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In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Soviet Armies closing in from the west and south. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man.
A thorough and unsympathetic look at ’s last days on a movie set, “Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days” winningly opens and closes the book on the star’s final chapter without the usual theatrics associated with the loss of a young talent. Anecdotes from the cast and crew that worked on “Something’s Got to Give,” intended to be her big return to 20th Century Fox in 1962, are almost universally filtered through a sense of their professional loss, how Monroe’s cocktails of sleeping pills ‘n’ champagne and broken affairs constantly put the production in peril.
History has been overly kind to Monroe, and “The Final Days” displays her physical beauty as much as it gets into the heads of those around her in Hollywood. Biggest treat is the 37-minute version of “Something,” cobbled-together from 500 minutes of film. (Pic was a remake of the 1940 romantic comedy “My Favorite Wife” that starred Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.) Dean Martin stars as the father of two who gets a judge to declare his wife (Monroe) legally dead after she has been missing for five years, lost at sea in a yachting accident.That action granted, he marries Cyd Charisse — and Monroe walks back into their life after being rescued from a deserted island by a submarine crew. Scene involving Charisse and Steve Allen, as her psychiatrist, discussing sex are the funniest; most famous are Monroe’s oft-seen skinny-dipping segment, now extended to reveal more dorsal nudity than in previous airings.“The Final Days” traces the evolution of “Something’s Got to Give,” from Fox brass getting the idea for the remake up through its days over budget and over schedule. Intriguingly, “Something” was being shot simultaneously with “Cleopatra,” and collectively the two were nearly bankrupting the studio (though eyes were only occasionally cast toward “Something’s” troubles).There is a bounty of rare footage and luminous stories about Monroe, who would have turned 75 years old today. It’s not a damning portrait, but one associate after another chips away at her iconic stature with talk of her flaws, most commonly her tardiness. It’s hard to tell if she was loved or tolerated, and theories concerning her ways with powerful men exposes her mental and emotional constitution in a way that hasn’t been discussed that much before.
Marilyn Monroe: The Final DaysAMC, Fri., June 1; 8 p.m. Production:Filmed in various locations by Prometheus Entertainment in association with Van Ness Films, Foxstar Prods., Fox Television Studios and American Movie Classics. Executive producers, Kevin Burns, David Sehring; supervising producer, Michael Stevens, producer and director, Patti Ivins; writer, Monica Bider; editor, Tori Rodman. 2 HOURS.Something's Got to Give: The RestorationProduced by Henry Weinstein; director, George Cukor; writers, Nunally Johnson, Walter Bernstein, based on a screenplay by Bella and Sam Spewack. Crew:Something's Got to Give: The Restoration Director of photography, Franz Planer; editor, Tori Rodman; music, Johnny Mercer. Cast:Narrator: James Coburn.Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse, Wally Cox, Phil Silvers, Tom Tyron, Alexandra Heilweil, Robert Christopher Morley, John McGiver, Grady Sutton, Eloise Hardt. Music By.
Last Days | |
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Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
Produced by | Gus Van Sant Dany Wolf |
Written by | Gus Van Sant |
Starring |
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Music by | Rodrigo Lopresti Michael Pitt |
Cinematography | Harris Savides |
Edited by | Gus Van Sant |
Distributed by | Picturehouse Films |
| |
97 minutes[1] | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2.4 million[2] |
Last Days is a 2005 American drama film directed, produced and written by Gus Van Sant. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of a musician, loosely based on Kurt Cobain. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005 and was produced by HBO. The film stars Michael Pitt as the character Blake, based on Kurt Cobain. Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Patrick Green and Thadeus A. Thomas also star in the film. This is the first film from Picturehouse, a joint venture between Time Warner's New Line Cinema and HBO Films subsidiaries to release art house, independent, foreign, and documentary films. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Though meant to be based on Kurt Cobain, it contradicts the factual evidence of Cobain's final days.
Plot[edit]
A young musician named Blake sneaks out of a rehab clinic and walks home through a forest, also swimming through a lake then lighting a fire for the night. The next day, he gets home and changes his clothes. He walks around in the house with a shotgun pointing it at his sleeping roommates Scott, Luke, Asia, and Nicole. He is greeted by Yellow Pages representative Thadeus A Thomas who talks to him about placing an ad in the upcoming book. He receives a phone call from his record company telling him that he and his band have to do another tour and that it is important they make the booked dates, but Blake hangs up. He goes upstairs and falls asleep on the floor in one of the rooms. Asia awakes and finds him asleep as two boys arrive at the door. Scott and Luke answer the door and the two boys talk to them about their church down the street. Blake changes into different clothes and leaves the house for the shed outside as the Christian boys leave.
