Five Classics from 1999
As cinema approached a new millennium, five films showed the medium was as rich as ever, with a bright future ahead.
The year 1999 was a watershed moment in the history of cinema. Often cited as one of the most innovative and transformative periods in film, the year was marked by an unprecedented diversity of genres, styles, and narratives. Filmmakers from around the world leveraged the collective anticipation and anxiety of the upcoming new millennium to explore deep, often existential themes, while also pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved through the medium of film.
The films from 1999 ranged from groundbreaking blockbusters and indie films to international cinema that left a lasting impact on the global stage. In this edition of Greenscreening, we delve into five key films that exemplify the richness and diversity of 1999's cinematic landscape: The Matrix, Magnolia, All About My Mother, Beau Travail, and The Blair Witch Project.
As the 20th century drew to a close, the mood was marked by a blend of anxiety and optimism. Much of the anxiety was technological. The internet and personal computing had become ubiquitous. E-commerce, chat rooms, and file sharing ushered in a new era of interconnectedness and both its promise and its perils. And people were legitimately worried about widespread outages, an economic collapse, and potentially societal upheaval when computer systems switched the date from 12/31/99 to 01/01/00.
Films from this year captured the pre-millennial tension with a rare acuity, offering narratives that ranged from the dystopian and surreal to deeply personal explorations of character and culture.
Hollywood had one of its strongest years, with the release of seminal films across genres and a strong box office showing.
There was science fiction (The Matrix, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace), Neo-noir (Fight Club), horror (The Blair Witch Project, Sleepy Hollow), thriller (The Sixth Sense), animation (Toy Story 2, Tarzan, The Iron Giant, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut), romantic comedy (Notting Hill, Ten Things I Hate About You, Runaway Bride). There was plenty of lowbrow: see the comedies of Mike Myers (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) and Adam Sandler (Big Daddy, The Waterboy). There were sequels and prequels, and new franchises launched.
There was also highbrow, with Stanley Kubrick’s final film (Eyes Wide Shut), an underrated Scorsese classic (Bringing Out the Dead), David Lynch’s most straightforward narrative (The Straight Story), and David O. Russell’s excellent Three Kings. Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman made Being John Malkovich, heavily influencing a generation of indie filmmakers. There was the satire Election (Alexander Payne) and the true crime film Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Pierce).
Overseas, there were numerous masterpieces. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for their neorealist film Rosetta. Takashi Miike explored the terror of modern dating with his horror masterpiece Audition, Abbas Kiarostami released the acclaimed The Wind Will Carry Us. And of course, two of the films we’ll look at in this edition: Pedro Almodovar’s All About My Mother and Claire Denis’ Beau Travail.
In this edition, we’re taking a slight departure from our typical structure, to look at five films that reflect the diverse tapestry of films and the key issues that defined the era: The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, All About My Mother, Magnolia, and Beau Travail.
Viewing any or all of these films will give you a glimpse into a pivotal moment in cinema history. Cinema was never just one thing, but in this particular year, the filmmakers behind these masterpieces offered distinct visions for the possibilities of cinema at a pivotal moment in the world’s history.
The Matrix
The Wachowskis’ The Matrix is perhaps the most pure distillation of the late 1990s Hollywood and what came next. The film melded high-concept storytelling with unprecedented visual effects, creating an immersive experience that was both intellectually stimulating and viscerally thrilling. At its core, The Matrix was a confluence of cyberpunk grit, philosophical pondering, and kinetic action, making it a hallmark of cinematic innovation.
The film tells the story of computer hacker Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who learns that the reality he knows is actually an elaborate computer simulation, the Matrix. Anderson joins a group of rebels to fight against the computer system that runs the Matrix in order to free humanity. A synopsis of the film doesn’t do justice to the deftness of the storytelling. The Wachowskis blend science fiction with myth-making and the classic hero’s journey, as Anderson must choose between his destiny as the promised “One” who has the power to defeat the Agents who run the Matrix.
The Matrix introduced audiences to the visual spectacle of "Bullet Time," a groundbreaking use of slow-motion technology that allowed for dynamic camera movement around a static action. This effect not only enhanced the visual drama but also metaphorically underscored the film's themes of bending reality and human perception. The film also pushed the boundaries of CGI, blending digital effects seamlessly with live-action sequences and old-school special effects from Hong Kong martial arts cinema to challenge and expand the possibilities of cinematic expression.
