cultfilms:

a young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. then he meets hesher who manages to make his life even more chaotic.

dir.: spencer susser
drama 
2010

joseph gordon-levitt as hesher
devin brochu as t.j.
rainn wilson as paul forney
piper laurie as grandma
natalie portman as nicole

some facts:

- elephants make several appearances in the film. rainn wilson’s character is watching a tv show about elephants and we hear them in the background, the car dealership has a large pink elephant on the roof and beside t.j’s bed there is a figurine of another elephant. 
- in the pool scene, hesher asks r2 to shut down all the trash compactors. this refers to r2-d2 from star wars. director spencer susser also directed a tv special short, r2-d2: beneath the dome (1992). 
- all of hesher’s “persona”, according to joseph gordon-levitt, is inspired by late bass player from metallica, cliff burton. not only that, but the movie features a significant amount of music from the “burton” era, including the solo that hesher plays in the garage (anesthesia, from the kill ‘em all album) and, of course, the hesher lettering. 
- most of the songs on the film’s soundtrack are tracks from american heavy metal band metallica and british hard rockers motorhead.
- hesher (slang/noun): a person who is a fan of, and displays the appearance of heavy metal or hard rock music. a male enthusiast of heavy metal music, particularly one who adopts the hair style and dress of his idols. the female equivalent is a hesher-chick.

cultfilms:

two brothers meet at their mother’s funeral, each in his way on a path of self-destruction, both haunted by a tragedy in their youth.

dir.: thomas vinterberg
2010
drama / drugs / violence

some facts:
- based on a jonas bengtsson’s book of the same name.
- it received public funding through the danish broadcaster tv2, whose condition for providing the money was that half of the cast and production crew would be first-timers.
- feature-film debutants included the cinematographer charlotte bruus christensen, the scriptwriter tobias lindholm and the stage actor peter plaugborg who played nick’s brother.

+: web / imdb / wikipedia

cultfilms:

the story of venezuelan revolutionary ilich ramírez sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 opec meeting.

dir.: olivier assayas
biography / crime / drama
2010

edgar ramírez as ílich ramírez sánchez (aka ‘carlos the jackal’)
alexander scheer as johannes weinrich
nora von waldstätten as magdalena kopp
ahmad kaabour as wadie haddad
christoph bach as hans-joachim klein ‘angie’
julia hummer as gabriele kröcher-tiedemann ‘nada’

some facts:
- it is a 3-part french television drama mini-series, first broadcast on canal+ in 2010. the 5½ hour version of carlos was screened out of competition at the 2010 cannes film festival on may 19, 2010.
- carlos is never once referred to as ‘the jackal’ in the entire five-and-a-half hour running time. 
- in “carlos”, édgar ramírez plays the titular character, carlos the jackal. in the movie, the bourne ultimatum, ramírez plays an assassin trying to kill the titular character, jason bourne. in the jason bourne book series, of which the movie series is based on, jason bourne’s nemesis is none other than carlos the jackal. 
- carlos the jackal, the infamous terrorist and murderer. after several bungled bombings, he achieves notoriety for a 1975 raid on opec headquarters in vienna, resulting in the deaths of 3 people. for many years he was among the most wanted international fugitives.
- initially, assayas planned to use several songs by the feelies on the soundtrack but shortly before post-production was completed he was informed that members of the band did not want their music associated with terrorism. the director remembers, “we ended up managing to keep one song for a scene that did not involve any kind of terroristic activity. but i had to completely reinvent the whole score”. he ended up using several songs by wire. the soundtrack includes:

- loveless love by the feelies
- dreams never end by new order
- terebellum by fripp & eno
- all night party by a certain ratio
- ahead by wire
- forces at work by the feelies
- sonic reducer by the dead boys
- dot dash by wire
- drill by wire
- the 15th by wire
- sharing by satisfaction
- pure by the lightning seeds
- la pistola y el corazon by los lobos
- el sueño americano by la portuaria

+: imdb / wikipedia

+: learnsomethingeveryday

cultfilms:

a friendship between two twenty-something men is tested to its very limits when they go on a hike in a desert and forget to bring any water or food with them.

dir.: gus van sant
adventure / drama / mystery
2002

casey affleck / matt damon

facts:

- it is the first film of van sant’s “death trilogy”, three films based on deaths that occurred in real life, and is succeeded by elephant and last days.
- the film opens without any company credits, no actor or director credits, and not even the title of the movie, except for the miramax films logo in non-theatrical prints.
- this film runs for about 100 minutes, and features exactly 100 shots, resulting in an average shot length of about 60 seconds.
- the plot of the film shares some commonalities with the events surrounding the death of david coughlin.
- it was shot in a semi-improvised style with a small crew in argentina, death valley, and the utah salt flats.
- is dedicated to the memory of ken kesey, author of one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

