FILM 1956: A SIMPLE FAVOUR

FILM 1956: A SIMPLE FAVOUR

TRIVIA: The gin used in the martinis shared by Anna and Blake's charaters is Aviation (American) Gin, a company owned by Blake Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds.

One of the reasons that Blake Lively wanted Emily to wear suits was because she wanted to differentiate Emily from the character she played on "Gossip Girl." Both characters are women in fashion from the Upper East Side. "I wanted it to be a very different look and vibe," she says.

Blake Lively wanted to create an iconic look for her character. She drew inspiration from Paul Feig's style in real life - "the buttoned up, three piece suit, bow tie, pocket square, cuff link wearing version."

The most prominent part of the soundtrack consists of French songs from the '60s.

In an interview, Anna Kendrick recalled the scene where Stephanie goes to Emily's house as being particularly fun to film. She says, "we found a way to kind of flirt with each other that was really fun, even though the things we're saying don't necessarily have that element."

Director of photography John Schwartzman was inspired by the "brightly lit, poppy colors" of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet." He says, "The idea was to not try to hide things in the shadows on this movie. Let's put it all out there in plain sight and let the audience figure out all the information."

The theme that screenwriter Jessica Sharzer was most interested in exploring was how society often forces women to choose one role to play in life, then penalizes them for breaking out of that role. "I like that this story looks at how different women decide between career and children."

Costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus researched real mommy vloggers on Instagram for inspiration in creating Stephanie's look. The sweater that she wears with the pom poms was inspired by one vlog that was very "This is how you DIY kitty cats on your collar," as Kalfus puts it. (Stephanie actually does wear cats on her collar earlier in the film when she gets in touch with Sean in London.)

In order to help the audience feel as though they were really following Stephanie's vlogs, director of photography John Schwartzman chose to re-film the vlog scenes as they played back on a very high-resolution monitor. The technique allowed him to incorporate the detailed texture of the pixels on screen.

Director Paul Feig worked with Linda Cardellini, who plays Diana Hyland, on "Freaks and Geeks". He was thrilled to get another chance to work with her after 17 years.

The director of photography, John Schwartzman, previously worked on major motion pictures like "The Rock," "Jurassic World," and "Pearl Harbor." Schwartzman went to film school with Feig, but this is the first time they have worked on a film together.

FILM 1923: SEARCHING

FILM 1923: SEARCHING

TRIVIA: The film took just 13 days to shoot. However, it took two years to make due to the prep, editing and animating.

For the German, Spanish, French, Russian and Portuguese versions of the movie, every TV/phone/computer screen was recreated in its respective language, as well as every typing sequence, keystroke by keystroke.

While the film features computer operating systems, programs and (mostly) websites, they were re-created from scratch and animated on computers.

Since this movie takes place on a mock computer screen just like a previous film, Unfriended (2014), there is a small nod to that movie during the very first Facebook scene. The name "Laura Barns," a character from Unfriended, appears on the top right screen as a trending topic. It was shown very briefly.

This was the feature film directorial debut of Aneesh Chaganty.

Throughout the movie various news articles hint to an alien invasion that happening at the same time.

During one of the earlier Facebook scenes, trending topics can be seen at the top right corner of the screen. One of the topics is simply "The Dress". This is a reference to a photo of a dress that became a viral internet sensation in February 2015 when viewers disagreed over whether the dress was coloured black and blue, or white and gold.

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

Chris and Lyn appear to have the perfect marriage. But when Lyn goes missing, dark secrets are buried. This is no fairytale, but a sordid story of strangely close twin brothers, teenage student lovers, and probable murder. 

MY VERDICT: This story is amazing for so many reasons, but mostly for the fact that someone could go missing for so long without anyone seemingly doing anything at all. It amazed me that the police took everything Chris Dawson said at face value and didn’t check even the easiest of evidence, like phone records to prove his story. One failure and story of incompetence or indifference after another will find you in equal parts frustrated and shocked by this story.

If I have any criticism it’s maybe that it’s an episode or two too long, and repeats information a little too often but the story is fascinating and ongoing, so I’m hoping for more updates in the future.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-teachers-pet

(There is a lot of information on the official website…)

BOOK 186: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY: RAYMOND CHANDLER

Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.

CULTURAL REFERENCES

In the first shot after the opening titles of Get Carter, the character played by Michael Caine is seen reading a paperback copy of the book.

In the opening episode of the television series Bored to Death, the character Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, is inspired to become a private detective after reading the book.