Gus Van Sant's Last Days (2005, sometimes just Last Days) 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 also star in the film. Director 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.
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 for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography, but failed to win any film festival awards.
Plot
The plot follows Blake, an alienated and disenchanted rock star who is escaping his turbulent life by isolating himself at his mansion. He eludes a private detective looking for him and ignores his ex-wife's demands that he should come home. Blake spends much of the film walking around, muttering to himself. He sometimes wears a dress and plays music. At one point, he goes out to a seedy rock club, then returns home, where he dies, presumably by suicide. His friends and associates flee to avoid suspicion.
Much like the real-life Kurt Cobain case, the ending is left ambiguous. A mysterious figure in red can be seen wandering around the greenhouse Blake dies in before and after he dies.
Cast
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. In Paranoid Park, a later film by Van Sant, the same technique is used. 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).
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. Rodrigo Lopresti composed "Seen as None," and "Pointless Ride." [1]
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