Thematically, the film reflected anxieties about the rise of the internet and its impact on our lives. What would it mean to be human if we could escape to an alternate reality? And what if that reality was a mechanism of control and exploitation? But for all its dystopian elements, The Matrix seems fairly pro-technology. In the real world, Neo is trapped in a claustrophobic ship flying under the Earth’s surface, eating bowls of bland porridge for every meal. But in the Matrix, Neo is a superhero. He can learn complicated skills in a matter of seconds just by downloading them directly into his brain. By the end of the film, he can fly and stop bullets.
The Matrix was a massive box office sensation, grossing over $460 million (the fourth-highest grossing film of 1999) and spawning several sequels. The film also swept the Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing.
The film also served as a flashpoint for a renewed debate about violence in movies. One month after The Matrix was released, two high schoolers in Colorado murdered twelve of their classmates and one teacher. They wore trench coats not unlike those worn by the protagonists in The Matrix during one of the film’s famous sequences. Ultimately, the debate shifted its focus more towards the influence of violent video games and shock rock artists like Marilyn Manson, but the remainder of 1999 and early 2000s were a period of more serious enforcement of age restrictions for R-rated movies.
The Matrix was ranked #122 on Sight and Sound’s 2022 critics poll of the greatest films of all time.
Magnolia
Paul Thomas Anderson entered 1999 as one of the most promising directors in Hollywood.
Boogie Nights (1997) was Anderson's breakout film, an ensemble piece that explored the golden age of the porn industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The film was both a critical and commercial success, earning three Academy Award nominations and accolades for Anderson’s direction.
Magnolia extended this trend, showcasing Anderson’s skill in handling a large ensemble cast, and blending emotional depth with a sprawling, interconnected storytelling approach.
Anderson’s film weaves together the lives of multiple characters seeking happiness and redemption over one day in the San Fernando Valley. Through a series of interconnected stories, the film examines themes of love, loss, guilt, and fate against a backdrop of emotional turmoil and serendipitous events.
The narrative is filled with a profound sense of longing and the search for redemption and connection. Each character deals with their own form of loss or regret and searches for meaning in a chaotic world. This theme mirrored the existential questioning prevalent at the turn of the millennium, where societal and technological changes left many grappling with feelings of disconnection and the desire for authentic human contact.
Many of the film’s interconnected stories involve the sins of parents revisited upon children, with cycles repeating. Hurt people hurt people could be the tagline of this film, perhaps alongside the line from Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up,” sung by characters in the film: “no, it’s not going to stop til you wise up.”
One of the central themes of Magnolia is the role of chance and coincidence in shaping people's lives. The film’s narrative is built around the idea that seemingly random events are interconnected and that every action has repercussions. This theme resonates with the millennial tension of 1999, as people contemplated the interconnectedness of a globalizing world and the unseen forces shaping their lives.
Anderson’s prowess as a director is marked by his ability to draw powerhouse performances from his actors, and Magnolia is filled with stellar performances, including Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John C. Reilly, each delivering performances that are among the best of their careers. Anderson frequently films his characters in long takes and captures striking details, allowing their performances room to breathe.
Tom Cruise’s role as Frank T.J. Mackey, a self-help guru who peddles toxic masculinity, was particularly striking, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise plays against his action hero movie star type, which was part of an intentional effort by the actor to shift his image in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Finally, Magnolia has two bravura moments of pure cinema, and whether you love or hate the film probably hinges on your reaction to these moments. One I mentioned earlier - a cross-cut sequence of the characters singing along to Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up.” The other involves a literal rainstorm of frogs. What does it mean? It’s up to the viewer to decide. Roger Ebert offered: “I find it a way to elevate the whole story into a larger realm of inexplicable but real behavior.”
Magnolia was #192 on Sight and Sound’s 2022 Critics Poll of the greatest films of all time.
