Hello to everyone who has been following this blog for many years - I'm still blogging, I'm just moving over to https://www.claireheffer.com/blog - please continue to follow and let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been kind enough to visit over the years. May the lists continue...
Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts

Friday, 22 January 2016



FILM 1461: THE REVENANT

TRIVIA: Leonardo DiCaprio had to devour a raw slab of bison's liver, even though he is vegetarian. He also had to learn to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara), and study with a doctor who specializes in ancient healing techniques. DiCaprio calls it the hardest performance of his career.

Due to production being behind schedule, the snow melted during the location shoot in Canada before filming was complete. With summer rapidly approaching, there was no choice but to relocate the entire production to southern Argentina, where there were similar wintry conditions.

Shot chronologically on an 80-day schedule that took place over a total principal photography time period of nine months. This unusually long production time was due to the cold weather conditions, the remoteness of the locations and director Alejandro González Iñárritu's and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's aesthetic plan to shoot only with natural light for maximum realism. Only a few shooting hours were available every day and had to be carefully planned in advance.

Tom Hardy was concerned about the safety of some of the stunts he had to do, which caused friction between him and director Alejandro González Iñárritu before Gonzalez allowed Hardy to choke him in return. Later, the image of Hardy strangling Gonzalez was immortalized in a T-shirt gifted by Hardy to all members of the crew, at the end of the shoot.

The origin of the title is rooted in the French verb "revenir," which means "to return." Revenant in French also means (reverting to) "spirit" or "ghost."

This film adds another name to the list of Oscar-winning directors (Alejandro González Iñárritu) that Leonardo DiCaprio has worked with. The others are: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Danny Boyle, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Sam Mendes and Woody Allen. He has also worked with Quentin Tarantino, who has won two Academy Awards for screenwriting.

Alejandro González Iñárritu was insistent that computer-generated imagery not be used to enhance the film, stating: "If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit."




Sunday, 9 November 2014



FILM 1233: TANGLED

TRIVIA: The longest animated Disney film since Fantasia (1940).

According to the animators for Flynn, he's meant to be 26 years old, thus making him 8 years older than Rapunzel, who is 18 in the film - the largest age gap between any other Disney princess couple.

This is the first animated Disney "princess" film to get a PG rating by the MPAA. All other Disney "princess" films got a G rating.

The character design of Flynn came from the process which was called the 'hot man meeting' by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, during which they set up a meeting with all of the female employees of the studio in one room and asked them for their opinions of what made a man good looking in order to create Flynn's character design with features such as eye color, hair color and style and body type. Video footage showed concept art and photos of various male celebrities, including Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Gene Kelly on the walls of the room.

Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess with supernatural powers.

Disney's 50th animated feature.

The descending lantern that Rapunzel lifted back skyward was the one her parents, the king and queen launched from the palace veranda. It was the only one with the royal symbol of the sun on it.

You will find Pinocchio in the Snuggly Duckling, right after the cupid is swung to the right of the screen. You will find him in the top right corner in the rafters.

In the marketplace, when Rapunzel looks at the mosaic of herself, the camera cuts from her eyes to the tile eyes of the picture and - very briefly - there is a clarinet musical motif that is exactly the same as the motif in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), when Cameron is looking at the pointillist painting and the camera cuts between Cameron's eyes and that of the child in the painting. The moment is just a fraction of a second; just after that, Rapunzel looks at the clarinet player walking behind her and smiles.

According to Glen Keane, the movie's visual style (a three-dimensional painting) was greatly inspired by the Romantic painting "The Swing", by the French rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard: "A fairy tale world has to feel romantic and lush, very painterly." For a clear idea of what was intended, the animators duplicated the picture in 3D to achieve a shot containing depth and dimensions.


Natalie Portman was considered for Rapunzel and her audition recording was used for a pencil test.