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100 American Independent Films
Jason Wood's selection, part of the 'BFI Screen Guides' series, is an informative map to one of the most vital areas in the contemporary film-making scene.
- GenresFilmNonfiction
276 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2004
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 19, 2013
My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper, is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected onto a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.
Robert Bresson
What a great quote!
You might have thought that American independent movies were low or no budget efforts with no-name actors (the director’s friends and family), and involved a lot of moody pouting and wannabegodard agitprop, and you’d be guaranteed not to have heard of any of them. Okay, yes, that's true for half of them. But in this 100 hot independent movie list you’ll find Cameron Diaz, Martin Sheen and Ryan Gosling and such well-loved box office hits as Bad Lieutenant, Boyz n the Hood, Reservoir Dogs, Easy Rider, Donnie Darko and (huh?) Robert Altman’s Nashville. So independent movies turn out to be American auteur movies. That's their single unique reason to exist, they're made by one particular personality, not by committee.
This is not to say that a bunch of Hollywood movies with big stars and all can't embody a singular vision and be as auteurist as all get out, of course they can. But they aren't usually.
This guide limits itself to feature length stuff from the 70s onwards, mostly, and there is no Roger Corman or Ed Wood, and no Kenneth Anger or Stan Brakhage. So this is the fun side of independence…mostly. None of that head scratching avant garde rubbish. (When I hear the words “audacious”, “challenging” and “non-linear” I reach for my Mace spray.)
I am happy that I have only seen a third of the 100 movies here & so will be catching up with eager alacrity. So yes, I haven't actually read this except the stuff about the ones I have seen, but it will certainly give me four stars worth of fun over the next year or so.
My favourites of the ones herein –
Bad Lieutenant
Badlands
Being John Malkovich
Blood Simple
Clerks
Crumb
Eraserhead
Juno
Me and You and Everyone we Know
Reservoir Dogs
Sherman’s March
Targets
Two lane Blacktop
Welcome to the Dollhouse
These are all Must Sees.
Robert Bresson
What a great quote!
You might have thought that American independent movies were low or no budget efforts with no-name actors (the director’s friends and family), and involved a lot of moody pouting and wannabegodard agitprop, and you’d be guaranteed not to have heard of any of them. Okay, yes, that's true for half of them. But in this 100 hot independent movie list you’ll find Cameron Diaz, Martin Sheen and Ryan Gosling and such well-loved box office hits as Bad Lieutenant, Boyz n the Hood, Reservoir Dogs, Easy Rider, Donnie Darko and (huh?) Robert Altman’s Nashville. So independent movies turn out to be American auteur movies. That's their single unique reason to exist, they're made by one particular personality, not by committee.
This is not to say that a bunch of Hollywood movies with big stars and all can't embody a singular vision and be as auteurist as all get out, of course they can. But they aren't usually.
This guide limits itself to feature length stuff from the 70s onwards, mostly, and there is no Roger Corman or Ed Wood, and no Kenneth Anger or Stan Brakhage. So this is the fun side of independence…mostly. None of that head scratching avant garde rubbish. (When I hear the words “audacious”, “challenging” and “non-linear” I reach for my Mace spray.)
I am happy that I have only seen a third of the 100 movies here & so will be catching up with eager alacrity. So yes, I haven't actually read this except the stuff about the ones I have seen, but it will certainly give me four stars worth of fun over the next year or so.
My favourites of the ones herein –
Bad Lieutenant
Badlands
Being John Malkovich
Blood Simple
Clerks
Crumb
Eraserhead
Juno
Me and You and Everyone we Know
Reservoir Dogs
Sherman’s March
Targets
Two lane Blacktop
Welcome to the Dollhouse
These are all Must Sees.
Displaying 1 of 1 review