Portal:1990s - Wikipedia

Sasha using Ableton Live at a nightclub. (from 1990s in music)

Miniature model from MS Estonia (from 1990s)

US, Canadian, and Mexican dignitaries initialing the draft North American Free Trade Agreement in October 1992 (from 1990s)

A man wearing a power suit, popular in the European workplace. The suit jacket is double-breasted with large shoulder pads. Photograph taken in 1998. (from 1990s in fashion)

Friends, which premiered on NBC in 1994 became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. From left, clockwise: Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer, the six main actors of Friends. (from 1990s)

Swedish teenager with mullet haircut and abstract jumper, 1991. (from 1990s in fashion)

Nude and darker shades of lipstick seemed popular throughout the decade. (Fran Drescher, 1996) (from 1990s in fashion)

Swedish hip-hop fans watch Public Enemy perform in 1991. (from 1990s in fashion)

Dutch high school prom, 1994. (from 1990s in fashion)

Blink-182 performing in 1995, whose 1999 album Enema of The State became a pivotal moment for contemporary pop punk (from 1990s)

An early portable CD player, a Sony Discman model D121. (from 1990s)

Converse All Stars, popular in the early 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

A typical early 1990s personal computer. (from 1990s)

Slap bracelet worn by young girls in the early 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell. (from 1990s)

Chokers, popular in the mid- and late-1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Eurostar logo 1994–2011 (from 1990s)

The German electronic rock duo Das Ich, 1993. Their aspect shows the influence of the goth look which returned in the 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Long maxi skirt in a Liberty floral print. (from 1990s in fashion)

Baseball jackets were popular among hip-hop fans in the mid-1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Thalía rose to fame as a member of the musical group Timbiriche. (from 1990s in music)

An "I Believe Anita Hill" button pin in support of her sexual harassment allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee arguing against the confirmation of Thomas. (from 1990s)

Grunge band Nirvana in 1992 (from 1990s in music)

In 1994, Lisa Loeb became the first artist to score a No. 1 hit with "Stay (I Missed You)" before signing to any record label. (from 1990s in music)

From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World Wide Web gains massive popularity worldwide; Boris Yeltsin greets crowds after the failed August Coup, which leads to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991; Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell; the funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a 1997 car crash, and was mourned by millions; hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people are killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 (from 1990s)

Actress Liv Tyler sporting a pixie cut, 1998 (from 1990s in fashion)

Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton share a laugh in October 1995. (from 1990s)

The Dow Jones Index of the 1990s (from 1990s)

Butterfly and floral clips, worn in the mid- and late 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

The crash site of El Al Flight 1862 in 1992. (from 1990s)

Crowd of rave-goers, 1995. (from 1990s in fashion)

African-American teenager with Hitop fade, popular in the early 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Kurt Cobain, 1992. He wears grunge clothing, popular from 1991 to 1996. (from 1990s in fashion)

Bob cuts were favored by women. (Saffron, 1996) (from 1990s in fashion)

Woman dressed in black maxi skirt, top and hat, 1995. (from 1990s in fashion)

Luis Miguel, first Latin idol of the decade (from 1990s in music)

Woman wearing a crop top and bell-bottoms, 1997. (from 1990s in fashion)

US First Lady Hillary Clinton wearing a straw hat, 1995. (from 1990s in fashion)

Woman with what would come be known as the Rachel haircut, early 1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Example of late 1990s gothic fashion. (from 1990s in fashion)

Electronic musician and DJ James Lavelle dressed in club attire, 1997. (from 1990s in fashion)

Two women wearing bandanas, 1999. (from 1990s in fashion)

Razer Boomslang (first gaming mouse, 1999) (from 1990s in video games)

Slip dresses first became widely worn in the mid-1990s, as part of the underwear-as-outerwear trend. (Jane Leeves, 1995) (from 1990s in fashion)

The highest-grossing film of the decade was James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time. (from 1990s)

Bomber jacket with orange lining, popular from the mid- to late-1990s. (from 1990s in fashion)

Executive council building burns in Sarajevo after being hit by Bosnian Serb artillery in the Bosnian War. (from 1990s)

Korn, 1997 (from 1990s in music)

Maná in concert. (from 1990s in music)

Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length directorial debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker as diamond thieves whose heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks, and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. The film incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling.

The film is regarded as a classic of independent film and a cult film. Although controversial at first for its depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, Reservoir Dogs was generally well-received, and the cast was praised by many critics. Despite not being heavily promoted during its theatrical run, the film became a modest success in the United States after grossing $2.9 million against its scant budget. It achieved higher popularity after the success of Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction (1994). A soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, which are mostly from the 1970s. It was named "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by the British film magazine Empire, who in 2008 also named it the 97th-greatest film ever made. (Full article...)

