FILM 1994: MURIEL'S WEDDING

FILM 1994: MURIEL'S WEDDING

TRIVIA: The writer/director P.J. Hogan wanted to use the music of ABBA in the film. At first, permission for the music to be used was denied. When the director promised to fly to Europe to plead his case to the founders of the band, permission was granted, as long as the band received a percentage of the film profits. The film turned out to be a big international hit, and thus helped inspire the very successful Broadway show which became the movie Mamma Mia! (2008).

Toni Collette gained 40 pounds in 7 weeks with the help of a dietitian for this role.

Bill Hunter was filming The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) and Muriel's Wedding (1994) at the same time, each requiring him to have different length hair, beard and to be in different parts of the country. Both films developed international cult followings and prominently featured the music of ABBA.

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

In the video store where Muriel works, a poster for the movie Strictly Ballroom is visible. Bill Hunter, who plays Bill Heslop (Muriel's father), Is also in Strictly Ballroom in the role of Barry Fife.

P.J. Hogan based Muriel's personality on himself, but Muriel's actions were inspired by his sister, who embezzled $15,000 from their father and then disappeared to Sydney to live with a friend.

Betty Heslop passes a magazine called Womans Day in the supermarket. Womans Day is a real magazine which did a feature article about the movie. The same cover (as the one in the movie) was used.

FILM 1563: HIGH-RISE

TRIVIA: High-Rise (2015) has been a stalled passion project for producer Jeremy Thomas for decades. It was once deemed "unfilmable."

The film includes two interpretations of the ABBA song "SOS" - one by the film's composer Clint Mansell and the other by Portishead. "SOS" was released in 1975. The same year as the novel "High-Rise" JG Ballard.

Elizabeth Moss said that the most difficult thing for her when preparing for High-Rise (2015) was to speak in a convincing British accent since she was American.

In the opening shot of the movie, Laing is using a record player. It is a very special, very rare player known as a Transcriptors Reference Turntable, and the same owned by Alex in A Clockwork Orange (arguably made famous by this feature). This is likely another homage to that film.

While it never directly says so, the film's time period is obviously set in the 1970's. There are no cell phones, iPads, Internet and the like. But there is a lot of cigarette smoking in areas that are forbidden in 2016 such as in doctor's office and around children, and the clothes,vehicles and everyday items were very common in that time period.