Reading Habits: Film and (pulp) Fiction
As the West Port Book Festival coincides with the Edinburgh International Film Festival this June, Nicola goes to the movies with one most insightful books about the film industry which delves into the dark underbelly of Independent cinema.
Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance & the Rise of Independent Film By Peter Biskind
(2004, Bloomsbury)
Emerging in the 90s, Independent cinema was a reaction to the decade of disillusionment that was the 80s, which was brought about by a lack of creativity in Hollywood with the rise of the blockbuster and audiences' insatiable appetite for incessant sequels.
It is from this point that Biskind's book takes off. If you want to read more about cult directors and the inner workings of the Indie film business - this is the book for you, but we warned to take it all with a pinch of cynicism.
You can't help but feel Biskind's high level of editorialising and lack of factual evidence leads to difficulty in categorising this book into 'non-fiction'. It was clear with his earlier bestseller, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998) that he tries to pass off some fictions as fact, but as so many of these truths could only be sourced through people on the inside, the book inevitably relies on speculation and happily wallows in gossip and conjecture.
With regard to his opinion of people in the industry, Biskind's acidic tone reaches an unhealthy pH 0 at various points and is offensive but undoubtedly funny. For instance, in the prelude he details how he was summoned by the controversial movie moguls, the Weinsteins and was encouraged by them (in a mafia-esque way) to stop writing his book, later he describes Harvey, the younger of the two brothers with the following flattery: "At six feet, 300 pounds and counting, he was larger in every respect than Bob, with eyes like olive pits staring out of a round, pasty face, neck like a fireplug, and hands as big as lamb chops". He taints many other powerhouses in the Indie industry with the same brush that begins to seep spitefulness, most notably Robert Redford, the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, being the primary target of his many character assassinations.
Throughout the book, the author challenges one's concept of an 'Indie' film. One of the common problems in the Independent film industry is the classification of an Indie film through its style, budget or director. As budgets for these films can exceed $100m (if you were to say that an Independent film is one that is independently financed, Star Wars: Phantom Menace would be classified as an Indie) it is obvious that the lines of distinction are being blurred. Indies are less and less independently produced and more a co-financed collaboration between major film studios to create a film within the Indie genre. As a result of these big budget collaborations, has the idea of an Independent film become more of a brand of cinema with which people wish to associate themselves than a film which rebels against the system?
Biskind examines these issues and many more besides in a book that's illuminating, disturbing and ultimately an addictive read for those in the know and those who wish to know more. NH
Posted by Nicola on May 09, 2010.