Living in Oblivion

Plot synopsis:
The film is divided into three parts, all of which concern the making of a low-budget movie featuring the same director, crew and substantially the same cast.
Part one: Director Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is shooting a low-budget independent film in the middle of New York City. The catering crew are under-funded and apathetic, deciding not to replace a carton of milk that has been on the craft service table for a week. The scene being shot is a difficult one: a young woman, Ellen, reproaches her elderly mother (Rica Martens) for not intervening when the father beat Ellen as a child. However, on the set, just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong: shots are spoiled because of how the mic boom is visible; the camera assistant fails to keep the shot in focus; Cora, the actress playing the mother, forgets her lines; and Nicole, the actress playing Ellen, becomes increasingly unfocused and careless. A dispirited Nick calls for a rehearsal without camera to refresh the actors. However, when Nicole (Catherine Keener) berates herself for acting badly, Cora (Rica Martens) reassures her with a gesture that reminds Nicole of a similar gesture made by her own terminally ill mother. Nicole is so upset by the memory that she turns in an unexpectedly passionate performance; and Cora, startled by Nicole's sudden intensity, is equally good. Watching them, Nick becomes enthusiastic all over again. Unfortunately, it was not captured on film; cinematographer and camera operator Wolf (Dermot Mulroney), who has been diluting the sub-standard coffee with the spoiled milk, was vomiting in the toilet throughout. Nick ruefully calls for another take. This time, a sudden and insistent beeping sound distracts the actors. Nobody can tell where it's coming from; and Nick flies into a rage, berating everyone on the crew and cast for their inadequacies. He then wakes up in his own bed; the beeping sound was his own alarm clock. He has dreamed the entire segment. It is 4.30am; and he is due on set.
Part two: Early the same morning, the film's lead actor Chad Palomino (James LeGros) is getting dressed in Nicole's hotel room. They have spent the night together, 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 this 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 becomes increasingly frustrated by Chad's egomania; and, when he starts to stroke her head, she briefly loses her cool, then apologizes. An irritated Chad demands a private talk with Nick. He tells Nick that he has slept with Nicole and makes out that it was she, not he, who had wanted to continue the relationship. Desperate to keep Chad happy, Nick agrees that Nicole is not very good. 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 slept with Chad, she is not at all interested in him. Chad loses his temper and quits the movie. 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 senseless and fires him. He apologises to Nicole and confesses that he loves her. They kiss—then Nicole abruptly wakes up, still in her bed, having dreamed the entire segment.
Part three: Later the same day, the crew is setting up for a dream sequence in which Nicole, as Ellen, stands still while a dwarf walks around her holding 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 had a dream with Nick in it but doesn't tell him what happened. Nick manages to keep up his positive attitude despite the various mishaps that occur: The smoke machine fails to work, then it catches fire, then his senile mother Cora arrives on the set. However, the ill-tempered dwarf actor Tito (Peter Dinklage) complains that the dream sequence is a cliché ("I don't even have dreams with dwarves in them!") and walks off the set in disgust. Nick's confidence collapses, and he announces that the movie is over. At that moment, his mother 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. Nick is delighted and decides to keep the new dream sequence, and there is a tense moment while the sound mixer records 30 seconds of room tone. The entire cast and crew manages to remain silent, and during this moment they each daydream about different things. They go on to shooting the next sequence.

Tags: cult, satire, romantic, flashback

Review:
A story about a director making a movie, Living in Oblivion holds many true tidbits and crazy moments that occur regularly on a film shoot.
Writer-director Tom Dicillo takes a satiric look at independent films while capturing the ups and downs of making a movie.
For the cast and crew of the film within this film, the downs hilariously outnumber the ups.Steve Buscemi shines in an all-too-rare lead role as the frustrated director.
There's also great work by James LeGros as the pompous leading man, Catherine Keener as the insecure leading lady, and Dermot Mulroney as the broken-hearted cinematographer.Dicillo is especially concerned with the nightmares and daydreams of his characters, and rightly adopts a dreamy visual style that shifts between black and white and color.It all adds up to an uncommonly intelligent, artistic, and funny(!) comedy that deserves your attention..
Buscemi's performance of a Indi' film director going through the rigors of dealing with inept film crew, egotistical actor's, in-crew relationships and not to mention a certain dwarf with a major chip on his shoulder.
