5 films born from absurd stories and facts

After seeing a film, if I am intrigued by the plot, the first thing I do is go and look for all the curiosities and anecdotes that led to its production. In these cinematic full immersions, I found that often the idea for a script comes in a variety of ways.

From personal experiences to newspaper articles, here are 5 films born from extraordinary stories:

ZOLA by Janicza Bravo

The trailer for this film has been out a few days ago and, in fact, it is not yet known when and where it will be available. The story behind it is quite peculiar: the whole plot is based on a thread that went viral on Twitter in 2015 in which Aziah Wells, a 19 year old from Detroit known as Zola, told a series of events that involved her together with her friend Jessica. At the time, the story aroused a lot of curiosity so much that it was the subject of some journalistic inquiries that showed that what had been said was not entirely true. It doesn’t matter, from what we have seen it promises very well.

THE BIG SICK di Michael Showalter

This might seem like yet another romantic comedy, a bit far-fetched even for lovers of the genre. The two protagonists, Kumail e Emily, after spending a night together, they fall in love while she is in a coma due to a severe lung infection. Absurd, but true, it all really happened to Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon. Although he had only met her a few days earlier, he watched over her bedside while he was facing the disease and after a few months they are happily married. Reality can far exceed the imagination and this is a shining example.

THE BLING RING by Sofia Coppola

The inspiration for this film came from an article that appeared in Vanity Fair US, in 2010, entitled The suspects wore the Louboutins. The journalist Nancy Jo Sales he told of the so-called “bling ring” gang, that is a group of very young boys (at the time they were all teenagers) who, between 2008 and 2009, stole into the homes of some celebs, such as Paris Hilton e Lindsay Lohan, millions of dollars in shoes, bags and clothes. Small fun fact: one of the locations of the film is the villa of The Angels of Paris Hilton, but this is not a reconstruction, the scenes were shot right in his real home.

THE DISASTER ARTIST in James Franco

Directed and performed by James Franco, tells of the production of The room of Tommy Wiseau, a film considered among the worst in the history of cinema. It became a cult a few years after its release also due to the enigmatic figure of Wiseau: practically nothing is known about him, nor where he was born, nor when, nor why he had such a large budget for the making of the film. The disaster artist does not clarify these doubts, but very well returns the absurdity of the whole affair. Don’t miss the credits because there are the original scenes from The room.

HOMEMADE

Do you remember when during last year’s lockdown we all gave ourselves to the art of baking, yoga, virtual aperitifs on Zoom so as not to get bored? There have been people, specifically 17 actors and directors, who have decided to exploit their free time differently, shooting – with their smartphone in some cases – short films for Netflix. Some names? Paolo Sorrentino, Kristen Stewart e Maggie Gyllenhaal. Basically what many of us have tried to do about TikTok.

You may also like