Last Days
Short description
Last Days is a fictional drama centred on Blake, a rock musician who has withdrawn to a large, neglected house in the woods. Burdened by fame and a growing sense of isolation, he drifts through the property, avoiding the friends and housemates who share it with him and the industry people, hangers-on and a private detective who come looking for him. Those close to him seek money, favours or simply his attention, and his mother appeals to him to leave with her, but he keeps his distance. The story is inspired by the final period of Kurt Cobain's life, though the character and events are invented.
Gus Van Sant directed and wrote the film and also edited it, working from a story of his own. It was his ninth feature as director, following Elephant in 2003 and preceding his segment of Paris, Je T'aime in 2006. Michael Pitt plays Blake, with Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Patrick Green, Nicole Vicius and Ricky Jay among the cast of twenty credited performers. Dany Wolf produced.
The film was made for about 5 million dollars and took roughly 2 million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 5.7 out of 10 from about 25,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.6 out of 10 from 429 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2 out of 10 from 119 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Once, by chance, a traveling salesman named Tadías A. Thomas wandered onto the set and offered something for sale to those present. He made such an impression on director Gus Van Sant that he immediately offered Thomas a role in the film.
- Gus Van Sant intended to make a biopic about the life of Kurt Cobain (1967-1994) as early as the mid-1990s, but was prevented from doing so by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. Van Sant met with her to discuss the future film and her possible involvement in the shooting. Van Sant and Love became friends, the discussion of the future film dragged on for years, and Van Sant eventually realized that Love was not in a state of mind to think about films or even allow anyone to make a biopic about Cobain, so Van Sant reworked his ideas about the film into the story of a fictional musician.
- Kurt Cobain was left-handed. In the film "Last Days," the main character writes with his left hand but plays a right-handed guitar.
- Seven years before filming began, it was planned to cast a 14-year-old teenager from Denmark in the lead role. He didn't speak English, but Van Sant still didn't plan for the lead actor to have any lines. Then Van Sant met 17-year-old Michael Pitt, changed his mind, and cast him in the lead role.
- The moving shot, where the camera slowly pulls back from the window showing Blake, was filmed in three takes. The crew only had three sections of track, and the camera moved backward, so the crew members had to remove the track from the front and re-install it behind.
- The character Blake is based on Kurt Cobain, however, director Gus Van Sant and actress Asia Argento unanimously deny that she played Courtney Love, Cobain's widow.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