While the film is funny it is so close to the bone that I was initially surprised to see it appear in the comedy section.Steve Buscemi is right at home in this film, his influence rubs off on the support actors, and his stress is convincing.
This film makes you squirm but laugh - unlike conventional comedies - in this film you identify and live with the actors.The screenplay timing is superb and taunts the audience to an almost stressful level.
Steve Buscemi may or may not have been the first choice by writer/director Tom DiCillo for the lead role of Nick, the director behind the three (err, one) film(s) being made within the film Living in Oblivion, but it works so well it's impossible to see anyone else in the role.
His character, as the quintessential indie film director of the film, tries to keep some control on what goes on, but as is seen, things don't go quite as planned.Living in Oblivion is one of those little delights for a film buff to see, or perhaps of a particular film buff.
The other two segments come closer to being as great, one being a slick scene involving a buff man and Nicole, and the other being a very strange dream that has some kinks to work out.I've seen this film now several times, and the first time my enjoyment was more in the surface comedy of it all, and of course the performances.
Living in Oblivion is an unusual, funny, and interesting example of the movie-about-movies genre, focusing on the low budget, independent movie making scene.
The writer/director uses the full potential of his set up by bringing in a host of characters and a range of technical aspects of the shoot, and yet wraps it up nicely through the romantic concerns of his creations.Performances are good all round, and some real insights are delivered - the objection to dwarfs in dream sequences, the most self-obsessed person in the room coming up with the best idea (the blocking for the "admired from afar" scene).
Indie director Tom DiCillo has produced a small (as yet) body of work, but has shown consistent flair for making movies which exude great affection for his characters.
Indie stalwarts Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener (who's graced four DiCillo movies) shine as director and actress on a trouble laden indie shoot.
Writer-director Tom DiCillo made in 1991 a film called "Johnny Suede" starring a young and unknown at the time actor named Brad Pitt.
DiCillo wrote a short story from his frustration and turned his experience into a smart, funny, playful, and highly enjoyable second feature "Living in Oblivion" that takes place during one day of shooting a low budget film.
Photographed with the color-to-black-and-white transitions, "Living in Oblivions" has surreal, strangely poetic and amusing quality to it.The cast is solid and consists of DiCillo's friends who are the regulars in his films.
Steve Buscemi, the king of independent movies, in the rare starring role, plays Nick Reve, a long-haired, dedicated but frustrated director who in the moments of creative inspiration has to get back to earth and to deal with the tensions between his leading lady (Catherine Keener, before her star-making turn in "Being John Malkovich" but already a wonderfully talented beautiful and sexy actress) with whom he is silently in love and the male star, arrogant egotist Chad Palomino (James LeGros does an un-flattering but hilarious and quite accurate impersonation of the real life model for Chad).
The only place I've seen dwarfs in dreams is in stupid movies like this!" There is also a smoke machine that explodes every time when turned on...And to top it all, Nick's senile mother surprisingly shows up during the shot and eventually saves the dream sequence and the movie.
The film is funny as hell and insightful, it shows you a side of movie making that feels very real, as the characters do feel like actual people struggling with certain situations in their lives.
We also get some great guest stars -- Steve Buscemi, obviously, but also Catherine Keener and Peter Dinklage.Not everyone will like this movie.
Not nearly as funny as I'd expected, LIVING IN OBLIVION seems too geared towards people who are actually involved in making independent films.
All the by-the-numbers indie elements are here: zero budget, non-existent production value, flaccid pace,"edgy" characters (=weirdos), cut-&-paste "script" (no more than a collection of notions about what a film *really* is)---in other words, the same old indie riff.*Yawn* They crank these things out, like sausages, for the tax break that these born-to-lose duds provide- --their only reason for being.
It follows the always corpse-like Steve Buscemi as a director just trying to film two scenes in a seemingly awful low-budget independent production that has the distinction of snaring a megastar who is trying to build cred played by Brad Pitt look (sorta)-alike James LeGros.
If you ever wanted to see Buscemi try to carry a film or if like to feel hip by picking a movie that makes fun of movies themselves you might enjoy this -- I didn't.
One thing after another goes wrong on the set of a low budget movie in this film about filmmaking starring Steve Buscemi as the frustrated director at the heart of the tale.
From the premise alone, 'Living in Oblivion' might sound like a rather straightforward comedy, but it is actually far from it with a narrative full of twists and turns and some effective cinematic touches, such as all the 'reality' scenes appearing in black and white with only the film-within in colour during the first section of the movie.
