himalaya ( french : himalaya : l'enfance d'un chef ) is a 1999 film directed by eric valli and was funded through france-based corporations .

it was the first nepalese film to be nominated in the best foreign film category at the 72nd academy awards .

himalaya is a story set against the backdrop of the nepalese himalayas .

at an altitude of five thousand metres in the remote mountain region of dolpa , himalaya is the story of villagers who take a caravan of yaks across the mountains , carrying rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain .

an annual event , the caravan provides the grain that the villagers depend on to survive the winter .

the film unfolds as a story of rivalry based on misunderstanding and distrust , between the aging chief and the young daring herdsman , who is both a friend and a rival to the chief 's family , as they struggle for leadership of the caravan .

the film is a narrative on the both traditions and the impermanent nature of human struggle to retain and express power in the face of the gods .

" the gods triumph " is the call that echoes at the end of the film and expresses the balancing of karmic destinies .

the extreme environment of the himalayas is magnificently contrasted to the delicacy of humanity and the beauty of tibetan culture .

himalaya was shot in widescreen over nine months on location in a region that can only be reached on foot , with all but two characters played by real chiefs , lamas and local villagers .

director eric valli has lived in nepal since 1983 and is also a photographer and author .

his work is regularly published in national geographic , geo and life magazines .

the film depicts not only the life style of the upper dolpo people of the mid western uphills of nepal but also their traditional customs , for example celestial burial .

himalaya ( film )

