Movie Trivia Meme
Stolen from Shadowfae (sorry sweetie, I forgot how to do html >;-D)
[01] -- Look up TEN of your favorite movies on IMDB.
[02] -- Click the "trivia" link in the sidebar.
[03] -- Post a fun and random bit of trivia from each film.
[04] -- Tag five people!
Here we go.....it's long but read it dammit!!
1. American Beauty (1999)
'Kevin Spacey (I)' and Annette Bening were both the first choices of Sam Mendes for the roles of Lester and Carolyn although the role of Lester Burnham was originally offered to Chevy Chase and Tom Hanks (who later starred in Mendes's follow-up project Road to Perdition (2002)).
The role of Angela Hayes was offered to Kirsten Dunst, who turned it down.
Terry Gilliam turned down the chance to direct the film.
The Smiley fast food restaurant is actually a Carl's Jr.
The Spartanettes' dance routine was choreographed by singer Paula Abdul.
Wes Bentley smoked honey tobacco with 'Kevin Spacey (I)' for the pot-smoking scenes.
2. Annie Hall (1977)
Alvy's (Woody Allen's) sneezing into the cocaine was an unscripted accident. When previewed, the audience laughed so loud that director Allen decided to leave it in, and had to add footage to compensate for people missing the next few jokes from laughing too much.
During the lobster-cooking scene Annie runs and retrieves a camera to take pictures of Alvy dealing with the crustaceans. Later, when Alvy runs over to Annie's house to smash a spider, the series of photos Annie took is on the wall in the background.
Diane Keaton's real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie.
Sigourney Weaver's screen debut, in a non-speaking part as Alvy's date near the end of the movie.
The jokes that Woody Allen tells in front of the audience at the University of Wisconsin and on "The Dick Cavett Show" (1968) are from his stand-up comic days.
Annie's outfits, which caused a brief fashion rage, were Diane Keaton's own clothes.
3. The Big Lebowski (1998)
A lot of the Dude's clothes in the movie were Jeff Bridges's own clothes.
The Dude never actually bowls.
The Jellies sandals that Jeff Bridges wears in the movie were his own.
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes a background cameo appearance during the interpretive dance scene as another member of the theater audience. Kaufman's own script, Being John Malkovich (1999), also contains an interpretive dance sequence.
4. Forrest Gump (1994)
Gary Sinise's lower legs were wrapped in a special blue fabric that allowed them to be optically removed from the film by computer later.
Tom Hanks' younger brother Jim doubles for him in many of his mindless running sequences.
Tom Hanks patterned his accent after Michael Conner Humphreys who played young Forrest, who actually talked that way.
On the day that Tom Hanks shot the football running scenes he had been suffering from influenza.
Bill Murray was considered for the role of Forrest
Terry Gilliam turned down the chance to direct the film.
Barry Sonnenfeld was offered the chance to direct this film.
David Alan Grier turned down the role of Bubba.
Ice Cube turned down the role of Bubba. John Travolta turned down the role of Forrest Gump
Chevy Chase turned down the role of Forrest.
5. The Shining (1980)
During the making of the movie, Stanley Kubrick would call Stephen King at 3:00 a.m. and ask him questions like "Do you believe in God?"
Stephen King was first approached by Stanley Kubrick about making a film version of 'The Shining' via an early morning phone call (England is five hours ahead of Maine in time zones). King, having a hangover, shaving and at first thinking one of his kids was injured, was shocked when his wife told him Kubrick was on the phone. King recalled that the first thing Kubrick did was to immediately start talking about optimistic ghost stories are, because they suggest that humans survive death. "What about hell?" King asked. Kubrick paused for several moments before finally replying, "I don't believe in hell."
The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon was used for the front exterior, but all the interiors as well as the back of the hotel were specially built at Elstree Studios in London, England. The management of the Timberline requested that Stanley Kubrick not use 217 for a room number (as specified in the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
The book that Jack was writing contained the one sentence ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy") repeated over and over. Stanley Kubrick had each page individually typed. For the Italian version of the film, Kubrick used the phrase "Il mattino ha l' oro in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"). For the German version, it was "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"). For the Spanish version, it was "No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Although one will rise early, it won't dawn sooner."). For the French version, it was "Un 'Tiens' vaut mieux que deux 'Tu l'auras'" ("A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush").
Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here's Johnny!" in imitation of announcer Ed McMahon's famous introduction of Johnny Carson on U.S. network NBC-TV's long-running late night television program "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). Carson once used the clip of Nicholson as the introduction to one of his annual anniversary specials.
During the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed, it can be seen in the reflection of the mirror that Jack's T-shirt says "Stovington" on it. While not mentioned in the film, this is the name of the school that Jack used to teach at in the Stephen King novel.
Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up; every time the doors opened and the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like blood." They had tried shooting that scene for an entire year.
Stanley Kubrick made the cast watch Eraserhead (1977) to put them in the mood he wanted from them.
6. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
John Cleese's character is called Archie Leach, which is Cary Grant's real name.
When Otto leaves Archie's home, he says to Archie's wife Wendy that they would all speak German without the USA. He leaves the house while singing the first verse of the anthem: "Deutschland über alles". The German dubbed version has an altered dialog, he says that they'd all eat sauerkraut and listen to military marches, then he imitates some military marches instead of singing the anthem, as the first verse is considered too nationalist and generally not sung in public.
Leach's daughter Portia is played by John Cleese's real-life daughter Cynthia Cleese, credited as Cynthia Caylor.
The scene where Otto sits up in the background behind Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) is reminiscent of a scene in Halloween (1978), in which the character of Michael Myers sat up behind Curtis' character.
When Otto ('Kevin Kline (I)' ), suggests possible snitchers to George, he suggests Kevin Delaney, which are Kline's first and middle names.
The dog death scenes were originally filmed with entrails from a butchers scattered around the dead dog. Preview audiences reacted strongly to this, so the scenes were reshot with an obviously fake straw dog.
The hymn that the choirboys sing at the dogs' funerals is: Miserere Dominus, miserere Dominus, Canis mortuus est, which translated into English is: Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Lord; the dog is dead.
n the robbery scene it really was Kevin Kline shooting the crossbow at the sensor. He got it on the second take.
Michael Palin's father stuttered, so Michael used a lot his real life experience when playing Ken, including the fact that Ken's stutter is less pronounced around people he trusts (Tom and Wanda) and worse around people he is uncomfortable with (Otto).
7. Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Marlon Brando improvised most his dialog for the film because he felt that some of the dialog wasn't to his liking.
While filming, Bernardo Bertolucci tried to explain the point of the film to Marlon Brando, suggesting that his character was Bertolucci's "manhood" and that 'Maria Schneider' 's character was his "dream girl". Brando later maintained that he had absolutely no idea of what Bertolucci was suggesting or even talking about.
The idea of this movie grew from Bernardo Bertolucci's own sexual fantasies, stating that "he once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was".
An alternate, but similar idea of this film was to revolve a passionate, homosexual relationship and ultimately scrapped with a famous French actor for whom the idea was conceived for backed out of the film.
Argentine Tango composer Astor Piazzolla was going to write the music for the film and had actually submitted demos to director Bernardo Bertolucci. Bertolucci instead chose famed jazz musician Gato Barbieri as the film's composer because he felt that his saxophone playing would give the film a more rich and sultry feel for the film.
Almost ten years after its original release, United Artists re-released the film in 1982 with an R-Rating and not the infamous X rating it had obtained in 1972. The film was only a couple of minutes shorter than the preferred Director's cut.
The original screening version of the film was over four hours long.
After the film's release in Europe, Bernardo Bertolucci, Alberto Grimaldi, Marlon Brando and 'Maria Schneider' were all indicted by a court in Bologna, Italy for making the film under the term "ultalitarian pornography". They were all acquitted of the charge shortly thereafter with Bertolucci losing his right to vote for a short period of time.
'Jean-Pierre Lèaud' had so much respect for Marlon Brando that he was afraid to meet him. That's why he shot all his scenes on Saturdays, when Brando refused to work. Like that, the two never met in the entire making of the film.