The X-Files (also known as The X-Files: Fight the Future) is a 1998 American science fiction thriller film based on Chris Carter's television series of the same name, which revolves around fictional unsolved cases called the X-Files and the characters solving them. It was directed by Rob Bowman, written by Carter and Frank Spotnitz and featured five main characters from the television series: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, John Neville, and William B. Davis reprise their respective roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Well-Manicured Man, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man. The film was promoted with the tagline Fight the Future.

The film takes place between seasons five (episode "The End") and six (episode "The Beginning") of the television series, and is based upon the series' extraterrestrial mythology. The story follows agents Mulder and Scully, removed from their usual jobs on the X-Files, and investigating the bombing of a building and the destruction of criminal evidence. They uncover what appears to be a government conspiracy attempting to hide the truth about an alien colonization of Earth. (Full article...)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick, it is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and is the second installment in the Terminator franchise. In the film, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator—a highly advanced killing machine—back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance John Connor when he is a child. The resistance sends back a less advanced, reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity.

The Terminator was considered a significant success, enhancing Schwarzenegger's and Cameron's careers, but work on a sequel stalled because of animosity between the pair and Hemdale Film Corporation, which partially owned the film's rights. In 1990, Schwarzenegger and Cameron persuaded Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights from The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and Hemdale, which was financially struggling. A release date was set for the following year, leaving Cameron and Wisher seven weeks to write the script. Principal photography lasted from October 1990 to March 1991, taking place in and around Los Angeles on an estimated $94–102 million budget, making it the most expensive film made at the time. The advanced visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which include the first use of a computer-generated main character in a blockbuster film, resulted in a schedule overrun. Theatrical prints were not delivered to theaters until the night before the picture's release on July 3, 1991. (Full article...)

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (also known as simply Cinderella) is a 1997 American musical fantasy television film produced by Walt Disney Television, directed by Robert Iscove, and written by Robert L. Freedman. Based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault, the film is the second remake and third version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, which originally aired on television in 1957. Adapted from Oscar Hammerstein II's book, Freedman modernized the script to appeal to more contemporary audiences by updating its themes, particularly re-writing its main character into a stronger heroine. Co-produced by Whitney Houston, who also appears as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, the film stars Brandy in the title role and features a racially diverse ensemble cast consisting of Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, Veanne Cox, Natalie Desselle, Victor Garber, and Paolo Montalban.

Following the success of the 1993 television adaptation of the stage musical Gypsy (1959), Houston approached Gypsy's producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron about starring in a remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella for CBS. However, development was delayed for several years, during which time the network grew disinterested in the project. By the time the film was greenlit by Disney for ABC, Houston felt that she had outgrown the title role, which she offered to Brandy instead. The decision to use a color-blind casting approach originated among the producers to reflect how society had evolved by the 1990s, with Brandy becoming the first black actress to portray Cinderella on screen. Among the most significant changes made to the musical, several songs from other Rodgers and Hammerstein productions were interpolated into the film to augment its score. With a production budget of $12 million, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella ranks among the most expensive television films ever made. (Full article...)

Ed Wood is a 1994 American biographical comedy-drama film directed and produced by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as Ed Wood, the eponymous cult filmmaker. The film concerns the period in Wood's life when he made his best-known films as well as his relationship with actor Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau. Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Lisa Marie, and Bill Murray are among the supporting cast.

The film was conceived by writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Alexander first proposed it as a documentary, when he was a student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Years later, irritated at being thought of solely as writers for family films with their work on Problem Child (1990) and its 1991 sequel, Alexander and Karaszewski struck a deal with Burton and Denise Di Novi to produce Ed Wood. Initially, Michael Lehmann was chosen to direct the project, but due to scheduling conflicts with his work on the film Airheads (1994), he had to vacate the director's position which was taken over by Tim Burton. (Full article...)

The Truman Show is a 1998 American psychological comedy-drama film written and co-produced by Andrew Niccol, and directed by Peter Weir. The film depicts the story of Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carrey), a man who is unaware that he is living his entire life on a colossal soundstage, and that it is being filmed and broadcast as a reality television show that has a huge international following. All of his friends, family and members of his community are paid actors whose job it is to sustain the illusion and keep Truman unaware about the false world he inhabits.

The movie's supporting cast includes Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Paul Giamatti, and Brian Delate. (Full article...)

The Mambo Kings is a 1992 musical drama film based on the 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. The film was directed and produced by Arne Glimcher, and stars Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas, Cathy Moriarty and Maruschka Detmers. Set in the early 1950s, the story follows Cesar (Assante) and Nestor Castillo (Banderas), brothers and aspiring musicians who find success and stardom after fleeing from Havana, Cuba to New York City to escape danger. The film marks Glimcher's directing debut, and features Banderas in his first English-language role.