himalaya film festival session 14 is not showing in any theaters in the area .
digital himalaya is expanding its online collections to include contemporary film and video . please click on one of the icons below to learn more about the film in question .
please join the ubc himalaya program and the curator for asia at the museum of anthropology for a reception to celebrate the launch of the himalaya program at ubc .
himalaya is a film about choices , pride and forgiveness , filled with memorable characters and stunning scenery . and if you like yaks , this is the film for you .
- jennie punter , toronto star
2014 toronto reel asian international film festival himalaya song and reception @ aga khan museum , november 13 , 2014 . photos by chelsea chen & jennifer martin
the film has now screened at film festivals and universities in over 17 countries worldwide , with support from entertainment professionals , advocacy groups , and academics alike .
valli : without thinlen , there would be no film . “himalaya” is thinlen’s story ; he inspired the story . thinlen is the chief of this area of dolpo , and he pulled everybody together . our friendship was key . no thinlen , no film .
ozon ' s provocative film can do much to improve attitudes towards lgbti people .
bruno coulais - la mort de lhakpa - himalaya l ' enfance d ' un chef musique soundtrack . wmv
the himalaya program , the centre for indian and south asian research , and the department of asian studies .
valli is a romantic adventurer , a man who likens his affinity for nepal to that of an epic love affair . valli began traveling when he was 18 years old in order to find out about human differences . now he’s made a film essentially about their similarities . visually , “himalaya” is intoxicating , but deeper is a story so universal that audiences in europe and asia have already embraced the film . and this year in the united states , “himalaya” was an academy award nominee for best foreign film , the first nepalese entry to be considered for an oscar . “himalaya” opens in new york on june 22 .
pad yatra was an official selection in over 33 film festivals , and won 10 awards on the festival circuit . it has screened at the united nations , university of oxford , yale himalaya initiative , british academy of film and television , and many more . connect with us to arrange a screening in your community .
symposium and film on dalit issues in nepal with mr . moti lal nepali and dr . drona prakash rasali
a film of unusual visual beauty and enormous intrinsic interest .
- roger ebert , chicago sun - times
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a beautiful and thematically rich nepalese film about the many lessons learned by some villagers from the high mountains during their annual yak caravan .
norbu’s repertoire ranges from traditional imagery to unique depictions of daily life , religious practice , and landscape . his work was highlighted in the 1998 film himalaya ( caravan ) , the only nepali film to have been nominated for an academy award . over the past fifteen years , norbu’s work has been featured in exhibitions in global cities , from kathmandu and new york city , to aarhus , monaco , lucerne , paris , osaka , tokyo , and thimphu , bhutan .
iw : you and thinlen have wanted to make a film together for a long time ; almost 15 years . how much input did thinlen have ?
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
the film captures the culture of nepal through spectacular cinematography and interactions with locals along the way .
the intention of the film was not to hype flying although you see us flying and we talk about flying ,
said michaelis .
the film is more about being immersed in the culture . the paragliders were just our vehicles for seeing the country and getting lost in it .
in the film , the pilots touch down in one tiny village after another . with each landing they are received with swarms of warm welcomes as the jagged , snow capped peaks of the annapurna range in the himalayas tower in the background .
so begins
himalaya ,
a film of unusual visual beauty and enormous intrinsic interest . set in the dolpo area of nepal , it has been directed by eric valli , a photographer who has lived in nepal for years , filmed it for national geographic , and made documentaries about it . now in this fiction film he uses conflict to build his story , but it ' s clear the narrative is mostly an excuse ; this movie is not so much about what its characters do , as about who they are .
imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you ,
buddha says .
they are all your teachers , each doing just the right things to help you learn patience , perfect wisdom , perfect compassion .
this quotation provides the perfect setup for himalaya , an astonishingly beautiful and thematically rich nepalese film that presents many vanishing elements of a faraway tibetan culture .
the film - entitled simply ‘sikkim’ - is a 1971 , 55 - minute documentary that was mired in controversy from the moment of its making . commissioned by the then king of sikkim , it was banned by the government of india after sikkim was ‘merged’ with india in 1975 . the film has recently been restored and re - released .
this is no accident , as the director , éric valli , has also worked as a photographer for the magazine . mr . valli , who is french , has lived in nepal since 1983 and made several documentaries there . ' ' himalaya , ' ' his first fictional feature , which was nominated for a best foreign film oscar this year , shows his intimacy with the country ' s human as well as its natural geography .
indiewire : how did your extensive photographic background contribute to your decision to tell this story ? visually , this film is truly beautiful . did your background give you an edge on documenting this region ?
valli : i think it’s very important that the film entertains you . but i think it has to be more . there are so many films that you come out of and you’re just saying , “oh , wow , what did i see ? ” you forget what you see . you are entertained or kind of bombarded with the music , with incredible images and with special effects . you come out of it and it’s like if you ate something , yet you are still hungry . it doesn’t fill you . i think making a film is a huge amount of energy and money and time . and i think a film has to be entertaining first , but it has to be much more than that too . i like a film to make me think , to make me learn things which i don’t know and to make me feel . a film is a way to communicate emotion . it’s not only information , but emotion also . i’m an old - fashioned kind of guy that way .
it took a little while , but funding came through to continue our film project . in the fall of 2012 , we found ourselves trekking a high - altitude himalayan trail in nepal . i had a camera in one hand and a tripod in the other , and i stopped often to film and soak it all in . i had dreamed of visiting the himalayas of nepal since i was a child .
valli : you are the first one who made me think about this . i never thought about the parallel between the two . i guess it does come full circle . we went to shoot this film without any ending . we had eight different endings and we didn’t know which one it was going to be when we started to shoot the film . and it was the 9th different ending that came to our mind , and it came to us so naturally . there was no other possible ending to this film , then this one — the one that we shot . the eight other endings were fake .
