cult films

“four interlocking tales that take place in a fading hotel on new year’s eve.”

dirs.: allison anders, alexandre rockwell, robert rodriguez & quentin tarantino
comedy
1995 

this movie features the collaborative directorial efforts of four new filmmakers, each of whom directs a segment of this comedy.

facts:
- the film was originally to be titled “five rooms,” with richard linklater contributing a segment; however, he withdrew before production began.
- the original idea for the film came from alexandre rockwell.
- the role of ted was originally written with steve buscemi in mind.
- quentin tarantino’s “a band apart” production logo at the beginning of the film shows tim roth’s “mr. orange” unzipping his character from reservoir dogs and becoming the bell hop character for four rooms.
- the video game being played by betty and her friends is rambo iii for the sega genesis, however some scenes show her playing “rambo” for the nintendo entertainment system.
- ted can be seen with the two cherries from the missing ingredient at the beginning of the misbehavers.
- before “the misbehavers” turn to the “porno” channel, they are watching the short film bedhead, also written and directed by robert rodriguez.- just before ted answers a call from the man in “the misbehavers”, a package of red apple cigarettes is visible near the switchboard. this fictitious brand of cigarettes features in other quentin tarantino films.
- robert rodriguez and antonio banderas shot their segment one week after wrapping up the filming of desperado.
- in the fourth room the alfred hitchcock presents episode they call “the man from rio (or reno)” is actually called “man from the south” (ep. #5.15) 1/3/1960.
- in the final segment, “the man from hollywood”, which last 21 minutes, the word “fuck” or a variant of it is said 193 times.
- the “one minute” chester asks ted to sit on the stool and listen to his proposal actually lasts one minute and twenty eight seconds of screen time.
- the reason bruce willis is not credited is because he violated sag rules for acting in this film for no money. he appeared for fun and as a favor to quentin tarantino, and acting for free violated sag rules. sag agreed not to sue willis if his name was not included in the credits. but his hairstylist does appear.
- the film continues until the credits are halfway over.
- madonna won the 1995 razzie award for worst supporting actress for her part in “the missing ingredient”.

+: wiki 

(Source: 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)

in a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

dir.: terry gilliam
mystery/sci-fi/thriller
1995
bruce willis / madeleine stowe / brad pitt 

facts:
- terry gilliam gave bruce willis a list of “willis acting clichés” not to be used during the film, including the “steely blue eyes look”.
- the army of the twelve monkeys is inspired by a passage in l. frank baum’s novel, “the magic of oz”, in which the nome king and kiki aru convince twelve monkeys they will have an endless supply of food if they become human soldiers for them.
- right after dr. leland goines gets off the phone with dr. railly, dr. peters can be seen handling a tray of seven vials filled with a golden liquid. twice in the movie, a passage of the bible’s book of the revelation is quoted referring to seven golden vials filled with god’s wrath.
- looking at the bodies in the aftermath of a fight bruce willis says, “all i see are dead people.” of course, “i see dead people” is the most famous line from 1999’s the sixth sense, which starred bruce willis.
- throughout the movie, actual monkeys appear on camera. from the “monkey and a roast beef sandwich” to zoo animals. some people suggest 12 different monkeys appear in the film.
- in the 24 hour hitchcock theater, katheryn transforms herself with a blonde wig. hitchcock had a notorious obsession with blonde actresses in his films.

police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, after a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi

dir.: david fincher
crime/drama/mystery/thriller
1995
brad pitt / morgan freeman / kevin spacey 

facts:
- the original script had a strange, dwarf-like woman as part of the forensics team, appearing in every one of the “cleanups” after a murder and hurling foul language and epithets at detectives somerset and mills.
- all the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7. the climactic delivery was scheduled for 7pm.
- at exactly 7 minutes into the film mills picks up the phone to be called over to the gluttony scene.- the word “fuck” and its derivatives are said a discernible 74 times throughout the movie, mostly by brad pitt as detective mills. 
- kevin spacey was cast two days before filming began.
- all of john doe’s books were real books, written for the film. they took two months to complete and cost $15,000. according to detective somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books.
- john doe, made his first appearance in the film, as the photographer taking pictures of detectives mills and somerset at the sloth crime scene. if you pause the film at 54:45, when mills was slapping the camera out of the photographer’s hand, you can clearly see that.

long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light. -se7en