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office. The greatest strength of U.S. film has always

been its conjunction of popular appeal with work of

artistic distinction. More than many other directors

now working, Spielberg exemplifies this principle.

After Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg took an un-

usual (for him) break from filmmaking. His next two

features, Al.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) and Minority

Report (2002), were an ambitious and challenging

return to the genre of science fiction, but without the

children's orientation of E.T. and dose Encounters.

I DEPENDENT FILM

Independent Film 39 3

Both are grim and disturbing films, aimed for adults, and suggested that Spielberg, who had always been a visionary director, was pursuing his artistic ambi- tions as vigorously as he once courted the box of- fice. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center, Spielberg made three films that reflected on 9/11 : The Terminal (2004), War of the Worlds (2005),

and Munich (2005), one of his finest films. He then returned to the Indiana Jones franchise with Indiana

Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Many viewers probably think of independent films as being wholly distinct and different from blockbusters and from mainstream studio movies. In fact, though,

the category of independent film includes many different types of movies, some

of which may have rather high budgets, big stars, and a major studio distributor. Cold Mountain (2003), for example, a drama about the Civil War, starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, cost $83 million to make and was distributed by a subsid- iary of Disney, one of the major studios. Star Wars Episode Ill: Revenge of the Sith (2005) was made by George Lucas' production company, Lucasfilm, without studio control or interference.

At the other end of the spectrum of independent film, Open Water (2003) cost only $130,000 to make. This drama about two divers who are stranded in the ocean when their dive boat returns to shore and who are preyed on by sharks had a very low production cost because it was shot on digital video and was a two-character film, with the ocean as the main set. Most famously, The Blair Witch Project (1999) required only $35,000 to complete. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) also was a very inexpensive film.

"Independent," then, does not always mean that a film was low budget or was made completely outside the studio system. It is better to think of this category as containing a range of films, at different budget levels, that were either financed or produced or distributed by sources outside the major Hollywood studios, although the studios may have some level of involvement. A film such as Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) was made completely outside the system, with no participation at any level by a Hollywood major. On the other hand, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004) was financed independently but was distrib-uted by Warner Bros., one of the majors.

One The film industry, therefore, is not divided into two camps,

into one

many mainstream

separate and

independent. The industry is decentralized and fragmented Pr0duction companies and distributors, and the relationships among these can becomplex and fluid.

While financing and of a film's degree of independence,

distribution another

arrangements characteristic

provide that

a very many

good viewers

measure mayhold in mind when thinking about independent film is artistic experimentation.

394 CHAPTER to At the Crossroads of Business and Art

THE KING'S SPEECH (THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY, 201 0); WINTER'S BONE

(WINTER'S BONE PRODUCTIONS, 2010)

Independent film is diverse, occupying a range of budgets and styles. Some pictures,

such as The King's Speech, may have relatively large budgets and prominent stars,

such as, in this case, Helena Bonham Carter, Colin Firth, and Geoffrey Rush. During

its widest distribution, it played in 2500 theaters. In contrast, Winter's Bone, nomi-

nated for an Academy Award as Best Picture, screened in only 141 theaters. Frame

enlargement.

Independent film is often thought to be more daring, off-beat, or radical in its

artistic design, with filmmakers taking more risks than they would be able to in

a studio project. This is sometimes true, sometimes not, again because independent film is a big

category that contains a large range of movies. Sin City (2005) clearly takes an ex-

perimental approach in placing live actors against digitally rendered sets and props.

Irdependent Film 395

(2001) famously tells it« story backward, and The Alachvust (2004) otfcrs a thriller with numerous ambiguities and a grainy black-and-white look.

As noted, though, Cold Mountain and Million Dollar Baby are also independent films because of their financing arrangements, and these pictures feature strong sto- ries, told in a straightforward way, with characters whose fates are emotionally mov- ing and who are played by charismatic stars. These are characteristics of mainstream

Hollywood films as well.

