Date of a Film

[Michael Badzik]

Mark Schilling noted:

> Interestingly, the Leonard Maltin video guide lists the release date of
> "Shall We Dance?" as 1996, though it first appeared in Japanese 
> theaters in 1995. 
 
Is this really Leonard Maltin's fault? Both the IMDB and JMDB list a 
Japanese release date of January 27, 1996. Sounds like the actual and 
official release dates are rather different.

> Does this mean that a film does not really exist until Americans 
> see it?

Well Aaron says that a film is not a film unless it has been seen; it 
isn't that radical of a change to require it to be seen by film's most 
important audience. Yes, I am being facetious - but only at the expense 
of an existence theory that I have always had problems with.



Michael Badzik
mike at vena.com

Koan: If a film is shown in the woods, and no humans are there to see 
it, is it still a film?