[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Looking for mid-80s to early 90s indie classics, preferably American. (Let's pretend I've already seen Clerks and Slackers.) Suggestions?

trying to think what qualifies as indie -- basically, the money (can get picked up by large distributors though) which allows creative control. free from big studios. the mid-90s brought us the explosion of sundance & the "big indies". these days, hard to tell what's what.

sodherberg: sex lies & videotape (i didn't like it that much but it has its place in history)
tarantino: reservoir dogs / pulp fiction
rodriguez: el mariachi (the original one, not the one wih banderas)
tsukamoto: tetsuo, the iron man
sayles: brother from another planet + other stuff i haven't seen
jarmusch: stranger than paradise / down by law / mystery train / night on earth / dead man
whitman: metropolitan / barcelona / last days of disco (this goes a but past mid-90s but they go together)
kaurismäki: ariel / leningrad cowboys go america / the match factory girl / la vie de boheme / drifting clouds
waters: crybaby/ serial mom
cohens: blood simple / miller's crossing / raising arizona/ barton fink
van sant: drugstore cowboys / my own private idaho / to die for / (was good will hunting "indie"? i hate that movie but it was "big")
cronenberg: the fly / dead ringers / m. butter fly / crash
haynes: superstar / safe
burton: scissorhands / ed wood
linklater (you didn't mention this): dazed & confused
smith (you didn't mention either): mallrats, chasing amy
anderson: bottle rocket
lee: school daze / do the right thing
almodovar: too many films to mention
merchant-ivory: same thing

(i gotta go but i'll keep adding later)

serious question: when is a "foreign" movie an "indie"? e.g. fassbinder, jarman, greenaway? always? [oh i just noticed the "mostly american" note-- still...] also: i'm including releases from 1983 up to 1997 (except when noted) (so no fassbinder)


ferrara: bad lieutenant (i didn't like it but it's a "classic") + some other stuff
hartley: the unvelievable truth / trust / simple men / amateur / flirt / henry fool
russell: spanking the monkey / flirting with disaster