Glimcher acquired the film rights one year before the novel was published and hired Cynthia Cidre to write the script. The film was rejected by several studios, and after an unsuccessful pre-production at Universal Pictures, the project moved to Warner Bros. The production was allocated a budget of $15.5 million jointly financed by Warner Bros., Le Studio Canal+ and Regency Enterprises. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles, California, with principal photography beginning in March 1991, and concluding after 50 days. (Full article...)

Species is a 1995 American science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson and written by Dennis Feldman. It stars Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, and Natasha Henstridge in her film debut role. The film's plot concerns a motley crew of scientists and government agents who try to track down Sil (Henstridge), a seductive extraterrestrial-human hybrid, before she successfully mates with a human male.

The film was conceived by Feldman in 1987, and was originally pitched as a film treatment in the style of a police procedural, entitled The Message. When The Message failed to attract the studios, Feldman re-wrote it as a spec script, which ultimately led to the making of the film. The extraterrestrial aspect of Sil's character was created by H. R. Giger, who was also responsible for the beings from the Alien franchise. The effects combined practical models designed by Giger collaborator Steve Johnson and XFX, with computer-generated imagery done by Richard Edlund's Boss Film Studios. Giger felt that the film and the character were too similar to Alien, so he pushed for script changes. (Full article...)

Presumed Innocent is a 1990 American legal thriller film based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Scott Turow. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, and written by Pakula and Frank Pierson, it stars Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raúl Juliá, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Winfield and Greta Scacchi. The film follows Rusty Sabich (Ford), a prosecutor who is charged with the murder of his colleague and mistress Carolyn Polhemus (Scacchi).

Several studios and producers fought to secure the film rights one year before the novel was published. Producers Sydney Pollack and Mark Rosenberg acquired the rights in December 1986 and hired Pierson to write the script. After an unsuccessful pre-production development at United Artists, the project moved to Warner Bros., and Pakula was brought in to rewrite the script with Pierson before signing on as the film's director in January 1989. Principal photography commenced in July 1989 and concluded in October of that year, with a budget of $20 million. Filming took place on locations in Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, and New Jersey, and on soundstages at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York. (Full article...)

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 animated musical fantasy film directed by Bill Kroyer in his feature directorial debut. Scripted by Jim Cox and adapted from the "FernGully" stories by Diana Young, the film is an Australian and American venture produced by Kroyer Films, Inc., Youngheart Productions, FAI Films, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It stars the voices of Tim Curry, Samantha Mathis, Christian Slater, Jonathan Ward, Robin Williams, and Grace Zabriskie.

The film is set in an Australian rainforest inhabited by fairies, including Crysta, who accidentally shrinks a young logger named Zak to the size of a fairy. Together, they rally the fairies and the animals of the rainforest to protect their home from the loggers and Hexxus, a malevolent pollution entity. Wayne Young, the film's producer, said that the film was "blatantly environmental", although he made an effort to avoid "preaching". (Full article...)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas in his first directorial effort since the original Star Wars.^[a] The film stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Pernilla August, and Frank Oz. It is the fourth film in the Star Wars film series, the first film of the prequel trilogy and the first chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set 32 years before the original trilogy (13 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire), during the era of the Galactic Republic, the plot follows Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi as they try to protect Padmé Amidala of Naboo in hopes of securing a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute. Joined by Anakin Skywalker—a young slave with unusually strong natural powers of the Force—they simultaneously contend with the mysterious return of the Sith. The film was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Following the release of Return of the Jedi (1983), talks of a follow-up were proposed, but Lucas was unmotivated to return to the franchise. During the hiatus, the backstories he created for the characters, particularly Anakin's, sparked interest in him to develop a prequel trilogy during the 1990s. After he determined that computer-generated imagery (CGI) had advanced to the level he wanted for the prequel trilogy's visual effects, Lucas began writing The Phantom Menace in 1993, and production began in 1994. Filming started in June 1997—at locations at Leavesden Film Studios, at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy and the Tunisian desert—and ended in September. (Full article...)

Lost Highway is a 1997 surrealist neo-noir horror film directed by David Lynch, who co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford. It stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, and Balthazar Getty. The film also features Robert Blake, Jack Nance, and Richard Pryor in their final film performances. The narrative follows a musician (Pullman) who begins receiving unmarked videotapes of himself and his wife (Arquette) at their home before he is suddenly convicted of murder. While imprisoned, he mysteriously disappears and is replaced by a young mechanic (Getty) leading a different life.

Financed by French production company Ciby 2000 and Lynch's own Asymmetrical Productions, the film was largely shot in Los Angeles, where Lynch collaborated with frequent producer Mary Sweeney and cinematographer Peter Deming. The film's surreal narrative structure has been likened to a Möbius strip, while Lynch has described it as a "psychogenic fugue" rather than a conventionally logical story. The film's soundtrack was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, featuring an original score by Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson as well as contributions from Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, and the Smashing Pumpkins. (Full article...)