valli : it is exactly the same . when you see the snowstorm , it is a real snowstorm . it was in front of the camera and behind the camera . for nine months , we were on the trail of the real caravan . what you see on the screen is what we also experienced as filmmakers . this film is an adventure film , but at the same time it is a document . this is the only film made on tibetan culture . i’m not talking about scorsese ‘s “ kundun , ” or jean - jacques annaud ‘s “ seven years in tibet , ” about a westerner discovering tibet .
shot with solar power by himalayan monk ngawang sodpa , the film features united nations mdg honoree the gyalwang drukpa , and indian actor and environmental advocate , aamir khan . the film is executive produced by michelle yeoh ( crouching tiger hidden dragon , james bond : tomorrow never dies ) , narrated by daryl hannah ( kill bill , bladerunner ) , and it is the debut feature documentary from director wendy j . n . lee .
( c ) 1999 kino international | urltoken | filmed over seven months in the forbidden dolpo region of nepal , himalaya tells the story of a generational struggle for the leadership of a tiny mountain village between its proud old chief and a headstrong young caravanner . the balance of power shifts uneasily as they make their annual salt trek across the himalayas . a visually striking and spiritually captivating portrait of life in one of the world ' s most extraordinary places , himalaya is both intense drama and a gorgeous tapestry of the fast disappearing traditions of tibetan life .
this film may not be everyone ' s cup of tea but it is served in a gorgeous and delicate teacup . the story is simple , perhaps too simple . but it is drawn against the magnificent background of nepal . even bad photography would be good in that part of the world but the camera work in himalaya is superb , sensitive and sweeping , richly textured and impressively framed . the most amazing aspect of this rare film is that none of the performers are actors ! they play themselves flawlessly . the faces , frequently in harsh close up , are noble and full of character . hollywood never could duplicate one silver haired old woman who is a living work of art . the children are beautiful and lack any self consciousness whatsoever in front of the camera . utterly amazing ! it ' s a movie for film freaks and those who appreciate fine photography . but somehow the world is a slightly better place because it was made !
author doug prose films on the flanks of a volcano in central mongolia during one of the six scientific expeditions featured in “the himalaya connection , ” which explores the indo - australian - eurasian plate collision . the documentary will air on pbs later this year . credit : diane lamacchia .
there is no doubt that mr . valli and his screenwriter , olivier dazat , were motivated by a deep respect for the people of the dolpo . their reverence , and their desire to protect and record a way of life no doubt threatened by the encroachments of modernity , may have prevented them from probing the society too deeply . ' ' himalaya ' ' is a work of polite ethnography , a coffee - table book of a film that invites us to behold an exotic world from a comfortable and complacent distance .
while in nepal on our 2012 trip , we also filmed with bishal upreti , a prominent nepali geologist at tribhuvan university . bishal is a kind person deeply in love with the himalaya . in a film interview , he detailed the range’s many superlatives : earth’s highest peaks ; earth’s largest block of uplifted terrain , when combined with the tibetan plateau ; the creator of the indian monsoon ; and the source of freshwater for almost half the people alive today . midway through our interview , he suddenly interrupted himself with a wave of his hand and asked if he could quickly say something nongeologic . bishal looked up at the mountains , smiled , and said , “when you are in the himalaya , and when you go to those serene places below those snow peaks , it is the dream of a lifetime . it’s so wonderful to be there ; unless you are there , you will never realize what you are missing ! ” i was amazed . even nepalis , most of whom do not live in the shadow of the great peaks , dream of going to them . our documentary begins with bishal’s thoughts and dreams of the himalaya .
mountainfilm ' s sponsors choose to partner with us for more than just return on investment considerations ; they strongly believe in mountainfilm ' s mission to use the power of film , art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world .
( indiewire / 06 . 22 . 01 ) — in many ways , eric valli has been researching his feature film debut , “ himalaya , ” for almost twenty years . an acclaimed photographer , whose work has been published in national geographic , the new york times magazine , smithsonian and life , valli has created a universal tale of love , life , betrayal and death — set against the unforgiving nature of the northeastern dolpo region in nepal . valli has lived in the dolpo region for nearly two decades , and valli’s two best friends were the inspiration for the film’s main characters , tinle and norbou . valli has also written numerous books about his adopted country . and in 1992 , he was awarded the gurka dakshin baho from the king of nepal , in honor of valli’s body of work about nepal .
the dvd manages to enhance an already extraordinary film with many extras . it includes audio commentary by dirctor eric valli , a 26 - minute
making of
documentary , the theatrical trailer , and the original electronic press kit with interviews and features .
shortly after producing the film , we went to tibet to film geophysicist simon klemperer of stanford university and produce a short video about his research . simon intended to visit dozens of tibetan hot springs to collect gas and water samples , with the aim of locating the northern limit of the indo - australian plate below the eurasian plate . no one knows where the end of the plate is , but it’s somewhere under tibet . tibet’s geology is rooted in the ongoing plate collision and rise of the himalayas , and it is subject to damaging earthquakes . this seemed like a fantastic opportunity to enhance our documentary’s story both scientifically and aesthetically . the film trip went forward in october 2016 , wrapping up just as season - ending winter snows began falling . the footage turned out beautifully — tibet was in .
the 2015 nepal earthquakes had catastrophic impacts on the lives and property of himalayan peoples . join the ubc himalaya program as dr . spoon discusses his study which focuses on four settlements in two of the hardest hit districts with differing access , aid , and populations . we randomly selected 400 households in these locations and conducted two . . .
defying both tinle and the village ' s council of lamas , karma takes off across the mountains with most of the yaks and the young villagers to trade the salt for grain . the outraged tinle sets off in pursuit , accompanied by tsering ( who has been renamed passang ) ; the boy ' s mother , pema ( lhakpa tsamchoe ) ; norbou ; and a few other superstitious old - timers . the film ' s long second half follows the two parties through dusty highland valleys and treacherous mountain passes . one imagines that filming ' ' himalaya ' ' was nearly as arduous and risky as the trek it records .