+: imdb
+: david coughlin

cultfilms:

a man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.

dir.: alex proyas
mystery / sci-fi / thriller
1998

rufus sewell as john murdoch
william hurt as inspector frank bumstead
kiefer sutherland as dr. daniel p. schreber
jennifer connelly as emma murdoch / anna 
richard o’brien as mr. hand

some facts:

- new line cinema forced alex proyas to include the opening narration by kiefer sutherland, which proyas objected to, saying it was unnecessary. the narration gives away several key plot twists and consequently many fans of the film prefer to watch it with the sound turned off during the narration until sutherland looks at his pocket watch. unsurprisingly, the director’s cut omits this opening narration.
- there were many deliberate anachronisms to give the viewer a feeling of confusion of the time of the film.
- has one of the shortest average shot lengths (asl) of any modern narrative production at 1.8 seconds. this means there is a cut almost every 2 seconds.
- alex proyas wrote the part of mr. hand especially for richard o’brien.
- an earlier draft of the script had dr. schreber (kiefer sutherland) being skinned alive during the finale.
- inspector bumstead is playing on his accordion in his very first scene in the movie is a soviet wwii era song “siniy platochek” (“blue scarf”).
- the main character, john murdoch, shares the name, and the quest, of a scottish liberal in the 1870s and 1880s. the scottish murdoch led a major campaign for scottish farmers to own their own land.
- the name of kiefer sutherland’s character, daniel schreber, is the same as that of a man who wrote a book titled “memoirs of my nervous illness” during the heights of a period in which he was institutionalized for schizophrenia. the book has become a standard reading for many psychiatrists and psychologists, and many of the theories of both sigmund freud and carl gustav jung were based on it (freud never actually met schreber, though). “dark city” borrows heavily from the concept of “fleetingly-improvised men” which are found within schreber’s “memoirs”.
- roger ebert called this movie the best film of 1998. he recorded a special audio commentary track for the dvd release of the movie.
- alex proyas got the idea for the buildings changing and growing while the crew was moving pieces of the set around during filming of the crow.
- mr. sleep is played by twins, a girl (satya gumbert) and her brother (noah gumbert). both were fond of the rocky horror picture show, and they (and the rest of the cast and crew) were frequently entertained by richard o’brien, who played mr. hand in this film and riff raff in “rocky horror”, with recitations from that film.
melissa george’s movie debut.
- all of the fish in neptune’s kingdom are oscars.
- this film deals with ‘last thursdayism’, a philosophy described in a satiric comment by 20th-century historian bertrand russell, referring to the “omphalos” papers (1857) of philip gosse. last thursdayism says that the world (with us and our own basic memories included) could have been created recently, even last thursday, but we cannot demonstrate such a thing because the world would have been created to look like an older world.

+: imdb

cultfilms:

the true story of the death of innocence and the birth of an artist.
film adaptation of street tough jim carroll’s epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

biography / crime / drama
director: scott kalvert
1995

leonardo dicaprio as jim carroll
mark wahlberg as mickey
lorraine bracco as jim’s mother
james madio as pedro
ernie hudson as reggie
bruno kirby as swifty
juliette lewis as diane moody

some facts:

- after being nominated for an oscar for running on empty (1988), mtv asked river phoenix what he wanted to do next. he responded by pulling out a beat up paperback of “the basketball diaries” and stated “i wanted to play jim carroll.” later, the los angeles times declared, “river phoenix may have wanted it too much.” leonardo dicaprio was a fan of phoenix’s.
- many links to the sopranos - lorraine bracco (dr melfi) plays jim’s mom. michael imperioli (christopher moltisanti) plays the friend who dies of leukemia. vincent pastore (big pussy) is the guy that gets spat on whilst on the ferry.
- stephen lang was offered the role of jim’s basketball coach named swifty in the script. lang declined citing the misrepresentation of the book in the script. the part was subsequently toned down as a result.

