film.nn.ru was a Nizhny Novgorod cinema listings site: it published the repertoire of the city's cinemas, film annotations, movie news, and a forum[1]. It ran on the Nizhny Novgorod domain nn.ru; the home page's title read "FILM.NN.RU | - киноафиша Нижнего Новгорода" ("cinema listings of Nizhny Novgorod"), and the central block of the page was headed "Today on screens in Nizhny Novgorod"[1]. By autumn 2002 the site was already listed in the nn.ru catalog with the description "The most objective information on cinema, forums"[4]. Surviving snapshots of the home page date to 2003 and 2005[1][2], while the last home page snapshot in the web archive, dated March 2011, shows only an empty hosting placeholder[3].

What the home page looked like

The page opened with the "News of the day" section — a short note on cinema, cut off by a "[ Read more... ]" link[1]. In the snapshot from October 7, 2003, the note was titled "A Hopelessly Eternal Fight" and, as the home page put it, recounted a meeting between Russia's press minister Mikhail Lesin and Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti, at which the piracy problem was discussed[1]. In the snapshot from January 27, 2005, the same spot carried a retelling of a rumor about Catherine Zeta-Jones as a possible "next Bond girl"[2].

Next to it sat the "Site rating" block — five film titles with no comment. In October 2003 it listed "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Bruce Almighty," "Agent Cody Banks," "Wrong Turn," and "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd"[1]. In January 2005 the list read: "Wasabi," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "The Matrix Revolutions," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "Bruce Almighty"[2].

Most of the page was taken up by a list of films showing in the city: each entry gave the genre, a few lines of annotation, and two links — "More about the film" and "Where to watch it?"[1]. The 2003 snapshot listed seven films this way: "Bruce Almighty" (comedy), "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (thriller), "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" (crime action), "The Italian Job" (action comedy), "Jeepers Creepers 2" (horror), "Mortadelo and Filemon: The Big Adventure" (action comedy), and the animated film "Rain Children" (Дети дождя)[1].

Sections, cinemas, forum

The "All about cinema" menu had four items: "Today on screens," "Cinema news," "All films," and "Coming soon"[1]. A separate "Cinemas" block listed eight venues in the city — Kanavinsky, Mir, Oktyabr, Orlyonok, Rossiya, Sormovsky, Sputnik, Elektron[1]. By January 2005 a ninth line had appeared in the list, "Formula Kino"[2]. Otherwise, the set of sections and their names did not change over the year and a half between the two snapshots[1][2].

The "Communication" section consisted of a single item — "Forum"[1]. Below it hung a standing poll, "What attracts you most in films?", with ten options: "Plot," "Actors," "Special effects," "Erotica:))," "Humor," "Blood spatter," "Budget," "Length," "Credits," "I hate movies" — with a "[ results ]" link[1]. The page closed with the line "Advertise on this site"[1]. None of the surviving home page snapshots names the site's owner, its editorial staff, or a postal address or phone number[1][2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru catalog, a directory of Nizhny Novgorod sites, film.nn.ru appeared in the "Firms (Businesses): Leisure and entertainment" section under the name "Cinema listings of Nizhny Novgorod" (КиноАфиша Нижнего Новгорода)[4]. In that section's snapshot from October 4, 2002, only two resources were listed: the cinema listings site, marked "Rating: 267," and "Pauteena.ru internet cafe," whose entry in the same column read "none"[4]. The catalog allowed sorting resources "by rating," "by hosting," and "by check date," and the number 267 determined the cinema listings site's place in that ranking[4].

We have no other numeric traces. film.nn.ru does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, nor is it in the list of over 180 sites in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day for 2004[5]. In our sample the cinema listings site is present only in the city catalog, but not in the contest and rating section of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet; on how our cross-section of the era is put together, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

How it closed

On March 17, 2011, film.nn.ru showed a standard hosting control panel placeholder: "Welcome! Site film.nn.ru just created. Real content coming soon," signed "ISPmanager control panel"[3]. This is what a freshly set up, empty account looks like: the cinema listings site was no longer there, and the promised "real content" never returned to the domain — this is the last home page snapshot preserved by the web archive[3]. What remains of the site: two home page snapshots, a catalog entry, and the number 267 in the rating column[1][2][4].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2011 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru catalog, «Leisure and entertainment» section, 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet voting results, 2004 (archive)