The story Paul tells Jeanne about his mother, about how she taught him to appreciate nature, which he illustrates with his reminiscence of his dog Dutchy hunting rabbits in a mustard field, is real, based on Brando's own recollections of his past.
When Brando arrived for the first day of shooting, he had on makeup "two centimeters thick" according to Bertolucci. Brando, who had applied his own makeup, didn't understand the nautral, low-light conditions cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was going to work with to get the look of the film. Bertolucci had to remove much of the makeup from Brando's face with a handkerchief.
When informed that director Ingmar Bergman had said that the film only made sense if it were about two homosexuals, Bertolucci responded that he accepted all criticisms of his film as valid.
When asked what the movie was about during his 1979 PLAYBOY Magazine interview, Brando responded, "Bernardo Bertolucci's analysis."
'Jean Louis Trintignan' and Dominique Sanda were both approached for the leading roles.
According to 'Maria Schneider' , the famous "butter scene" was never in the script and improvised at the last minute by Marlon Brando and Bernardo Bertolucci without consulting her. Though the sodomy act was faked, her real tears in the film clearly testify her state of shock.
8. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Steve McQueen was the first to turn down the role of Captain Willard.
Harvey Keitel was then cast as Willard. Two weeks into shooting, director Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen.
George Lucas was originally set to direct "Apocalypse Now" from a screenplay by John Milius. Lucas' initial plan was to shoot the movie as a faux documentary on location in South Vietnam while the war was still in progress. Francis Ford Coppola, who was to be the executive producer, tried to get the film made as part of a production deal with Warner Bros. The deal fell through, and Coppola went on to direct The Godfather (1972). By the time both men were powerful enough to get the film made, Saigon had fallen and Lucas was busy making Star Wars (1977). Milius had no interest in directing the film. Lucas gave Coppola his blessing to direct the film himself.
9. Superman (1978)
To obtain the musculature to convincingly play Superman, Christopher Reeve underwent a bodybuilding regime supervised by David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
During screen tests for the role of Superman, the role of Lois Lane was played by Holly Palance.
After the success of Rocky (1976), Sylvester Stallone lobbied hard to play Clark Kent/Superman, but he was ultimately turned down. Stallone found out that Marlon Brando, who had casting approval, turned him down for the role, just as he had allegedly vetoed Burt Reynolds' casting as Sonny in The Godfather (1972). (Responding to that rumor, Brando told Playboy Magazine interviewer Lawrence Gobel "Francis [Francis Ford Coppola] would never have cast Burt Reynolds.") Stallone subsequently went on Merv Griffin's talk show and denounced Brando, saying he had no respect for the superstar as an actor or as a man. This surprised many as the early Stallone (as had the early Burt Reynolds) had clearly modeled himself after Brando, particularly Brando's characterization of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) in his own role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lord's of Flatbush (1974), a man named "Stanley" (a la Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) who had a coop of pigeons on his tenement roof (like Terry Malloy). This mimicry might have been one of the the reasons Brando reportedly had such antipathy for both actors. Stallone later explained that he felt that it was hypocritical that Brando, whom stated on numerous occasions that he took the role of Jor-El simply as a paycheck and nothing more, vetoed him for the role of Superman. Unlike Brando, Stallone grew up emulating and idolizing Clark Kent/Superman (and continues to) as well as having a great love for the comics mythology. Ironically, in his review for the Stallone film "Rocky", Roger Ebert called Stallone "the next Marlon Brando."
As a nod to the original comics, Clark Kent is seen briefly considering a phone booth as a place to convert into his alter-ego for the first time, before deciding on another solution.
Christopher Reeve worked out so much during the making of the film that the traveling matte shots taken of him at the beginning of the shoot did not match the later shots, and had to be re-taken.
The development of the best method to show Superman flying was a long period of experimentation. The methods attempted included simply catapulting a dummy into the air, a remote control model airplane painted as the character and simply animating the flying sequences. The producers settled for a combination of forward projection and specially designed zoom lenses that could create the illusion of movement by zooming in on Christopher Reeve while making the forward projection appear to recede. For scenes where Superman has to interact with other people or objects while in flight, Reeve and fellow actors were put in a variety of rigging equipment with careful lighting and photography to hide the equipment.