+: imdb
+: jim carroll (wikipedia)

cultfilms:

a woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small colorado town. in exchange, she agrees to work for them. as a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price. yet her dangerous secret is never far away…

drama / mistery / thriller
director: lars von trier
2003

nicole kidman as grace margaret mulligan
paul bettany as tom edison

some facts:

- was a critics’ favorite to win at the 2003 cannes film festival, but received no prizes.
- a 15-minute pilot film was made in the pre-production phase to test whether the concept of chalk lines and spare scenery would work. the pilot starred danish actors sidse babett knudsen and nikolaj lie kaas. dogville: the pilot (2003) is featured on the 2nd disc of the dogville (2003) dvd, released in november of 2003.
- the famed introductory scene of dogville seen from above was in fact generated by a computer from 156 individual shots. the ceiling of the filming studio was actually not tall enough to make one single, wide shot from above possible.
- nicole kidman is said to have communicated very little with the rest of the team, apart from practical issues. however, she did invite the team for champagne and caviar and flew in mexican chefs to cook for everyone.
- the pictures shown in the end credits are from jacob holdt’s book/documentary american pictures (1984)
- when nicole kidman went to sweden to shoot this movie, it was the 1st time in 15 years that she had flown on a public plane.
- jeremy davies originally intended to be von trier’s apprentice, not to act in the film. he wrote a letter to the director stating that he plans on being a filmmaker and wanted to learn from him. von trier invited him to the set, mentored davies, and gave him a small role in the film.
- inscribed on the entrance to the old mineshaft is the latin motto “dictum ac factum”, which can be translated as “no sooner said than done”.
- paul bettany didn’t want to play tom edison because they were shooting it in sweden. then his friend stellan skarsgård said that lars von trier’s shoots are so funny that “you’ll miss something extraordinary if you turn the part down”. after shooting half the movie bettany asked skarsgård when the fun will start, which skarsgård replied: “i lied. i did it because he is amazing to work with, and you wouldn’t be able to see that before you were actually here yourself. i wanted to give you a chance, and you wouldn’t have shown up if i had been frank with you”

+: imdb

earth is the only planet not named after a god.

the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off japan’s east coast today, causing a tsunami to crash ashore, is the most recent strong quake to affect a country that sits on the ring of fire arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the pacific basin.

some key facts about japan’s history of earthquakes include:

- japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
- a tremor occurs in japan at least every 5 minutes, and each year there are up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt by people.
- the tokyo-yokohama metropolis, with a population of 35 million, has the highest “at risk” rating from natural disasters such as earthquakes of any of the world’s 30 “megacities”, the report said.
- tokyo, with a population of 12 million, sits on the junction of 4 tectonic plates: the eurasian, north american, philippine and pacific. the sudden bending or breaking of any plate can trigger an earthquake.

+: read more here and here

in the joy division song “warsaw”, the repetitive 31g stands for the prison war number 31g-350125, assigned to rudolf hess after his imprisonment during world war ii. that’s why the song begins with 3-5-0-1-2-5.

on the eve of war with the soviet union, he flew solo to scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the united kingdom, but instead was arrested. he was tried at nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison at spandau prison, berlin, where he died in 1987.

—-

acting as hitler’s private secretary, he transcribed and partially edited hitler’s book mein kampf. eventually, hess became the 3rd-most powerful man in germany, behind hitler and hermann göring. 

like goebbels, hess was privately distressed by the war with the uk because he, like almost all other nazis, hoped that britain would accept germany as an ally. hess may have hoped to score a diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the third reich and britain, e.g., by implementing the behind-the-scenes move of the haushofers in nazi germany to contact douglas douglas-hamilton, 14th duke of hamilton.

on 10 may 1941, at about 6:00 p.m., hess took off from augsburg in a messerschmitt bf 110, and hitler ordered the general of the fighter arm to stop him (squadron leaders were ordered to scramble only 1 or 2 fighters, since hess’ particular aircraft could not be distinguished from others). hess parachuted over renfrewshire, scotland that day and landed (breaking his ankle) at floors farm neareaglesham. in a newsreel clip, farmhand david mclean claims to have arrested hess with his pitchfork.

it appears that hess believed the duke of hamilton to be an opponent of winston churchill, whom he held responsible for the outbreak of the war. his proposal of peace included returning all the western european countries conquered by germany to their own national governments, but german police would remain in position. germany would also pay back the cost of rebuilding these countries. in return, britain would have to support the war against the soviet union.

british intelligence personnel, ian flemming in particular, proposed that aleister crowley should question hess on nazi interest in the occult. hitler stripped hess of all of his party and state offices, and privately ordered him shot on sight if he ever returned to germany.

hess was considered to be the most mentally unstable of all the defendants. he would be seen talking to himself in court, counting on his fingers, laughing for no obvious reason. such behaviour was a source of great annoyance to göring, who made clear his desire to be seated apart from him. the request was denied.

on 17 august 1987, hess died while under four power imprisonment at spandau prison in west berlin, at the age of 93. he was found in a summer house in a garden located in a secure area of the prison with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. his death was ruled a suicide by self-asphyxiation.

+: wikipedia

it would take more than 2.5 minutes to fall from the top of mt. everest

facts about poop

+: click en la foto (zoom)

it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

..hoy estuve 5 horas en cola escuchando el ipod. asco