canada tibet committee and the ubc himalaya program invite you to a workshop and discussion forum exploring human rights implications of the canada - china free trade agreement , in particular in relation to tibet . workshop participants will look at the canada - china free trade agreement through a human rights lens , with attention to tibet as a case example . . . .
ubc himalaya program is hosting a talk which will consider the topic of incarnate lamas ( tulkus ) —births of the same awakened consciousness in successive human bodies . it will focus particularly on the practices used to locate subsequent incarnations of deceased tibetan lamas . these practices involve analyzing prophecies and divinations , as well as evaluating child tulku candidates in a . . .
find the archived video of this event here . save the date for the first himalaya program event of the 2017 - 18 academic year ! join us for a lecture by deepak thapa , director of the social science baha research institute in kathmandu , and a well - known political analyst and commentator . nepal has been undergoing a political transition since . . .
the ubc himalaya program and the tibetan cultural society of british columbia ( tcsbc ) are excited to announce that we will be co - hosting a lecture by dr . losang rabgey , executive director of machik , an organization supporting communities on the tibetan plateau , and a showing of the award - winning tibetan documentary “valley of the heroes” by filmmaker kashem . . .
join the ubc himalaya program for a roundtable discussion about health policy and practice in nepal . medical and public health professionals from ubc , university of victoria , and the university of washington explore the challenges and opportunities of working in nepal , across fields including emergency care , family practice , health education , midwifery , and mental health . rsvp for the . . .
this talk engages these points of tension , discussing how tibetan medicine remains at once a crucial form of local health care across tibetan communities , a manifestation of national identity , and , increasingly , a globally available form of ‘traditional’ medicine in the 21st century . this event is sponsored by the himalaya program , the contemporary tibetan studies program , and the department of anthropology .
by now , our film project’s timeline had stretched on long enough for results to begin trickling in from karl wegmann’s research in mongolia . the data his group collected were fascinating , both confirming and contradicting certain elements of theories about mongolia’s connection with the distant indo - australian - eurasian plate collision .
a large part of the appeal of ' ' himalaya ' ' comes from the breathtaking beauty of its setting , the mountainous , sparsely populated dolpo region of nepal . exquisitely filmed in cinemascope , a format whose wide frames and panoramic angles emphasize the lonely grandeur of the landscape , the movie offers an intoxicating dose of armchair tourism , like a national geographic pictorial brought to life .
the ubc himalaya program is hosting a dialogue between ubc faculty member dr . wade davis ( department of anthropology ) , and h . h . the 17th gyalwang karmapa . the title of this event is “interconnected – our environment and social ( in ) equality” . we are pleased to partner with the karma kagyu association of canada and thrangu monastery to welcome h . h . . . .
tenzing rigdol is a leading contemporary tibetan artist and activist , born in kathmandu , nepal in 1982 to tibetan refugee parents . rigdol’s work has been exhibited in important galleries and museums in europe and north america , including the metropolitan museum of art . this event is sponsored by the himalaya program , the contemporary tibetan studies program , and the department of art history , visual art and theory .
rob mcbroom , a minneapolis - based artist , holds the distinction of being the only federal duck stamp competitor to adorn his abstract works with glitter , rhinestones and communist insignia . he has been antagonizing his fellow duck stamp entrants with his unorthodox paintings for many years . he is a subject in the film the million dollar duck .
we are delighted that hope cooke , former gyalmo ( or queen consort ) of sikkim , has agreed to join us from new york for a discussion about the making and reception of the film . hope is a widely published and award - winning author , and was a visiting instructor of history at sarah lawrence college and yale in 1987 .
dhaulagiri , nanga parbat & broad peak are 3 of the world ' s 14 highest summits . french alpinist , jean - christophe lafaille aims to ascent all three in a period of two months . the film takes us on a dramatic and eventful journey that starts in nepal and finishes in pakistan while exploring the mind and soul of a devoted mountaineer .
wanderlust of both the creative and physical varieties , drives canadian photographer reuben krabbe to find unique ways to capture the world of action sports . his obsession with seeking different light , angles and objectives has landed his photos on covers of skier , mtb pro and powder . this obsession is also at the heart of the story that drives the film eclipse .
diwakar acharya ' s talk will tackle the questions of why the creative potential of nepal’s resources , natural as well as human , is not unleashed , and why in spite of some positive outcome of political awareness , the leadership everybody wished for is still lacking . this event is sponsored by the himalaya program , the centre for indian and south asian research , and the department of asian studies . reception at 4 , talk starts 4 : 30 .
a personal film about the incredible ascent , of the elusive summit of annapurna on may 16 , 2002 , via a wildly committing traverse of the east ridge . from the satellite peak of singu chuli to the main west summit of annapurna and back , jean - christophe lafaille and basque climber alberto inurrategi negotiate 10 horizontal miles of complex terrain above 24 , 000 feet .
variously described as a western , a love story and an adventure tale , “himalaya” is about a chieftain , tinle , whose son dies during a yak caravan in the himalayas . proud and driven by conviction , tinle insists he lead the caravan until his young grandson is old enough to inherit the duties of the time - honored tradition . a challenge ensues , between a rebellious young villager and the elder . what follows is a struggle against nature , pride and ego .
himalaya
tells the story of a village , which since time immemorial , has engaged in a winter trek to bring salt to its people and send out goods to be traded . the journeys are conducted by yak caravans . for many years the old chief , tinle , led the treks , but he retired in favor of his son . now his son is dead , his body brought back to the village by karma , who wants to take his place at the head of the caravans .
