Hello to everyone who has been following this blog for many years - I'm still blogging, I'm just moving over to https://www.claireheffer.com/blog - please continue to follow and let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been kind enough to visit over the years. May the lists continue...
Showing posts with label morocco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morocco. Show all posts

Friday, 22 June 2018

FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION



FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

TRIVIA:Tom Cruise stated in an interview that it was his intention to do the stunt hanging onto the Airbus A400M in a way to outdo himself after the Burj Khalifa climb stunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). However, his idea raised objections by the crew due to safety. Being a certified pilot himself, he wanted to get the feel of being out on the wing or on the side of the airplane. A major obstacle to filming would be bird strikes and wind resistance on the runway. To capture the action, a wind-resistant custom frame for the camera was built and mounted onto the left wing of the plane. The other major problem would be keeping Cruise's eyes open in the presence of fast wind and runway particles, so his eye specialist designed a special lens that can cover the entire eyeball. Eight takes of the stunt were filmed. Christopher McQuarrie was very concerned that the actor might panic suddenly, but was assured by Cruise to not stop filming until the stunt had been finished.

Ethan receives his new mission on a vinyl long-playing record. This was one of the first ways of receiving new missions from the Mission: Impossible (1966) television

A brief scene in which Ilsa pauses in the middle of an action sequence to remove her high-heeled shoes was singled out in reviews for its realism, especially in light of the just-released Jurassic World (2015), which was criticized as Bryce Dallas Howard spends much of her action movie literally running in heels from dinosaurs. There was even the idea to highlight the scene in promotional trailers and television spots, but Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie refused, saying that "it wasn't about twisting the knife."

When training for the underwater scene, Tom Cruise was able to hold his breath underwater for six minutes.

Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames are the only actors to appear in all six films.

Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the Mission: Impossible (1966) theme, also created the orchestral arrangements for the "Three Tenors" concerts that made "Nessun Dorma" (featured in this film) an international pop culture phenomenon.

The idea of synchronizing a gun shot with a particular moment in a music score during a live performance is taken out of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).


Saturday, 11 July 2015



FILM 1338: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

TRIVIA: At first, Doris Day refused to record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as "a forgettable children's song." It not only went on to win an Academy Award, but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her signature song. So much for forgettable, she would go on to sing the same song in two more movies, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and it was used as the theme song for all 124 episodes of her TV show, The Doris Day Show (1968).

It was during the making of this film, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.

Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera setups, lighting and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, *then* I would have to direct you!"

The Albert Hall sequence lasts 12 minutes without a single word of dialogue and consists of 124 shots.

The film was unavailable for decades because its rights (together with four other pictures of the same period) were bought back by Alfred Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've been known for long as the infamous "Five lost Hitchcocks" amongst film buffs, and were re-released in theatres around 1984 after a 30-year absence. The others are Rear Window (1954), Rope (1948), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Vertigo (1958).

The plot calls for a man (Daniel Gélin in the role of Louis Bernard) to be discovered as "not Moroccan" because he was wearing black makeup. The makeup artists couldn't find a black substance that would come off easily, and so they painted the fingers of the other man (James Stewart) white, so that he would leave pale streaks on the other man's skin (according to Patricia Hitchcock, this idea was suggested by Daniel Gélin).

In a 1994 interview available on the liner notes of a Rhino compilation of Oscar winning songs, songwriter Jay Livingston says that he came across the phrase "Que Sera Sera" in the movie The Barefoot Contessa (1954), when Rossano Brazzi shows Ava Gardner his house, and she sees the inscription "Que Sera Sera" on the gate. He tells her that is the family motto, and it means 'Whatever will be, will be'.

Doris Day had a fear of flying that stemmed from tours with Bob Hope in the 1940s that resulted in some close calls in impenetrable winter weather. She almost turned down her role in this film because it required travel to London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher talked her into accepting it.

Ambrose Chapel was filmed at St. Saviour's Church Hall in St. Saviour's Road, Brixton Hill, London. St. Saviour's was sold off by the Church of England in the 1970s and has since been torn down.




Tuesday, 30 September 2014





… OF THE DAY

You’ll soon learn that I don’t get a lot finished during the week (I have a full time job) but I will get a little inspiration and start projects.  So here is one of those things, it looks a little messy but its more to remind me what my idea was, a digital sketch if you will.  It’s a mosaic of pictures I took in Morocco in the shape of a mosaic that I photographed in Morocco.  (Have I confused you yet? I’ve confused myself…)