"Living in Oblivion" is a nominal indie comedy about a day on the set from hell of an indie film director (Buscemi) who struggles with technical problems, personality conflicts, etc.
If you are a film maker like myself I would recommend watching this film, other films similar to this such as The Independent, Bowfinger and the small indie film's American Movie and Le Fear hold weight in this genre, however Liing in Oblivion has to edge it for me and has it all when it comes to films in this genre, it also has a back story which makes it more interesting as both lead actors Catherine Keener and James LeGros have a fling and the atmosphere on set is intense.
The film is a funny and realistic look into the shoot of Nick's movie with all the problems that come with it.
Mulroney is good but it is LeGros who really steals his section as the inflated actor who can't just do as he's told and is a pain to work with - supposedly DiCillo based this character on his experiences working with Brad Pitt.Overall this is a tight and amusing little film that captures the frustrations and realities of the low budget shoot.
You're the director of a low budget film and all you have to do is get all the different disparate elements to come together and get everyone to peak and not screw up all at the same time, and then you're making a mother f*cking movie.
Relationships are falling apart, actors aren't acting, stars aren't starring and the crew seem more intent on getting in front of the camera rather than staying behind it.In Tom Dicillo's perfect satire on the troublesome process of movie making, the comedy of errors that transpires is one of the funniest that has ever been put on celluloid, with Steve Buscemi flawless and hilarious as the director having a nightmare as events conspire to spoil his film.
Steve Buscemi plays Nick, the director of a low-budget movie who's just trying to film a couple scenes but something keeps going wrong with every attempt.
He likes to act calm when the confusion reigns but time and again he loses it and starts throwing things and hitting actors or the crew.Buscemi is the only big name in the film but his co-stars are equally good.
The entire ensemble cast is perfect, both "names" and unknowns.If you've ever been involved in making a film (even as a student), your heart will ache for them even as you laugh out loud -- and quite probably even if you have no personal experience with film-making you'll have new insights on why making something where the finished product runs a relatively short time can take forever to capture.I initially thought "Chad Palomino" HAD to be a sendup of Brad Pitt -- and while listening to the director's commentary I nearly choked hearing him say Pitt was originally slated to play that role but ended up with a conflict (apparently finishing "Legends of the Fall") and had to back out.Steve Buscemi, already a favorite of mine from many indies, is a revelation in this film; he has a "leading man" quality, for lack of a better term, that I hadn't seen from him before (presumably because his "look" makes most directors loathe to cast him as anything but an odd duck), but he's still as interesting as in anything else I've seen him do.Spend some time with this film; you won't be disappointed!.
This is not to suggest that these means are not important, Dicillo's makes them the entire plot of Living in Oblivion, but he rather he wants to give a window for an audience to view (while dramatized) into the world of film production.
While this is a seemingly contradictory statement, Living in Oblivion is a contradictory movie, and DiCillo leaves the audience with the feeling that a film has been made and the future of that film will in no way reflect the journey the cast/crew took to get it there..
Steve Buscemi is the star and he plays a director trying to shoot a low-budget film and what's funny is the day-to-day stuff and the happenings on and off the set.One character in the film is a big Hollywood celebrity type that had stupid and insane "needs" to be met on the set and tries to improvise and change the scenes because he thinks he knows more than the director, writer and other talent there.
It's a series of vignettes (most likely dreams) of the making of an independent movie, and everything seems to go wrong.(The boom shows up in the frame, the main actress and actor were having an affair, a dwarf refuses to act because he feels stereotyped, etc.) Not only was this film a satire about the realities of low-budget filmmaking, but it was also an interesting character study of the film's crew and interpersonal relationships.A charming movie, with great performances all around.
On The Outside Looking In. Steve Buscemi plays a character named Nick, a frazzled, stressed out director trying to make a low-budget independent film, in this fictional movie from real-life director Tom DiCillo.
Overall, "Living In Oblivion" makes a good effort at showing what life is like on a movie set.