less than a year later , we were back in the region for an unrelated ( or so we thought ) film trip to bangladesh , where we met up with a group of geologists and students from bangladeshi and american universities . when landing in dhaka , one descends to a billiard - table flat landscape , a plain of sediments eroded from the himalaya range by mighty rivers like the ganges and brahmaputra . it’s not a place where a geologist would expect to find major earthquake faults . but history documents two megaquakes here in the last 500 years . when we visited in 2013 , geologists had yet to put a rock hammer to a major fault in bangladesh ; they still haven’t . while some smaller faults crop out at the surface , most , including all the most important ones , are blind , buried deep under himalayan muds . the hunt was turning to the deployment of seismometers , gps antennae and drill rigs .
grain . despite tinle’s edict , karma sets out to follow the path on his own ; when tinle’s younger son norbu ( karma tensing nyama lama ) declines his father’s request to lead the journey , the aging leader takes it upon himself to lead the yaks across the mountains , with tinle and karma meeting along the way . himalaya : l’enfance d’un chef was shot on location in the himalayas , with a tibetan cast and french camera crew , resulting in some dazzling footage of the rugged , unspoiled beauty of the mountain ranges .
himalaya - caravan - l ' enfance d ' un chef ( film d ' eric valli ) - la mort de lhapka ( bruno coulais ) urltoken - urltoken _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ réfléchissons ensemble - let ' s think together france népal média फ्रान्स नेपाल मेडिया le collectif france népal nepal france friendship society नेपाल फ्रान्स मैत्री संघ binod khakurel baudelaire , président info @ urltoken / collectif @ urltoken + 33 1 45 80 47 69 / + 33 7 64 20 24 96 ( paris ) + 977 9841 641 850 ( kathmandu ) http : / / www . urltoken http : / / www . urltoken urltoken urltoken urltoken urltoken - - - - - - - traduction / interprète cours de népali - learn nepali info @ urltoken - 07 64 20 24 96 société internationale des amis de charles baudelaire urltoken urltoken urltoken - -
là , tout n ' est qu ' ordre et beauté , luxe , calme et volupté . . .
( charles baudelaire )
directed by éric valli ; written ( in nepali and tibetan , with english subtitles ) by mr . valli and olivier dazat with the collaboration of jean - claude guillebaud , louis gardel , nathalie azoulai and jacques perrin ; directors of photography , éric guichard and jean - paul meurisse ; music by bruno coulais ; produced by mr . perrin and christophe barratier ; released by kino international . running time : 104 minutes . this film is not rated .
it is astonishing to think that lives like this are still possible in the 21st century . we are less surprised when we see such treks reflecting modern realities - - as in
a time for drunken horses
( 2000 ) , about the kurdish people of iran , who use mule caravans to transport contraband truck tires into iraq . we suspect that the story of
himalaya
re - creates a time that has now ended , but no : such caravans still exist , and were the subject of
the saltmen of tibet ,
a 1997 documentary by ulrike koch .
eric valli : sure , working as a photographer for 18 years now has been great teaching for me . people say , “eric , we see so many of your pictures in the film ; we see your style . ” sure , but it’s my first feature film . i had a big meeting with the two directors of photography ( eric guichard and jean - paul meurisse ) and we looked at all of my pictures . and we said that for certain scenes i wanted certain light , and for this other scene i want certain framing , very often similar to my pictures . but it wasn’t my work to be behind the camera ; it was to be director . i had total trust with the two d . o . p . s , who did a fantastic job . so i let them be free , very often sticking an eye in the viewfinder , but mainly focusing on the biggest challenge of this film , which was acting . because these people not only have never seen a movie camera in their life , but most of these people have never even seen a film in their life . what was acting for them ? i speak their language . i had spent two years with them before , so i knew these people and i built up a fantastic relationship with them . but i was asking them to do things that they had never thought about . it’s within their tibetan tradition to make a testimony of their history . when an important person dies in their community , you write a biography . so , somehow they understood the process of it . we weren’t using a pen on paper anymore . we were using a camera , a tape recorder and a crew . but it was the same thing — we were making a testimony of their own life — and this they understood very well . but they didn’t understand what was acting .
ace kvale , a photographer who has captured extreme environments and rich cultures around the world , first met dr . geoff tabin — co - founder of the himalayan cataract project — on assignment for outside magazine . what grew from that encounter was a lasting friendship and a photo project that has spanned years . kvale has been documenting the work of tabin , whose nonprofit aims to eradicate blindness by setting up eye surgery clinics in sub - saharan africa and the himalaya , for more than a decade . the result , kvale says , represents some of the most important work of his life .
mr . moti lal nepali , a dalit activist from nepal , will give a talk about the socio - political status of dalits in nepal . a short film , yash kumar’s bato muniko phool – the prologue ( flowers under the path – the prologue ) , will be screened , revealing the daily struggles of dalits in nepali villages today . dr . drona rasali will explain nepaldalitinfo network’s role in fostering awareness of dalit issues in nepal . talk starts 4 : 30 .
in the aftermath of the quake , we obtained additional financial support to incorporate the lessons learned from the gorkha earthquake into outreach materials to accompany our documentary project . in 2016 , we returned to nepal to film the conditions on the ground a year after the quake struck . among numerous scenes , we shot footage of thickets of steel rebar poking from new construction sites all over kathmandu valley , as well as the tilingatar higher secondary school , which survived thanks to being retrofitted before the earthquake .
keith ladzinski is an adventure photographer and filmmaker whose work has taken him to remote reaches of all seven continents — from the forests of south africa to the beaches of iceland . along with contributing to such magazines as outside , discover and men’s journal , he is the co - founder of 3 strings productions in boulder , colorado . he was recently assigned to document the effects of climate change in national parks for national geographic and has a film , poumaka , premiering in this year’s festival .
in a remote village in the himalayas , the wheat crop isn ' t sufficient to feed the people ; salt has to be transported across the mountains and sold in order to survive . on the latest expedition , the old chief ' s son has died ; tinle , the chief , refuses to accept karma , the obvious choice for leader , instead insisting his small grandson , pasang , be the new village headman – this leads to a conflict during the next , dangerous , trek across the mountains . the story of himalaya is a timeless on . french director eric valli tells it like a legend , and it ' s one he knows well – a travel - writer and short filmmaker , he obviously loves this remote part of the world and the people who live here . it ' s a simple but quite affecting saga – the film ' s main pleasures lie in the way it looks . this is definitely a big screen experiences – the images of this mountainous landscape are always impressive , especially in one notable scene – evoking the wages of fear – in which the villagers , taking a short cut on a crumbling narrow track high above an azure blue lake , find themselves in considerable danger . the mostly non - professional actors give totally convincing performances .