All About My Mother
In the late 1970s, Pedro Almodóvar emerged as an experimental punk director whose films shocked and provoked the art house crowd and confronted Franco-era repression. During the 1980s, he evolved into a more thoughtful arthouse director, cementing his style as a blend of elevated humanist melodrama, elaborate narratives, bright colors, glossy production value, irreverent humor, and frank treatment of sexuality and LGBTQ characters.
In the late 1980s, he gained critical appreciation with his film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the story of a woman who tries to track down her boyfriend, a married man, after he abandons her. Almodovar also helped usher in the NC-17 rating with his film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), a romantic comedy featuring Antonio Banderas as a troubled young man who kidnaps a porn actress (Victoria Abril) in attempt to convince her to love him.
After several more successful sex farces in the mid 1990s, Almodóvar made another career pivot with his magnum opus: All About My Mother. Released in 1999, this film not only earned Almodóvar an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but also marked a pivotal moment in his career, showcasing his mature handling of themes such as motherhood, identity, and tragedy through a deeply personal yet universally resonant lens.
After the tragic death of her son Esteban in a car accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for Barcelona in search of Esteban's father, a transgender woman named Lola, whom her son never knew. This journey becomes a transformative odyssey into Manuela’s past, where she reconnects with old friends and meets new ones, each grappling with their own complex identities and stories.
The film features a rich tapestry of characters, including a pregnant nun named Rosa (Penelope Cruz, in one of her many collaborations with Almodóvar), a transgender sex worker named Agrado (Antonia San Juan) a famous actress named Huma Rojo, and her heroin-addicted lover and co-star Nina. All About My Mother’s plot involves multiple stagings of A Streetcar Named Desire, including one that rewrites the play’s ending. There are many scenes backstage as characters change clothes (as they prepare for a different “role”). Throw in some clips from classic films and a closing dedication to classic Hollywood actresses, and you see Almodovar is deeply interested in performance and identity, how characters adopt roles both on stage / screen and in real life.
To take this further: in the film, performance makes the concept of identity fluid, particularly gender identity. After decades of repression during the Franco regime, this was a powerful statement of agency and pride. Several of the characters are transgender (Lola and Agrado), several play against expectations (e.g. a pregnant nun, or Manuela the organ donation advocate who ends up asked to donate Esteban’s organs). As Norman Holland points out, “In short, none of the traditional markers for the identity of humans or art works in this movie. What Almodóvar offers instead is performance (or, to use current critical jargon, performativity). You are the way you perform yourself.”
What to make of the film’s title? Whose mother is this all about? When I first saw the film, I understood it as a tribute to Almodovar’s own mother, who passed away shortly before he made the film. But there are several potential textural readings. Since Esteban is a writer, who at one point discusses making an biographical work about Manuela, it’s easy to see the film’s title referring to her. Especially since the title is also a play on the film All About Eve, briefly seen on television during the film - could Manuela be a stand-in for Anne Baxter’s Eve, who orchestrates her way into an aging actress’ life? But then there’s this: Lola (formerly known as Esteban) is young Esteban’s father, and is now living as a woman, and so has become Esteban’s mother. As Harry Lime is also The Third Man in that film, Lola could also be the titular mother.
All About My Mother was a critical and commercial success, winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and earning Almodóvar numerous accolades for his direction and screenplay. The film is also celebrated for its tender portrayal of transgender characters and its thoughtful exploration of LGBTQ themes, positioning it as a groundbreaking work in the representation of diverse identities in cinema, years ahead of its time.
The film’s acclaim helped solidify Almodóvar’s reputation internationally, and he has continued to make highly anticipated films that typically take the Cannes Film Festival by storm. Films such as Talk to Her (2002), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), and Pain and Glory (2019) have further cemented Almodovar’s legacy as one of the most distinct voices in cinema.
All About My Mother tied for #157 on Sight and Sound’s 2022 Critics Poll of the greatest films of all time.
Beau Travail
A film which made a quiet impact in 1999, but whose stature has grown in recent years, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail stands out in a year full of technological marvels and narrative complexities.
This film, loosely based on Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd, Sailor, is a poetic exploration of human desires, conflicts, and introspections. Set against the stark, unforgiving landscape of Djibouti, Beau Travail meditates on themes of masculinity, isolation, and authority through the lives of French Foreign Legionnaires.
