Tag: Film

Sleepless in Seattle

LUKE: Then what the hell you doing here, Jess? You know, I, uh, I called you six times. Now I didn’t expect you to call me back so we could sit on the phone in bed and watch Sleepless in Seattle together.

Sleepless in Seattle, 1993 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Nora Ephron, and inspired by the 1957 romance film An Affair to Remember. It stars Meg Ryan as a newly engaged journalist whose heart is touched by a recently widowed architect, played by Tom Hanks, after his young son calls a radio talk show on his father’s behalf.

Sleepless in Seattle received positive reviews, and was a sleeper success at the box office, becoming the #8 film of the year. It is widely considered a classic romantic comedy, and one of the best films of the 1990s. It is credited with popularising the Italian dessert tiramisu in the US.

Brad and Jen

LORELAI: So, guess who’s in the process of breaking up?

RORY: Brad and Jen?

Actor Brad Pitt, previously discussed, and his first wife, actress Jennifer Aniston (born 1969), who rose to fame starring as Rachel Green on the sitcom Friends (1994-2004), and is often considered one of the world’s most beautiful women.

The couple began dating in 1998, and were married in 2000. Their relationship was highly publicised, and their marriage often considered a rare success in Hollywood, but they did actually divorce in 2005, a few years after this episode aired.

“Tunneling out of here with a spoon”

LORELAI: Aw, look at you, trying to make Mommy feel like you don’t spend every night tunneling out of here with a spoon.

Lorelai references Escape from Alcatraz, 1979 prison thriller film directed by Don Spiegel. It’s an adaptation of the 1963 non-fiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce, and dramatises the 1962 prisoner escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island, off the shore of San Francisco.

The film stars Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris, an extremely intelligent criminal who forms an escape plan with a few other prisoners. Over the next few months, they dig through their cell walls with spoons, make papier-mache dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats. The film implies the escape was successful, although that is not certain (recent evidence seems to suggest the men did survive).

Escape from Alcatraz was a commercial success and well received by critics. It is often considered one of the best films of 1979.

Brigadoon

CHRISTOPHER: Please, I saw what your face was doing … It was counting up how many Brigadoon references you could come up with to torture him with at a later date.

Brigadoon, a 1954 musical film directed by Vicente Minelli, based on the 1949 Broadway musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The film stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse and is about two American tourists on a hunting trip in Scotland who get lost in the woods and discover a miraculous village named Brigadoon, which rises out of the mists for one day every hundred years.

The film received lacklustre reviews and failed at the box office – unlike the stage musical, which was a big success.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

RORY: I guess the thought of just being nice to people never occurred to you, huh?

PARIS: See, that is exactly what I need from you, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm for the new millennium. Hey, wear some braids tomorrow with bows. I mean, hell, let’s sell it, sister!

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, a 1903 classic children’s book by Kate Douglas Wiggin. The main character is Rebecca Rowena Randall, an imaginative and charming little girl from a poor family, sent to live with her aunts, Miranda and Jane Sawyer, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Miranda is stern with Rebecca, while Jane is kindly and finds Rebecca’s lively nature refreshing. However, Aunt Miranda will eventually prove how much she values Rebecca.

Like Rory, Rebecca is a brunette from a small town, and eventually becomes a very good student, especially in English, as well as talented writer.

The book was turned into a stage play, and was made into a film three times, most notably in 1938, starring Shirley Temple. However, Paris seems to be describing the book rather than a film, as the films don’t show Rebecca with the braids and bows of the book, preferring curly-headed heroines.

“You look like little birds help you get dressed in the morning”

PARIS: Because people think you’re nice. You’re quiet, you say excuse me, you look like little birds help you get dressed in the morning. People don’t fear you.

A reference to Cinderella, previously discussed. In the 1950s film, Cinderella makes friends with birds and mice to cheer her lonely existence, and the birds are shown helping her get dressed, and even make a ballgown for her, with the help of the mice.

Six months ago, Rory was a friendless loser who couldn’t even get anyone to eat lunch with her, and Chilton was actually disturbed by how unpopular she was. Suddenly, everyone likes her so much that she can help Paris win the election just by existing. What happened?

“Yin to my yang, Joel to my Ethan, Damon to my Affleck”

PARIS: So, I have been racking my brains for weeks trying to figure out exactly who should be my vice presidential candidate, you know? Who would be Yin to my Yang, Joel to my Ethan, Damon to my Affleck, and then suddenly, it hits me – the perfect person … You.

Yin and Yang

An ancient Chinese philosophical concept of harmonising opposites, where Yin is passive and feminine, and Yang is active and masculine, but each force is equal, interdependent, and complementary. Note that Paris designates herself as the active Yang principle!

Joel and Ethan

Joel Coen (born 1954) and Ethan Coen (born 1957), filmmakers. The films of the Coen Brothers span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Their most acclaimed works include Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

Damon and Afflleck

Matthew “Matt” Damon (born 1970), and Ben Affleck (born Benjamin Affleck-Boldt in 1972), actors and filmmakers. They wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, directed by Gus Van Sant, in which they also starred. They won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. They later played parody versions of themselves in the film in the 2001 comedy film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, directed by Kevin Smith. [Picture shows Affleck and Damon in Good Will Hunting].

Paris only now chooses Rory as her running mate, with the election mere days away. Shouldn’t she have chosen a vice-presidential candidate ages ago?

The Farrelly Brothers

LOUISE: We talked to people that we should never have even had to stand near.

MADELINE: The hairstyles alone proved the Farrelly brothers are not making this stuff up.

Brothers Peter Farrelly (born 1956) and Bobby Farrelly (born 1968), screenwriters and directors. Their films make frequent use of slapstick and toilet humour, often populated by blunt-spoken, profane working-class characters in small roles.

Their debut film was Dumb and Dumber (1994), in which both lead characters, played by Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, have spectacularly bad hairstyles. (Carrey later starred in the 2000 Farrelly Brothers’ film Me, Myself and Irene as well).

The Farrelly Brothers have two films in which characters accidentally use semen as hair gel, There’s Something About Mary (1998), and Say It Isn’t So (2001) – previously discussed as one of the potential “disgusting cow” films of that year. Madeline could be referring to either or both of these hair-related things in Farrelly Brothers films.