Living In Oblivion
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''Living in Oblivion'' is a 1995 American
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
black comedy film Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
written and directed by
Tom DiCillo Thomas A. DiCillo (born August 14, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and musician. Early life DiCillo was born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina. His father was Italian and his mother was from New England. He stu ...
. It stars
Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi (,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself. It is not uncommon for people to pronounce his name or instead. ; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his work as an acclaimed character actor. Mul ...
,
Catherine Keener Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been nominated twice for the Academ ...
,
Dermot Mulroney Dermot Patrick Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles in a wide variety of genres, including romantic comedy, western, and drama films. After making his film debut in ''Sunset'' (1988), Mulro ...
, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros, and Peter Dinklage in his film debut. The film won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1995
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
for DiCillo. It received critical acclaim.


Plot

In
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, a low-budget independent film's catering crew is underfunded and apathetic, deciding not to replace a carton of milk on the craft service table for a week. The scene is being shot about a young woman, Ellen, reproaching her mother for not intervening when the father beat Ellen as a child. Shots are spoiled because of how the mic boom is visible; the camera assistant fails to keep the shot in focus, a light gets blown which then causes Cora, the actress playing the mother, to forget her lines and Nicole, the actress playing Ellen, to become unfocused and careless.
Film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
Nick Reve calls for a rehearsal without a camera to refresh the actors. When Nicole berates herself for subpar acting, Cora reassures her with a gesture that reminds Nicole of a similar gesture made by her own terminally ill mother. Upset by the memory, Nicole turns in a passionate performance; Cora, startled by this, is equally good. However, the scene is not captured on film;
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
and
camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...
Wolf, who has been diluting the substandard coffee with spoiled milk, was vomiting in the toilet throughout. Nick calls for another take. This time, an insistent beeping sound distracts the actors. Nobody can tell where it is coming from and Nick becomes furious, berating everyone on the crew and cast for their inadequacies. Nick wakes up in his own bed; the beeping sound is his own alarm clock. He has dreamed the entire situation. It is 4:30 a.m. and he is due on set. Early the same morning, the film's lead actor Chad Palomino gets dressed in Nicole's hotel room. They have had sex, and Chad suggests that they might get together again later. Nicole politely declines. Chad and Nicole arrive on the set separately. Nicole's character ''Ellen'' and Chad's character ''Damian'' have been in love for years but have never admitted it, until the scene being shot on that day. Shooting the scene is made practically impossible by Chad's irregular acting. He keeps changing his mind about where to stand and continually moves to places where he is either invisible or badly lit by scenic light. Nicole gets frustrated, and when Chad starts to stroke her head, she briefly loses her cool and apologizes. Irritated, Chad demands a private talk with Nick. He tells him that he has had sex with Nicole and makes out that it was she, not he, who had wanted to continue the relationship. To keep Chad happy, Nick agrees that Nicole is terrible. Nicole overhears this conversation on the sound mixer's headphones. Pretending to be contrite, she asks Nick if they can improvise a little, but when they do so, she announces to everyone that, although she had sex with Chad, she is not at all interested in him. Chad stubbornly quits the film. Relieved that he will no longer have to please Chad, Nick calls him a " Hostess Twinkie motherfucker" and a fight breaks out. Nick beats Chad senselessly and fires him. He apologizes to Nicole and confesses that he loves her. They kiss, and Nicole abruptly wakes up, still in her bed, having dreamed the entire segment. Later the same day, the crew is setting up for a dream sequence in which Nicole, as Ellen, stands still, while
dwarf Dwarf, dwarfs or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a supernatural being from Germanic folklore * Dwarf, a human or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a sh ...
actor Tito walks around her with an apple. Nick claims to have learned a lesson from his own dream: That sometimes, "you just got to roll with things." Nicole admits that she dreamed of Nick but does not mention what happened. The smoke machine is set ablaze, and Nick's senile mother Cora arrives on the set, but he keeps up his positive attitude. Tito complains that his appearance in a dream sequence is
cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...
and leaves the set in disgust. Nick's confidence collapses, and he announces that the film is over. His mother then intervenes, grabbing the apple, moving to Tito's mark, and announcing that she is "ready". The crew scrambles to shoot the scene, and her manic performance injects fresh energy and conviction into it. Delighted, Nick decides to keep the new dream sequence, and the sound mixer then records 30 seconds of room tone. The entire cast and crew remains silent, and during this moment they each daydream about different things. They go on to shoot the next sequence.