Independent film, then, is a very flexible category and a very big one. Most of the films that are in release in any given year are independents. While films by the

Hollywood majors tend to generate most of the media coverage (because these include

the blockbusters), the independent distributors actually put more films into circulation

than the majors. In 2010, for example, the majors released 141 films, whereas inde-

pendent distributors released 419, and this ratio has held constant for several decades. The downside to independent distribution is that these films go into fewer the-

aters and will be seen by smaller audiences. On the other hand, with so much product

in circulation, an independent filmmaker has many opportunities for getting a film

produced and distributed. A convenient way to understand independent film is to examine it in terms of its

production companies, film festivals, and filmmakers.

Production Companies Miramax was the most prominent producer and distributor of independent films. Run by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miramax began as a stand-alone company and

SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE (MIRAMAX, 1989) Inning numerous awards from film festivals and critics' associations and distributed to

great success by Miramax, this film launched the modern era of independent filmmaking. It helped put Miramax on the map as the pre-eminent distributor of independent film. With its focus on the sexual

independent hang-ups

film of three

as being characters

an outsider and

to its

mainstream atypical style,

Hollywood it also solidified

product. the reputation of Frame

enlargement.

396 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

became famous when it acquircd Stcvcn Soderbergh's sex, lies & videotape (1989) at

the Sundance Film Festival. The Soderbergh film went on to become one of the

most prominent and popular "indies" of its era, and its release

by Miramax is often re-

garded as the opening chapter of the modern independent film era.

The Weinstein brothers moved aggressively to put a large number of

films into

distribution. They proved to be very shrewd judges of the marketplace, and many

of the films they acquired performed extremely well and have become classics

of the

indie movement—The Crying Game (1992), In the Bcdroom (2001), Kill Bill (2003,

2004), House of Sand and Fog (2004), and Sin City (2005). The Weinsteins also championed the careers of emerging

directors by fund-

ing and distributing their work and aggressively publicizing it for Academy

Award

nominations. The most famous of the Miramax directors are Quentin Tarantino

and

Michael Moore. Miramax's backing of Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction

(1994),

Jackie Brown (1997), and Kill Bill (2003) demonstrated that independent film

could

have considerable box-office earning power, as did Roger & Me (1989), Bowling

for

Columbine (2002), and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Tarantino's films have been massively influential on

a generation of young film-

makers, as has Michael Moore's approach to the documentary format. In this respect,

Miramax left a lasting legacy to American cinema. Disney acquired Miramax in 1993, and the Weinsteins

used their connection to

a Hollywood major to expand the budgets and production resources of their films.

The Miramax productions that followed blurred the line between independent film

and the larger scale and scope of Hollywood productions. These big-budget indies in-

cluded The English Patient (1996), Cold Mountain, Gangs of New York (2002), and

The Aviator (2004). The relationship with Disney, though, had a downside—corporate control from

above running counter to the spirit of independent filmmaking. This issue was very

apparent in the fight that erupted over Fahrenheit 9/11. Disney, which had contracted

to release the film, decided not to distribute it once the picture had been completed.

Many suspected that the film's anti-Bush politics had prompted Disney's decision, al-

though Disney denied that this was the case.

The Weinsteins lobbied Disney to negotiate new terms that would allow them to

find another distributor, and after much back-and-forth, they were successful. But the episode showed how corporate control of the media can threaten to restrict the flow of ideas and expression, and it helped to sour the relationship of Miramax and Disney.

The era from 1989 to 2005 may be seen in retrospect as the classical era of inde- pendent filmmaking, personified most visibly by Miramax. In 2005, the Weinsteins broke with Disney but were not allowed to keep the name of their company or its library of films. They formed The Weinstein Company and distributed such notable indies as Blue Valentine (2010), Miral (2010), and The King's Speech (2010), which won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

OTHER INDIE COMPANIES sex, lies & videotape eventually earned more than $100 million on a production cost of $1.2 million, and this record drew the attention ofthe Hollywood majors, all of whom created their own subsidiaries to finance or dis-tribute independent films. These included Fox Searchlight (One Hour Photo, 2002),Sony Pictures Classics (Baadasssss, 2004), and Universal's Focus Features (BillyElliot, 2000; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2001). Many have now ceasedoperating.

Independent Film 397

a-py

BLACK SWAN (FOX SEARCHLIGHT, 2010)

The relative popularity of independent films led the Hollywood majors to get in on the

action. The majors formed subsidiary companies to finance or distribute independent pictures. Fox Searchlight distributed this thriller by director Darren Aronofsky about a

ballerina (Natalie Portman) suffering a psychotic breakdown. Frame enlargement.

