World Record

Being a dyed-in-the-blue movie buff requires a certain amount of stamina and stubbornness.

For the artsy, European types, it means being able to sit through yet another Bergman retrospective without blinking, or falling asleep. For the action-movie freaks, it means never getting tired of seeing cars smash into each other and explode in balls of flame on busy US streets (and knowing that Bruce Willis always wins in the end, no matter what).

For lovers of romantic comedies, it means sticking around until the wedding scene.

But there is a special kind of movie buff who doesn't care what he's watching. For these unrelenting and remorseless types with a natural inclination towards obsessive-compulsive behavior and control issues, it is of no consequence whether Julia Roberts is falling in love with that rich guy, or whether the crew of Icarus II made it to the sun.

The devil may be in the details, but fans of nonstop movie fests are not interested in the diabolical. Rather, they see movies as a test of their own endurance.

Claudia, the hero

Aficionados of self-imposed artistic torture now have a person they can look up to: Claudia Wavra of Germany. The 30-year old broke the world record in nonstop movie watching twice in a row.

This week, in a movie theater in the southern German town of Ravensburg, she watched movies for 117 hours and four minutes -- almost three hours longer than her previous record.

"The sum of all digits of 117 and four is 13," said Wavra. "And that's my favorite number. I worked a long time on how to reach that number."

After extensive numerological considerations, even the sight of Leonardo di Caprio's naked, nubile body, and sand in his hair, could not keep Wavra glued to her seat. Fifteen minutes into movie number 56 -- Leo's hippie-meets-horror bathing-suits extravaganza "The Beach" -- Wavra finally got up to go.

Cheered by onlookers and supporters, she said she felt relatively okay and was looking forward to taking a nap.

"I know that I haven't reached my limit yet," she said.

Rules of engagement

In order for the record to be valid, Wavra and the 69 other contestants who set out on this hallucinatory path with her were not allowed to take their eyes off the screen for longer than 10 seconds at a time. They were also allowed 10-minute breaks between movies.

"This morning at 3 a.m., we had to watch 'Dr. Zhivago,'" said one contestant, referring to the 1965 snow-filled three-hour classic about the Russian revolution set to the maddeningly wailing sound of balalaika. "That was mean, because the movie can really put you to sleep."

Wavra used her 10-minute breaks (or, rather, the portion of it which she didn't have to spend waiting in line for the toilet) for power naps or aggressive music meditation, listening to punk and hard rock CDs.

She also said that she couldn't quite remember individual movies.

"It's all a big, colorful mass of things," she said.

That's kind of a refreshing way of looking at the movie industry, come to think of it.