{"id":25543,"date":"2025-01-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=25543"},"modified":"2025-08-02T15:51:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T22:51:55","slug":"harveys-hellhole-sundance-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/harveys-hellhole-sundance-95\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey’s Hellhole: Sundance ’95"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Harvey\u2019s Hellhole, a monthly column devoted to spotlighting the movies that were poorly marketed, mishandled, reshaped, neglected or just straight-up destroyed by Harvey Weinstein during his reign as one of the most powerful studio chiefs in Hollywood. It\u2019s Sundance time again, so let\u2019s go back thirty years ago, when Miramax and several new, indie-distributor startups duked it out at the Utah-based film fest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 1995, and Miramax was officially in its mighty-studio era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indie distributor was still riding high from its most successful \u2014 critically, commercially, culturally \u2014 year yet. Pulp Fiction<\/em> was its biggest asset: a hip, blood-soaked phenomenon that scored universal acclaim, historic box-office grosses, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. They made rising stars out of new filmmaking talent (Kevin Smith<\/a>, Peter Jackson<\/a>) while dropping the latest from influential, maverick directors (Woody Allen<\/a>, Robert Altman<\/a>). Releasing Krzysztof Kie\u015blowski\u2019s Three Colours<\/em> trilogy throughout the year certified their rep as world-cinema connoisseurs. And, thanks to those horny-ass cineastes<\/em> who like a bit of nudity in their foreign films, they had a hit with the saucy Sirens<\/em>, starring then-It Boy Hugh Grant and usually butt-bald-nekkid supermodel Elle Macpherson.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you agree or not, Miramax was putting a lot of asses in art-house seats during this time. And once Miramax became a part of Disney in 1993 \u2014 making Harvey and them the Mouse House\u2019s official indie-cinema curators \u2014 other majors started building their own boutique wings. New Line Cinema got the ball rolling in 1991, when The House that Freddy Kruger Built created Fine Line Features for its more sophisticated acquisitions. The year before Disney bought Miramax, Sony Pictures launched Sony Pictures Classics. And, right during Miramax\u2019s banner year, Fox showed up on the scene with Fox Searchlight Pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These mini-distributors were all ready to knock Miramax down a peg, showing the Weinstein bros that they weren\u2019t the only ones looking for art-house prestige and paper. And they were ready to do it at that yearly indie-film battleground: the Sundance Film Festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1995 fest was \u2014 no cap, as the kids say these days \u2014 an embarrassment of riches. Some of the era\u2019s most influential indie films (and filmmakers) first made lasting impressions at that Sundance. Julianne Moore and director Todd Haynes began their decades-spanning creative partnership with the psychodrama Safe<\/em>. X-Men<\/em> director-turned-alleged sex offender Bryan Singer showed off his career-launching neo-noir<\/em> The Usual Suspects<\/em> (featuring an Oscar-winning turn from actor-turned-director-turned-alleged sex offender Kevin Spacey<\/a>). There was also Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise<\/em>), Abel Ferrara (The Addiction<\/em><\/a>), Gregg Araki (The Doom Generation<\/em>), Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave<\/em>), and James Gray (Little Odessa<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of about-to-blow-up directors showed debut films that won awards. A Complete Unknown<\/em> helmer James Mangold got the Special Jury Recognition for Directing honor for Heavy<\/em>, a lonesome, unrequited-love story starring Pruitt Taylor Vince and Liv Tyler. (It was released by Cinepix Film Properties, better known today as Lionsgate Films.) And before he directed Ghost World<\/em> and Bad Santa<\/em><\/a>, Terry Zwigoff landed two documentary awards \u2013 Grand Jury Prize and Excellence in Cinematography \u2014 for Crumb<\/em>, his forever-fascinating bio-doc on outlaw comics artist R. Crumb. (Sony Classics snagged that one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prom queen that year was The Brothers McMullen<\/em>, star\/filmmaker\/Christy Turlington boo Ed Burns\u2019 dramedy debut. Not only did it snag the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, Fox Searchlight picked it up and made it their first release. Shot on 16mm and proudly made for $25,000 (most of it was filmed at Burns\u2019 Long Island family home), McMullen <\/em>made $19.3 million worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miramax did have some winners on their side. The schmaltzy-as-hell, made-in-Hawaii, Japanese period drama Picture Bride<\/em>, which won the Dramatic Audience Award, was originally bought by Miramax after its lukewarm response at Cannes the year before. Sundance screened the recut-by-Weinstein version, which features such additions as a brand-new score, looped dialogue for \u201ca more articulate pidgin English\u201d and a reworked love scene. (Producer Lisa Onodera inadvertently called out Weinstein\u2019s perviness when she told LA Weekly<\/em><\/a>, \u201cHe loves love scenes. He loves to see some kissing.\u201d) The Cuban LGBTQ rom-com Strawberry & Chocolate<\/em>, another period piece acquisition, got a Latin American Cinema Honorable Mention. A few months later, it was the first Cuban film nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. As for Bride<\/em>, it only grossed half its $2 million budget In theaters. (At least you can find Bride<\/em> on streaming<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unzipped<\/em>, a frenetic, rambling doc on frenetic, rambling fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (directed by then-boyfriend Douglas Keeve), was also a Miramax winner, sharing the Documentary Audience Award with Ballot Measure 9<\/em>. Another one that\u2019s hard-to-find online (a VHS rip<\/a> is out there), there will be a 30th anniversary screening<\/a> of it at this year\u2019s Sundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seemed that Harvey and Miramax were more preoccupied with screening its upcoming slate of spring films \u2014 Atom Egoyan\u2019s erotic puzzler Exotica<\/em>, controversial Brit drama Priest<\/em>, and charming Australian comedy Muriel\u2019s Wedding<\/em> (aka the movie that launched star Toni Collette\u2019s career) \u2014 at the fest. They also had a midnight screening of Kids<\/em>, that debaucherous look at promiscuous New York teens directed by Larry Clark and written by a teenage Harmony Korine. Weinstein bought the worldwide rights before Sundance, when producer Cary Woods showed him the movie. In a clever bit of carrot-dangling, Woods told Weinstein he was gonna look for \u201cthe new Miramax\u201d to distribute it since Harvey went all Hollywood and became a company man for Disney. (I\u2019ll get into all the bullshit Weinstein went through to get Kids<\/em> released in a later column.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods might\u2019ve been looking for Weinstein to take the bait, but it was clear even then that Weinstein\u2019s hold on the indie-cinema market was beginning to loosen. In later years, Weinstein would focus his attention more on collecting Oscar statuettes and turning into Hollywood\u2019s most powerful ogre. But even as Sundance was evolving into a yearly hot ticket where aspiring filmmakers mingled with movie stars and studio bigwigs, Miramax\u2019s Spidey-senses would increasingly lose its tingle. They\u2019d usually acquire kooky<\/a>, offbeat<\/a> comedies<\/a> (the last one<\/a> they bought at Sundance that decade is still embarrassing as hell) that would die in theaters due to lack of marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, this Sundance almost seemed like a swan song to Weinstein\u2019s hunger for championing challenging independent cinema. Several of the movies he brought to the fest  became some of the year\u2019s most-talked-about films. It\u2019s like he was giving his art-house brethren some last morsels of his team (and independent!) spirit before he peaced out and became a menace to Tinseltown \u2014 and society. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this Sundance eve, let’s travel back 30 years to find out what Miramax and their competitors were up to in Park City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":599,"featured_media":25545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[1422],"class_list":["post-25543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back","tag-looking-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27172,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543\/revisions\/27172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}