JOHNNY SUEDE
1991
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Calvin Levels, Alison Moir, Nick Cave, Tina Louise.
Awards: Grand Prize; Locarno Intl. Film Festival.
US distribution: Miramax.
Festivals: Sundance, Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Locarno, Berlin, Munich, Deauville, Gijon.
Related Blog Posts: Johnny Too Bad, Include Me Out, dePress, Whacked But Fact #1.
Johnny Suede TRAILER
Johnny Suede was my first film. It was based on a series of monologues I’d written for a character I’d created in an acting class. In 1986 I gathered the monologues into a 1-man show and performed it in a tiny theatre Way-Off-Off-Broadway. The reaction was strong enough to convince me to write the screenplay and start sending it out to anyone I knew with money. Four years later I was directing the film with Brad Pitt as Johnny and Catherine Keener as his girlfriend, Yvonne. Or as Brad called her, “Yavonne.”
The film is essentially a tragi-comic meandering through the uncharted swamps of the male psyche. I think it is some of Brad’s best work. It was also my first experience working with Catherine and the trip was riveting enough for me to come back for more.
The film won Best Picture at the 1990 Locarno Film Festival. It was bought there by Miramax but not released until over a year later in order to “capitalize on Pitt’s ascending stardom.” It was my first film at Sundance. No one seemed to know what to make of the film. And when it was finally released critical reaction was pretty much the same. Vincent Canby, writing in the NY Times said, “There is something going on in this film; maybe someone can tell me what it is.”
I almost wondered for a moment if that wasn’t his job.
Just before the film opened Miramax head Harvey Weinstein called at midnight to read the review to me, “I’m sorry, Tom,” he said, and I believe he was. But, the film played a week in NYC and then was gone. It did much better in Europe, especially the UK. I think they understood the whacked out humor of it more.
I wrote the songs Johnny sings in the film. Brad sings them all. Nick Cave sings one I wrote called “Mamma’s Boy.” The song was essentially written to be rather dumb. Nick felt it was apparently too dumb and offered to rewrite the lyrics. He sent me a cassette tape of him singing the new lyrics. I sincerely wish I knew where that cassette is now. Halfway through he stops singing and says, “You know, Tom. I think my lyrics are even more stupid than yours.” And he ended up singing the song as I wrote it.
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LIVING IN OBLIVION
1995
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, James Legros, Danielle Von Zerneck, Rica Maartens, Peter Dinkladge.
Awards: Best Screenplay; Sundance Film Festival. Best Picture;Deauville Film Festival. Best Actress, Catherine Keener; Stockholm Film Festival.
US Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics.
Festivals: Sundance, Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, New Directors (NYC), Berlin, Deauville, Gijon, Stockholm.
Related Blog Posts:
Books: “Eating Crow; Notes From a Filmmakers Diary.” (Living In Oblivion)
Living In Oblivion TRAILER
I wrote Living In Oblivion in a state of mind teetering somewhere between homicide and suicide. After the dismissive release of Johnny Suede it was extremely difficult to get my next script, Box of Moonlight financed. And so one night, after getting plastered on martini’s at my wife’s cousin’s wedding, I stumbled into the Idea; a series of events taking place right on the set of a no-budget movie. All the things that could possibly go wrong actually do.
The film is really a love/hate letter about the mechanics of filmmaking. I love this business but at times it really does feel that the entire process of making a film is designed to drive you into an insane asylum. Just when some miraculous moment is blossoming to life in front of you the camera screws up and that fragile, fleeting glimmer of beauty is gone. Of course the opposite is also true. But on a no-budget film the “unhappy accidents” can drop you to your knees.
What was so surprising to me was the joy and pleasure I found in writing scenes that had originally been nightmares to me; absolutely excruciating to experience. I wrote the first half hour in 4 days. I gave it to Catherine Keener who was staying with us for a few days. I will never forget the shrieks of laughter coming from the back bedroom.
As she stood in the front doorway saying goodbye we all looked at each other and said, “We’re going to make this movie!”
Except we had no idea how to. My wife Jane started it off by hitting up everyone she knew (including her now-married cousin Hilary) and somehow raising $37,000 over the weekend. Hilary got a nice part for her support. Catherine showed the script to her husband (at the time) Dermot Mulroney. He wanted to play Nick, the director. I suggested he might have more fun with Wolf, the cameraman. Dermot agreed and instantly suggested Steve Buscemi for Nick. Dermot also invested $5,000.