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The title is quoted from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). This poem was used in Charlie Kaufman's earlier project Being John Malkovich (1999).
Before Jim Carrey expressed interest in playing Joel, Nicolas Cage was considered for the role.
The memory-erasing company, Lacuna Inc., takes its name from the Latin word meaning a cavity, hollow, or dip, especially a pool or pond. Transfiguratively, lacuna comes to mean a gap, deficiency, or loss. The term "lacunar infarct" refers to a stroke that involves a small area of the brain responsible for a specific function, or ever a specific memory. Additionally, in papyrology (the study of ancient manuscripts) a lacuna is a hole where part of the text is missing, and which can sometimes be re-constructed.
The idea was brought to Michel Gondry by his friend the artist Pierre Bismuth who suggested, "You get a card in the mail that says: someone you know has just erased you from their memory..."
A Metro North Commuter Railroad train from the New Haven line (red striped) doubled for the Long Island Railroad (which are blue striped).
When Clementine and Joel are in the Montauk beach house, Clementine finds an envelope that says David and Ruth Laskin. David and Ruth are the first names of Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey's assistants.
All of the train shots were shot onboard a real, moving, train.
The opening credits appear 18 minutes into the film, at the end of the first reel.
The voice whispering Montauk in the movie is actually a combination of Kate Winslet's voice echoing itself, and the voice of a worker at the production company Focus Features. Apparently, the young lady was asked to do a quick voice-over, before Winslet arrived, and it was kept in the film.
The movie is based on the following quote from an Alexander Pope poem: How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
* Adding further information Mary's surname does not appear in the credits, but her nameplate on the reception desk at Dr Mierzwiak's practice shows it as Svevo. Stan also says her full name an hour and a half into the film. This very unusual name is clearly a reference to Italian writer Italo Svevo (real name Ettore Schmitz, 1861-1928), who was very interested in the work of Sigmund Freud and is believed to have corresponded with him.
A sub plot involving Joel having a one night stand with his ex-girlfriend Naomi (Ellen Pompeo) was deleted from the final film.
[01] -- Look up TEN of your favorite movies on IMDB.
[02] -- Click the "trivia" link in the sidebar.
[03] -- Post a fun and random bit of trivia from each film.
[04] -- Tag five people!
Here we go.....it's long but read it dammit!!
1. American Beauty (1999)
'Kevin Spacey (I)' and Annette Bening were both the first choices of Sam Mendes for the roles of Lester and Carolyn although the role of Lester Burnham was originally offered to Chevy Chase and Tom Hanks (who later starred in Mendes's follow-up project Road to Perdition (2002)).
The role of Angela Hayes was offered to Kirsten Dunst, who turned it down.
Terry Gilliam turned down the chance to direct the film.
The Smiley fast food restaurant is actually a Carl's Jr.
The Spartanettes' dance routine was choreographed by singer Paula Abdul.
Wes Bentley smoked honey tobacco with 'Kevin Spacey (I)' for the pot-smoking scenes.
2. Annie Hall (1977)
Alvy's (Woody Allen's) sneezing into the cocaine was an unscripted accident. When previewed, the audience laughed so loud that director Allen decided to leave it in, and had to add footage to compensate for people missing the next few jokes from laughing too much.
During the lobster-cooking scene Annie runs and retrieves a camera to take pictures of Alvy dealing with the crustaceans. Later, when Alvy runs over to Annie's house to smash a spider, the series of photos Annie took is on the wall in the background.
Diane Keaton's real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie.
Sigourney Weaver's screen debut, in a non-speaking part as Alvy's date near the end of the movie.
The jokes that Woody Allen tells in front of the audience at the University of Wisconsin and on "The Dick Cavett Show" (1968) are from his stand-up comic days.
Annie's outfits, which caused a brief fashion rage, were Diane Keaton's own clothes.
3. The Big Lebowski (1998)
A lot of the Dude's clothes in the movie were Jeff Bridges's own clothes.
The Dude never actually bowls.
The Jellies sandals that Jeff Bridges wears in the movie were his own.
