A DECADE UNDER
THE INFLUENCE

Year: 2003
USA: IFC Films
Cast: Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Julie Christie, Polly Platt, Ellen Burstyn, Jack Nicholson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Dennis Hopper, Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Sydney Pollack, Sissy Spacek, Bruce Dern, Paul Schrader, Milos Forman, Roy Scheider, Sidney Lumet, Roger Cormen, Jon Voight, Pam Grierm Peter Bogdanovich, Haskell Wexler
Directors: Ted Demme, Richard LaGravenese
Country: USA
USA: 108 mins
USA Release Date: 25 April 2003 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

The 1970's was an extraordinary time of rebellion, of questioning every accepted idea: political activism, hedonism, protests, the sexual revolution, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the music revolution, rage and liberation. Every standard by which we set our social and cultural clocks was either turned inside out or thrown away completely and reinvented. For American cinema, the 1970s was an era during which a new generation of filmmakers created work for a new kind of audience -- moviegoers who were hungry for stories that reflected their own experiences and who were turning their backs on aged old studio formulas.

As a result, emerging filmmakers influenced by foreign directors such as Godard, Kurosawa and Fellini coupled with the social climate and a struggling studio system, converged to create a new kind of moviemaking. "There was a disparity between a conventional view of the country and what the filmmakers felt the country was about...and I think there was an audience for that disparate view," says writer/director Robert Towne in his interview. Through their choice of material, filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, William Friedkin, Roger Corman and Paul Schrader revolutionized mainstream movies and for the first time personal visions were coming out of the studio system.

In A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE, pioneering writers, directors, and actors talk about the times, their films and their colleagues. "For this brief period in film history, anything was possible. The studios weren't telling filmmakers how to do their work, they were allowed to make their own personal statement," says director Richard LaGravenese. In a unique twist to the documentary format, these filmmakers are interviewed by the next generation of filmmakers, which brings out intimate, personal and often untold stories. Demme and LaGravenese shared the interviewing duties with fellow filmmakers including Neil LaBute, Alexander Payne and Scott Frank.

DVD EXTRAS

The DVD incorporates an additional 33 minutes of interviews.
Letterbox 16:9 Anamorphic format