INSPIRATION: INTERIORS

INSPIRATION: INTERIORS

This 17^thcentury Italian villa is beautiful and surprising…

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/villa-san-valerio-albiate-italy/

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/party-ready-italian-heros

FILM 1574: BROOKLYN 

TRIVIA: John Crowley divided the movie into three different visual movements. The first movement is before Eilis leaves post-war Ireland and is with tight frames and filled with green tones. The color scheme was created by photographic reference of the time. The second movement begins when Eilis leaves for Brooklyn and the first proper wide shot is featured, while the colors become more playful as a nod to how America in 1952 was on the cusp of pop culture kicking off. The third movement is back in Ireland, brighter, more glamour and "subtly more colorful" than the first movement. Crowley wanted to showcase Eilis has changed and looks very different: "There is a slight dreamy quality to that last third," he says.

The city of Brooklyn in the film was actually shot in Montreal for budgeting reasons, as the production was unable to turn 2015 Brooklyn back to 1950s Brooklyn. Only two days of production were spent in Brooklyn, one in order to create the brownstone exterior shots and a second to film at Coney Island.

Saoirse Ronan herself was born in The Bronx, New York, but raised in Ireland to Irish parents. She considers 'Brooklyn' to be one of her most personal films and it marks the first time she plays an Irish character in a film. (In The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) she spoke with an Irish accent but played a citizen of a generic fictitious European country.) In an interview with David Poland she expressed her concern with taking the role:"I felt like I can't mess this up, because all of Ireland will be watching. I felt a huge responsibility to the country to really capture what the story was." However, she said the warm reception at the Sundance Film Festival made her realize the universal essence of the film.

While this is Saoirse Ronan's first time using her native Irish accent, the dialect of her character differs from the one she uses in reality. In this film, she uses a Wexford accent, as her character is from Enniscorthy, while she speaks with a Dublin accent in her private life.

Irish author Colm Tóibín's idea for the novel came from a child memory, in which he overheard a woman talk about her young daughter's move from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn. In 2000 he wrote a short story about this memory, but expanded it to a novel years later, after living in United States himself, as well as teaching literary courses, where he said he was inspired by Jane Austen's "method of examining a single psychology, using an introspective, sensitive heroine, some comic characters and some romance."

Saoirse Ronan received 51 award nominations for her performance.

Julie Walters claims her character is reminiscent of her real-life aunt. John Crowley offered the role to Walters because, among other things, he knew of her Irish descent; "I knew Julie had an Irish mother and I had a suspicion that she would know that woman inside out, and of course she did. She knew who she was, right down to what her hair should look like and what she should dress like. Her accent's impeccable and of course she's a hysterically funny actress, but here she's doing it in a very real way. It's beautifully played."

http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/2016/08/25/spotted-sf-barzotto/

FILM 1427: LA STRADA

TRIVIA: Pope Francis named La Strada as his favorite movie of all time.

Anthony Quinn was working on a film with Giulietta Masina when she introduced him to her husband, Federico Fellini. Fellini was immediately convinced that the American actor would make the perfect Zampano the strongman in his new film, which was to become (La Strada (1954), and implored him to accept the role. The nonplussed actor, who had no idea who Fellini was, initially turned him down, but Fellini was persistent, pestering him for days about the project. Shortly thereafter, Quinn spent the evening with Ingrid Bergman and her husband, director Roberto Rossellini. After dinner, the three watched Fellini's most recent film, the comedy-drama (I Vitelloni (1953), and Quinn realized with astonishment that the crazy Italian filmmaker who had been hounding him for days was a genius.

Anthony Quinn said in an interview a few years before his death that he originally accepted a deal that would have paid him a percentage of the profits this film generated instead of an upfront salary. When his agent found out about it, the agent changed the deal and insisted an upfront salary and no percentage. Quinn said that decision cost him several million dollars.

Walt Disney expressed serious interest in creating an animated feature based on Gelsomina. "I could have lived on Gelsomina for twenty years," he said.

FILM 1405: CEMETERY MAN

TRIVIA: When Francesco and "She" are kissing in the crypt with the shroud over their heads, the shot mimics the painting "The Lovers" by Rene Magritte.

The mysterious floating lights that hover around Dellamorte and She as they are kissing upon the grave are suppose to be ignis fatuus (which means fool's fire). It's a naturally occurring fire-like light sometimes seen during twilight in swampy areas.