This is for anyone who's ever tried to make a movie, or worked on a low/no budget film, it's a laugh-generator engine...
but ya gotta be on the inside to really get some of the jokes."Living in Oblivion" is that wonderful kind of film that pulls you in, gives you a few points of reference, and then turns things upside down in classic screwball fashion.As a screwball film it follows all the conventions of the genre, but with a great twist, so that we become unsure if we're watching "real life", or some approximation of reality.The story is about an independent film director, attempting to complete his film, based on his own personal experiences- Or at least that what the film seems to be about at times.Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is trying to complete his low/no-budget film in Raw Space Studios in New York, and things just keep going wrong, from his pretentious cinematographer Wolf (Durmot Mulroney) who ends up wearing a beret and eye patch to star actor Chad Palomino (James Le Gros) who keeps re-interpreting every scene in the movie that the crew is trying to shoot.
Later to complete a fantasy section for the film a dwarf actor is hired, Tito (Peter Dinklage) to act in a scene with Nicole, but things keep going wrong with adverse reactions to the script and Nick's direction.
We're never sure if the "movie" gets finished but old wounds get salved and another day of creating is successfully completed.It's the little touches in the film that make this inside joke such a pleasure.Highlights are the scene with Nicole and Cora, where we feel that real emotion is being observed and something pure is artistically derived, only to be sidetracked by the incompetent bumbling of the comedy of errors that make up the film crew.Another great section is the one where Nicole and Chad are trying to finish a scene after having sex the night before and carrying all the baggage from that involvement onto the set, with all the accompanying vulnerabilities standing in their way of connecting creatively.The other great section is when we discover that Cora, the mother character of the character in the film within the film earlier, is really the director's own mother.
The only place I seen dwarfs in dreams is in stupid movies like this!" Although the movie "Living in Oblivion" will appeal specifically to film-connected people and those who have attempted to create a crew-involved film, even normal people will find laughs in it.You'll come back to this film again and again to look at single scenes to laugh at the stuff that goes on..
'Living In Oblivion' is basically a one joke affair (being the low budget movie experience from hell) but who can gripe when it's this damn funny and entertaining.
A movie about making a movie, Steve Buscemi is a beleagured director working on a set where something always seems to go wrong.
Catherine Keener is his stressed out star, and a whole cast of other characters all add extra humor to this.Tom DiCillo has made a great movie here.
Frequently funny film about the madness of making independent movies wouldn't be the gem that it is if it wasn't for a fantastic performance by Steve Buscemi.
His Ren-like pop eyes and ferocious anger give life to the on-the-brink-of-a-nervous-breakdown director character and the scene towards the beginning of the film where he snaps and tells everyone on the set what he thinks of them gives a viewer a words-cannot-describe feeling of incredibly inspiring bliss.
One of the most memorable lines in the film is that when a dwarf actor is cast for a dream sequence, but realizes that the only reason that the director cast a dwarf is so that people will know its only a dream, which the dwarf replies to in a very funny way.Overall very very funny, but i suggest you may only like it if you have had some film-making experience.****1/2 out of *****.
I saw this movie at the end of a shooting day for a short film with the whole crew  and we felt like we have looked right into a mirror.
The timing of the music, the performance by Catherine Keener, the way Tom DiCillo shows the frustrations of filmmaking made this movie one of my all-time favorites.
This film is a must for anyone considering going into the profession....not only is it a well written movie but the always great Steve Buscemi adds a realistic tone to the central character......
Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is the director of a low budget film.
What's so great about LIVING IN OBLIVION is that Tom DiCillo turns the camera around and shows us what really happens behind the scenes.
Nick (Steve Buscemi) is directing a low-budget film called Living in Oblivion, that is having a lot of problems during the filming.
Things like that are even in Nick's dreams and in the dreams of his main actress, Nicole (Catherine Keener), so Nick must deal with the problems of making low-budget films."Living in Oblivion", the second film written & directed by Tom DiCillo, is one of the most original films that i have ever seen and is an hilarious and strange low-budget comedy about low-budget film-making.
But for me the most surrealistic sequence is actually the real one of the film with Nick's mother acting better than the real actors.Basically the plot is really simple, showing a lot of takes of the three different scenes but there is always a different detail for every single take and a different reaction of the great characters, you will be asking: now, what's next?
It can also be seen as a light-hearted warning to those who are considering a career in the movie industry, or as a refreshing, close-to-home satire to those already involved.To briefly summarize, Living in Oblivion is a film about the making of a film--an independent, low-budget drama with the same title.
Steve Buscemi plays Nick Reve, the film's hopelessly frustrated, strung-out director who's just trying to make it through the shoot in one piece.