Stand-alone companies, unaffiliated with the majors, include Lion's Gate

(Monster's Ball, 2001; Focus and Beyond

Features the

(Brokeback Sea, 2004),

Mountain, Summit Entertainment

2005; Lost in (the

Twilight movies), and

Translation, 2003). Film stars and directors also have formed their own production

companies. Mel Gibson's Icon Productions financed and distributed The Passion of

the Christ (2004) when none of the Hollywood majors was willing to take the proj-

ect on. Gibson made the film exactly the way he wanted it, including elements the

majors considered unmarketable, such as extremely graphic violence and dialogue

spoken in Aramaic and accompanied by subtitles. Impressed on with

DVD. the film's box-

office performance, 20th Century Fox agreed to distribute it

The Independent Film Channel (IFC) on cable television also has provided financ-

ing and distribution through several of its divisions. IFC Productions has provided

financing for films that include Boys Don't Cry (1999), with distribution by Fox

Searchlight and an Oscar-winning role for actress Hillary Swank. Independent Digital

Entertainment produces digital films (Tape, 2001). IFC Originals produces films for

the IFC cable channel, and IFC Films concentrates on production for theatrical mar-

kets (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2002).

The network of companies involved in independent production ancl distribu-

tion illustrates an interesting contradiction about the filtn industry. It is both highly

centralized, with significant control exerted by the majors, and also quite decen-

tralized, with many arenas where production can occur and many avenues to distri-

bution and the marketplace. And the sheer output of the independent sector means

that a great many of the films that viewers see are, in fact, indies.

Festivals

Film festivals provide an important mechanism for sustaining the independent film

scene. Fledgling directors compete for slots at a festival, where they hope the screen-

ing of their work will attract a deal with the distribution companies whose reps attend

398 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

looking for product. Festivals also provide a public expression for the enthusiasm and passion of filmmakers and viewers who are looking for artistry and vision beyond what mainstream film can provide.

The Sundance Festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1986 and held yearly in Park City, Utah, is perhaps the best-known indie festival. Over thc course of 10

a Grand

days, Sundance screens more than 100 films and gives a series of awards, including Prize. Winners at Sundance are picked up by distributors and often go on to make a strong mark at the box office. "I he list of winning films at Sundance shows how ef- fective this festival is as a launching pad for a film's performance in the marketplace. Sundance festival winners include You Can Count on Me (2000), American Splendor (2003), and Forty Shades of Blue (2005).

Acceptance rates at Sundance demonstrate the festival's prestige as well as the over-populated nature of the independent film sector. For the 2010 festival, Sundance received 1,058 films competing for >ixteen prizes in dramatic feature categories, pro- ducing an acceptance rate of 1.5 percent.

The cultural visibility and economic importance that Sundance has achieved led to criticism that it's become too glitzy and status-conscious for the health of in- dependent film, and the criticism spawned break-away competitor festivals, such as Slamdance. Sundance, though, has remained the key festival for independent cinema.

Other notable festivals include the Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, held Labor Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado.

CHE (IFC FILMS, 2008)

Steven Soderbergh directed this epic, four-and-a-half-hour portrait of revolutionaryChe Guevara (Benecio del Toro), chronicling his role alongside Fidel Castro in theCuban Revolution and his ill-fated campaign to create a revolution in Bolivia, wherehe was captured and killed. Soderberg shot the film on digital video. It had an abbre-viated release to a handful of theaters, but the ancillary aftermarkets—chiefly, home video and cable television—brought the film most of its viewers. These markets serve an important function for indie filmmakers because the costs of distributing a picture to the theatrical market are often too high. Frame enlargement.

Independent Film 399

Filmmakers Many of today's most notable and prominent directors started out in or have remained part of independent film. Quentin Tarantino has become such a superstar that it is easy to forget that he's an independent filmmaker. Steven Sodcrbcrgh achieved remarkable success alternating between independent films (sex, lies & video- tape; The Lbney, 1999; Che, 2009) and studio product (Ocean's Twelve, 2004; Erin Brockovich, 2001

Joel and Ethan Coen have written and directed a steady supply of films for two decades, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1989), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). They scored a major commercial and critical success in 2010 with True Grit.

