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And what of that other trend of the 90's, the indie film? Well, it hadn't become a dominant force yet, but there were signs of life there. WILD AT HEART, David Lynch's oddball version of THE WIZARD OF OZ, won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, and caused quite a bit of discussion upon its release. That film, THE GRIFTERS, LONGTIME COMPANION, and METROPOLITAN all received a minimal amount of Oscar nominations, suggesting some, at least, were sitting up and taking notice. Perhaps most encouraging to this trend, one of America's most independent directors, Robert Altman, started his comeback with the quietly moving VINCENT & THEO.
Finally, it wouldn't be a year of the 90's without an element of controversy. This was the year the NC-17 rating was introduced by the MPAA, to replace the X, and also the year of the first film to be tagged by that rating, HENRY & JUNE. But what seemed to be a change merely turned out to be same old, same old; studios did what they could to force movies into R ratings, because NC-17 ended up carrying the same stigma as an X rating once did. And films like GOODFELLAS and HENRY & JUNE ended up raising questions on whether there can be too much sex & violence on screen.
Oh yeah, this is about films. Next time, I'll start a series where I review the Oscar nominees in the major categories, starting with, of course, DANCES WITH WOLVES.
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