Cast

*
Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi (,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself. It is not uncommon for people to pronounce his name or instead. ; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his work as an acclaimed character actor. Mul ...
as Nick Reve, an intense and hopeful independent film director. He is sensitive and thoughtful with actors and tries to respect the status and dignity of everyone on the set, but sometimes the frustration just gets too much. His surname 'Reve' is derived from and pronounced like the French word ''rêve'', meaning 'dream'. *
Catherine Keener Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been nominated twice for the Academ ...
as Nicole, an actress playing the female lead in Nick's film. Nicole is secretly in love with Nick. Although he believes she is a fine actress, Nicole is fatalistic, believing that she will one day give up acting and seek work as a
waitress Waiting staff ( BrE), waiters () / waitresses (), or servers (AmE) are those who work at a restaurant, a diner, or a bar and sometimes in private homes, attending to customers by supplying them with food and drink as requested. Waiting staff ...
or short order cook. *
Dermot Mulroney Dermot Patrick Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles in a wide variety of genres, including romantic comedy, western, and drama films. After making his film debut in ''Sunset'' (1988), Mulro ...
as Wolf, a talented but pretentious and prima donna-ish cinematographer and camera operator. He is in a relationship with Wanda, although she breaks up with him at the beginning of the third part. He is opinionated, sulky, and obstinate. His surname is '' Überman'', as shown on the
clapperboard A clapperboard, also known as a dumb slate, clapboard, film clapper, film slate, bertolo clapz, movie slate, or production slate, is a device used in filmmaking, television production and video production to assist in synchronizing of picture ...
. * Danielle von Zerneck as Wanda, the film's First Assistant Director. * James LeGros as Chad Palomino, the male lead in Nick's film, a major Hollywood actor appearing in a low-budget film to gain critical
kudos Kudos may refer to: * ''Kudos'' (computer game), a life simulation game produced by Positech Games * Kudos (production company), a UK-based film and television production company * Kudos, a fictional currency used by the Dwellers in '' The Alge ...
. Chad is a selfish egomaniac. All of his suggestions about changing the blocking are in fact covert attempts to place himself in the foreground of the frame, instead of in the background. He turns out to be also a liar, admitting to Nick that he considers him a "loser" and that he only accepted the role "because I thought you were tight with
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
!" This character is sometimes assumed to be based on
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...
, but this is not the case according to the director on the DVD commentary track. * Rica Martens as Cora Reve, Nick's mother, who on set is both a nuisance and a savior. * Peter Dinklage as Tito, a frustrated dwarf actor complaining about his clichéd roles. * Michele Carlo as Nurse


Background

DiCillo got inspiration for the film from the frustrations he experienced when making the film '' Johnny Suede'', and his long struggle to make his next intended film, '' Box of Moonlight''. ''Living in Oblivion'' was rejected by all producers, but the actors and friends of the director felt so strongly about the project that they financed it. Two of the producers, Michael Griffiths and Hilary Gilford, were given parts in the movie for helping to finance the film. Griffiths plays Speedo, the sound mixer; Gilford plays the unnamed
Script girl A script supervisor (also called continuity supervisor or script) is a member of a film crew who oversees the continuity of the motion picture including dialogue and action during a scene. The script supervisor may also be called upon to ensure wa ...
. The film is divided into three parts. The first part was shot in five days and after DiCillo realized that it was too short to be a feature and too long to be a short he expanded it into a full feature film with parts two and three. The film title was taken from the hit '80s song by synth-pop artists
Anything Box Anything Box is an electronic/synth-pop musical group originally from Paterson, New Jersey, and now based in Long Beach, California. Formed in 1986, they are best known for their 1989 single " Living in Oblivion". They also garnered some atten ...
.


Reception

The film was acclaimed by critics. On the website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, it has an approval rating of 86%, based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Living in Oblivion'' dives into the folly of filmmaking with a sharp satire that sends up indie cinema while working as an entertaining independent picture in its own right." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film holds a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 81 out of 100, based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". DiCillo won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1995
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
. The
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
nominated the film for its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.


Home media

The 2003 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment release includes a commentary by Tom DiCillo, deleted scenes and an interview with DiCillo and Buscemi.
Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...
released a 2-disc set Blu-ray on November 17, 2015.


See also

*
List of films featuring fictional films A body of films feature fictional films as part of their narrative. These are also called films within films. List of films See also *Story within a story References Further reading * * External links * * *{{cite news , last=Rapold , firs ...


References


External links

* * *
Living in Oblivion
' at
AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Living In Oblivion 1995 films 1995 black comedy films 1995 comedy-drama films 1995 independent films American anthology films American comedy-drama films American independent films American black comedy films American satirical films Films partially in color Films about actors Films about filmmaking Films about film directors and producers Films directed by Tom DiCillo Sony Pictures Classics films American self-reflexive films 1990s satirical films Sundance Film Festival award–winning films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language black comedy films English-language independent films