Synopsis In 2035, the Earth has become uninhabitable for humanity. A deadly virus has forced survivors to live beneath the surface to avoid extermination. To try to reverse things, scientists use prisoners for their experiments. One of them, James Cole ( Bruce Willis ), is designated to serve as voluntary guinea pig in an experiment aimed at the post in the past , in 1996. There must gather information about the virus that wiped out almost the entire population on earth.
He was first sent too far back and arrives in April 1990. Taken for a fool, he is interned in a psychiatric hospital , where he meets a psychiatrist, Dr. Kathryn Railly ( Madeleine Stowe ), and another internee, Jeffrey Goines ( Brad Pitt ), son of a scientist working on the virus. After being brought in "his" now and then, after a brief foray involuntary amid a battle of the First World War , he returned in 1996, just weeks before the outbreak of the epidemic that eliminated almost all the humanity.
Inspiration and references
The film follows a classic theme: a journey through time. It is partly an adaptation of the film La Jete by Chris Marker (1962). However, while the original development around the mental hospital rather recalls the novel by John Brunner , Quicksand ( West of the time ), 1967.
A passage near the end of the film shows the hero on the run who take refuge in a theater where plays Vertigo (Vertigo) of Alfred Hitchcock. We see a clip of the film where the characters played by James Stewart and Kim Novak are in the Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz in California. They evoke the passage of time before the cut of a redwood , actress showing "Here I was born ... and here I am dead. " The extract thus echoes of Hitchcock in time travel and destiny of the character played by Bruce Willis (see film containing a film ).
The passage is also a nod to The Pier, where we see several images of sections of trees in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris , and whose connection with this particular scene of Vertigo is explicitly acknowledged by Chris Marker in his 1982 film Sans Soleil.
The title, meanwhile, is based on the novel by Lyman Frank Baum , The Wizard of Oz in which the king convinces Twelve Monkeys to serve as soldiers.
Specifications
- Title: Twelve Monkeys
- Original Title: Twelve Monkeys
- Directed by: Terry Gilliam
- Screenplay: David Webb Peoples , Janet Peoples
- Producer: Charles Roven
- Executive producer Robert Cavallo, Robert Kosberg and Gary Levinsohn
- Production Company: Atlas Entertainment and Universal Pictures
- Distribution
Distribution
Cast
At first, Terry Gilliam wanted Nick Nolte for the role of James Cole and Jeff Bridges to that of Jeffrey Goines, but opposed Universal . Gilliam, who had met with Bruce Willis for the casting of the role played by Jeff Bridges in The Fisher King , saw Cole's interpretation by referring to Willis' someone strong and dangerous but also vulnerable "(" Somebody Who Is Strong and dangerous to vulnerable aussi ") . Willis should be done three tattoos each day of shooting, one on the head with his prisoner number, and a bar code on both sides of the neck.
Gilliam has selected on Madeleine Stowe for he had been impressed by his performance in Blink . They had met once to the cast of the adaptation of Tale of Two Cities by Dickens (project eventually abandoned). According to Gilliam, "she has this incredible ethereal beauty, and she is incredibly intelligent, and these two things come easily to her, and the film needs these items, because it must be romantic. ("She has this incredible ethereal beauty and she's incredibly intelligent. Those Two Things rest very Easily With Her, And The Film Needed Those elements Because it has to Be Romantic.")
For the role of Jeffrey Goines, Gilliam was not convinced by Brad Pitt , but was persuaded by his casting director . Pitt's salary was relatively modest, it was still an actor. However, when the output of the Twelve Monkeys, Interview with a Vampire , Legends of the Fall and Se7en came out and had Brad Pitt actor bankable , which benefited the revenues of the film . A few months before filming, Brad Pitt spent several weeks in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in Temple University to prepare for his role .
Honors
Awards
Nominations
Soundtrack
The Introduccion Suite Punta del Este of Astor Piazzolla is used as a leitmotif throughout the film.
Locations
- The scenes of the insane asylum were shot in a disused prison in Philadelphia.
- The airport scene was filmed at the international airport of Baltimore.
- Some scenes were filmed in the disused power station in Westport .
Trial of Lebbeus Woods
As the film opens, James is brought into the interrogation room where he was made to sit on a chair that is attached to a vertical rail on the wall. A sphere supported by a metal facing it, probing for weaknesses that inquisitors questioning. The architect Lebbeus Woods has filed a lawsuit against Universal Pictures in February 1996, saying his drawing "Neomechanical Tower (Upper) Chamber", published in 1987, had been used without permission .
The court agreed with Lebbeus Woods, Universal Pictures ordered to withdraw the film from theaters and banned the distribution until all three scenes where it appears decor would not be cut. Subject to agreement in millions of dollars, Universal Pictures has got Woods to broadcast the film without cuts .
References
- (en) ProCinema - Accessed 23 October 2008 - Site of the distribution company.
- filmratings.com
- a , b and c (in) Ian Christie, Terry Gilliam , Gilliam is Gilliam, Faber & Faber , London, 1999 ( ISBN 0-571-20280-2 ), p. 220-225 .
- a , b , c and d Production Notes DVD.
- The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys , 1997, Universal Home Video.
- http://www.forbidden-places.net/exploration-urbaine-la-centrale-electrique-de-westport
- a and b (in) Copyright Casebook - 12 Monkeys - Universal Studios and Lebbeus Woods accessed May 9, 2009.
External Links
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