FILM 1577: THE MASK YOU LIVE IN 

Explores how our culture's narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men and society at large and unveils what we can do about it.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/20/this-woman-is-shutting-down-sexist-double-standards-in-the-most-brilliant-way-5633901/

FILM 1411: MAGIC MIKE

TRIVIA: In the scene where Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) finally strips, there is a point where he rolls away from all of the women holding his crotch. This is because the extras got a little bit too excited and accidentally ripped his g-string. Instead of stopping the dance, he just incorporated it in.

Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer allegedly did not get along on set.

The film is loosely based on Channing Tatum's experiences as a male exotic dancer before hitting it big as a movie star.

The character of Tarzan, portrayed by Kevin Nash, wears a knee brace during his routine and goes with the idea that stripping is all his character knows and is doing it past his prime. This wasn't in the script but came about when Nash showed up on set with the brace on and explained that he wouldn't be able to do the routine properly unless he wore it. Kevin Nash is a professional wrestler with a history of knee problems.

FILM 1406: THE WOLFPACK

Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed, 'The Wolfpack,' the brothers spend their childhood reenacting their favorite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. Their world is shaken up when one of the brothers escapes and everything changes.

http://honestlywtf.com/mens/anything-but-a-pitti/

FILM 1223: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

TRIVIA: Clint Eastwood wore the same poncho through all three "Man with No Name" movies without replacement or cleaning.

Because Sergio Leone spoke barely any English and Eli Wallach spoke barely any Italian, the two communicated in French.

Eli Wallach would have been decapitated during the train scene if he had lifted his head up. In the wide-shot, you can see the step that would have impacted his head.

Eli Wallach was almost poisoned on the set after drinking acid used to burn the bags filled with gold coin to make them rip open easier when struck with the spade. The acid had been poured into a lemon soda bottle and Wallach didn't know it. He drank a lot of milk and filmed the scene with a mouth full of sores.

The three man gunfight scene is called either a "Mexican standoff" or a truel (game theory). There are several mathematical papers covering the many complex outcomes of a truel. Other movies that use a truel are Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994).

The three principal actors are the only ones who speak actual English in the film: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, with the exceptions of Al Mulock (the one-armed man) and John Bartha (the sheriff). Everyone else in the film is really speaking their native language, mostly Italian and Spanish, and was later dubbed into English.

When Blondie and Angel Eyes are traveling to the cemetery, Blondie shoots a skulker, then counts the number of people that will be traveling together. He says, "Six. A perfect number." In mathematics, a number is perfect if the sum of its factors (excluding itself) equals itself. Six is a perfect number because 1, 2, and 3 are factors and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. (The next perfect number is 28.)

Director Trademark: Sergio Leone:  [Large circles covered in pave stones] 

http://www.missmoss.co.za/2014/07/22/francois-henri-galland/

FILM 1170: LA GRANDE ILLUSION

TRIVIA: This is the first film in the prestigious Criterion Collection (spine #1).

Goebbels made sure that the film's print was one of the first things seized by the Germans when they occupied France. He referred to Jean Renoir as "Cinematic Public Enemy Number 1". For many years it was assumed that the film had been destroyed in an Allied air raid in 1942. However, a German film archivist named Frank Hansel, then a Nazi officer in Paris, had actually smuggled it back to Berlin. Then when the Russians entered Berlin in 1945, the film found its way to an archive in Moscow. When Jean Renoir came to restore his film in the 1960s, he knew nothing of Hansel's acquisition and was working from an old muddy print. Purely by coincidence at the same time, the Russian archive swapped some material with an archive in Toulouse. Included in that exchange was the original negative print. However, because so many prints of the film existed at the time, it would be another 30 years before anyone realised that the version in Toulouse was actually the original negative.

The little girl who played "Lotte" never saw the film, having died of the flu some weeks before the film was released.

The uniform worn by Jean Gabin was actually owned and worn by Jean Renoir, who served in the air force during WWI.

The movie title "La Grande Illusion" is a reference to the pre-war book "The Great Illusion" by Norman Angell, which argued that war was outmoded, unscientific, and absurd. Though little-known today, it was a tremendous sensation when first published in 1913, and was often cited as evidence that a long European war "could not happen". Renoir aptly picks the title for his own work, knowing that his audience would recognize the reference.

The first foreign language film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture (French).

Frequently cited by Woody Allen as the finest picture ever made.

This pacifist war film shows no combat at all.

Cited by actor Christopher Plummer as the film that brought him to tears more often than any other in his lifetime.

Jean Renoir had to work quickly in order to catch the winter snows before they melted. When they did, plaster was used instead.