The Indie Film Thread

[travolta]

john waters...cry baby hairspray, pink flamingos, polyester..

 

[fashionologie]

^ nice picks..have you seen the piano teacher or before night falls?

no, i haven't...i'll have to check them out

Dirty Pretty Things (thanks for the reminder fashionologie )

my pleasure...

 

[raijin]

John Waters is a very interesting director.

Would Garden State really be considered "independent" film?

 

[fashionologie]

as far as i know, garden state was originally financed and created by zach braff...
and then it was distributed by fox searchlight and financed by jersey films

so to answer your question, raijin, it's still technically considered indie, because it wasn't backed by a major film company (i.e. miramax, wb, etc.), even though you might think otherwise since it did so well.

 

[Belowen]

Donnie Darko
Run Lola Run
Y tu Mama Tambien (gael )
Swimming Pool (is that considered indie?)

And would Lost in Translation be considered indie?

 

[fashionologie]

lost in translation and swimming pool are both indie, as they were both put out by focus features

you reminded me, belowen... i need to add y tu mama tambien and donnie darko to my list!

 

[waukon73]

I just watched thirteen, its a really good movie.

 

[faust]

I just watched thirteen, its a really good movie.

that was a major hollywod production, i don't know what it's doing in this thread. i'd recommend Kids instead.

Mette, I agree on Moodysson. Lilya 4-ever was incredibly strong, moreover for me, being Russian.

I'm surprised noone has mentioned Lars von Trier yet . I also definitely recommend Wenders (Wings of Desire ) and Jarmush (Coffee and Cigarettes for an idiosyncratic experience). Actually I just rented The mystery train.

I must say I thought that several films mentioned here as faves were complete non-events for me: Goodbye Lenin, Monsier Ibrahim, Donnie Darko. Frankly I'm getting a little blase of all the foreign cinema that is playing in New York these days. We used to get the cream of the crop before, but now that documentaries and foreign films have become so fashionable (die hipsters!!!), it's becoming hard to pick a good film.

From what I've seen lately I really liked Head-On, a German film about Turkish immigrants in Germany. Italian for Beginners was a very sweet film.

And EVERYONE, do yourself a favor and watch BARAKA. You don't know what you are missing if you haven't.

 

[Spacemiu]

I love indie/art films, its really a big passion for me.

I love Tom Tykwer ( The Princess&The Warrior, Run Lola Run, Heaven, Winter Sleepers), Lars Von Trier ( Dancer in the Dark, Dogville), Tod haynes ( Velvet Goldmine, Safe), David Lynch ( Lost Highway,Blue Velvet), so many more....

 

[tiffany]

Lilya 4-ever was incredibly strong, moreover for me, being Russian.

From what I've seen lately I really liked Head-On, a German film about Turkish immigrants in Germany.

I agree on both counts

 

[luxmode]

And EVERYONE, do yourself a favor and watch BARAKA. You don't know what you are missing if you haven't.

Wonderful film...I actually own it

I agree about Lars von Trier. I really like him and I love the other Dogme films I've seen...they were such a revelation to me when I first saw them. I especially like [size=-1]Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration as well as Italian for Beginners. Wenders and [/size]Jarmush are amazing, too...of course!


Here's a very small list, for now. I'll have to think about this some more and come back...esp. about foriegn films--there are just so many and I'm not entirely sure which ones are "independent" and how far back are we going?

In no particular order...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Being John Malkovich
City of God
Donnie Darko
Memento
The Scent of Green Papaya
Underground
Character
Amelie
Pi
Hedwig and the Angry Itch

Has anyone seen the Triplets of Belleville or [size=-1]A Tout de Suite?[/size]


[size=-1]

[/size]

 

[travolta]

great picks guys . i have been wanting to see lilya 4-ever and dogville...
city of god is one heart wrenching movie .
yes, triplets of belleville was another really fanastic movie... what is atout de suite?

 

[travolta]

bump

 

[luxmode]

great picks guys . i have been wanting to see lilya 4-ever and dogville...
city of god is one heart wrenching movie .
yes, triplets of belleville was another really fanastic movie... what is atout de suite?

I really want to see Lilya 4-ever now, too, and I still haven't seen Dogville .
Y tu Mama Tambien sounds interesting and Notebooks on Cities and Clothes is being sent to me

[size=-1]A Tout de Suite is supposed to be a [/size][font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Nouvelle Vagueish style crime/romance which is based on a true story, I think... [/font]

 

[Arturo21]

that was a major hollywod production, i don't know what it's doing in this thread. i'd recommend Kids instead.

Mette, I agree on Moodysson. Lilya 4-ever was incredibly strong, moreover for me, being Russian.

I'm surprised noone has mentioned Lars von Trier yet . I also definitely recommend Wenders (Wings of Desire ) and Jarmush (Coffee and Cigarettes for an idiosyncratic experience). Actually I just rented The mystery train.

