FILM 1862: MARWENCOL

FILM 1862: MARWENCOL 

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who beat him nearly to death after he told them he was a cross-dresser. After nine days in a coma and 40 days in the hospital, Hogancamp was discharged with brain damage that left him little memory of his previous life. Unable to afford therapy, he created his own by building a 1/6-scale World War II-era Belgiantown in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He called the town "Marwencol," blending the names "Mark," "Wendy" and "Colleen."

Hogancamp was initially discovered by photographer David Naugle, who documented and shared his story with Esopus magazine, whereby his work was shown in a New York art gallery.

TRIVIA: For the film's premiere Mark prepared a story line including the delivery by courier of a 1/6th scale press kit to the village of Marwencol.

This film is also known as Village of the Dolls in the UK.

This film is inspiration for ‘Welcome to Marwen,’ a 2018 drama directed by Robert Zemeckis. 

BOOK: Welcome to Marwencol is an art book by Mark Hogancamp and Chris Shellen published in 2015 by Princeton Architectural Press. It explores the life and work of Hogancamp. It was named one of the best books of 2015 by Amazon.

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FILM 1752: ROAD HOUSE

FILM 1752: ROAD HOUSE

TRIVIA: According to Kelly Lynch, whenever Bill Murray sees her sex scene with Patrick Swayze on television, he calls her husband, Mitch Glazer, to tease him about it.

Patrick Swayze was trained by kickboxing champion and action star Benny Urquidez, who also had a small cameo in the film.

The band playing at the start of the movie is Cruzados. After the band disbanded, lead singer Tito Larriva formed the band Tito & Tarantula, which is the band that played at the Titty Twister in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

At one point, Patrick Swayze was approached to star in Predator 2 (1990), but was unable to because he was injured during the filming of this movie.

An off-Broadway production of this film was produced in 2003. It had the peculiarly excessively long title of "Road House: The Stage Version Of The Cinema Classic That Starred Patrick Swayze, Except This One Stars Taimak From The 80's Cult Classic The Last Dragon (1985) Wearing A Blonde Mullet Wig".

Patrick Swayze once commented that during production, he was not sure he would live through the making of this movie.

This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

Due to a knee injury he sustained during filming, Patrick Swayze turned down the roles of Gabriel Cash in Tango & Cash (1989) and Mike Harrigan in Predator 2 (1990). He chose to make Ghost (1990) as his follow-up instead, as it was a less physically strenuous role. The knee injury ended up being a blessing in disguise, as Ghost (1990) ended up being a big hit, and received critical acclaim.

The film's original tagline referenced Patrick Swayze's success in Dirty Dancing (1987), "The dancing's over. Now it gets dirty."

Dalton (Patrick Swayze) was a "cooler", which is a more specialized form of bouncer.

The main singer of the band, Jeff Healey, was actually blind and had been playing the guitar since he was three. He had been blind since he was eighteen months old.

On Family Guy (1998) season eight, episode four, "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", Peter Griffin bought the "Road House" DVD at a going-out-of-business sale at Quahog Video. After watching the film, Peter begins to believe that all of life's problems can be solved by kicking. After kicking his target, he would say the film's name as a catchphrase of sorts. The episode was dedicated to Patrick Swayze, who had died of pancreatic cancer several weeks before the episode aired.

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FILM 1584: THE DROP

TRIVIA: Last film appearance of James Gandolfini, he died one month after shooting had wrapped.

The film is based on the short story "Animal Rescue" by Dennis Lehane, from the collection Boston Noir.

The film is set in Brooklyn, New York and with American characters, but 3 of the 4 main actors are Europeans. Tom Hardy is British, Noomi Rapace is Swedish and Matthias Schoenaerts is Belgian. James Gandolfini is the only American among them.

Saint Rocco, whose statue in the church gives Bob the inspiration for his puppy's name, is a 14th century Italian Saint and is the patron saint of dogs. Part of the legend surrounding this Saint is of a dog who brought him food while he lay sick with the plague.

Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace went to a rescue center to prepare for their roles. Hardy did adopt a dog, a female pit-bull puppy, and took it to the set.

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FILM 1508: ST. ELMO'S FIRE 

TRIVIA: Demi Moore had a drug problem, much like her character when she was cast in the film. One day, director Joel Schumacher actually demanded that she leave the set because she was really high. Moore actually had to go through rehab and promise to stay clean in order to play a character with a drug problem.

Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson all portrayed college graduates in this 1985 film, the same year all three actors also portrayed high school students in John Hughes' The Breakfast Club (1985). St. Elmo's Fire (1985) producer Lauren Shuler Donner has said all three were cast in the film due to strong recommendations from Hughes.

Mare Winningham played a virgin while she was actually pregnant during filming.

The street that the St. Elmo bar is on is in the Universal back lot with several fill in buildings in between sets. About two to three buildings to the left is the Hill Valley Clock Tower from Back to the Future (1985).

The "booga-booga" cheer that the friends do when they are celebrating or just in a good mood was not originally in the script. In a later interview, Rob Lowe stated that the cheer came out of observing fans whispering about the stars of the movie and then laughing. The cheer itself makes fun of what these whispered conversations sounded like from a few feet away.

The film's title, "St. Elmo's Fire", is derived from a real life meteorological phenomenon which is mentioned in the movie. It is also known as "St. Elmo's Light". According to website 'Wikipedia', it is "a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a sharp or pointed object in a strong electric field in the atmosphere (such as those generated by thunderstorms or created by a volcanic eruption)".

Actress Ally Sheedy recommended Judd Nelson to the production for the role of Alec Newbary. The pair had co-starred in The Breakfast Club (1985) and re-teamed the following year to both headline Blue City (1986). As such, St. Elmo's Fire (1985) is the second of three dramatic collaborations of the two actors (they both also appear in the documentary Don't You Forget About Me (2009)).

Of the considered "core" members of the so called 1980s "brat pack", this movie had the most of them cast in the one film, more than any of the other pictures of the period. These core "Brat Pack" members included Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy. Core "Brat Pack" members not in St. Elmo's Fire (1985) were Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall but the pair had appeared in the same 1985 year's The Breakfast Club (1985) alongside St. Elmo's Fire (1985)'s Nelson, Sheedy and Estevez, taking that film's "Brat Pack" total to five, but this being one less "Brat Pack" member than St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which had six. Both of these "Brat Pack" movies though were first released in the same 1985 year.

Breakthrough film as a director for writer and former costume designer Joel Schumacher.

Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore began dating during the filming of the movie. He said he was "deeply in love with her." For a time they were even engaged, though they never married.