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes a background cameo appearance during the interpretive dance scene as another member of the theater audience. Kaufman's own script, Being John Malkovich (1999), also contains an interpretive dance sequence.
4. Forrest Gump (1994)
Gary Sinise's lower legs were wrapped in a special blue fabric that allowed them to be optically removed from the film by computer later.
Tom Hanks' younger brother Jim doubles for him in many of his mindless running sequences.
Tom Hanks patterned his accent after Michael Conner Humphreys who played young Forrest, who actually talked that way.
On the day that Tom Hanks shot the football running scenes he had been suffering from influenza.
Bill Murray was considered for the role of Forrest
Terry Gilliam turned down the chance to direct the film.
Barry Sonnenfeld was offered the chance to direct this film.
David Alan Grier turned down the role of Bubba.
Ice Cube turned down the role of Bubba. John Travolta turned down the role of Forrest Gump
Chevy Chase turned down the role of Forrest.
5. The Shining (1980)
During the making of the movie, Stanley Kubrick would call Stephen King at 3:00 a.m. and ask him questions like "Do you believe in God?"
Stephen King was first approached by Stanley Kubrick about making a film version of 'The Shining' via an early morning phone call (England is five hours ahead of Maine in time zones). King, having a hangover, shaving and at first thinking one of his kids was injured, was shocked when his wife told him Kubrick was on the phone. King recalled that the first thing Kubrick did was to immediately start talking about optimistic ghost stories are, because they suggest that humans survive death. "What about hell?" King asked. Kubrick paused for several moments before finally replying, "I don't believe in hell."
The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon was used for the front exterior, but all the interiors as well as the back of the hotel were specially built at Elstree Studios in London, England. The management of the Timberline requested that Stanley Kubrick not use 217 for a room number (as specified in the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
The book that Jack was writing contained the one sentence ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy") repeated over and over. Stanley Kubrick had each page individually typed. For the Italian version of the film, Kubrick used the phrase "Il mattino ha l' oro in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"). For the German version, it was "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"). For the Spanish version, it was "No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Although one will rise early, it won't dawn sooner."). For the French version, it was "Un 'Tiens' vaut mieux que deux 'Tu l'auras'" ("A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush").
Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here's Johnny!" in imitation of announcer Ed McMahon's famous introduction of Johnny Carson on U.S. network NBC-TV's long-running late night television program "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). Carson once used the clip of Nicholson as the introduction to one of his annual anniversary specials.
During the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed, it can be seen in the reflection of the mirror that Jack's T-shirt says "Stovington" on it. While not mentioned in the film, this is the name of the school that Jack used to teach at in the Stephen King novel.
Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up; every time the doors opened and the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like blood." They had tried shooting that scene for an entire year.
Stanley Kubrick made the cast watch Eraserhead (1977) to put them in the mood he wanted from them.
6. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
John Cleese's character is called Archie Leach, which is Cary Grant's real name.
When Otto leaves Archie's home, he says to Archie's wife Wendy that they would all speak German without the USA. He leaves the house while singing the first verse of the anthem: "Deutschland über alles". The German dubbed version has an altered dialog, he says that they'd all eat sauerkraut and listen to military marches, then he imitates some military marches instead of singing the anthem, as the first verse is considered too nationalist and generally not sung in public.
Leach's daughter Portia is played by John Cleese's real-life daughter Cynthia Cleese, credited as Cynthia Caylor.
The scene where Otto sits up in the background behind Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) is reminiscent of a scene in Halloween (1978), in which the character of Michael Myers sat up behind Curtis' character.
When Otto ('Kevin Kline (I)' ), suggests possible snitchers to George, he suggests Kevin Delaney, which are Kline's first and middle names.
The dog death scenes were originally filmed with entrails from a butchers scattered around the dead dog. Preview audiences reacted strongly to this, so the scenes were reshot with an obviously fake straw dog.
The hymn that the choirboys sing at the dogs' funerals is: Miserere Dominus, miserere Dominus, Canis mortuus est, which translated into English is: Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Lord; the dog is dead.
n the robbery scene it really was Kevin Kline shooting the crossbow at the sensor. He got it on the second take.
