Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise was a film produced by James Roberto Jarmusch or Jim as most people called him. Jim was born on January 22, 1953 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Jim was born to immigrant parents. His mom worked as a reviewer of film and theatre for the Akron Beacon Journal before marrying his father. Jim’s father was a businessman that worked for the B.F Goodrich Company. At a very young age Jim was introduced to films by his mother, Jim’s mom would drop him off at the local cinema while she ran errands. Jim stated that the first adult film he recalls having seen was the 1958 cult classic Thunder Road and that the violence and darkness left a very deep impression on him at seven years old. Another influence from his childhood was Ghoulardi, an eccentric Cleveland television show that featured horror films. After Graduating high school Jim moved to Chicago and enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism but Jim was kicked out for refusing to take any Journalism related classes. After this occurrence Jim transferred to Columbia University for the following year and wanted to become a poet. During his time at Columbia University Jim began to write short semi-narrative abstract pieces, and edited the undergraduate literary journal. Jarmusch's final year university project was completed in 1980 as Permanent Vacation, his first feature film. It had its premiere at the International Film festival Mannheim-Heidelberg and won the Josef von Sternberg Award. It was made on a very stringent budget of around $12,000 in misdirected scholarship funds and shot by cinematographer Tom DiCillo on 16 mm film. This film received positive reviews from critics and was the beginning of Jim’s career as a director. 

Indie Film Categories

It's the Same Old Song

We didn't bring up the prominently featured Four Tops hit (once put on by Meurice and then returns over the credits).  The first verse seems to refer to Abby's sweet demeanor but steely determination in resolving Marty's torture (even if it isn't Marty).

You're sweet (you're sweet) as a honeybee 
But like a honeybee stings 
You've gone and left my heart in pain 
All you left (all you left) is our favorite song 

The other significant verse is the chorus:

Now it's the same old song

But with a different meaning since you been gone

It's the same, same old song

But with a different meaning (Since you been gone)

This works as a wry nod to the revamped genre and love triangle plot that comprises the film.  They're reprising the "same old song" but with a difference in their stylish and knowing presentation.

Blood Simple

Blood Simple is something of an oddity since it does follow the usual independent film route of the personal (auteur) statement film, instead opting for a retro genre film, now known as neo-noir.  As it turns out, their ambitions weren't to remain entirely independent filmmakers, but to carve out a niche for themselves within the current Hollywood system.

 The Coens are both college educated, Joel at NYU studying film, Ethan at Princeton, studying philosophy. On that basis I think the initial impression of the Coens brothers were that they were NYC wisenheimers into making wry nods at their audience with cinematic references. Which isn't entirely untrue, but isn't entirely accurate either.

  As it turns out, they grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, making super 8 versions of and worked with Sam Raimi making Evil Dead, which offers a somewhat different impression.

   Of course, they were aiming to make their own movie, but in movie business there's a classic catch 22: you can't get in without making a movie, but no one is going to give you millions of dollars to make a movie if you haven't already made a movie. The obvious solution is to make a movie, but it's hard to do without money, especially in the old days when you actually had to use film.

   Their solution was to raise money with short three trailer of the film you're planning to make (scripted storyboarded, etc.)--essentially start filming, hoping that they'd be able to finish the rest. This is exactly what the Coen Bros. did, renting the camera equipment over a long weekend (President's Day), meaning you could have it for about 5 days but only pay for one day.

   They shot the significant bits of the film: gun being loaded, man being buried alive, gunshots fired through a wall and light streaming through bullet holes and showed the trailer around to social groups in the hopes of persuading people to give them money to fund it with the hope they'll be able to make their money back with a sufficient profit.

   On that basis, they more or less raised a million dollars, got some of the principles to defer fees, which means they could make the film for about mil and half--a fairly exorbitant compared to some later independent films such as El Mariachi, Clerks, or In the Company of Men.

    Although there are a number of idiosyncratic filmmakers out there, few get to have their visions released intact by major studios. However, 20th Century Fox (under studio president Joe Roth) released Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, and Barton Fink, in an arrangement with the Washington, D.C., company Circle Films. Circle has financed all of the Coens' pictures ever since releasing their independently made first feature, Blood Simple.