set in the mountains of tibet near nepal , this film begins with mountaineer karma ( gurgon kyap ) returning from a long journey with bad news : the son of tinle ( thilen lhondup ) , the village leader , died in the midst of the trek , leaving behind a wife , pema ( lhapka tsamchoe ) , and a son , pasang ( karma wangiel ) . tinle cannot forgive karma for the death of his son , and he banishes him from an upcoming voyage , in which a yak caravan will bring a load of salt across the mountains to be exchanged for
the hotel himalaya is on a quiet side street , yet centrally located in frankfurt . both the trade fair and to the railway station , it takes just a few minutes . also the city center can be reached quickly from here . you can reach us with regional and long distance services , as well as by tram and subway ( s - bahn and u - bahn ) from the station “hauptbahnhof” . even the remote bus terminal is located directly at the main station ( south side ) . from the main train station by bus number 37 go on to stop “hafenstraße” . from there you can reach the hotel on foot after about 150m . for our guests arriving by car , on - site parking is available for a fee .
there are many more amazing geologic surprises centered on the mighty himalayas beyond what i’ve shared here and that we are very excited to present in our film . we are also thrilled to feature some of the geoscientists who have been working to better understand the nature of the powerful tectonic collision of plates lying below a large portion of earth’s human population . the scientists’ determined efforts are not only uncovering some of earth’s wondrous inner workings in this region , but are also illuminating the extreme dangers these processes pose , so that as few people as possible are injured or killed in the next massive earthquake .
much of the film is simply pictorial , as karma and tinle make rival journeys , and tinle ominously squints at the clear sky and foresees snow . there is one passage of pure suspense , as part of a narrow mountain path slips away , and the yaks and their masters have to traverse a dangerous stretch ; we are reminded of similar situations involving trucks in
the wages of fear
and
sorcerer .
the actors are not experienced and sometimes simply seem to be playing men very much like themselves , but we are not much concerned with subtle drama here . the real movie takes place in our minds , as we think about these people who share the planet with us right now , and yet lead unimaginably different lives . would it be a trial or a blessing to be a member of a community like this ? that would depend , i imagine , on whether your view of the world has expanded to encompass more than villages and salt journeys . there must be something deeply satisfying about knowing your place in an ancient social structure and fitting into it seamlessly . so i thought as i watched this film , although it did not make me want to lead a yak caravan .
in the caste - based social structure of nepal , at least one - seventh of the population , so - called “dalits” , have experienced discrimination , marginalization , and oppression for centuries . mr . moti lal nepali , a dalit activist from nepal , will give a talk about the socio - political status of dalits in nepal . a short film , yash kumar’s bato muniko phool – the prologue ( flowers under the path – the prologue ) , will be screened , revealing the daily struggles of dalits in nepali villages today . dr . drona rasali will explain nepaldalitinfo network’s role in fostering awareness of dalit issues in nepal .
valli : oh , it’s a great love story ! why such a woman ? why such a man ? it’s always difficult to explain . i started to travel when i was very young and i got hooked to this life , to this life of a nomad ; and learning so much , being very curious and learning so many ways of life . i was in search in our differences . and now i’ve made this film , which is about our similarities . i spent a lot of time in afghanistan , the middle east , india and then i discovered nepal and i fell in love . basically that’s it ; it was very simple .
this conundrum has given rise to several scientific questions . what is the origin of the stress in the crust that is capable of setting off megaquakes here ? and what geologic forces lifted mongolia high above “normal” midcontinent elevations ? some theories credited the collision of the indo - australian and eurasian tectonic plates as both the source of the stress and the uplift , even though it is 2 , 000 kilometers to the south , farther than the distance from kansas to new york . as we filmed across mongolia over several weeks , diane and i thought it would be great to film that far - off collision , if we could only obtain the needed funding .
later in the interview , bishal expressed acute concern for the people of nepal . he and his colleagues had accumulated data that led them to predict that the next big himalayan earthquake could rupture the main himalaya thrust fault in central nepal at any time . bishal has long been educating the people of nepal about earthquake hazards through the media and public lectures , and he has urged officials to act on behalf of public safety . these were brave actions , as people are often loath to hear or heed such warnings about dangers from natural and uncontrollable forces . thankfully , the efforts bore some fruit . the majority of buildings in nepal were not strong enough to withstand strong earthquake shaking until bishal and his colleagues convinced officials to enact new building codes , which helped keep some new buildings standing , and the people inside them alive , during the gorkha quake .
valli : the two main characters are my two best friends , both from the monastery . my one friend is a great artist and lama . and even though i speak their language , i know how to load their yaks , i have spent three years of my life out there , i am still an outsider . and when i saw this great artist , i just thought , hey , this is a way for me to make an insider testimony . and i asked him and his father , “would you like to travel with me ? and instead of painting gods and demons , would you paint your people ? ” so he left his monastery for the first time and he came with me and he discovered life . and when i met thinlen almost 18 or 20 years ago , he is exactly as the character tinle is : he’s the chief of his village , he’s a very charismatic guy . in real life thinlen’s brother was murdered in a feud with another family , but in the film , it was his brother who falls from the cliff . so it is based on real , epic events ; real characters . and i think that’s what gives a lot of power to this film . because these people — norbou is a real lama , thinlen is a real chief and karma is a real cowboy . every single thing these people do is real . i didn’t have to teach them . it came out ; they sweated it out .
