cult films

this is not a love story. this is a story about love

dir.: marc webb
comedy / drama / romance
2009

joseph gordon-levitt as tom hansen
zooey deschanel as summer finn

some facts:

- the film’s blue-centric color scheme was done to bring out zooey deschanel’s eyes.
- stars zooey deschanel and joseph gordon-levitt have already worked together in the film manic (2001). 
- joseph gordon-levitt wears t-shirts for joy division’s “love will tear us apart” and “unknown pleasures”, and the clash’s “london calling” albums.
- one thing that both tom and summer have in common is their love for “bananafish.” this may be a reference to the band bananafish which gained national prominence for a brief period in the 80’s or it may refer to one of j.d. salinger’s “nine stories” (the first of the nine being “a perfect day for bananafish”). actress zooey deschanel who portrays summer is herself named after another story by j.d. salinger, “franny & zooey”.
- in the scene where tom first enters summer’s apartment, the camera focuses on a bowler hat with a green apple on top of it. this is a reference to the famous painting “the son of man” by rené magritte who is said earlier in the film to be one of summer’s favorite artists.
- the cover of morrissey’s debut album, ‘viva hate,’ can be seen in both tom and summer’s childhood rooms. 
- in summer’s apartment there’s a copy of cezanne’s famous “blue vase” which is an important part of cezanne’s influence to cubism.
- the film marks director marc webb’s first full length feature film. he has previously directed numerous music videos. 
- the smiths’ ‘louder than bombs’, the jesus & mary chain’s ‘psychocandy’ and public image ltd.’s ‘album’ can been seen in tom’s childhood room.
- the film is set in 2006-2007. (the narrator says at the end of the film that may 23 was a wednesday. the last time may 23 was a wednesday was 2007.) 
- around the time of the movie’s release, director marc webb shot a short video for the internet, which featured zooey deschanel as sid vicious and joseph gordon-levitt as nancy spungen, in reference to a conversation in this movie. 
- zooey deschanel chose her own song for the karaoke scene, the sugartown song. 
- the sounds from a game that tom’s friends are playing in two different scenes is from a version of “donkey kong” for the original game boy. 
- paul says “humjob” instead of “blowjob” to avoid an ‘r’ rating.
- the studio never intended to include the documentary about love in the film, even going so far as to tell the director to not bother filming it. the audience reaction during the first test screening convinced them otherwise. 
- ian reed kesler, who gets in a fight with tom at the bar, is credited as ‘douche’. 
* spoiler: the narrator states that tom meets summer on january 8th. since it is 500 days, tom lets go of summer (and meets autumn) on may 23rd of the next year.

+: imdb