FILM 1969: SHOPLIFTERS

FILM 1969: SHOPLIFTERS 

TRIVIA: The original title of the film, Manbiki Kazoku, literally translates as Shoplifting Family.

First Japanese movie to win the Palme d'Or since The Eel (1997) in 1997.

Official submission of Japan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.

FILM 1843: SAFE HAVEN

FILM 1843: SAFE HAVEN

TRIVIA: This is the first Nicholas Sparks film adaptation to have an actual antagonist.

This is the 8th film adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel and the second one to be directed by Lasse Halström, the first one being Dear John (2010).

Keira Knightley was offered the role of Katie. Knightley chose to star in Begin Again(2013) instead.

Covered on episode 105 of the podcast How Did This Get Made.

FILM 1798: DUNKIRK

FILM 1798: DUNKIRK

TRIVIA: According to actor-director Kenneth Branagh, roughly 30 Dunkirk survivors, who were in their mid-90s, attended the premiere in London. When asked about the film, they felt that it accurately captured the event but that the soundtrack was louder than the actual bombardment, a comment that greatly amused director Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan, along with his wife Emma Thomas and a friend, made the crossing from England to Dunkirk on a boat, the way the civilians would have done during the original evacuation. Nolan said it took 19 hours because of sea conditions.

After first-hand accounts of the Dunkirk evacuation revealed to Christopher Nolan how young and inexperienced the soldiers were, he decided to cast young and unknown actors for the beach setting.

Director Christopher Nolan rode in the Spitfire shown in the movie in order to get a sense of the aerial feel of the fighter plane, and to help him shoot and provide a realistic experience of the dogfights.

Told from three points of view: on the beach with the infantry (including Fionn Whiteheadand Harry Styles), the evacuation by the navy (featuring Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance, showing how civilians came to the rescue) and then in the air (with Tom Hardyengaging in plane combat). Speaking about the narrative structure in "Premiere" magazine, Christopher Nolan stated: "For the soldiers who embarked in the conflict, the events took place on different temporalities. On land, some stayed one week stuck on the beach. On the water, the events lasted a maximum day; and if you were flying to Dunkirk, the British Spitfires would carry an hour of fuel. To mingle these different versions of history, one had to mix the temporal strata. Hence the complicated structure; even if the story is very simple. Do not repeat it to the studio: it will be my most experimental film."

The ticking sounds that serve as a crucial theme on the film's score were recorded by composer Hans Zimmer from one of director Christopher Nolan's own pocket watches. He then put the sounds into synthesizers and altered them in different ways for the soundtrack.

Charles Lightoller, the most senior surviving officer of the RMS Titanic, participated in the Dunkirk evacuation with his private motor yacht, "The Sundowner". The craft has been preserved by the Ramsgate Maritime Museum in England.

Dunkirk (2017) is the seventh film between Christopher Nolan and Michael Caine after Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar (2014). Caine appears in an uncredited voice cameo (he's the voice on the radio talking to a Royal Air Force officer early in the film) . Caine previously portrayed a Royal Air Force officer in the movie Battle of Britain.

The scene in which Tom Hardy's character's Spitfire lands on Dunkirk beach was real; done on location with an actual Spitfire in flight, and was the first time a plane landed on that beach since 1940. After the scene was completed, however, the Spitfire became stuck in the sand. There was subsequently a frantic rush to get the valuable Spitfire out off the beach before the incoming tides could damage it.

The film was shot on the actual beach at Dunkirk where the evacuation took place. When scouting for the film, director Christopher Nolan found a button from an English soldier's uniform in the sand.

http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2017/03/14/sally-west/

FILM 1576: THE SHALLOWS

TRIVIA: The movie was shot in part off the Gold Coast of Australia. Other filming commenced in a giant swimming pool.

Jaume Collet-Serra teamed up with the art department for the design of the shark, "I came to the conclusion that the shark had to be female", says the director, "Females are slightly bigger and have great scars from mating, visually they're scarier as they are more protective."

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2014 Blacklist, a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

Nancy's nickname for the seagull is Steven Seagull, which is, of course, a pun on actor Steven Seagal.

For the seagull character of Steven Seagull, the usage of both cgi and using a puppet was considered based on the belief that it would be inordinately hard to train such a bird to act, this "horrified" both producer's Matti Leshem and Lynn Harris who wanted to use an actual seagull while scouting for location in Australia, Blake Lively was able to feed a group of seagulls at which point it was realized that using such a bird would be possible.

http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2016/02/01/geoff-mcfetridge/

http://becauseimaddicted.net

FILM 1332: DEAD & BURIED

TRIVIA: During filming Gary Sherman purposely avoided letting the color red be visible in any scene, so the sight of blood during the murder sequences would be all the more shocking. Sherman even went as far as to have the tail lights of cars replaced with purple lights, instead of the normal red.

This was actor Jack Albertson's final theatrical film (although he filmed another made-for-TV movie the same year he died). In poor health and suffering from cancer all through filming, Albertson passed away a few months after this movie's release. He nonetheless lived long enough to see it at its world premier in Hollywood, in which he attended in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank and mask.

Due to child labor laws, the filmmakers could not get permission to use the boys who played Jamie at night. Because the kids' entire part took place at night, a huge tent was constructed that completely covered the family car and the haunted house, making it look like it was nighttime underneath it. To properly ventilate inside the tent so that the cast and crew could breathe, fans were set up. But they made so much noise that the live sound that was recorded during filming was unusable. So all of these scenes had to be dubbed by the actors in post-production. This is why Nancy Locke's mouth is frequently moving when she's not talking.

Stan Winston's special effects went beyond creating gore for the film. The figure in the full body cast lying in George LeMoyne's hospital bed was a mechanical dummy built by Winston. The life-like detail and elaborate movements the dummy was rigged to make gives the appearance that its a real person and makes the infamous needle-eye stab all the more startling.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/19526527/AERIAL-VIEWS-ADRIA

BOOK 119: THE MAGUS – JOHN FOWLES

The Magus (1965) is a postmodern novel by British author John Fowles, telling the story of Nicholas Urfe, a young British graduate who is teaching English on a small Greek island. Urfe becomes embroiled in the psychological illusions of a master trickster, which become increasingly dark and serious. Considered a metafiction, it was the first novel written by Fowles, but the third he published. In 1977 he published a revised edition.

In 1999 The Magus was ranked on both lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 93 on the editors' list, and 71 on the readers' list. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 67 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

MY VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was long but never boring.  It kept you asking questions and gave so much information and so many little stories but none of which you could believe.  I spent the whole book waiting find out exactly what it all meant but in fact never quite got there.  This would ordinarily annoy or frustrate me but I came to terms with it in the end, that some things are unknowable and I came to feel exactly as I thought the character Nicholas Urfe must have felt.

http://www.missmoss.co.za/2014/07/24/nancybird-ss15/

http://www.designlovefest.com/2014/05/private-moon/

http://www.booooooom.com/2014/03/24/ghost-photographs-artist-angela-deane/

http://blog.krisatomic.com

http://blog.krisatomic.com