Main Cast: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Melita Morgan
Release Year: 2007
Country: FR/UK/US/IE
Run Time: 112 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
When a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) living in Paris falls for a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) during a performance at a retirement home, the lovestruck pair retreats to a seaside castle in the Scottish highlands populated by a commune of reclusive impersonators. Earning a living can be a difficult endeavor in the City of Lights, and in order to make ends meet, one man has turned to mimicking the King of Pop. One day, while doing the moonwalk in an old folks home, Michael meets a beautiful Marilyn Monroe look-alike. When Marilyn suggests that Michael join her in traveling to the Scottish Highlands and move into a castle populated entirely by celebrity doppelgangers, the would-be gloved one readily accepts her invitation. Shortly after arriving at the castle, Michael and Marilyn find the commune preparing for their first-ever gala -- a lavish affair featuring appearances by Abe Lincoln, the Three Stooges, Buckwheat, Shirley Temple, Madonna, Sammy Davis Jr., and Charlie Chaplin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Anita Pallenberg - The Queen; Rachel Simon; Jason Pennycooke - Sammy Davis Jr.; Richard Strange - Abraham Lincoln; Michael-Joel Stuart; Esme Creed-Miles - Shirley Temple; Mal Whiteley; Daniel Rovai; Nigel Cooper; Joseph Morgan; Walid Afkir; Britta Gartner; Werner Herzog - Father Umbrillo; David Blaine; Leos Carax
Credit
Ann Carli - Associate Producer, Hengameh Panahi - Associate Producer, James Flynn - Associate Producer, Richard Mansell - Associate Producer, Sarah Crowe - Casting, Adam Bohling - Co-producer, David Reid - Co-producer, Judy Shrewsbury - Costume Designer, Harmony Korine - Director, Valdís Óskarsdóttir - Editor, Paul Zucker - Editor, Peter Watson - Executive Producer, Jo Allen - Hair Styles, Sun City Girls - Composer (Music Score), Jason Spaceman - Composer (Music Score), Liz Gallagher - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jo Allen - Makeup, Richard Campling - Production Designer, Marcel Zyskind - Cinematographer, Jeremy Thomas - Producer, Nadja Romain - Producer, Harmony Korine - Screenwriter, Avi Korine - Screenwriter
The story, according to Celluloid Dreams, is of "a young American man lost in Paris. He scratches out a living as a Michael Jackson look-alike, dancing on the streets, public parks, tourist spots and trade shows. Different from everyone else, he feels as if he's floating between two worlds. During a show in an old people's home Michael Jackson meets Marilyn Monroe. Haunted by her angelic beauty he follows her to a commune in the Highlands, joining her husband Charlie Chaplin and her daughter Shirley Temple. A place where everyone is famous and no-one gets old. Here, The Pope, The Queen of England, Madonna, James Dean and other impersonators build a stage in the hope that the world will visit and watch them perform. Nuns fall out of airplanes and children ride ponies. Everything is beautiful. Until the world shifts, and reality intrudes on their utopian dream."[1]
The idea for the film had its genesis after the release of Julien Donkey-Boy but drug use and general disillusionment (along with fund-raising difficulties) prolonged the process. In a February, 2007 interview with Screen International he said: "I'd been making movies since I was virtually a kid, and it had always come very easily. At a certain point after the last movie, I started to have this general disconnect from things. I was really miserable with where I was. I began to lose sight of things and people started to become more and more distant. I was burnt out, movies were what I always loved in life and I started to not care. I went deeper and deeper into a dark place and to be honest movies were the last thing I was thinking about - I didn't know if I was going to be alive. My dream was to evaporate. I was unhealthy. Whatever happened during that time, and I won't go into the details, maybe it was something I needed to go through."[2] In a 2003 interview with the New York Post, former girlfriend Chloe Sevigny revealed that the formerly straight edge Korine had become addicted to heroin and methadone while they were together, with Korine's substance abuse issues contributing to the end of their relationship.[3][4]
Richard Strange, who plays Abraham Lincoln in the movie claimed that Korine often changed scenes and lines as he filmed the movie.[5]
Korine's largest film to date with a budget of $8.2 million,[6] it earned $386,915 in its first 9 months[7] — $167,396 in the United States and $219,519 in other territories.[8]
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Art, writing, & photography
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