Beau Travail follows the life of French Foreign Legion officer Sergeant Galoup, as he reflects on his time leading troops and his destructive jealousy of a promising young recruit. Through a series of minimalist, choreographed sequences, the film presents a meditation on masculinity, authority, and the isolation of military life, culminating in a famously enigmatic finale.
Claire Denis began her career as an assistant director to notable filmmakers, including Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, and Costa-Gavras. This experience significantly influenced her storytelling and cinematic style, grounding her work in a blend of narrative minimalism and rich visual storytelling.
Beginning with the semi-autobiographical Chocolat, Denis established a distinct cinematic style. Denis is known for her unique visual style, characterized by careful framing, attention to body language, and a preference for close-ups. She also emphasizes visual storytelling over dialogue. Her collaboration with cinematographer Agnès Godard has been particularly fruitful, with Godard's camera work helping to define the intimate, tactile feel that is a hallmark of Denis’ films.
Beau Travail is renowned for its innovative use of the male body in motion, turning military drills and daily routines into a dance-like performance that conveys emotion and narrative progression through movement rather than words. The film’s narrative structure eschews traditional plot development for a more lyrical approach, focusing on sensory experiences and the internal states of its characters, particularly that of Sergeant Galoup, in a fantastic performance by Denis Lavant. His internal turmoil and the dramatic tension of the legion's isolated world are captured through a camera that is both intimate and detached, reflecting the internalized regulations and repressed desires of its subjects.
Beau Travail is an intricate study of control, both exerted and experienced, exploring the rigid hierarchies within the Legion and their psychological impacts on individuals. Denis delves into the themes of repression, jealousy, and the inevitable breakdown of rigid systems through her portrayal of Galoup's growing obsession Sentain. This obsession, marked by both admiration and envy, ultimately leads to Galoup’s downfall. The film's exploration of these themes is subtle yet powerful, using the barren landscapes and the disciplined, repetitive routines of the legionnaires to symbolize the constraints of their emotional and physical environments.
While Beau Travail was more of a critical darling than a commercial hit, its impact on the film community has been profound and enduring. It introduced a wider audience to Denis’ work, solidifying her reputation as a master of modern European cinema.
Since the release of Beau Travail in 1999, Claire Denis has solidified her reputation as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in contemporary cinema. Films like White Material (2009), which examines the fallout of colonialism in Africa, and 35 Shots of Rum (2008), a story of family and community in a Parisian suburb, showcased her ability to blend personal narratives with broader social commentaries. Denis’ first English-language film, High Life (2018), starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche, ventures into science fiction, exploring themes of isolation, reproduction, and existential dread in the deep cosmos.
Beau Travail had one of the most dramatic leaps in critical appreciation, recently appearing at #7 on Sight and Sound’s list of the greatest films of all time.
The Blair Witch Project
In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burketsville Maryland while shooting a documentary.
A year later their footage was found.
This premise set up one of the most innovative and intense horror films ever made. Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, The Blair Witch Project utilized a clever mix of documentary-style storytelling and found footage to create a sense of realism that was unprecedented in horror cinema.
The Blair Witch Project was made on a shoestring budget of around $60,000 and filmed using handheld cameras by the actors themselves, contributing to its authentic, raw feel. Myrick and Sánchez maximized these limitations to their advantage, crafting a narrative that left much to the imagination and played on the primal fears of the unknown. The use of natural settings, unscripted dialogue, and improvisation by the actors helped create an unpredictable and unsettling atmosphere that traditional horror films could rarely achieve.
Before Blair Witch, the found footage technique hadn’t really been done, at least not this well or this seriously. The film never breaks the found footage conceit. There’s no frame story, and when it ends, it just ends. Presenting the movie as real footage discovered after the characters have disappeared, and marketing the film as such, created an immersive experience. Audiences were not merely passive spectators; they were vicariously exploring the haunted woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, alongside the characters.
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary aspects of The Blair Witch Project was its use of viral marketing. The film’s promotional strategy included a faux documentary, missing person posters, and a website that many initially believed was presenting a true story.
In 1999, the internet was just coming into its own as a tool for mass communication. The producers used online forums, fake news articles, and a detailed website about the students’ disappearance to suggest that the events of the film were real. The campaign went viral, with many people believing the film was actually a documentary. This approach not only fueled the film’s mystique but also redefined how films could be marketed in the digital age.
