Welcome to filmmakers hell
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Few movies depict the frustration, monotony and repetitive malaise that accompanies the making of a film better than "Living in Oblivion," a comedic meditation on the trials and tribulations of creating a low-budget independent feature. This under-the-radar gem from 1995 is worthy of rediscovery, as it remains relevant and comically insightful to modern audiences. Here's a summary of our collective observations about this flick:
WHAT DID YOU FIND UNEXPECTED AND SURPRISINGLY DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS MOVIE COMPARED TO WHAT YOU EXPECTED?
• It’s comprised of three acts, two of which are revealed to be dream sequences; this could be frustrating to viewers, making them doubt everything they see and mistrust the film’s details, or it could be seen as clever and creative.
• It’s both funny and painfully honest—comedic in its colorful characters and Murphy’s Law situations that ensue, but sincere at showing the warts and all reality of how difficult it actually is to shoot a low-budget independent feature film.
• This film bursts the audience’s bubble that making movies happens in a dream factory where the experiences are stellar, resources are vast, and cast and crew are united in a creative collaboration. Many viewers suffer from the illusion that making a movie is a glamorous, glitzy, enormously rewarding endeavor involving geniuses and treasured talents, when actually many films have to work very hard with subpar talent and compromise the filmmakers’ vision just to get made at all. That’s a depressing thought the viewers as well as artists, but this film softens the blow by dressing itself up as a comedy that’s only a little tongue in cheek.
• This film falls within the subgenre of “metacinema,” in which the audience is watching a movie within a movie—a story about the making of a film in which the movie’s production is referenced. A metacinema movie is also a film that knows it’s a film, sometimes breaks the fourth wall to acknowledge its audience, and even acknowledges itself directly. “Living in Oblivion” is a movie that depicts filmmakers producing a movie called “Living in Oblivion.” Famous examples of other metacinema movies include 8½, F for Fake, Mulholland Drive, Day for Night, and Being John Malkovich.
WHAT THEMES ARE SUGGESTED IN THIS FILM?
• Illusion versus reality
• The creative process is far from easy—it’s actually very difficult, taxing, and unpredictable.
• A team is only as strong as its weakest link: the fictional film crew in this movie is interdependent on each other.
• Even in a metacinema movie that attempts to show the candid, nonglamorous, unattractive side to making movies, you can’t necessarily believe everything you see (as evidenced by the sequences revealed to be dreams).
• The prize is just out of reach: consider the symbol of the apple, which remains inaccessible for Nicole in her scenes and which also remains elusive metaphorically for Nick.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT THIS FILM WAS COBBLED TOGETHER—THE FIRST THIRD WAS COMPLETED AND ORIGINALLY INTENEDED AS A FINISHED SHORT, WITH ACTS TWO AND THREE ADDED ON TO MAKE IT A FEATURE-LENGTH FILM—MANY CRITICS THINK “LIVING IN OBLIVION” FEELS ORGANIC AND FLOWS WELL. DO YOU AGREE?
• The first act was shot on 16 mm black and white film, which is different from the rest of the movie; the “film within a film” sequences were shot in color. But later scenes use a reverse strategy. In this way, some could argue that the film’s overall look and palette appears disjointed, yet using monochrome vs. color and 16 mm vs. 35 mm fits within the “metacinema” approach discussed earlier.
DOES THIS FILM REMIND YOU OF ANY OTHER FILMS OR TV SHOWS?
• Francois Truffaut’s “Day for Night”
• “Behind the scenes” type movies like “American Movie,” “The Player,” “My Life’s in Turnaround,” and “Mistress”
• David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” TV series and follow-up film, which also featured strange dream sequences and a dwarf in a red room
OTHER WORKS DIRECTED BY TOM DICILLO
• “Box of Moon Light”
• “Delirious”
• “The Doors: When You’re Strange” (documentary)