I must say I thought that several films mentioned here as faves were complete non-events for me: Goodbye Lenin, Monsier Ibrahim, Donnie Darko. Frankly I'm getting a little blase of all the foreign cinema that is playing in New York these days. We used to get the cream of the crop before, but now that documentaries and foreign films have become so fashionable (die hipsters!!!), it's becoming hard to pick a good film.

From what I've seen lately I really liked Head-On, a German film about Turkish immigrants in Germany. Italian for Beginners was a very sweet film.

And EVERYONE, do yourself a favor and watch BARAKA. You don't know what you are missing if you haven't.

I must say, even if they are foreign (And I had no idea at all it was hip, it seemed to me it was totally un-hip to watch them..or so popular television makes it seem.), they seem to be wonderful films to me. Good stories, what's wrong with that? Which films do you consider 'cream of the crop'? I'd like to watch them I'm compiling a list of films I want to see. I'll try and find Baraka when I go rent films today.

I must watch Ingrid Bergman films, are they truly as wonderful as I'm lead to believe or just ove ? Seventh Seal looks nice.

There's also another film called Broken Wings. I'm going to rent it today.
http://www.brokenwings.co.il/engsite/eng.html It looks very well made and promising. I also rented Mean Creek, but I haven't seen it yet.

 

[faust]

I must say, even if they are foreign (And I had no idea at all it was hip, it seemed to me it was totally un-hip to watch them..or so popular television makes it seem.), they seem to be wonderful films to me. Good stories, what's wrong with that? Which films do you consider 'cream of the crop'? I'd like to watch them I'm compiling a list of films I want to see. I'll try and find Baraka when I go rent films today.

I must watch Ingrid Bergman films, are they truly as wonderful as I'm lead to believe or just ove ? Seventh Seal looks nice.

There's also another film called Broken Wings. I'm going to rent it today.
http://www.brokenwings.co.il/engsite/eng.html It looks very well made and promising. I also rented Mean Creek, but I haven't seen it yet.

Oh, it's very hip in NYC to watch foreign/indie films...

Don't get me wrong, they are still better than the Hollywood garbage, but plenty of them have been mediocre lately. The two I mentioned, for example. Two late films with Audrey Tatou were complete crap, Happenstance and some other film where she played a psycho teenage girl in love with a married man (the name escapes me).

Definitely get Baraka, I recommend just buying it. You should watch several von Trier's films, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves. Lilya 4-ever. I think in your neck of the woods it's better if you join Netflix. The brick and mortar video stores would probably not have these (except Dogville probably). Wings of Desire is another must. I also recommend HurlyBurly - it's excellent. Sweet 16 is a great Scottish film. You should also be able to find several good Russian films; Burnt by the Sun, Brother, and the Thief are all good. I hesitate to recommend Tarkovsky's films, Solaris (not the one with Clooney, although it very closely followed Tarkovsky's film) and Stalker, because they are hard to swallow - but if you can, they are recognized worldwide. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is excellent as well. If you haven't seen Larry Clark's Kids, you should. That's about it for now , but I'm sure I'll think of more.

P.S. Another esteemed indie/foreign director is Romanian (or is he Yugoslavian?) Emil Kustiritsa. His films are just too weird for my taste, but I know a lot of people love them. Black Cat, White Cat, Arizona Dream (with Johnny Depp, I still haven't seen it), Underground.

 

[waukon73]

that was a major hollywod production, i don't know what it's doing in this thread


I don't see how, from what i heard it wasnt.

 

[adle]

Igby Goes Down is pretty much my favourite movie!

I recently have fallen in love with "P.S.". It is with Laura Linney and Topher Grace...soooooo good!

 

[fashionologie]

I just watched thirteen, its a really good movie.

that was a major hollywod production, i don't know what it's doing in this thread.

I agree with you, waukon73.

Thirteen may has gotten a lot of press for being "avant garde," yes, but does that media attention mean it was a major Hollywood production? No. The film was produced by Michael London Productions and Antidote Films, and we should all ask ourselves, "Are these major production companies?" Simple answer: No. Sure, they've produced a few other films, but they're not the big boys when it comes to the league of big-time blockbusters. Moreover, simply looking at the finances, Thirteen's budget didn't even reach $1.5 million, nor did it gross $5 million in the box office. Can you even compare $5 million total to an average of over $50 million the first weekend for major blockbusters? Probably not. Finally, Thirteen was distributed by Fox Searchlight in the states. Yeah, it's Fox, and yeah, Fox is big and ugly and evil, but the truth of the matter is that Fox Searchlight was created for the sole purpose of distributing indie flicks like Thirteen. Granted, the film's not as "indie" as some of the ultra-low budget films out there just barely scraping along, but it still definitely falls under the "indie" category and qualifications. That said, it was a really good film, and even if it weren't indie, which it is, I'd still recommend it.

 

[raijin]

I agree with faust.