   The film had a mixed reception after its debut in the Cooper Theater and various film festivals around the country. J. Hoberman in the Village Voice said the film had the “heart of a bloomingdale's window and the soul of a resume,” while Pauline Kael quipped that the film “comes off as self-mocking, but there's no self to mock. Nobody committed to anything, and nothing to be lost but a mil and a half.” Others were more complimentary. David Denby called it “one of the most brazenly self-assured directorial debuts in American film history,” and Fangoria, found it “an art film, a comic tragedy, a splatter film, a murder story that honors Hitchcok without insulting his memory.”

Under the Influence of Opera

I wanted to mention this quotation by film scholar Ray Carney on Cassavetes' approach to film:

The secret of Cassavetes' method is to deny viewers every form of intellectual distance and control. The experiences he presents can't be held intellectually at arm's length. They won't be simplified by being translated into received ideas or push-button emotions. They resist being formulated. They must be challengingly negotiated moment by moment the way we live and feel things in real life. In all of their unresolved sprawl and mutability, the experiences in his films are the opposite of the canned, pre-programmed summaries of experience most other movies provide....

It's a good formulation of the different position Cassavetes' films put viewers in--and why they resist typical ways of watching and reacting to his work.

In our discussion someone compared the film to theater, which is apt, and not only because the script was initially aimed at a stage performance.  The minimal editing and long shots which characterize the cinematography in the film brings out this theatrical approach.  As Cassavetes put it, he simply lit the scene and let the actors do the scenes.  We watch as if they are performing on stage rather than cutting constantly to a specific reaction, as is the more conventional practice.  Such minimal editing is another reason why the already long scenes feel even longer.  We're expecting much more cutting from character to character.

  To take it further, I'd extend the analogy into musical theater, in this case the original musical theater, opera, which Cassavetes himself encourages in the film by including several arias from operas (La Boheme, Aida, etc.).  The reference emphasizes what we might call the operatic way that Mabel approaches her life (and connects with Carney's characterization above). 

American Film Independent--John Cassavetes

   John Cassavetes directed A Woman Under the Influence  in 1973.  He was born in New York on December 9th in 1929, the son of Greek immigrants. He went to school at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated in 1953. After completing school and having a tough time trying to find work on Broadway he went on starting in roles on television and then into some films. “Cassavetes still refers to himself as a “professional” actor and an “amateur” director, as most of his films have been financed by his acting career.” (Jacobs) He acted films such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Fury.(Erickson) In the case of this movie he actually had to mortgage his house. Luckily it paid off years later. (Jacobs)
  Having read a review by Roger Ebert on “A Woman Under The Influence” Ebert felt that Cassavetes was the most important of the American Indi filmmakers. (Ebert) He also noted that John Cassavetes was one of just a few directors whose movies you could identify by the by the dialogue, shots, scenes and characters within it. He noted Hitchcok as an example. Ebert felt that this film was the greatest of all of his films. (Ebert)
  The movie actually has his wife, Gena Rowlands, playing the wife Mabel in the movie along with both his and Gena’s mothers playing roles as the mothers in the film. Playing the husband, Nick Longhetti, is his friend Peter Falk. The movie is about a somewhat dysfunctional family where the wife really wants to please her husband but is constantly trying to hold it all together. It is about a mother who loves her children dearly but is also thinking most everything is a crisis. “There is no safe resolution at the end of a Cassavetes film. The characters seek to give love, receive it, express it, and comprehend it” (Ebert)
  In 1959 his first film, Shadows, was a low budget film shot in 16mm which was unscripted and not necessarily Hollywood material. In 1960 at the Venice Film Festival Shadows won the Critics Award and stirred interest. Following the success of Shadows Paramount contracted Cassavetes but the partnership did not last long. Prior to A Woman Under the Influence he directed a few more movies about marriages with Faces(1969) and Minnie and Moskowitz (1971). Many of his movies dealt with the struggles of marriage, understanding the opposite sex, and of course troubles with alcohol, sex, drugs, and self-doubt.
  In conclusion Cassavettes  likes to do movies about the actors and their lives. He was considered the most amateur of amateurs visually in the way he put the movies together with thing like a shaky picture. His movies did not necessarily revolve around a plot but more focused on the characters in it and their struggles.

Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper claimed that Easy Rider was the first film to be made independently and distributed by a major studio. The statement is true as far as it goes, but ignores the fact that the group (Bert Schneider and Bob Rafaelson) financing the film was already working with studios (creating the Monkees for TV). Further, Fonda came from Hollywood royalty (his father Henry Fonda of course, sister of already successful Jane), and Hopper had been toiling away (albeit grudingly) since he appeared in Rebel Without a Cause.

The film did address contemporary subjects and issues in a way most American films at the time didn't, though it used a familiar Hollywood form, the road movie to do so, and that Roger Corman's American International Pictures had been successfully making for years (and which both Fonda and Hopper had appeared in). In other words, the independence wasn't more in financing—a unexpected boon to the films producers, namely Rafaelson, Schneider, Fonda and Hopper.

Audience "Panels"

A separate (and much easier) assignment is to ensure our panel gets some thoughtful questions from the audience and spark discussion. Everyone will sign up to ask questions for each film. Your duties here are basically to find out something about the film beforehand (read some reviews, look for background info) and form some questions.

Obviously, you will sign up for a film other than the one you'll be presenting on.
Post your questions as comments to the presentation/posts on the blog (and of course ask them during the class).

Film Panel Description

Everyone will be choosing a film panel to participate on. It involves choosing an element of the three or four basic areas of a film or the director’s work: biography (their lives), filmography (their films), production, distribution of the film, critical reception (reviews) or something related to the food in the film.

Info for films is available either through books (highest points--ACPL has a strong film collection), magazine articles (equally high points--see Ebsco search) or Internet (this will likely be less useful for many of the films—fewer points). For contemporary reviews see rottentomatoes.com site; for information about the production (how it was made) and distribution (how it came to the public), see books, film magazines, and newspaper articles (high points).
These aspects are not the only possible topics for a paper. You may have other questions you want to pursue about particular actors, other food-related items. Don’t hesitate to do so. Coordinate the various sections with the various presenters.

Basically, you're trying to find points of interest to start us thinking about the film and to intrigue us.

Post your presentation to the blog BEFORE you present it to the class, especially any visuals (which can then be shown during your presentation. Be sure to tailor your posting to this format. In other words, you won't just plunk a chunk of text here, but some manageable portion with some links for further information and pertinent visuals.

Posting to the Blog

Posting on the blog may seem intimidating if you haven't done it before, but the following link should help.  Be sure you've signed into the blog first (see sign in in upper right corner).  Otherwise you won't be able to author posts.
  Be sure to sign in via the Sign in in the upper righthand corner before posting or commenting.
     The key for most will be to make sure to choose the "Compose" tab when Posting rather than getting into the Html editing  (located under the other tab), which requires more knowledge and trouble.

Also, don't be afraid to ask questions if you run into problems.

Welcome to Indie Film, Summer 2015

Indie Films at Cinema Center (Corner of Clay and Berry in Fort Wayne), May 19-June 23.  Films are free and open to the public, as are the discussions afterward.  The film is introduced at 7, and the films begin at 7:30pm.  The discussion is after the film.

We'll cover early independent film makers such as Peter Fonda and John Cassavetes to those of what might be called the golden age of independent filmmaking in the late 80s and 90s (Coens, Jarmusch, Lynch, etc.) to an intriguing recent reappearance in Linklater's Boyhood (2014)

  The focus is historical, so we look at early and “golden age” (80s and 90s) independent directors and producers, and cultural, considering “indie” as a set of assumptions about film content, characters, plot structure, etc.

Film Schedule

1. May 19 Hopper, Easy Rider (1967) (Newman, Introduction and Chapter 1)
          21 Cassavetes, Woman Under the Influence (1973)  (Newman, Chapter 2 and 3)

    2.           26 Coens, Blood Simple (1981) (Newman, Chapter 4)

                    28 Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise (1983) (Newman, Chapter 5)

    3. June 2 Lynch, Blue Velvet (1986) (Newman, Chapter 6)
                   4   Midterm (at IPFW, SB 184)

    4.         9  Lee, Do the Right Thing (1989)

                11 Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994)

   5.         16 Favreau, Swingers (1996)

                   18 Aronofsky, Pi (1998)  

    6.     23 Linklater, Boyhood (2014)