John Sayles, who is today's pre-eminent independent filmmaker, has written, pro- duced, and financed his own films since 1980s The Return of the Secaucus Seven, and his output includes The Brother From Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Lone Star (1996), and Casa de los babys (2003).

Independent film has gained a considerable artistic reputation in today's film world, and this has led the major studios to recruit notable independent filmmakers for mainstream projects. As noted, Steven Soderbergh regularly alternates between the two categories of film. Similarly, Robert Rodriguez followed the success of El Mariachi (1992) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) with the digital studio blockbust- ers Spy Kids (2001) and The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005). Rodriguez makes his movies using his own equipment and studio located in Austin, Texas.

ii"å

SIDEWAYS (FOX SEARCHLIGHT, 2004) Director Alexander Payne also has forged a career path outside the Hollywood majors. Payne's films—Citizen Ruth (1 996), Election (1 999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), and The Descendants (201 1 )—are more quirky and character-driven than Hollywood allows its big-budget films to be. Thus far Payne has been very successful at finding commercial distribution for films made with the artistic freedom of an indepen- dent filmmaker. Frame enlargement.

400 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

Christopher Nolan's indie films Memento (2000) and Insomnia (2001) led Warner Bros. to recruit him to make Batman Begins (2005), a blockbuster intended to revive the Batman film series. The risk for a filmmaker who transitions from the scarce resources of indie films to expensive studio productions is that the new level of resources can become seductive, even as a filmmaker's creative control Of the project may diminish in inverse proportion to the size of the budget. A filmmaker enmeshed in blockbusters may never find his or her way back to the innovative and creative vi- sion of his or her independent work. Nolan, however, has bent blockbusters to his own creative interests in such unusual and idiosyncratic films as Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight (2008).

IN\ERNATIONAL INFLUENCE OF HOLLYWOOD STYLE With its global economic power, the U.S. cinema influences foreign directors in three key ways: (1) by colonizing foreign cinemas, it provokes overseas filmmakers to posi- tion their work in relation to it, (2) it employs émigré directors, and (3) it remakes foreign films and then distributes these overseas.

Influence on Foreign Filmmakers The visibility of Hollywood cinema can make it hard to ignore for overseas film- makers who may point to it in their own work, even when that work is politically or

ANTONIO DAS MORTES (1968) Clauber Rocha was the most prominent member of Brazil's Cinema Novo movement,dedicated to forging a new, nationalist cinema for Brazil that would be reflective of itsindigenous cultural and artistic traditions rather than imitating film styles from abroad.This epic about a gunman turning on the landowners who hired him is infusedwith Brazilian history, folklore, and song, even as it nods defiantly at the Hollywood

International Influence Of Hollyw'00d Style 401

so.listically opposed to the Hollywood model. One reason for this is Hollywood's vo- racious appetite for colonizing foreign markets. A visitor to Tokyo, for example, sees numeroUS film posters advertising American movies, whose market saturation can drive out indigenous films.

Director Glauber Rocha belonged to BraziPs cinema novo (new cinema) move- ment, a turn by Brazilian directors away from Hollywood-style entertainment movies and toward a more radical style of filmmaking that embraced the idea of revolution and the needs of the country's vast, impoverished peasantry.

His most famous film, Antonio Das Mortcs (1968) is an epic fusion of folklore, politics, music, and dance, portraying a cangacciro (a bandit and bounty hunter) who fights corrupt landowners on behalf of the poor. The film is steeped in Brazilian his- tory and culture, but its imagery of the dusty, arid sertao region, and its gunfighter

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Akira Kurosawa

Kurosawa is one of the giants of world cinema. His artistic tastes were very diverse, and his work con- joins Japanese cultural traditions with intemational

stydes of painting, literature and theatre. Unlike

the filmmakers of Brazil's cinema novo, he did not

reject Hollywood style but assimilated some of its influences and tumed them to his own purposes.

