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It is not long before showtime on a cool Saturday evening in early August at The Vic Theatre in downtown Victoria, British Columbia. The organic coconut-oil popcorn is popping. The Phillips Blue Buck craft-brews are chilled. The Clos St. Ambroise and Farmhouse Cheddar cheese-plates are ready to be served. Outside, the sidewalk sandwich-board marquee bears the all-caps title of the night’s screening: “DE PALMA,” Jake Paltrow and Noah Baumbach’s loquacious documentary about the famed director of Scarface and Carrie, rich in churlish reminiscence and first-hand New Hollywood lore. The first customers of the evening – a pair of cheerful octogenarians hunched over walkers hobbling slowly but determinedly ahead – arrive at the box office.

“Two for The Man Who Knew Infinity,” they say. “Godammit,” the Vic’s manager whispers under her breath.

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The Man Who Knew Infinity is not playing tonight. It’s not playing until next week, but some miscommunication with the new designer of the Vic’s monthly newsletter has resulted in an incorrectly listed date – one mailed out to subscribers before anyone noticed the mistake. Management did everything they could to remedy the problem. They sent a swift correction to their online mailing list. They put an announcement on their website, their Facebook page, their Instagram story and their Twitter feed. Anywhere that a prospective moviegoer might reasonably double-check the night’s screening against their hard-copy newsletter listing would inform them that it is, in fact, De Palma playing on Saturday at 7:00 p.m., and not that British mathematician biopic starring Dev Patel. But it didn’t matter. “One for The Man Who Knew Infinity” would be a refrain heard at the box office that evening dozens and dozens of times.