July 2011
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“Mildew is good for you. It’s the next best thing to fresh lettuce. Be...”
– 2nd Lieutenant, ‘Das Boot’, 1981
June 2011
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'The Great Muppet Caper', 1981
Miss Piggy’s underwater musical number was the most difficult scene to shoot, mostly because of communication problems. Lighting, cameramen, cameras, speakers and monitors were all underwater. There were also 18 professional swimmers who had to dive into the pool at the same moment.
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Film Index #047
‘Saturday Night Fever’, 1977
Starring John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney and Barry Miller
Written by Norman Wexler and Nik Cohn
Directed by John Badham
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“Don’t be so technical, Miss Stevenson. Was America on Columbus’ map?”
– Mr. Wallace, ‘My Sister Eileen’, 1955
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'Elizabeth', 1998
Producer Alison Owen’s two children appear in the film, one of them being famous pop singer, Lily Allen.
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Cinematically Speaking
That Novemberist: If you could open your own bar, what would you call it?
This Novemberist: The Best Beers of Our Lives.
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“Your hands ain’t so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn’t get...”
– Tom Powers, ‘The Public Enemy’, 1931
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“You guys are the only friends I ever had.”
– Richard, ‘The Pagemaster’, 1994
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'The 300 Spartans', 1962
Comic artist Frank Miller saw this film as a boy and said that ‘it changed the course of [his] creative life.’ His graphic novel, ‘300’, about the Battle of Thermopylae, was the basis for the 2007 film.
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'Chicago', 2002
Renée Zellweger had no singing or dancing training prior to this film.
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Film Index #045
’The Dark Mirror’, 1946
Starring Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres and Thomas Mitchell
Written by Nunnally Johnson and Vladimir Pozner
Directed by Robert Siodmak
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“I’m sorry, but I’ve waited all my life to find someone I love as...”
– Michael Felgate, ‘Mickey Blue Eyes’, 1999
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'The Godfather', 1972
A promotional board game titled ‘The Godfather Game’ was released in 1971.
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5 tags
Cinematically Speaking
That Novemberist: If you could open up your own butcher shop, what would you call it?
This Novemberist: I am Ham.
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'The Wind', 1928
The wind in this film was created by the propellers of eight aircraft stationed on location in the Mojave Desert.
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Film Index #044
’Michael Clayton’, 2007
Starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson
Written by Tony Gilroy
Directed by Tony Gilroy
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'The New World', 2005
Director Terrence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki devised a set of photography rules that were to be used during filming. Most importantly, there was to be no artificial light used at any time during production, only available light. To increase the light available in interior shots, candles were cast with four wicks each.
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“If he dies, all that is life to me dies with him.”
– Ivy Walker, ‘The Village’, 2004
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'Sophie's Choice', 1982
Meryl Streep literally begged director Alan J Pakula for this role on her hands and knees.
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“Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we could...”
– Karen Blixen, ‘Out of Africa’, 1985
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Film Index #043
‘Kramer vs Kramer’, 1979
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Justin Henry
Written by Robert Benton and Avery Corman
Directed by Robert Benton
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'Advise and Consent', 1962
Director Otto Preminger offered the role of a Southern senator to Martin Luther King Jr, believing that the casting could have a positive impact despite the fact that there were no black senators at that time. King declined after serious consideration, as he felt that playing the role could cause hostility and hurt the civil rights movement.
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“I don’t want to upset you too much, but at the moment, you have an...”
– Barney Greenwald, ‘The Caine Mutiny’, 1954
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'Star Trek', 2009
Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science professor (and ‘Star Trek’ fan) who gained widespread fame as the author of a ‘Last Lecture’ in which he discussed living the life of his dreams in the face of terminal pancreatic cancer, was invited by J J Abrams to appear as an extra in this film. Pausch died on July 25, 2008. His paycheck of $217.06 from working on the...
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Cinematically Speaking
That Novemberist: If you could open your own purse store, what would you call it?
This Novemberist: Kramer Purses Kramer.
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Film Index #042
’The Diary of Anne Frank’, 1959
Starring Millie Perkins, Shelley Winters and Joseph Schildkraut
Written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Anne Frank
Directed by George Stevens
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“Forget it! I’m stayin’ right where I am. It’s gonna take you...”
– Norma Rae, ‘Norma Rae’, 1979 