Scott, Luke, Asia, and Nicole leave and Blake goes back into the house. His friend Donovan and a private detective come to the house and Blake leaves as they look around the house for him. He waits for them to leave before he enters the house again. He messes with the guitars and drums putting them on loop with his vocals. He stops when his record executive (Kim Gordon) comes over and tries to have him leave with her but Blake refuses. Blake goes to a rock club that night where a friend of his comes up to him and tells him about how he went to a Grateful Dead concert. Blake leaves before his friend can finish telling the story. Blake goes back home where Scott takes some of his money and Luke asks help from Blake on a song.
Scott tells Luke that Donovan had a private detective with him and that they should leave. After Scott and Luke have sex with each other upstairs, Blake plays acoustic one last time before walking out to the shed where he sits quietly, watching his roommates leave. They spend the night at their friend's house, and awake the next morning to see the news announcing that Blake committed suicide and an electrician found his body. Scott, Luke, and Nicole get in a car and leave, driving down a highway while Luke plays the guitar in the back seat.
Cast[edit]
- Michael Pitt as Blake
- Lukas Haas as Luke
- Asia Argento as Asia
- Scott Patrick Green as Scott
- Nicole Vicius as Nicole
- Ricky Jay as Detective
- Ryan Orion as Donovan
- Harmony Korine as Guy in Club
- Rodrigo Lopresti as a member of the Band in Club
- Kim Gordon as Record executive
- Adam Friberg and Andy Friberg as Elders Friberg
- Thadeus A. Thomas as Yellow Pages salesman
Relation to other Van Sant films[edit]
Harmony Korine as Guy In Club
Last Days is the third and final installment in what Van Sant has frequently called his 'Death Trilogy', which began with Gerry (2002) and continued with Elephant (2003). The dialogue and narration in all three films are minimal, and scenes do not proceed linearly. As in Elephant, scenes are revisited from new angles, starting at differing points in time, without a signal to viewers that the clock has been turned back and a previous scene is being revisited. In a later film, Paranoid Park (2007), Van Sant uses the same technique. Also as in the other films, many of the actor's character names are the same as their actual first names.
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Production[edit]
Background[edit]
Van Sant has stated he had contemplated the project for nearly a decade.[citation needed] At one time, he wanted to do a biographical film about Cobain but decided against the idea out of concern over the potential of a lawsuit by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. Van Sant was unsure how Cobain's fans and family would react to Last Days; he spoke to Love several times over the years about his project and recently expressed his concern that it might be painful for her to see the film. Actress Asia Argento stated, 'It's been written that I play Courtney Love, and it's not true. I'm so upset. I don't know why people say that. I feel very sorry for her. She's been demonized and I feel sorry for anybody that's lost like that. But no, I play a character that's very dorky.'[3]
Music[edit]
Last Days features two original compositions by Michael Pitt: an acoustic song entitled 'Death to Birth' and an electric jam called 'Fetus'. Lukas Haas composed another piece, 'Untitled'. Rodrigo Lopresti composed 'Seen as None' and 'Pointless Ride'. The character Scott listens to 'Venus in Furs' by The Velvet Underground. Blake, in one scene, watches the music video for 'On Bended Knee' by Boyz II Men on television. 'Venus in Furs' contains the lyric '..on bended knee'. A soundscape piece called 'Doors of Perception' ('Türen der Wahrnehmung') was composed by Hildegard Westerkamp.
Filming[edit]
The film was shot in the Hudson Valley region of New York, which, due in part to cinematographer Harris Savides' specialized treatment of the film stock, suggests the Pacific Northwest, where Van Sant is from.[citation needed]
Reception[edit]
Last Days received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 57% based on reviews from 120 critics. The site's consensus says, 'While the minimalist style is not for all viewers, those who prefer experimentalism will find Last Days hypnotic.'[4] On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics.[5]
Leslie Felperin of Variety magazine wrote: 'Result is dead-on depiction of the hedonistic rock lifestyle, punctuated by sequences of haunting beauty but also quasi-religious imagery that borders on tacky.'[6]
Awards[edit]
The film was entered in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Technical Grand Prize.[7] It was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography, but failed to win any awards at the festival.
See also[edit]
![Days Days](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jaNgUAk9xcI/W3tgN-mNrHI/AAAAAAAAHto/eG7bm65Ty5AvQVylisIU5_xYwrmAhLzHwCHMYCw/s1600/RCO001.jpg)
References[edit]
- ^'LAST DAYS (15)'. British Board of Film Classification. June 17, 2005. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^Last Days at Box Office Mojo
- ^'Argento: 'I Don't Play Love''. Contact Music.
- ^'Last Days (2005)'. Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^'Last Days'. Metacritic.
- ^Leslie Felperin (May 13, 2005). 'Last Days'. Variety.
- ^'Festival de Cannes: Last Days'. festival-cannes.com. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
External links[edit]
![Final Final](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125731887/870703043.jpg)
- Last Days on IMDb
- Last Days at Box Office Mojo
- Last Days at Rotten Tomatoes
- Last Days at Metacritic
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Last_Days_(2005_film)&oldid=942424251'
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