The sets for the cemetery in the film were built upon actual abandoned cemetery grounds in Italy.

The ossuary (a crypt for bones) that was used in the film was quite real. Supposedly one of the crew members removed some of the bones from the ossuary during filming, but quickly replaced them the next day claiming to have encountered an angry ghost following the removal of the bones.

In the late 90's when Rupert Everett gained some popularity in America, he approached Michele Soavi about doing an Americanized remake of 'Dellamorte Dellamore'. It never materialized though.

The English translation of Dellamorte Dellamore is 'Of Dead of Love.'

For the films Spanish release it was humorously re-titled "Mi novia es un Zombie", meaning "My fiancée is a Zombie."

THE SOPRANOS

TRIVIA: James Gandolfini said that he was often contacted by real-life 'wise guys' complimenting him on the authenticity of the series as well as giving him advice.

After the pilot aired, a real-life "wise guy" told James Gandolfini never to wear shorts again. The encounter seems to have been incorporated into the first episode of season four ("For All Debts Public and Private") when New York mob boss Carmine tells Tony that he'd heard about his recent backyard party, and that "a don doesn't wear shorts".

Four members of northern New Jersey's only real-life mob family, the DeCavalcantes, were secretly taped in 1999 by federal investigators talking about their similarity to the fictional DiMeo/Soprano crime family. On the tape, one NJ mobster asks another, 'Is this supposed to be us?" And his capo buddy replies, "You are in there. They mentioned your name in there'.

Tony Sirico only agreed to sign on for the show if it was guaranteed that his character Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri would not be a "rat", an informant. As Sirico explained in James Toback's documentary The Big Bang (1989), he had served time in prison for robbery. Altogether, Sirico's rap sheet included at least 28 arrests. Reportedly, Sirico also appeared briefly in an uncredited role in The Godfather: Part II (1974).

David Chase had planned a major story line for the third season concerning Tony's efforts to prevent Livia from testifying against him in court. But Nancy Marchand's death caused Chase to revise a large portion of the season.

Before David Chase chose "Woke Up This Morning" by UK band Alabama 3 (from their 1997 debut album "Exile on Coldharbour Lane"), he wanted to open every episode with a different song. HBO executives convinced him that viewers needed to be able to identify the show with a theme song. However, every "Sopranos" episode ends with a different song.

The character 'A.J. Soprano' was ranked #10 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" (27 March 2005 issue).

Drea de Matteo had to spend four hours in hair and makeup before shooting each episode in order to achieve her "mob girl" look. It took two hours to prepare her hair, and in the instances in which her arms, legs, and/or torso were uncovered, an hour and a half to apply makeup to cover her tattoos. 

Many local New Jersey businesses are used as locations in the series. In the opening credits, we see a shot of a pizza shack known as Pizza Land. They get calls for pizza orders from all over the country as a result. In one episode, an actual sporting goods store, Ramesey Outdoor in Paramus, was portrayed as going out of business. So many people thought the real store was closing, the store owners had to place ads to explain they were still open.

Corrado Soprano's nickname, Junior, was taken from the actual nickname used by Tony Sirico when he was a mobster as a young man, before he became an actor. 

David Chase was a longtime fan of Steven Van Zandt's music and had always wanted to write a role for him. When Chase saw Van Zandt induct 'The Young Rascals' into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he invited Van Zandt to audition for Tony Soprano even though he had never acted before. Van Zandt did not want to take a role away from a real actor, so Chase wrote the role of Silvio Dante for him. And The Rascals performance footage ended up being featured in 1999's seventh episode, "Down Neck" .

During Seasons 2 and 3, Steve Schirripa had to wear a fat suit in order to play Bobby Bacala.

The large mugshot on the wall of the Bada Bing's office is of 23-year-old Frank Sinatra. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested and charged with 'seduction of a married woman'.

Voted #5 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Dr. Melfi was named after David Chase's grandmother, Teresa Melfi.

Whenever an actor would go to David Chase to complain about his/her character, arguing the character would never do this or that thing, it has been reported multiple times that Chase would respond: 'Who told you it is your character?'

The writers of The Sopranos carefully researched the ways in which mobsters controlled and laundered their money in order to make Tony Soprano as realistic as possible, and they employed New York assistant district attorney Dan Castleman to advise on this issue. When Castleman was asked how much they had decided Tony would realistically be worth, he stated that it was roughly 5 or 6 million dollars - an amount that fluctuated, of course, because of Tony's substantial gambling problem.