cult films

“die or shup up”

dir.: bruce mcdonald
horror / mystery / suspense
2008 

stephen mchattie / lisa houle / georgina reilly

facts:
- the original conceptualization for the movie was to have tony burgess, the writer, read the script with the wavering line being the only visual. sydney’s voice would be heard and laurel-ann would only get a mention.
- pontypool was produced as both a motion picture, and as a radio play. both versions were influenced by orson welles’ infamous radio production of the war of the worlds. the radio play was broadcast on the bbc’s art & culture section of their world service website. it is approximately 58 minutes long, as opposed to the film’s running time of 95 minutes.
- one scene features neal stephenson’s novel snow crash, a book featuring an ear worm or memetic virus that transfers itself through verbal information.

+: imdb

do you really want to provide a genocide with elevator music?

a documentary on the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians: the edge, jimmy page and jack white.

dir.: davis guggenheim
music / documentary
2008

jimmy page
the edge
jack white

fact:

- all 3 participants have featured in music from a james bond opening credits. jimmy page reveals that he played on goldfinger whilst the edge and jack white contributed title tracks to goldeneye and quantum of solace respectively.

+: imdb
+: hoy en centro cultural chacao 7.30pm - caracas, venezuela (facebook)

a semi-biographical account of yip man, the first martial arts master to teach the chinese martial art of wing chun.

the film focuses on yip’s life during the 1930s to the 1940s during the 2nd sino-japanese war. the film is the first to be based on the life of yip. the sequel to the film focuses on yip’s beginnings in hong kong and his disciples, which includes bruce lee.

dir.: wilson yip
action / drama / biography / history
2008

donnie yen as ip man

some facts: 

- another film based on yip man’s biography, ”the legend is born - ip man”, was released in june 2010. the film was directed by herman yau and starred dennis to as yip man. ip chun makes a special appearance in the film as leung bik.

- with the recent surge of yip man-related film projects coming up in the pipeline, donnie yen has told the chinese media that after ip man 2, he will no longer play the wing chun master anymore, stating “i would never ever touch any films related to ip man. this will be my final film (ip man 2) on the subject. whenever something becomes a success, everyone would jump on the bandwagon, this is very frightening. did you know how many ip man films are in production? under such condition, we would not progress, it’d only lead to over-saturation of the subject matter.”

+: imdb
+: wikipedia

life isn’t measured in minutes, but in moments

tells the story of benjamin button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences.

dir.: david fincher
drama / fantasy / mystery / romance
2008

facts:
- early development of the film began in 1994.
- it took 5 hours each day to complete the make-up required for the role of benjamin button.
- david fincher’s first pg-13 rated film.
- principal photography was targeted to last a total of 150 days, excluding the time it would take to create the visual effects for the metamorphosis of brad pitt’s character to the infant stage.
- the short story based on a remark by author mark twain, who famously remarked that ‘the best part of life was from the beginning and the worst part was the end’
- the hummingbird is the only bird in the world that can fly backwards. all hurricanes spin counter-clockwise. these, among other “backward” motifs involving clocks and so on, tie in with the major thematic elements related to benjamin button living life in reverse.

intelligence is relative.
a disk containing the memoirs of a cia agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

dir.: ethan coen & joel coen
comedy / crime / drama
2008
brad pitt / george clooney / john malkovich

facts:
- the opening film of the 2008 venice film festival.
- excluding the end credits’ song, the word fuck and it’s derivatives is used 62 times, mostly by osborne cox and harry pfarrer. 
- the building that was turned into the hardbodies gym in the film was found in paramus, new jersey. the crew did such a good job with it that locals came in to inquire about membership.
- when harry goes to stay at katie cox’s house after she broke up with osbourne, he brings along a purple “ramp”, a sex tool from the liberator line. amazon link
- the coen brothers said they wrote the screenplay for this film while writing the screenplay for no country for old men (2007). they would usually alternate every other day for each script.
- one of the three films have been dubbed the “trilogy of idiots” by the brothers. the other two being o brother, where art thou? (2000) and intolerable cruelty (2003)

a high school teacher’s unusual experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own

drama / thriller 
dir.: dennis gansel
2008

jürgen vogel as rainer wenger
frederick lau as tim stoltefuss
jennifer ulrich as karo
max riemelt as marco
christiane paul as anke wenger 

some facts:

- based on the novel “the wave” by todd strasser (under the pen name morton rhue) a fictionalized account of the “third wave” teaching experiment by ron jones that took place in a cubberley high school history class in palo alto, california in april 1967.
- ron jones, the initiator of the original experiment, attended the film’s world premiere at sundance film festival.

+: the third wave experiment (wikipedia)

fascism is still possible and alive.