Suddenly a financing plan had emerged; any actor who put up money got a part. And that is the way the entire film was cast. No one auditioned. I never knew what any actor was going to do until the first moment I called action.
Brad Pitt was going to play actor Chad Palomino in the film. He loved the script and was all set to go when a conflict developed with Legends of the Fall. Catherine Keener called to tell me the bad news. As we were on the phone James Legros walked by her house. I heard her yell out to him, “Hey James! Wanna be in a movie?” That’s how Mr. Legros joined the party.
I could write a book about the whole experience. In fact I did. There are a few copies of “Eating Crow, Notes from A Filmmaker’s Diary,” (also titled Living In Oblivion ) floating around out there.
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BOX OF MOONLIGHT
1997
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, Catherine Keener, Lisa Blount, Rica Maartens, Annie Corley.
Festivals: Venice, Sundance, Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco.
US Distribution: Trimark.
Books: Notes From Overboard, film diary and screenplay.
Related Blog Posts: Roll Model, Whacked But Fact 2.
Box of Moonlight TRAILER
Box of Moonlight was supposed to have been my 2nd film. The relative success of Living In Oblivion finally pushed one financier over the edge and one day in 1997 I found myself in Knoxville, Tennessee actually directing the film. It had been a point of the writing to get out of NYC, away from the Lower East Side rubble without a cause that had been the focus of so many films I’d worked on.
I actually spent a lot of time as a kid in small towns all across America. I wrote Box of Moonlight as an attempt to revisit that emotional landscape. There are some elements of my childhood in it (the flashcards), some aspects of my father (the flashcards) and some aspects of my belief that everyone should go through a healthy period of juvenile delinquency at some time in their lives.
I tried to maintain the family of actors and crew who had come together on Living In Oblivion as much as possible. I wrote the part of Floatie, the slightly dented phone-sex operator for Catherine Keener. Dermot Mulroney went pretty deep with the small town bully, Wick. Lisa Blount was new, though I’d been enormously impressed with her work in An Officer and a Gentleman.
The core of the film though is the relationship between Al Fountain (John Turturro) and the Kid (Sam Rockwell). My respect for both actors is tremendous. Both could not have had more different acting styles. Sam had auditioned for me for Johnny Suede and I’d been so impressed with him I kept him in mind for this film. It was Turturro’s performance in Quizz Show that made me really push to get him into the film.
It was a tough shoot. In fact, it blew my mind that shooting scenes of such pastoral beauty could be accompanied by such trauma. The day before we shot a scene of Turturro swimming in an abandoned rock quarry a swimmer had drowned. The rescue diver who’d tried to retrieve the body from the depths was bitten by a water moccasin and also died. I did not tell Turturro this.
The film was accepted by the Venice Film Festival. During the screening the sold-out audience was completely silent. I was convinced it was a disaster. Then the lights came up and the entire audience rose in a lengthy ovation.
But, nothing affects me as much as hearing to this day how deeply this crazy film has touched people. The ones it does, it touches strongly. It got criticized for being a “hippy” film. Even a cursory glimpse of Sam Rockwells’s troubled Kid shows that nothing could be further from the truth.
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THE REAL BLONDE
1998
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, Darryl Hannah, Christopher Lloyd, Maxwell Caulfield, Kathleen Turner, Marlo Thomas, Dave Chapelle, Steve Buscemi, Denis Leary, Elizabeth Berkely.
Festivals: Sundance, Toronto, San Francisco, Deauville.
US Distribution: Paramount.
The Real Blonde TRAILER
The Real Blonde is my only studio film to date. That’s not really a statement, just a fact. The producers had also financed Box of Moonlight and understandably wanted to push my next film into wider acceptance. And so, I met Maligma face to face. This is the name I’ve given to the force that lurks eternally and relentlessly just beyond the shadows in this business. It is the voice that slips up and whispers into your ear at precisely your weakest moments. It says, “You worked so hard on your first 3 films and you’ve gotten nowhere. Why not cast stars? Why not make a bigger film? It’s not really ‘compromise’. It’s part of the game. You need to learn how to play it, that’s all. Come on. It’s easy. Everyone does it.”
An early whisper was that I should not (read ‘could not’) cast Catherine Keener in the part I’d specifically written for her. This was after I had worked with her on three films. This casting battle dragged on for months until finally I simply said, No. If I can’t make this film with the actor I feel is best for the part then I’m not going to make it.
