. However, it may not be impossible - I still have my calendars for most of those years, and I usually wrote the films on in advance. I may troll through my old posts from that era to see if I referenced anything back then. We'll see how anal retentive I get.
On a side note, there are obviously limits to this method of retroatively creating lists. For example, I saw the movie The Game at some point in college, probably after it's 1997 release. However, it's not on any of my lists, it's not on the CWRUFilm schedule at a time I could have seen it, nor is it on the projection log so it wasn't a sneak peek. I don't have a ticket stub. Did I see it in a first run theater? It seems unlikely, although maybe I went because it was David Fincher's first film after Seven. Alternately, maybe I watched it on cable at my fraternity house. I might even have rented it. I'm not sure, but I know I saw it. I actually had a similar problem with Seven. I first saw it when my high school girlfriend and I rented it. I feel like I might have seen it at CWRUFilm later on, and it certainly played at a time I could have gone, but I can't recall for sure. Memory is a fickle bitch, as always, and history, even (or especially) personal history is rarely certain.
In any event, pulling this information together doesn't in any way guarantee I'll do film year in review summaries for back then. If I do, they'll look pretty different from my usual yearly summaries, since most of those movies have been (justly) forgotten. Still, it was a fun exercise.