Michael Palin's father stuttered, so Michael used a lot his real life experience when playing Ken, including the fact that Ken's stutter is less pronounced around people he trusts (Tom and Wanda) and worse around people he is uncomfortable with (Otto).
7. Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Marlon Brando improvised most his dialog for the film because he felt that some of the dialog wasn't to his liking.
While filming, Bernardo Bertolucci tried to explain the point of the film to Marlon Brando, suggesting that his character was Bertolucci's "manhood" and that 'Maria Schneider' 's character was his "dream girl". Brando later maintained that he had absolutely no idea of what Bertolucci was suggesting or even talking about.
The idea of this movie grew from Bernardo Bertolucci's own sexual fantasies, stating that "he once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was".
An alternate, but similar idea of this film was to revolve a passionate, homosexual relationship and ultimately scrapped with a famous French actor for whom the idea was conceived for backed out of the film.
Argentine Tango composer Astor Piazzolla was going to write the music for the film and had actually submitted demos to director Bernardo Bertolucci. Bertolucci instead chose famed jazz musician Gato Barbieri as the film's composer because he felt that his saxophone playing would give the film a more rich and sultry feel for the film.
Almost ten years after its original release, United Artists re-released the film in 1982 with an R-Rating and not the infamous X rating it had obtained in 1972. The film was only a couple of minutes shorter than the preferred Director's cut.
The original screening version of the film was over four hours long.
After the film's release in Europe, Bernardo Bertolucci, Alberto Grimaldi, Marlon Brando and 'Maria Schneider' were all indicted by a court in Bologna, Italy for making the film under the term "ultalitarian pornography". They were all acquitted of the charge shortly thereafter with Bertolucci losing his right to vote for a short period of time.
'Jean-Pierre Lèaud' had so much respect for Marlon Brando that he was afraid to meet him. That's why he shot all his scenes on Saturdays, when Brando refused to work. Like that, the two never met in the entire making of the film.
The story Paul tells Jeanne about his mother, about how she taught him to appreciate nature, which he illustrates with his reminiscence of his dog Dutchy hunting rabbits in a mustard field, is real, based on Brando's own recollections of his past.
When Brando arrived for the first day of shooting, he had on makeup "two centimeters thick" according to Bertolucci. Brando, who had applied his own makeup, didn't understand the nautral, low-light conditions cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was going to work with to get the look of the film. Bertolucci had to remove much of the makeup from Brando's face with a handkerchief.
When informed that director Ingmar Bergman had said that the film only made sense if it were about two homosexuals, Bertolucci responded that he accepted all criticisms of his film as valid.
When asked what the movie was about during his 1979 PLAYBOY Magazine interview, Brando responded, "Bernardo Bertolucci's analysis."
'Jean Louis Trintignan' and Dominique Sanda were both approached for the leading roles.
According to 'Maria Schneider' , the famous "butter scene" was never in the script and improvised at the last minute by Marlon Brando and Bernardo Bertolucci without consulting her. Though the sodomy act was faked, her real tears in the film clearly testify her state of shock.
8. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Steve McQueen was the first to turn down the role of Captain Willard.
Harvey Keitel was then cast as Willard. Two weeks into shooting, director Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen.
George Lucas was originally set to direct "Apocalypse Now" from a screenplay by John Milius. Lucas' initial plan was to shoot the movie as a faux documentary on location in South Vietnam while the war was still in progress. Francis Ford Coppola, who was to be the executive producer, tried to get the film made as part of a production deal with Warner Bros. The deal fell through, and Coppola went on to direct The Godfather (1972). By the time both men were powerful enough to get the film made, Saigon had fallen and Lucas was busy making Star Wars (1977). Milius had no interest in directing the film. Lucas gave Coppola his blessing to direct the film himself.
9. Superman (1978)
To obtain the musculature to convincingly play Superman, Christopher Reeve underwent a bodybuilding regime supervised by David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
During screen tests for the role of Superman, the role of Lois Lane was played by Holly Palance.