Catherine did get the part. I’ll never forget months after we’d finished shooting, and Catherine’s star had really begun to rise, watching one of the producers come up to her and exclaim, “You’re so great in this film. I’m so glad we cast you.”
I had a fantastic time working with some of the bigger “name” actors, like Christopher Lloyd, Kathleen Turner and Darryl Hannah. All of them were amazingly giving and gifted; all of them taught me a lot.
Dave Chapelle has a small but juicy part in the film as Steve Buscemi’s assistant director. Buscemi plays a once-indie icon now directing a Madonna video. This was before Dave had his own show. His brilliance was already evident.
I was forced, literally, to cut a scene out of the film I was extremely proud of. It was with the slyly suave Maxwell Caulfield in a Times Square peep show booth. It was one of the most beautifully surreal scenes I have ever put on film. The producers demanded I cut it because they felt it would hurt the film’s chances of “striking a chord with Middle America.”
It killed me to cut it. And after all that? The film never made it a mile inland from either coast. I made a vow to myself never to do that again even at the risk of destroying the chances of the film being seen or ruining my relationships with the producers and distributors. As a director the only thing that matters is how YOU feel about the film. And you can’t expect anyone to understand what that really means to you. They won’t understand. They will think you’re being a jerk. You just have to do it.
The film is loosely based on a period in my life where the dreams I had were slamming pretty hard into reality. It’s a film about relationships but it also asks, how can you survive as an artist unless you have a way of supporting yourself? No matter how gifted you are someone has to pay the rent. What happens when you reach the point where you look at your dreams and say, “That is what I wanted, that is what I longed for; but perhaps I have to let it all go.”
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DOUBLE WHAMMY
2001
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, Luis Guzman, Melonie Diaz, Donald Faison, Keith Knobb, Victor Argo, Chris Noth, Steve Buscemi.
Festivals: Sundance, Tribeca, Gijon, Deauville.
Awards: Best Picture; DVD Premiere Awards.
Double Whammy TRAILER
This is a tough film for me to write about. It is the only film I have made that did not get theatrical distribution. That’s not to say it wasn’t supposed to. Double Whammy premiered at Sundance in 2000 where it was picked up for US distribution by Lionsgate. Variety announced the sale and included Lionsgate’s stated intention to release the film theatrically in September of 2001.
Then a couple of things happened. The guy who’d championed the film at the film’s original financing company got fired. Then the guy who’d championed the film at Lionsgate was asked to find other employment. I suddenly had a film that was orphaned. In both cases, the executives who replaced the ones who’d departed wanted to start with a clean slate of their own films and the last thing they felt was any loyalty to films left behind by their predecessors.
A lengthy, disturbing silence came from Lionsgate. Finally, I received a cursory email stating they’d never intended a theatrical release and instead were dumping the film straight to DVD. That was my first lesson in Legality in this business. The fact is, there really is none. If someone wants to violate a contract they will. These people did whatever suited them because they knew no one would, or could, stop them.
But, before all that there was the film which I’d seriously enjoyed writing and directing. My intent was to poke some satirical fun at the whole Violence Is Cool craze that was saturating independent film. Part of it was based on real events; a young girl in the Bronx had really plotted to kill her father because he wouldn’t let her get a tattoo. Part of it came from my own experience of having a back that would go out on me at the worst possible times. I gave that affliction to Hero Cop Denis Leary and the rest of the stuff came out of my brain.
I had a great time with the crime genre. I was finally able to cast Chris Noth in one of my films. He plays a cop but one with a sharp twist of malice and ego. Ends up he’s the only one who figures out the crime.
The young actors Melonie Diaz, Donald Faison and Keith Knobb were a joy to work with. Their enthusiasm was exhilarating. That kind of willingness is the greatest gift an actor can give a director. I find it the most common with young, eager non-stars and this is why their performances light up the screen.
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DELIRIOUS
2007
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman, Gina Gershon, Elvis Costello, Callie Thorne, David Wain, Cinque Lee.
Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay; San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival. Best Picture; HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, Special Jury Prize;Istanbul Intl. Film Festival, Signis Grand Prize.
Festivals: Sundance, Seattle, Aspen, San Sebastian.
US Distribution: Peace Arch.
Related blog posts: Many, starting with the very first and running up until around Arrest at Ebertfest.
