FILM 1803: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

FILM 1803: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

TRIVIA: Frank Wills, the security guard who discovered the break-in at the Watergate complex, plays himself.

The two lead actors memorized each other's lines so that they could both interrupt each other in character. This unsettled a lot of the actors they were playing opposite, leading to a greater sense of verisimilitude.

One scene involving Robert Redford on the phone is done in a continuous six-minute single take with the camera tracking in slowly. Towards the end Redford makes a mistake - he calls the phone caller by the wrong name - but as he stays in character it simply appears genuine and this was the take used in the final cut.

To prepare for their roles, actors Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman hung out in the Washington Post newsroom for several weeks, observing reporters and attending staff meetings. Once, when Redford was standing in a hallway, a group of high school students came through on a tour of the newspaper offices. The students immediately started taking pictures of Redford with their pocket cameras. At that point, Bob Woodward walked by. Redford told the students, "Wait a minute! Here's the real Bob Woodward, the guy I'm playing in the movie! Don't you want to take a picture of him?" The students said no, and walked on. Hoffman also recalled that he had been asked by the paper's science reporter to fetch a new typewriter ribbon. Due to Hoffman's long hair and casual dress, the science reporter had mistaken him for a copy boy. 

The film introduced the catchphrase "follow the money", which was absent from the book, or any documentation of Watergate.

The telephone number that Robert Redford dials for the White House is the real number of the White House Switchboard: 456-1414.

Washington Post boss Katherine Graham, who was initially very apprehensive about the film using the paper's name, loved the film and later wrote a letter of praise and approval to star and co-producer Robert Redford.

Actress Jane Alexander's Oscar nominated performance for Best Actress in a Supporting Role runs for only around just over eight minutes in total screen-time.

Chris Carter often quotes this movie as one of his bigger inspirations for The X-Files(1993), wherein a prominent character used the Deep Throat codename. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the names on Woodward and Bernstein's list of CREEP employees is "Scully."

Robert Redford's first choice for the role of Carl Bernstein was Al Pacino.

This feature film contains twenty-five telephone conversations in which audiences are privy to both sides of the dialogue exchange.

The film cast includes five Oscar winners: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Martin Balsam and F. Murray Abraham; and five Oscar nominees: Jack Warden, Hal Holbrook, Ned Beatty, Lindsay Crouse and Jane Alexander.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Robert Redford actually met Richard Nixon. When he was 13, Redford was presented an award for athletic prowess by the man who would go on to be President. Even then, Redford said he found the man to be rather creepy.

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1 

Convicted Season 1 told the story of Richard Nicolas and his conviction for the murder of his two year old daughter, Aja. It explored the question "What if he didn't do it?".

MY VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast, despite the horrific nature of the crime itself. The podcast is well narrated, well structured and you felt that you were given all the necessary information on the case. It’s not a case to be solved but rather the podcast asks the question – was this person, Richard Nicolas, given a fair trial? I believe he wasn’t. There’s instances of information given as scientific fact that is misinterpreted and this itself seemed to be what the whole prosecution depended the guilty verdict upon.

This podcast does share a lot of similarities with the case in Serial. In fact Richard Nicolas and Adnan Syed shared a defence attorney and were housed in the same prison. However there are also lots of differences. The shows creator Brooke Gittings is not a journalist, she’s a social worker, her style is more informal, and despite this she does a brilliant job. She keeps an open mind and gives you information, like what it’s like to visit someone in prison, that you wouldn’t necessarily get from other true crime podcasts. There’s also a lot of information missed from the likes of serial, like what comes next, the exhausting amount of legal proceedings that one has to go thorough to appeal a conviction and attempt to get a new trial. 

This podcast had me hooked from the start and was deeply engaging. I would recommend to anyone who was a Serial fan.

FILM 1702: TICKLED

TRIVIA: During a screening at the True/False Film Festival the film had to be stopped for nearly ten minutes while local police escorted two people from the cinema. The two were allegedly private investigators who had been spotted trying to record the film with a device hidden in a coffee cup.