In The Bad Sleep Well (1960), a thriller about cor-

rupt corporations, Kurosawa borrows from Warner

Bros. crime films of the 1930s in using montages of

newspaper headlines to announce major plot de.

velopments. Yojimbo (1961), a samurai film about

a warrior who manipulates two criminal gangs

into annihilating each other, uses for its main set

a dusty, wide street in a T-design that recalls the

main street of many a Hollywood Western. The

climatic showdown in Yojimbo occurs here Just as

it has in countless Westerns. Yojimbo also includes

a reference to the well-known Western High Noon

(1952) and a scene lifted directly from the 1942

crime drama, The Class Key.

At the conclusion of Sanjuro (1962), two samu-

rai confront each other. They draw their swords

Eke guns from holsters, and the faster draw wins.

Quicker to get his sword out of its scabbard, the hero kills his opponent. Kurosawa has dearly mod- eled this showdown on Westem gunfights. In Kogemusha (1980), another samurai drama, the film's horizon shots of samurai on the march were

modeled on the Monument Valley compositions

of John Ford's classic Hollywood Westerns (these

included Fort Apache [1948], She Wore a Yellow

Ribbon [19491, and The Searchers (1956]).

Kurosawa borrowed from Ford, but he also

played against Hollywood tradition. The climax of

Kagemusha features a charge by samurai mounted

on horseback against an opposing clan armed with

rifles. The scene visualizes an important Japanese

battle that has historic significance because it was

the first demonstration of the effects of organized firepower on an army carrying only swords and lances. As the riders charge, they are mowed down

and wiped out by their enemy. Kurosawa had the riflemen shoot the horses out

from under the riders, deliberately reversing a well- known Hollywood convention in which one invari- ably fired to hit the rider and not the horse.

But while Kurosawa nodded at the American cinema in these ways, his gigantic stature in world cinema rests upon his brilliant command of film technique and his storytelling abilities. Seven Samurai has been remade by filmmakers around the world

probably more often than any other film, and film-

makers everywhere have learned from Kurosawa's

mastery of editing and method of filming with multi-

ple cameras running simultaneously. His influence on

others far outweighed the things that he borrowed.

(continued)

402 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

SEVEN SAMURAI (TOHO, 1954); KAGEMUSHA (TOHO, 1980)

One of the most influential films ever made, Kurosawa's portrait of Japan's 1 6th-century

samurai wars is a brilliant example of epic storytelling and historical portraiture. Seven

Samurai is culturally specific even as it addresses universal themes and emotions. Kurosawa

often returned to the period film and the samurai heritage because it furnished a power-

ful way of symbolizing contemporary conflicts. Kagemusha portrays the destruction of the powerful Takeda army by an enemy clan using rifles, an episode Kurosawa understood as representing the destruction of tradition and the dawn of a modern world of automated violence. Frame enlargements.

Kurosawa's films were deeply responsive to his own cultural heritage and to Japanese viewers. He made movies about Japan's devastation from World War Il (Drunken Angel, Stray Dog), about the coun- tot's economic boom, the growth of large corpora- tions and the threats to democracy these posed (The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low), and, most famously, about Japan's samurai heritage (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran).

He drew from Japanese literature, painting and theatre and transposed these forms into his mov- ies, and he made movies based on foreign literary traditions. The most famous are the Shakespeare

International Influence of Hollywood Style 403

adaptations, Throne of Blood and Ran, which

Kurosawa brilliantly transposed into Japan's medi-

eval period of samurai warfare, sensing there a his-

torical parallel with Shakespeare's themes.

Kurosawa's artistic sensibility, then, was ex-

tremely powerful. He assimilated artistic and

cultural traditions in original and striking ways,

blending foreign influences with Japan's cultural

heritage. The filmmaking that resulted was un-

commonly rich, ambitious and cinematically bril-

liant. And, in the long run, Kurosawa's influence

on world cinema was far more powerful than were

the influences that he selectively drew from it.

characters, also gesture defiantly toward the Hollywood Western. Rocha transformed

the film's politics into allegory and myth as a way of escaping censorship by the coun-

try's military dictatorship and of rejecting Hollywood norms.

Absorption of Foreign Filmmakers Hollywood cinema continually attracts and absorbs talented filmmakers from

abroad, who, in turn, help to modify and change U.S. film style. Beginning in the late

1920s, a major wave of émigré filmmakers arrived in Hollywood from Germany.