Related videos:
Shove It, by Alison Lohman; music video from Delirious.
Steve Buscemi “Leak”
Gina Gershon “Sex Tape” Leak
Casting Michael Pitt “Leak”
Delirious TRAILER
I wrote this film specifically for Steve Buscemi. It took him over a year to finally agree to play the lead, NYC paparazzo Les Galantine, but once he said yes I knew I had a movie. This film stands out for me emotionally and artistically like Living In Oblivion. I feel I put equal parts of my soul into both films.
It is beyond my ability to comprehend how Buscemi’s performance in the film was not more widely recognized. I think it is one of his most dimensional and courageous. And the rest of the cast is equally superb. Gina Gershon is a total trip, revealing a sexy, comic verve that cracks like a whip. Alison Lohman dove headfirst into pop diva K’arma Leeds, bringing a great warmth and depth to this lost soul.
Some of my most enjoyable moments were watching Callie Thorne and David Wain together as K’arma’s publicist and manager. Michael Pitt plays Toby, a young kid who stumbles into stardom. Gina Gershon plays Dana, his manager who has more than a professional interest in him. In a key scene Dana tells an agent that her client can’t be in Toby’s next film because, “Her star is nowhere near his orbit.”
When my first film Johnny Suede was about to be released we received a request from GQ Magazine to do a photo spread with Brad Pitt and Alison Moir, the unknown but delightful co-star of of the film. The request never got to Brad and was turned down by his publicist with the declaration, “Her star is nowhere near his orbit.” To which I declared in return, “That might be true but I think your moon is in Uranus.”
I didn’t say that. But I was so stupefied by the publicist’s orbit line I put it in Delirious verbatim. The line about Uranus was actually incorporated into Living In Oblivion, spoken by Catherine Keener and followed by a masterful spit-take from Danielle Von Zerneck.
I chose the title Delirious primarily because it means, “A state of happiness so intense it verges on being crazy.” It seemed like a good word to describe the people in the film. They don’t want to just be happy–they want to be so happy they’re almost insane. I wrote the film because I was interested in how damaged people fit into the structure of fame in this country; from those that occupy the lowest rungs (the paparazzi) to those that theoretically occupy the highest (the stars).
Much of the first part of this blog is devoted to Delirious, from its original conception to its theatrical release in 2008.
The DVD of Delirious contains the Director’s Cut of the film as well as a Director’s Commentary. In addition it offers the full-length version of Alison Lohman’s performance of my song “Take Your Love And Shove It.” There is also a 20 minute featurette called Stalking Delirious on the making of the film with Steve Buscemi and Tom DiCillo. And finally, to make sure you really get your money’s worth, 3 hi-res video podcasts from the web-based promotion are included; Marketing Meeting, Steve Buscemi is Pissed and the Gina Gershon Sex Tape.
The final scene of the film was supposed to take place right in the body of the film. But, the climactic scene just before it was so intense dramatically there was no way to keep the final scene. I loved it so much though that I dropped it in at the end of the credits. Few people know it is there. It is a hidden scene, an “easter egg” so to speak that only the courageous adventurer has discovered.
Little piece of trivia: Delirious really did screen at the the Playboy Mansion in early September, 2007. Hugh Hefner genuinely liked the film and at his encouragement it was included in Playboy with a positive review. Read the semi-fictional account here.
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WHEN YOU’RE STRANGE
2010
Writer/Director: Tom DiCillo
Cast: John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison, Johnny Depp (narrator).
Awards: Audience Award; South by Southwest Music and Film Festival.
Festivals: Sundance, LA Film Festival, Woodstock, Berlin, Deauville, London, San Sebastian.
US Distribution: Rhino Entertainment and Abramorama.
Related Blog Posts: many, starting with The Land Of Fruits and Nuts and then jumping ahead to The Doors and running consecutively.
When You’re Strange TRAILER
Making this film has occupied my life for over 2 years. I include it as one of my favorites, my most personal and one of those I am most proud of. I have written about it in detail on the blog so you can plunge in if you want.
To this day I am still in awe over the fact that I actually not only met John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, but that I made a film about the incredible musical force they were so integrally part of. I came to have a great respect for all of them, as musicians and as human beings. I could not be prouder that they so enthusiastically support the film.
As for the one I didn’t meet; I think I got to know Mr. Morrison just a little bit through making this film and feel permanently altered as a result.