The executive producer, the producer, the two directors, and one of the actors... all five were sued in US Federal District Court in an effort to stop the film from being shown. Source: Courthouse News ("Tickled Film")

GILMORE GIRLS (2000–2007)

Alexis Bledel hates coffee, but Rory, her character, loves it. Whenever you see her drinking "coffee" in the series, she is actually drinking Coca-Cola out of her cup.

Scott Patterson, who plays Luke, was not originally hired to be a series regular. He was only signed on for the pilot episode, but it was only after the discovery of the undeniable chemistry between him and Lauren Graham that he was contracted for more episodes, and quickly became a series regular.

Milo Ventimiglia and Alexis Bledel (Jess and Rory) actually dated in real life for three and a half years.

Liza Weil originally tested for the role of Rory and did not get the part, but the producers liked her so much that they wrote her the role of Paris Geller.

The exterior shot of "The Dragonfly Inn" is actually the home of TV's The Waltons (1971).

Keiko Agena (Lane Kim) was 26 playing a 15 year old in Season 1.

Luke's character was originally written to be played by a woman, but the producers figured that "there wasn't enough testosterone" in the series and that resulted in Scott Patterson turning the character around.

Rory occasionally speaks Spanish with Ezsperanza, where she's shown to be moderately-fluent, using basic conversational phrases. Ironically, Alexis Bledel is Hispanic (of Argentinian descent) and speaks Spanish fluently, having grown up in a Spanish-speaking household. Bledel has stated that her second language was English and she did not learn it until she attended school.

When the character Brad Langford (Adam Wylie) returns to Chilton Academy after an absence of several months, he explains that he was away playing Jack in "Into the Woods" on Broadway. Wylie really was away from the series to play Jack in the 2002 Broadway revival of "Into the Woods".

The town of Stars Hollow is based on Washington Depot, Connecticut. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino stayed there while on a trip with her husband to look at Mark Twain's wallpaper.

Due to the fast pace speech in the show, the average script for an episode of the show runs 75-80 pages, as opposed to 45-50 for a standard hour-long television show. During the 101st episode, a black and white movie from the 1930s is being shown. Lorelai looks at the movie and says they "talked fast" in those movies.

  

Lane's band's name is "Hep Alien". The writers named it after producer Helen Pai; "Hep Alien" is an anagram of her name.

Carole King (who sings the theme song) guest stars in season 3 as the music "rock" store owner who lets Lane use her store drum set for practice.

The character of Jess (played by Milo Ventimiglia) was supposed to have a spin-off called "Windward Circle" which was picked up by the WB for midseason 2004, in which the character moves in with his estranged father (played by Rob Estes) and his father's girlfriend (played by Sherilyn Fenn) from Connecticut to California. But due to the high cost of filming on location in Venice, California, the WB changed their minds and decided not to go forward with it.

Lorelai and Christopher are driving to Friday night dinner at the Gilmores. During the drive they are listening to Skid Row's "18 and Life". The lead singer of Skid Row is Sebastian Bach who is Gil the guitarist of Lane's band Hep Alien.

During a June 2015 cast reunion on "The Today Show," Alexis Bledel was asked if she thought Rory would now be with Dean, Jess, or Logan, and her answer was "none of the above": "I think she'd be seeing someone new, or she'd be single and focused on her career. I don't think she'd be married." Lauren Graham then interjected, "that's the best answer ever!"

The dollhouse seen in Lorelai's bedroom is the same dollhouse seen on Friends when Monica inherits a dollhouse after her Aunt Sylvia dies - "The One with the Dollhouse." Both Friends and Gilmore Girls filmed on the Warner Brother's lot.

FILM 1286: FOR NO GOOD REASON

Johnny Depp pays a visit to Ralph Steadman, the renown artist and the last of the original Gonzo visionaries who worked alongside Hunter S. Thompson.