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By David Ansen
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THE OSCARS THIS year were read as a David and Goliath morality tale in which the scruffy but noble independents vanquished the lumbering, overstuffed studio movies on their home turf. That was then, but this is summer--and as we all know, in the hot months, Hollywood rules. What David would be foolish enough to go up against the Jurassic giant "The Lost World" on May 23?
One called Brassed Off, a modest, likable movie that features Pete Postlethwaite (who's also in "The Lost World") as the leader of a Yorkshire brass band whose survival is threatened by Thatcher's closing of the coal mines. This Marxist "Rocky" may be a celebration of the underdog, but no one is deluded enough to expect it to KO Steven Spielberg's dinosaur epic at the box office. The hope is that enough moviegoers are desperate for something besides special effects so that the $4.5 million "Brassed Off"-- and scads of other independent movies this summer--can avoid getting crushed by the competition. And maybe even thrive.
The concept of counterprogramming isn't new, but it is gaining momentum. As Lindsay Law, head of Fox Searchlight, puts it, "Some independents shy away because they think, "Everyone's going to see "Speed 2" and "Titanic," and my small movie's going to disappear.' But it's an enormous opportunity. Eventually it's like having too much candy, and your teeth begin to rot. I'll be the first in line to see "Speed 2' [a Fox release], but I want a more balanced diet."
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According to producer John Pierson ("Chasing Amy"), the watershed in alternative summer programming was the successful 1985 release of "Kiss of the Spider Woman": "Everybody thought they were out of their minds, but it was the first incursion into studio territory." But indie films aren't competing with Hollywood--they're a different species entirely. "There's never been a greater separation between the big-money end and the quality end," says Pierson. It's hard not to agree with Miramax's Harvey Weinstein, the Big Daddy of the independent scene, when he predicts that his summer movies will prove more memorable than the studios' million-pound gorillas. "We're the Robin Hood of distribution," he says with a laugh. "We rob from the rich and give to the poor, which are independent films. The way you win is by differentiating yourself." Weinstein is especially high on Shall We Dance?, the tale of a Japanese accountant who takes up ballroom dancing to restore romance to his humdrum life. "I think if I were Steven Spielberg I'd be worried," says the guy who picked such past summertime winners as "Smoke" and "The Postman."
"Shall We Dance?" isn't the only sterling foreign film arriving this summer. Among the highlights: When the Cat's Away, a charming French comedy that introduces the beguiling Garance Clavel as a young woman searching Paris for her missing cat; La Promesse, a remarkable Belgian film about a son's rebellion against his father, a man who harbors and exploits Third World immigrants; and Chen Kaige's ravishing tale of Shanghai decadence, Temptress Moon, with Gong Li.
I also recommend three American indies that debuted at Sundance. In the disturbing and controversial In the Company of Men, a study of misogyny, two businessmen conspire to seduce and humiliate a deaf woman. In Victor Nunez's moving Ulee's Gold, Peter Fonda gives the performance of his career as an old-fashioned Florida beekeeper who gets stung by the violent modern world. And in a striking and sexy first film called Star Maps, a young Latino with dreams of Hollywood glory is put to work selling his body by his greedy father.
There will be new films this season from Spike Lee (4 Little Girls, about the 1963 Birmingham, Ala., bombing) and Mike Leigh (a '60s comedy, Career Girls). There will be old films rereleased--like Jean-Luc Godard's gorgeous 1963 Contempt, with Brigitte Bardot. The indies even have their own versions of Hollywood genre movies, most promisingly Guillermo del Toro's Mimic, a horror spectacle about genetic engineering with Mira Sorvino. And in a major attempt at career reinvention, Sylvester Stallone will be seen not in a megamillion-dollar action flick but in James Mangold's modestly budgeted COP LAND, for which the $20 million star was paid about $45,000. On second thought, maybe Hollywood should be worried. This quality thing could get contagious.
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