Last Days (film)
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| Last Days | |
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| Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
| Produced by | Dany Wolf Gus Van Sant |
| Written by | Gus Van Sant |
| Starring | Michael Pitt Lukas Haas Asia Argento Scott Green Nicole Vicius Kim Gordon Harmony Korine |
| Distributed by | Newco, Fine Line Features |
| Release date(s) | 22 July 2005 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Last Days (2005) is a film by director Gus Van Sant, and is a fictionalized account of the last days of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005, and was produced by HBO. The film stars Michael Pitt as the character Blake, based on Kurt Cobain. Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, and Thadeus A. Thomas (real-life Yellow Book salesman) also star in the film. Author and friend of Van Sant's, Harmony Korine, appears in a brief club scene as well, playing a character similar to one in the movie Kids.
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[edit] Background
Van Sant said he thought about the project for nearly a decade. At one stage, he wanted to do a Cobain biopic, but decided against the idea out of fear of being sued by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. He was not sure how Cobain's fans and family would react to the film. He spoke to Love several times over the years about his project and recently expressed his concern that it may be painful for her to see the film. Actress Asia Argento, who plays a dead-beat character in the film, stated, "It's been written that I play Courtney Love, and it's not true. I'm so upset. I don't know why people say that. I feel very sorry for her. She's been demonised and I feel sorry for anybody that's lost like that. But no, I play a character that's very dorky." [1]
Last Days was nominated at the Independent Film Spirit awards for Best Cinematography.
[edit] Plot
The plot follows Blake, an alienated and disenchanted rock star who has escaped his turbulent life to stay at a secluded cabin in the woods with his friend. He eludes a private detective looking for him and ignores his ex-wife`s demands that he come home. Blake spends much of the film walking around, muttering to himself. He sometimes wears a dress and plays music (including a particularly haunting scene in which he plays "Death to Birth", a song written by Michael Pitt himself). At one point, he goes out to a secluded rock club, then returns home, where he dies by gunshot. His friends and associates flee to avoid suspicion. The ending is ambiguous. The film alludes to the possibility that Blake killed himself, but there is also a shot in which we see a mysterious figure in red wandering around in the greenhouse Blake is killed in before and after his death.
[edit] Relation to other Van Sant films
Last Days is the third, and supposedly final installment, in what Van Sant has frequently called his "Death Trilogy", which began with Gerry and continued with Elephant. The most obvious similar trait in this trilogy of unrelated plots is that the dialogue and narration are minimal, and not linearly connected. The technique is especially similar to Elephant, where scenes are revisited from new angles, starting at differing points in time, without a signal that the clock was turned back at some point. As in Gerry, the camera's attention is frequently diverted from the drama, by attachment to some situational detail. All three films are resistant to easy explanation, but they share the theme of (among other things) extreme isolation (physical in Gerry, social in Elephant, and mental in Last Days).
[edit] Music
Last Days also features two original compositions by lead actor Michael Pitt, an acoustic song entitled "Death to Birth", an electric jam called "That Day", as well as another piece, "Untitled", by fellow actor Lukas Haas. The character of Scott listens to "Venus in Furs" by the Velvet Underground in the living room scene. Pitt's character is shown writing with his left hand but playing guitar right-handed, in contrast to left-handed Cobain's playing style and right handed writing.
[edit] Filming Location
The film was shot in the Hudson Valley region of New York state, although its aesthetic style, due largely in part to cinematographer Harris Savides' specialized treatment of the film stock, suggests the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, where both Cobain and Van Sant find their roots.
| Movies of Gus Van Sant |
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| Mala Noche • Five Ways to Kill Yourself • My New Friend • Ken Death Gets Out of Jail • Drugstore Cowboy • Fame '90 • Thanksgiving Prayer • My Own Private Idaho • Under The Bridge • Even Cowgirls Get the Blues • To Die For • Four Boys in a Volvo • Good Will Hunting • Ballad of the Skeletons • Psycho • Finding Forrester • Gerry • Elephant • Last Days • Paranoid Park |
