FILM 1750: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

FILM 1750: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

TRIVIA: Frances McDormand was hesitant to take the role when it was offered, but was eventually convinced by her husband, Joel Coen: "Because at the time he gave it to me I was 58... I was concerned that women from this socioeconomic strata did not wait until 38 to have their first child. So we went back and forth and we debated that quite for a while, and then finally my husband said, 'Just shut up and do it.'"

Martin McDonagh wrote the screenplay with Frances McDormand as the lead role in mind.

Sam Rockwell wore padding to make his character appear chubbier.

The town where the movie is filmed is actually a small mountain town in western North Carolina called Sylva.

McDonagh was inspired to write the movie after seeing billboards about an unsolved crime while traveling "somewhere down in the Georgia, Florida, Alabama corner".

First feature film directed by Martin McDonagh not to star Colin Farrell.

Upon winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in the film, Frances McDormand became the first actress to win two awards in the category; she had previously won her first award in the category in 1997 for Fargo (1996).

There are several allusions to Don't Look Now (1973). Not just the storylines of both films being about parents grieving the death of a daughter. The film Dixon's mother is watching on telly about "the dead girl" is Don't Look Now; we hear a few brief notes from Pino Donaggio's score. Red is the key colour in both films: the eponymous billboards are bright red and the agency guy is called Red. Both films have a dwarf, a useless priest and hopeless cops, a nasty fall and a massive knife, children left to play alone by water, a kids' toy bobbing in water.

BOOK 152: CAMERA LUCIDA: ROLAND BARTHES

In a deeply personal discussion of the lasting emotional effect of certain photographs, Barthes considers photography as asymbolic, irreducible to the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind. The book develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum: studium denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting the wounding, personally touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it.

(information from Wikipedia)

FILM 1532: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT

TRIVIA: James L. Brooks received a special gift at the end of production, to congratulate him for completing his first movie. This was a book of "Life in Hell" cartoons, drawn by Matt Groening. Brooks was so impressed with the comics that he asked Groening to create cartoon shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show (1987). This gave rise to The Simpsons (1989).

Debra Winger behaved erratically on the set of this film because she was trying to get over a severe cocaine addiction. At one point, she and Shirley MacLaine got into a shoving match.

The character of Garrett Breedlove does not appear in the novel and was written specifically with Burt Reynolds in mind by writer-director James L. Brooks. Reynolds loved the script but was already committed to star in Stroker Ace (1983). Paul Newman and Harrison Ford turned down the role before Jack Nicholson signed on. Nicholson talked with a number of real astronauts while in Houston in preparation.

The role of Emma was originally written for Sissy Spacek.

James L. Brooks settled on Shirley MacLaine to play Aurora because "she was the only one who saw it as a comedy."

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger were both nominated for 1983's Best Actress Oscar, which went to MacLaine. On her way to the podium, she reportedly whispered to Winger, "Half of this belongs to you," to which Winger reportedly replied, "I'll take half."

James L. Brooks was the fourth director to win an Academy Award for direction on debut. Delbert Mann' was the first for Marty (1955) whilst Jerome Robbins was the second for West Side Story (1961). Others have been Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980) and Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990).

CAMEO: Albert Brooks: the voice of Aurora's husband in the opening scene, credited as A Brooks.

FILM 1221: KRAMER VS. KRAMER

TRIVIA: The famous ice-cream scene, where Billy challenges his father by skipping dinner and going straight for dessert, was completely improvised by both Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry. Director Robert Benton liked the scene so much that he decided to keep it in the film.

When Justin Henry was Oscar nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, Henry at age 8 became the youngest ever person to be nominated for this award as well as the youngest ever Oscar nominee in any category, a record which still stands today [August 2012].

The woman that Hoffman suddenly kisses at the party is Ingeborg Sørensen, a former Miss Norway and Playboy Playmate.

FILM 1193: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

TRIVIA: The film is partially autobiographical. When Hayao Miyazaki and his brothers were children, his mother suffered from spinal tuberculosis for nine years, and spent much of her time hospitalized. It is implied, yet never revealed in the film, that Satsuki and Mei's mother also suffers from tuberculosis. He once said the film would have been too painful for him to make if the two protagonists were boys instead of girls.

The names of the two girls, Satsuki and Mei are a play on the word May. "Satsuki" is an old Japanese word for May, and "Mei" is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "May".

The movie initially did not do well at the box office, and did not break even until about two years after the release when stuffed dolls based on the King Totoro character hit the shelves.