I can’t answer most of your question(s) but I do know that Wenders was influential to Jarmusch and his second film, STRANGER THAN PARADISE contains film stock that was to be used in Wenders’ film THE STATE OF THINGS, which is a road movie that begins in Portugal and ends in the U.S.
I would say it probably had an effect on indie filmmaking of the 90’s but, as a whole, I think it would be much smarter to show John Cassavetes’ “Shadows” at the beginning of the semester. As far as indie filmmaking goes, I feel “Shadows” is more important to opening filmmakers’ thoughts about shooting things on their own, workshopping scenes endlessly if necessary and going out on the streets to shoot them.
Ryan-
Yeah, not having given this question of history any prior thought, the very first thing I thought of was Cassavetes. I haven’t seen Shadows, but Cassavetes seemed a more obvious launching point. But then I decided that I really didn’t have much sense of how influential Paris, Texas had been. Hence my questions.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I have been to the actual city of Paris, Texas. It is kinda lackluster. lol
I’m not sure, but I think Anders is talking about more specific stylistics and subject matter than simply making independent films. Cassavetes is important, sure, but you can always go back and start one step further. Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin had already done not only Little Fugitve (with Raymond Abrashkin), but Lovers and Lollipops and Weddings and Babies as well by the time the second version of Shadows was released.
I’ve sent the disk back so I cannot check what she said exactly. Maybe I’ve interpreted her too broadly, or maybe she didn’t specify what she meant clearly. Would these two films make sense from that narrower focus?
I can definitely see some affinities between Repo Man and Anders’ Border Radio. But there was already a lot going on in American independent film by ’84. Jarmusch had already made Stranger Than Paradise and Permanent Vacation, The Coens Blood Simple came out that year, James Cameron made The Terminator, Sam Raimi had made Evil Dead in 1981, John Waters had been around for a decade, etc.
I need to see Border Radio.
Yeah, it’s easy to have this idea that not much was happening until the late 80s and VCRs. But those films you mention were made earlier than I tend to remember them.
Certainly Paris, Texas is one of the more stand-out examples of the whole road trip Indie American thing, though if we wanted to trace that thread we can go back to Easy Rider and more.
I remember first getting into film it was very exciting because without THIS movie independent film wouldn’t be like it is today and without THIS film there wouldn’t be independent film and THIS film heralded in the independent filmmaking of the whenevers and THIS film is a prototype of modern indie filmmaking and so on. After a while it became very clear—independence is forever. Paris, Texas (and I can’t speak for Repo Man because I haven’t seen it) is a good start because it has the tonality and schematics, as well of themes, of what in a generic way people would call “Indie filmmaking” (from Tarantino to Garden State) in spades. Whereas the next step would be to slowly deconstruct that notion of an “Indie” genre and show independent filmmaking that does not fit regular modes of what we come to expect, like Fritz the Cat or Ink.
—PolarisDiB
By the way, Little Fugitve should really be in the database.
For more American Indies visit my list too.
That’s a nice list. That gave me several more suggestions for what I want to watch.
Thanks, Grey. I swear I did a such and it didn’t come up . . . user error, I suppose.
DownByLaw
Here is a question for those of you good with film history. In the extras on the Paris, Texas disk, Allison Anders says that when she teaches a course on American independent film, she starts the semester off with Paris, Texas, made by a German, and Repo Man, made by an Englishman. She says these two films from 1984 had a large influence on young American filmmakers and helped shape the direction that American independent film would take from there on into the 90s. The DP for both films was Robby Muller who went on to shoot for Jarmusch.
Do either or both of these films seem to have the role that Anders suggests? And how do either of these films compare to the influence of earlier Americans or other Europeans? Did either film change the prospects for getting funding for an independent film?
And speaking as a viewer, I’d say that both films were important in my shift from consuming bubblegum movies to watching more serious film. But that might just be the result of my age in the mid-80s. In college, my friends and I had Repo Man on VCR tape and we probably watched it fifty times. (Wish I had watched Paris, Texas more.) But do you think these two films helped prepare viewers for the films to come?