Living in Oblivion (1995)
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Any actor who put up money got a part. That's how most of the movie was cast. One glaring exception: A guy in Brooklyn who worked at a fax store came in and blew the room away. This was Peter Dinklage in his first film.
LIVING IN OBLIVION (1995) is a single day on the set of a no-budget production where everything that can go wrong does, from spoiled milk to a boom mic in the frame. Steve Buscemi plays the director slowly coming apart, and it remains the definitive film about the misery of independent filmmaking.
Dinklage's Tito is cast in a dream sequence and stops the shoot to demand why little people only ever turn up in dreams, shredding the laziest cliché in surrealist cinema from inside a film that is partly a dream itself.
The vain pretty-boy actor was originally meant to be Brad Pitt, with whom director Tom DiCillo had worked before. Pitt dropped out days before shooting, and James LeGros stepped in.
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Living in Oblivion (1995) was originally shot as an independent, 30-minute short film funded by a $37,000 budget pooled from the cast and crew. Inspired by the initial footage, the actors worked for free and invested their own money to help DiCillo expand the project into a three-part feature film, which was completed in just 15 days. After premiering to critical acclaim at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for theatrical distribution.
About the Film
Nick is about to discover the first rule of filmmaking: if at first you don't succeed... PANIC!
- Directed By
- Tom DiCillo
- Runtime
- 90 minutes
- Released
- July 21, 1995
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James Le Gros
More Credits
- Genres
- Comedy
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- JDI productions, Lemon Sky Productions
- Written By
- Tom DiCillo
- Produced By
- Marcus Viscidi, Hilary Gilford, Michael Griffiths
- Cinematography
- Frank Prinzi
- Music
- Jim Farmer
- Also Starring
- Peter Dinklage, Rica Martens, Kevin Corrigan, Robert Wightman, Michael Griffiths
- Budget
- $500,000
- Box Office
- $1,148,752
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Terror Firmer did it better
This film is essentially a documentary about working on low budget films in the 90s.
Mark Ampersand yes….I set dressed on my share of non union low budget films in the 90’s crazy fun times….they called us art dogs in the world!!!
I remember watching this and thought, is that a “Twin Peaks” reference?
How much money did it make on such a small budget?
Chris Roberts I understand it made ~$1.1 million in its theatrical run, which was a success considering how little it cost. Of course, it has continued to make money in home formats.
I got to see this the year of its release in my mid sized French town when I was 16/17 and I remember thinking ‘wow, who is this guy? I hope we’ll see him in more things!’ I hear this Peter Dinklage is doing pretty well, I should have become a casting director…
Why is my memory of this film in
Black And White? 🤔
Spencer J. Brown There were black and white sections in it
Also, Buscemi made another low budget film at the time about a screenwriter trying to get a movie made. In the Soup. That one was shot in BW.
Robert Dee oh I forgot about In the Soup! I’ll have to do a writeup on that one!
Much of the movie was black and white. It switched to color when the cameras were rolling. So real life was black and white, but the “movie” was color.
Spencer J. Brown We shot the whole 1st third as a short film in B&W in 5 days.
Sounds like champagne talking 😂
Great movie. Saw it in NYC when it came out and have probably seen it half a dozen times since. Sharp dialogue and excellent casting.
Still waiting on that frame line Mikey Jones
Saw this when it came out and loved it. It’s on my Kanopy list to rewatch!
Good movie.
Love this film
this movie is to filmmakers what ‘Spinal Tap’ is to musicians
That scene with Dinklage is the only part of the movie I really remember.
Mathew Price 🤙🏼
If I’m remembering right Brad Pitt was not cast in it but Tom wrote the James LeGros part after his experience with Brad Pitt in his first film.