Current Forum: Session 12: Independent Films & Overall View	Read 3 times 	
Date: 11-Apr-2001 00:55:45	
Author: SIMMONS, DAVID C. <dcs7316@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>	
Subject: The Independent Mode of Cinema and Pi 	
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       In the last year, I’ve seen and taken notes on almost 100 so-called “independent” films. I believe that there are characteristics that distinguish them from classical Hollywood cinema. Here are a few:

30 Characteristics of THE INDEPENDENT MODE OF CINEMA
ANTI-CLASSICISM
1. Clarity and unity are often sacrificed for ambiguity. (Woman Under the Influence, Brewster McCloud, Sweetback)
2. The film often deliberately strives to be anti-classical 
(Woman of the Influence, Stranger than Paradise, Kids, Pi, Drugstore Cowboy, Slacker, Sweetback)
3. An emphasis is often on alienating, shocking, or creating unsettling feelings in the audience (Kids, Hate, Poison, Requiem For A Dream)
NON-CAUSALITY
4. Loose causality (Kids, Hate, Woman Under the Influence, Stranger Than Paradise, The Living End, Easy Rider, Brewster McCloud, Slacker, Sweetback)
5. Ambiguous, open ending with unresolved plot lines (Kids, Slacker, Sweetback, Lock)
6. A lack of motivation for various events in the film (Kids, Hate, Stranger Than Paradise, Brewster McCloud, Slacker, Sweetback)
7. A delight in narrative gaps (Woman Under the Influence, Brewster McCloud, Magnolia’s frogs, Slacker, Sweetback)
AMBIGUOUS CHARACTERS
8. Characters do not necessarily have clearly announced goals. 
(Clerks, Kids, Hate, Trainspotting, Woman Under the Influence, Stranger Than Paradise, The Living End, Easy Rider, Swingers, Poison, Slacker, Sweetback)
9. Characters are often ambiguous and complex. They may make surprising choices. (Trainspotting, Stranger Than Paradise)
Subjectivity may occasionally be the norm (Poison, Requiem for a Dream)
FLUIDITY OF NARRATIVE TIME
10. Planting, foreshadowing, and appointments are seldom used to forward the narrative (Woman Under the Influence)
11. Credits may not be used to forward narration. (Brewster McCloud)
12. Time may not be linear and may include flashforwards. (Pulp Fiction, Drugstore Cowboy, Brewster McCloud, Swoon, Poison)
SPACE
13. Formal elements may be deliberately foregrounded  
(Trainspotting, Easy Rider, Pi, Swoon, Requiem for a Dream, Sweetback). The artifice is often revealed (Woman Under the Influence, Clerks, Stranger Than Paradise, Brewster McCloud, Drugstore Cowboy, Slacker).
14. The most important objects or characters in a scene may, at times, be obscured. 
(Woman Under the Influence, Swoon, Pulp Fiction, Swingers, Brewster McCloud, Requiem for a Dream, Slacker, Sweetback)
SOUND
15. Sound may privilege secondary, less-important events. (Easy Rider’s opening)
16. Music may be ambiguous or may be missing. (Hate, Stranger Than Paradise, Slacker, Sweetback)
NON-MELODRAMATIC
17. An absence of spectacle (Kids, Hate, Clerks, Stranger Than Paradise, Woman Under the Influence, The Living End, Pi, Swingers, Slacker, Sweetback)
18. An absence of “tugging at the spectator’s heartstrings” 
(Kids, Hate, Stranger Than Paradise, Pulp Fiction, Pi, Drugstore Cowboy, Swoon, Requiem for a Dream, Slacker, Sweetback, Lock)
19. No stasis framework (Clerks, Kids, Hate, Requiem for a Dream, Slacker, Sweetback)
20. Characters are complex and make surprising choices 
(Drugstore Coyboy’s Bob goes to rehab, Brewster McCloud)
21. Protagonist is rewarded for working against the system.
(Trainspotting, Fight Club, Four Dogs Playing Poker, The Usual Suspects, Lock) or at least there is no virtue revealed in the protagonist (Kids, Hate, Swoon, Pulp Fiction, Drugstore Cowboy, Poison [two stories], Requiem for a Dream)
APPROPRIATION
22. As an “independent” director becomes successful, he or she may be appropriated by the dominant Hollywood system (Kevin Smith doing Fletch, Aronofsky doing the new Batman, Guy
Ritchie’s Snatch) 
OTHER ELEMENTS
23. A sense of grunge and alienation (Hate, Drugstore Cowboy, The Living End, Pi, Poison, Requiem for a Dream, Sweetback, Lock)
24. A goal of shocking or alienating the audience (Resevoir Dogs, Requiem for a Dream)
25. A sense of nihilism (Drugstore Cowboy, The Living End, Pi) almost to absurdity (Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Alarmist, Swoon, Requiem for a Dream, Seven, Sweetback, Lock)
26. Pushing boundaries on violence, nudity, language, drug use. 
(Alarmist, Kids, Resevoir Dogs, Poison, Requiem for a Dream, Sweetback, Lock)
27. Episodic instead of cause-and-effect (Stranger Than Paradise, Kids, Clerks, Woman Under Influence, Brewster McCloud, Swingers, Slacker, Sweetback)
28. Expressionistic Distortion (Swoon, Poison, Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, Sweetback, Lock)
29. Lower-class, urban setting which does not show fluidity in class structures (Pulp Fiction, Requiem for a Dream, Johns, Clerks, Trainspotting, Kids, Woman Under the Influence, Fight Club, Drugstore Cowboy, Hate, The Living End, Pi, Poison, Stranger Than Paradise, Sweetback)
30. Very dark, non-Hollywood 3 point lighting (Requiem for a Dream)
       
       Specifically, let’s look at Pi (Darren Aronfosky’s 1998 film that won at Sundance) to see how characteristics of classical Hollywood cinema or characteristics of the independent mode of 
cinema are functioning within it. 
       Several characteristics of classical Hollywood cinema are evident in Pi. We have a protagonist, Max, with a clearly announced goal: to find this number that will solve many problems (financial, religious, etc.) Time is linear: we move forward, chronologically in the story without unmotivated flashbacks or flashforwards
       However, there are also many characteristics of the independent mode of cinema. Let’s examine several formal elements that will demonstrate this. After the opening credits, we see an extreme close-up on Max’s face. The image is deliberately grainy. This is not classical space (i.e. space that is constructed to reveal the protagonist as clearly as possible without ambiguities.) The formal space also defies the classical characteristic of “invisibility.” With many unusual shots, the spectator is made aware of the artifice. For example, in the scene where Max 
goes through the market (a cut scene, available on the DVD), Aronofsky has explained that they set up a “Snorricam” (a camera rig attached to the actor’s body as he moves.) Aronofsky 
explains on the DVD that such a rig: “created this great subjectivity for us. We were trying constantly to stick to the audience into Max’s head. We wanted to tell the POV of Max’s head in 90 minutes of Pi.” Aronofsky is more interested in deconstructing several classical conventions than in reinforcing them. He wants to give us a world where finding the one answer to all of life’s problems (financial, religious, etc.) just is not possible. The only answer to such seeking in a postmodern world is to put a drill through one’s head. The slipperiness of the content organizes the subversive qualities of the form. 
       Although it shares some characteristics of classical cinema, this is not a film that could have been made in Hollywood. It should provide some great classroom discussions of a complex narrative that has a few characteristics of classicism, but is organized mainly through a different system of values, the independent mode of filmmaking.