valli : there are some great lessons , like when tinle asks his son , “why did you come with me ? ” he says , “one day my teacher ( lama ) told me , “whenever there are two trails open in front of you , always choose the hardest one ; the one which will squeeze the best out of you . ” this sentence was told to me about 12 or 13 years ago , and when it was told to me by this old man in a cave , i just thought , what is the meaning of life if you don’t give it your best ? what is the meaning of life if you don’t realize your dreams ; if you don’t try ? it’s a film about power , courage and tolerance .
producer diane lamacchia and i were traveling with karl and his group of scientists , students and local support crews to shoot footage of the expedition as it traversed remote central mongolia on a quest to better understand this land’s many geologic mysteries . the funding we had at the time from the national science foundation covered filming and production for a short video about the research project . we had no idea that this trip , taken in 2011 , would be the first of six to asia to shoot footage for what would become a full - length television documentary , “the himalaya connection , ” to begin airing on pbs in north america later this year . nor did we imagine then that the documentary’s story would center on the great himalayan mountains — a geologic feature that offers daily benefits to 45 percent of the world’s people — and on the earth scientists who , through their research , are working to protect many thousands of those people from the region’s natural hazards . what follows are a few highlights of our long production journey , and some of the things we learned along the way .
while in the region , we also took a short flight , skimming past mount everest , to film in neighboring bhutan . like nepal , bhutan’s entire length straddles the main himalayan thrust fault . that stretch of the fault has not produced a large earthquake since the 1500s , leaving a very worrisome seismic gap . building codes calling for a measure of earthquake resistance were enacted in the late 1990s in the capital , thimphu , and new buildings going up looked to be solidly built in the beautiful city . but what about beyond thimphu ? most houses in the country are constructed in the traditional rammed - earth style , in which outer walls are made of soils pounded and packed by hand between wooden forms . the houses are big , typically three stories . engineers are concerned that these structures offer little defense against horizontal ground shaking . will upgraded building methods , codes and retrofitting take hold in bhutan before their thrust fault slips again ?
it was during this himalayan trip , in 2012 , that diane and i began talking about creating , in addition to the short film , a television documentary centered on this extraordinary mountain range . in this expanded documentary , mongolia’s uplifted terrain and earthquakes would feature as far - flung artifacts of the tremendous geologic powerhouse created by the collision of the indian and asian plates . but , as usual , we faced the hurdle of raising funds to turn the vision into reality . it was like gazing up at the steep , hand - laid stone steps we encountered on the first day of our himalayan trek — more than 3 , 000 of them . it’d take time , but we were confident we could get up the steps eventually with a lot of effort . we felt the same way with acquiring the significant level of funding needed for our envisioned television documentary , although it would take a lot more time than a steep climb through the mountains .
this is the third film about mountain climbing i ' ve seen in little under a year . first a documentary called meru , then the imax exclusive release called everest . now the koreans tackle the subject . interesting enough , story wise i feel the himalayas is a mix of both movies . the best korean mountaineer goes up a mountain to find the remains of his student who froze to death . based on true events the story focus on mountaineer , hong - gil um , a family man who loves to climb mountains . the movie has a lot to it as we go over hong - gil um preparing for mountain climbing , training others for it , and what happens after it ' s all over . the himalayas tries to be a tear jerker . it does have it ' s moments , but overall it tries hard and gets nothing . it ' s effective in making you not want to go up the mountain . the harsh weather was oh too real , and the visuals sometimes due what the story itself is unable . the movie is just ok , no where near outstanding .
i’d ridden on a breaking tectonic plate before . on oct . 17 , 1989 , i was editing a film at the u . s . geological survey in palo alto , calif . , when the floor turned to jell - o . rock - sample cabinets stacked to the ceiling flew open , shooting dislodged samples at me . gneiss marked with catalog numbers piled up and blocked my escape through the door , so i just stood there , clutching the editing machines as they tried to dance off the table , and watched the window bow in and out as if made of rubber . miraculously , the glass held , but when i finally got a chance to evacuate , i had to dash light - footed over the chards of many shattered panes in the rest of the building . before the magnitude - 7 . 1 loma prieta earthquake , i thought temblors were exciting and interesting . i had experienced many earthquakes of magnitude 2 and 3 , and a few of magnitude 4 . ever since loma prieta , however , i dread them . and i can relate to the lingering fear that nepalis now carry with them since the magnitude - 7 . 8 gorkha earthquake struck on april 25 , 2015 .
with our trip to nepal and bhutan a success , we were in great shape regarding our story and footage needs . diane plunged into scripting and editing , and we worked with a sense of urgency to assemble our final product and get the story out . that’s when the study by some of our film’s “characters , ” mike steckler , humayun akhter , leonardo seeber and others , was published in nature geoscience in mid - 2016 . what they found was incredible , and not great news for the roughly 140 million people in the region who were sitting on , or within 100 kilometers of , a buried and locked megathrust fault capable of generating a megaquake , perhaps very soon — or perhaps not for hundreds of years . so important was this discovery that we decided to give it center stage in our documentary , although it meant a great deal of rewriting and re - editing . meanwhile , the publication jolted the media in the region . news pieces with diverse interpretations of the paper’s conclusions appeared . for instance , a television news story in the state of assam , in northeast india , reported that the researchers predicted that a huge earthquake was going to strike on a specific day , july 17 , just six days after the nature geoscience article was published . this caused widespread fear . people could not sleep for days , and many packed their bags for an emergency . in another example , a newspaper piece in india reported that the megaquake could result in the deaths of tens of millions of people . as filmmakers , we wanted to produce a video right away to help the scientists tell the correct story . our solution was to quickly produce a short video , “giant earthquakes in bangladesh and india ? , ” and give it to the scientists , who immediately began screening it in india and bangladesh . it has been translated into bengali and mizo , and can be viewed on youtube at : urltoken .