After the success of Rocky (1976), Sylvester Stallone lobbied hard to play Clark Kent/Superman, but he was ultimately turned down. Stallone found out that Marlon Brando, who had casting approval, turned him down for the role, just as he had allegedly vetoed Burt Reynolds' casting as Sonny in The Godfather (1972). (Responding to that rumor, Brando told Playboy Magazine interviewer Lawrence Gobel "Francis [Francis Ford Coppola] would never have cast Burt Reynolds.") Stallone subsequently went on Merv Griffin's talk show and denounced Brando, saying he had no respect for the superstar as an actor or as a man. This surprised many as the early Stallone (as had the early Burt Reynolds) had clearly modeled himself after Brando, particularly Brando's characterization of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) in his own role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lord's of Flatbush (1974), a man named "Stanley" (a la Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) who had a coop of pigeons on his tenement roof (like Terry Malloy). This mimicry might have been one of the the reasons Brando reportedly had such antipathy for both actors. Stallone later explained that he felt that it was hypocritical that Brando, whom stated on numerous occasions that he took the role of Jor-El simply as a paycheck and nothing more, vetoed him for the role of Superman. Unlike Brando, Stallone grew up emulating and idolizing Clark Kent/Superman (and continues to) as well as having a great love for the comics mythology. Ironically, in his review for the Stallone film "Rocky", Roger Ebert called Stallone "the next Marlon Brando."
As a nod to the original comics, Clark Kent is seen briefly considering a phone booth as a place to convert into his alter-ego for the first time, before deciding on another solution.
Christopher Reeve worked out so much during the making of the film that the traveling matte shots taken of him at the beginning of the shoot did not match the later shots, and had to be re-taken.
The development of the best method to show Superman flying was a long period of experimentation. The methods attempted included simply catapulting a dummy into the air, a remote control model airplane painted as the character and simply animating the flying sequences. The producers settled for a combination of forward projection and specially designed zoom lenses that could create the illusion of movement by zooming in on Christopher Reeve while making the forward projection appear to recede. For scenes where Superman has to interact with other people or objects while in flight, Reeve and fellow actors were put in a variety of rigging equipment with careful lighting and photography to hide the equipment.
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The title is quoted from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). This poem was used in Charlie Kaufman's earlier project Being John Malkovich (1999).
Before Jim Carrey expressed interest in playing Joel, Nicolas Cage was considered for the role.
The memory-erasing company, Lacuna Inc., takes its name from the Latin word meaning a cavity, hollow, or dip, especially a pool or pond. Transfiguratively, lacuna comes to mean a gap, deficiency, or loss. The term "lacunar infarct" refers to a stroke that involves a small area of the brain responsible for a specific function, or ever a specific memory. Additionally, in papyrology (the study of ancient manuscripts) a lacuna is a hole where part of the text is missing, and which can sometimes be re-constructed.
The idea was brought to Michel Gondry by his friend the artist Pierre Bismuth who suggested, "You get a card in the mail that says: someone you know has just erased you from their memory..."
A Metro North Commuter Railroad train from the New Haven line (red striped) doubled for the Long Island Railroad (which are blue striped).
When Clementine and Joel are in the Montauk beach house, Clementine finds an envelope that says David and Ruth Laskin. David and Ruth are the first names of Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey's assistants.
All of the train shots were shot onboard a real, moving, train.
The opening credits appear 18 minutes into the film, at the end of the first reel.
The voice whispering Montauk in the movie is actually a combination of Kate Winslet's voice echoing itself, and the voice of a worker at the production company Focus Features. Apparently, the young lady was asked to do a quick voice-over, before Winslet arrived, and it was kept in the film.
The movie is based on the following quote from an Alexander Pope poem: How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
* Adding further information Mary's surname does not appear in the credits, but her nameplate on the reception desk at Dr Mierzwiak's practice shows it as Svevo. Stan also says her full name an hour and a half into the film. This very unusual name is clearly a reference to Italian writer Italo Svevo (real name Ettore Schmitz, 1861-1928), who was very interested in the work of Sigmund Freud and is believed to have corresponded with him.
A sub plot involving Joel having a one night stand with his ex-girlfriend Naomi (Ellen Pompeo) was deleted from the final film.