These included cinematographer Karl Freund; directors Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau,

and Ernst Lubitsch; scriptwriter Carl Mayer; and actors Emil Jannings and Conrad

Veidt. Lang had directed such classic German films as Metropolis (1926) and M

(1931), and he went on to have a long career in Hollywood, frequently specializing

in dark crime films before he returned to Germany near the end of his career to di-

rect his final films.

Many of Hollywood's enduring classics were created by filmmakers who be-

gan their careers in other countries. The jaunty adventure classic The Adventures

of Robin Hood (1938), the popular romantic drama Casablanca (1942), and the

superpatriotic portrait of composer George M. Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandy

(1944), were all directed by Michael Curtiz, who was born in Hungary and worked

in Germany during the early part of his film career. I lollywood's superstar di-

rector Alfred Hitchcock arrived in the United States in 1939 after a lengthy and

distinguished career as a director in the British cinema. While apprenticing in the

British system as an assistant director, Hitchcock worked and studied in Germany

for two years, absorbing the style of expressionism then prevalent in German cin-

ema. Hitchcock's subsequent U.S. movies are strongly marked by the elements of

German expressionism that he found so impressive while studying in Germany in

1924 and 1925.

FILM.VAKERS In recent years, émigré directors have created some of

the U.S. cinema's most distinguished or popular films. Based on a series of stylish,

frenzied action films—A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the

404 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

ROBOCOP (ORION PICTURES, 987)

The critical and popular success of Robocop, a savage social satire of 1980s America,

launched the Hollywood career of Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. Like many foreign

filmmakers before him, Verhoeven found the huge resources and popular impact of

Hollywood filmmaking to be powerful lures. Unlike some of his less successful predeces-

sors, though, Verhoeven enjoyed great popular success with his American productions.

Frame enlargement.

Head (1990), and Hard Boiled (1992)—Hong Kong director John Woo emigrated to

Hollywood but found the U.S. system unable to accommodate his audacious style.

Thus his initial U.S. films—Hard Target (1993) and Broken Arrotv (1996)—were

disappointments, but Woo eventually prevailed with a critical and popular success in

Face/Off(1997). Peter Weir established his career in Australia with such memorable films as Picnic

at Hanging Rock (1975), The Last Wave (1978), and Gallipoli (1981), the latter film

starring Australian actor Mel Gibson, who subsequently became a major Hollywood

star. Weir then went on to direct the well-regarded U.S. films Witness (1985) and

Dead Poets' Society (1989) with such established U.S. celebrities as Harrison Ford

and Robin Williams. Weir's colleague in the Australian cinema, George Miller, es- tablished his international reputation with the hits Mad Max (1979) and The Road Warrior (1981), both starring Mel Gibson. In the U.S. cinema, Miller directed one segment of Twilight Zone—The Movie (1983), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Lorenzo's Oil (1992).

Remakes of Foreign Films In its constant search for story material, Hollywood often turns to films from over- seas. The Danish film, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009), became an interna- tional hit, as did two follow-up films (The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl W'hO Kicked the Hornet's Nest), all based on novels by Stieg Larsson. Hollywood can't resist an international success, and a remake starring Daniel Craig and directed by David Fincher was released in 2011, a mere two years after the original film.

In(crnatjonaj Influoncc of Hollywood Style 405

his follow-up to Mepnento, director Christopher Nolan selected a '1 997 Norwegian fillil, Insopnnia, and " it by switching thc setting

Norway to Alaska and easting netors Al J lilary Swank, and Robin Williajns.

The success of the tnarket' in Japan and the United States led Hollywood to recruit Japanese filliltnaket•s to retnake their hits hcrc. Takashi Shiroizu remade his

(2003) as The Grlldge (2004), starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Hideo Nakata di- rected Ringu (1998) and Ringli 2 (1999) in Japan and then their I-lollywood remakes, The Ring (2002) and The Ring 2 (2005), With star Naomi Watts. Anothcr Nakata film, Dark Water (2002), was rethäcle in 2005 by Brazilian director Walter Salles for Disney's Touchstone Pictures.

