Day Seventeen: Living in Oblivion

Easter and illness have intervened with the last couple of days, but I promise to get back on track now. The first movie I've watched since Saturday was certainly a good way to reorient myself: it's a movie about movies, about the making of an independent movie. Though seemingly low-budget itself, it's got a few favorite actors of mine (Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener), and as befits its content, I think it's very stylistically rich.

The film follows a day of shooting on the film, much of it presented as the dreams of the director and the female lead. Director Nick's dream, which cinematically switches between black and white and color and focuses on the technical aspects of the film, is about everything going wrong on set, small details ruining every take. Star Nicole's dream focuses more on her personal fears and relationship with the conceited, dense male lead. Though I've (sadly) never been on a film myself, I'd imagine Living in Oblivion, like my recent favorite The TV Set, does a great job of capturing all of the details and problems that go into just a short, seemingly simple scene on film.

It's not just about showing how a film is made, though; the movie is also very subtly great at showing how the characters' background and emotions affect the on-set ongoings. Nick obviously has a complicated relationship with his mother, a theme that runs throughout the film without being overtly stated. In his dream, the scene being filmed is an intense conversation between a mother and daughter, and the actress playing the daughter is distracted and moved by her own memories of her mother. And towards the end of the film, Nick's own mother--who appeared in his dream as a brassy but forgetful actress--shows up, first interfering with the shots but then reaching a moment of triumph as she takes a part in the scene being shot. Each crew member has his or her own worries and hopes; most prominent is the troubled relationship between the first assistant director and the gaffer.

One of my favorite scenes comes at the very end: after reaching a crisis point and then finally completing a usable shot, the sound man calls for thirty seconds of silence so he can capture room tone. The entire crew stands still, exchanging glances and quickly indulging in post-filming fantasies. These little glimpses into their minds perfectly sum up their characters: while Nick imagines winning an award and getting figurative revenge on all those who doubted or insulted him over the years, actress Nicole can only imagine herself eventually looking for work in a diner, her acting dreams long gone. Living in Oblivion is wonderful in the way it depicts not only the mundane, accident-prone details of filmmaking, but also how deeply personal it can be, how everyone's dreams can be hinged on it.