The film became a sensation, turning into a cultural phenomenon that sparked debates, copycat videos, and a flood of urban legends and folklore discussions. It showed how deeply a film could penetrate popular culture when paired with innovative marketing and a compelling narrative.
The Blair Witch Project explores deeper themes beyond its surface-level scares. The film taps into the timeless appeal of folklore and urban legends. It delves into the fear of the unknown, the power of myth, and the fragility of human psychology when faced with inexplicable phenomena. Much of the film’s terror comes from what is not seen but imagined. The absence of a visible antagonist heightens the sense of dread, as the audience is left to fill the gaps with their own fears and anxieties. We’re as clueless as the filmmakers running around the woods.
The legacy of The Blair Witch Project is vast and varied. It grossed nearly $250 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable films based on return on investment. The film also spawned a found footage movement, with subsequent films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield directly descended from Blair Witch. It demonstrated what Hollywood has known from the beginning but so often fails to capitalize upon: that a compelling story and innovative approach engages audiences more deeply than traditional tropes and big-budget effects.
Bonus Feature: The Phantom Menace
We can see many of 1999’s key themes coming together in the year’s highest grossing film: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I just couldn’t bring myself to write a full edition about the film that gave us Jar Jar Binks.
The Phantom Menace is a prime example of Hollywood’s reliance on franchises, sequels, and reboots, (and in this case, the origin story), which has marked the 21st Century. From a marketing perspective, the film was hotly anticipated, with advance ticket sales and crowds camping out for days for the first midnight screenings. George Lucas, an aging auteur from New Hollywood returned to the director’s chair after a long absence. And the film incorporated the latest in groundbreaking computer-generated effects, with most of the film shot in front of a green screen, and pretty much everything except the actors digitally inserted during postproduction.
The fact that the film was so successful at the box office, while being met with much critical derision, is also telling. By the late 1990s, the theatrical experience was becoming about spectacle, familiarity, and reliability. When you could make it a Blockbuster night, shelling out over $10 for a movie ticket had to be justified.
But theatrical moviegoing was also becoming about the event, being part of the cultural moment. Some movies had capitalized on this in the past, all the way back to Birth of a Nation, and the roadshow releases of the 1940s and 1950s. But in the internet era, cultural moments would often become shorter. It was important to be first, to be one of the early participants in the cultural moment. And it was important to form an opinion and share it online.
Additionally, fandom was becoming more factional and more central to one’s identity, with the rise of fanboy culture and social media. To be a fan of a franchise was akin to supporting a sports team; you no longer “liked” Star Wars - you were a Star Wars Fan or a Marvel Fan.
The Phantom Menace was part of the shift taking this kind of fandom from niche to mainstream. Consider this classic bit from Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where Triumph the Insult Comic Dog trolls Star Wars fans who camped out for the premiere.
Fast forward 20 years to the summer of 2023, with Barbenheimer. You couldn’t just see Barbie; you had to dress in pink, and more importantly, you had to post a selfie from the lobby of the theater.
Further Reading
Here are some freely available online articles and resources that provide valuable insights into the films of 1999, especially focusing on The Matrix, Magnolia, All About My Mother, Beau Travail, and The Blair Witch Project.
Why 1999 Was Hollywood's Greatest Year by David Friend in The New York Times
On Magnolia
Roger Ebert’s rave review of Magnolia and his Great Movies essay on the film
On All About My Mother
All About My Mother: Matriarchal Society essay for Criterion
Norman Holland on All About My Mother
On Beau Travail
Pushed to the Edge by Beau Travail by Alex Ross in The New Yorker
Beau travail: A Cinema of Sensation by Girish Shambu for Criterion
On The Blair Witch Project
The ‘Blair Witch’ Extended Universe: How a Tiny Indie Film Became a Horror Sensation—and Invented Modern Movie Marketing by Alyssa Bereznak in The Ringer
These articles provide a mix of retrospectives, analyses, and deeper dives into the films and the overall cinematic environment of 1999. They are excellent for anyone looking to understand more about this pivotal year in film history and the lasting legacy of these groundbreaking movies.