iMany star vehicles have been retnakes of foreign films. Vanilla Sky (2002), star- ring Tom Cruise, \vas based on a 1997 Spanish film called Open Your Eyes. K-Pax (2002), with Kevin Spacey, was an unofficial remake of another Spanish film, Man Facing Southeast (1986). Ttvelve Monkeys (1995), with Bruce Willis, was a feature- length remake of the classic French short, La Jetée (1962). The Richard Gere—Jodie Foster vehicle Sonnnersby (1993) was a remake of a popular French film, The Return of Martin Guerre (1982). The comedies Three Men and a Baby (1987) and The Man

One Red Shoe (1985) also were remakes of popular French hits. The Nicolas cage—Meg Ryan romance City of Angels (1998) was an Americanized remake of Wim Wenders's German production, Wings of Desire (1986). Last Man Standing (1996), starring Bruce Willis, was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo. While remakes of foreign hits have been especially common in recent years, it is not a new trend. The classic Western The Magnificent Seven (1960) Americanized Akira Kurosawa's magnificently

filmed Japanese epic, Seven Samurai (1954).

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (NORDISI< FILM, 2009) Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander, a hacker who teams up with an investigative journalist to expose high-level crimes in a film trilogy based on Stieg Larsson novels. The novels and films were popular in Denmark and abroad, and Hollywood director David Fincher released an American remake in 2011. Frame enlargement.

406 to At the Crossroads of Business and Art

'I he challenge J lollywood faces in remaking foreign films is to translate story

rnatcrial frotn one cultural context to another. In sorne cases, the translations are

fairly successful, as with Three and a Baby, mainly because the original was a

piece of cornic fluff not bound closely to a particular cultural context. By contrast,

the Alncricanizcd Western 'Ibe Afagni/icent Seven simplifies and eliminates much of

the historical and philosophical complexity of the Japanese original. This is because

no parallel cultural relationship exists in the American West with that between the

satnurai warrior and the peasant farrner in medieval Japan. Unable to translate the

Vlass conflicts and historical framework of Kurosawa's feudal drama to the American

West, the screenwriters working on the rernake simply eliminated large chunks of the

original filtn. As a result, while the U.S. remake is somewhat entertaining, it has never

achieved the international stature of Kurosawa's filrn,

Case study LET ME IN

The American horror film Let Me In (2010) was in the- aters a mere two years after release of the Swedish film Let the Right One In (2008), on which it was based. Both films derive from a best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, originally published in Swedish and then translated into several languages. Let Me In joins many contemporary Hollywood horror movies that are remakes of foreign films.

In this case, the remake machinery got underway very quickly. Rights for an English-language remake were sold as soon as Let the Right One In premiered in the U.S. at the Tribeca Film Festival. The Swedish film was an unusual and suspenseful vampire story, and producers for the American market saw how easily it could be transposed. The remake was in production the following year, with Matt Reeves as director. Reeves had made the stylish hor-

ror film, Cloverfie/d (2008), about a giant monster attack-

ing New York City. Unlike many horror films today, Let Me In emphasizes

atmosphere and tone rather than gruesome violence. It follows very closely the first film's storyline, duplicating

its tone, rhythm, and pacing, and where the original film minimizes the novel's explicit violence, so, too, does the

remake. Several long, horrific scenes that are in the novel

are omitted in both films.

Lindqvist's story is about the friendship between a boy, Oscar, and a mysterious young girl who lives in the apartment next door. The girl, Eli, turns out to be a vampire, and Oscar develops such strong feelings for her that he eventually becomes her protector and procurer, finding human victims for Eli to feast upon.

The novel and first film feature cold, snowy Swedish

landscapes and a principle location in suburban

Stockholm. The remake shifts the locale to New Mexico

and changes the names of Oscar and Eli to Owen and

Abbey in order to Americanize the story.

While both films follow the novel's storyline closely,

they omit some of the book's most provocative and

disturbing content. In the movies, Eli/Abbey tells Oscar/

Owen that she's not a girl, by which she means to say

that she is a vampire and not a human being.

In the novel, however, Eli is really a boy named Elias,

and scenes in the novel where Eli cuddles with Oscar and

kisses him are homoerotic, an element that neither film

presents. The novel's Eli was castrated and vampirized by a decadent aristocrat centuries ago, a ritual that neither film portrays or alludes to.

When Oscar meets "her," Eli is living with an adult named Hakan, whom Oscar assumes is her father but who, in fact, procures human victims for her. Neither movie portrays this character in any detail, perhaps because the novel's presentation is so perverse. There, Hakan is a pedophile who likes young boys, and Eli plays on his desires in order to keep him with her, on occasion allowing Hakan to touch her if he'll agree to bring back blood from a new victim. Hakan becomes obsessively devoted to Eli, thinking of her as his be- loved.

Even though both movies are horror films with some gruesome scenes (in one, a man burns his face off with acid), production decisions were made to exclude the novel's more perverse elements and avoid placing them on the screen. Producers on both films

Oddently felt that doing so was necessary if the films

to succeed commercially and in the international

markets.

And succeed they did, critically and commercially.

Eli's story exemplifies the interconnected markets in

the modem media economy. Originating from a novel,

the character spawned two movies and a comic book

miniseries. Produced by Dark Horse Comics, the series

was offered as a prequel and a tie-in to Let Me ln. It

International Influence of Hollywood Style 407

supplements the film by inventing a back story for

Abbey as she and Hakan (now renamed Thomas and

evidently rehabilitated from his proclivities in the novel)

travel around and try to survive. Careful adaptations by

Swedish and then by American filmmakers transformed

the novel's premise of a child vampire traveling with a

pedophile into a less perverse narrative scenario, one

that became a successful product in theatrical and an-

cillary movie markets.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (EFTI, 2008); LET ME IN (HAMMER FILM PRODUCTIONS, 2010)

The Twilight movies and books led to a renewed interest in vampires as a profitable source of screen entertainment. Let the Right One In was an unusual and atmospheric vampire story and attracted remake interest almost immediately. Let Me In Americanizes the original film's Swedish setting and characters but follows the storyline and visual design of that film almost exactly. Both films, however, omit some of the novel's darker elements. Frame enlargements.

408 CHAPTER 10 At the Crossroads of Business and Art

SUMMARY

In his autobiography, published in 1974, the great French director Jean Renoir wrote

that cinerna history is characterized by warfare between filmmakers and the industry.

Renoir's view reflected his concern that the filmmaker-artist should be free to buck

convention, break rules, and create original, interesting work rather than copy the

patterns of yesterday's box-office successes.

Renoir's view neglects the many filmmakers, such as Akira Kurosawa and Alfred

Hitchcock, who flourished in the industry even while creating movies that were recog-

nized as great works of art. But it remains true that for most of its history, cinema

has been an expensive

medium in which to work, and so filmmakers have been subject to commercial con-

straints and calculations. Cinema exists at the crossroads Of art and business, and as

it became an industry with global reach and potentially huge revenue returns, those

constraints and calculations have become more influential than in Renoir's days.

U.S. filmmaking exerts a global influence throughout world markets. This

influence has a clear economic basis. U.S. film studios are owned by diversified parent

corporations whose holdings equip them to compete in an integrated world entertain- ment market. Blockbuster filmmaking, driven by special effects and mechanical or su- perhuman characters, is an ideal means of dominating domestic and overseas markets. The blockbuster film is enormously popular, generates huge audience interest, and lends itself to extensive lines of product merchandising. With its multinational corpo- rations, the U.S. cinema is able to perform very aggressively in global markets.

Hollywood exerts strong international influence not just economically, but sty- listically as well. The style and content of U.S. films have a major impact on world cinemas in three ways: (1) foreign filmmakers confront, reject or borrow images, characters, and story situations from the U.S. cinema; (2) filmmakers who have estab- lished their careers in other countries come to Hollywood to make U.S. films; and (3) Hollywood remakes foreign films according to the norms and standards of U.S. filmand popular culture.

But filmmakers who celebrate indigenous national and cultural styles and tradi-tions create works that offer alternatives to the blockbuster model. So, too, does the"indie" film sector. The tensions in cinema between art and business can be produc-tive as well as destructive, a source of great filmmaking and a source that preventsit. The aesthetics of cinema, which this book has spent many pages exploring, rarelyescape the shaping influence of a filmmaker's need for funding and the industry that

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS ancillary markets 379 blockbuster 380 diversification 380 domestic theatrical

market 376 franchise 380

gross 376 homage 392 limited-release

market 373 majors 373 negative cost 377

product tie-ins 381 product placement 384 profit participants 378 rentals 377 streaming video 369