so long letty is a 1920 silent american comedy film directed by al christie , and starring grace darmond , t. roy barnes , and colleen moore .

so long letty was an adaptation of a 1916 popular stage comedy musical of the same name that starred charlotte greenwood .

so long letty

so long letty broadway @ sam s . shubert theatre - tickets and discounts | playbill
' so long letty ' on screen ; charlotte greenwood is largely responsible for lively picture .
there are no critic reviews yet for so long letty . keep checking rotten tomatoes for updates !
with the headline : ' so long letty ' on screen ; charlotte greenwood is largely responsible for lively picture .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing so long letty near you .
what about the talkie debut of charlotte greenwood . so long letty is the title and 1929 the year . hilarious !
' so long letty ' on screen ; charlotte greenwood is largely responsible for lively picture . - the new york times
so long letty doesn’t fall into those traps . the script is snappy , and the actors all seem dedicated to making the viewer laugh . with charlotte greenwood at the helm as rowdy party girl letty , the film is a real riot .
running at only an hour and fifteen minutes , so long letty is certainly worthy what little time it demands from the viewer for watch . this film is a barrel of fun . the score : 4 . 5 / 5
so long letty is a fast - talking talkie . the dialogue zips along to give the film a speed - of - light pace and is full of witty quips , including the declarations of “i’m so hot my husband can’t buy fire insurance ! ” and “you don’t want a wife , you want a sanitarium ! ”
29 . vulture estimates that the runway in the film had to be 28 . 829 miles long in order to accommodate the whole scene . ( the longest real - life runway is 7 . 5 miles long . )
so , is there a chance han isn ' t dead after all ? they ' ve already done it with letty so why not han ? we ' re hoping for a han / sean team - up in tokyo in 9 .
the team is getting a bbq together , and hobbs arrives with elena stating that they all are free . letty thanks elena for everything , saying she is an amazing woman . elena tells letty that dom is an amazing man , and tells letty to keep him out of trouble to which letty laughs and tells her that that will never happen . dom approaches letty after they leave and asks if anything feels familiar . letty tells him , no but that it feels like home . the two are last seen with letty sitting on his lap as roman says grace at the lunch table .
lloyd bacon directs 1929’s so long letty , a warner bros . marital musical - comedy . the script was adapted by robert lord and arthur caesar , from a play by oliver morosco ( which was based on a book by elmer harris ) . the story had previously been told on the screen in a 1920 silent film .
for dom and letty fans , the biggest surprise of furious 7 didn’t have anything to do with the film’s various stunts . actually , it didn’t even have to do with the fact that letty finally got her memory back . instead , it had to do with what letty ended up remembering .
okay so i watched f7 and it shows dom and letty getting married , how come we did not see them get married in any of the movies . 2015 - 05 - 12t20 : 49 : 21z
the the fast and the furious wiki has a collection of images and media related to letty ortiz .
the the fast and the furious wiki has a collection of quotes or dialog related to letty ortiz .
20 . the characters letty and brian don’t actually speak to each other until fast & furious 6 .
long story short , they clearly tied the knot in the dominican republic before the fourth film , which means you should probably watch los bandoleros —if you haven’t already—to fully understand where all those flashbacks came from and what exactly it means for letty to have her memory back .
“uh , not if i have any say so in it ! ” michelle rodriguez roared to news corp australia .
shaw , angry , tells letty to get on top of the tank and remove the cable before the car anchors them . she obeys , and is seen by dominic who begins to drive faster , knowing that letty will be killed once the car flips off the bridge . this is also known by shaw who was using letty to get to dom . when the car flips and hits the bridge support , the tank flips and sends letty soaring through the air . dom speeds up and crashes his car into the railing of the bridge and catches letty midair , they both crash into a car windshield , dom looking at letty , relieved she is uninjured .
however , the scene goes on for about 13 minutes , so just how long can one runway be at such fast speeds ? the plane lands ( which would be around 140mph ) , and then picks up enough speed to take off again , all on the same runway .
she laughed , remembering letty’s iconic knockout . “dude , i hit him for real by mistake . i did the same thing to paul calderon in girlfight —i dislocated his jaw ! it was so fucked up . they trained me how to hit people , but they didn’t untrain me when it came time to do stunts . so funny . ”
yes , yes it is . but any reminder of paul walker is a welcome one , so we’ll take it .
so yes , cue fast and furious 6 in 2013 . former british sas major turned criminal owen shaw is running amok , assembling parts for some weapons and hobbs needs dom to help him . letty being alive is of course the motivator which sees the entire crew , la familia , coming back for another pay check . long story short , letty has amnesia , sides with dom near the end , mia is rescued and shaw is dead . oh , and giselle dies , leaving han to travel to tokyo , japan .
letty ( rodriguez ) ain’t about to fit a baby seat in the back of her hot rod . picture : universal pictures
hobbs approaches dominic with the news that letty is alive and asks him for his and his team ' s help in bringing down the international criminal letty is working for : owen shaw . dom agrees , only after brian secures them full pardons for their assistance , though dom had little interest in shaw , which is shown during a chase scene in which he allows shaw to escape in order to chase down letty . after finally chasing her down dom gets out of his car to speak to letty . however , letty shoots dom before getting back in her car and taking off appearing to not recognize who he is .
we know life happens , so if something comes up , you can return or exchange your tickets up until the posted showtime .
10 . rodriguez almost quit the first film because her character , letty ortiz , was supposed to cheat on dom with brian .
raised a jehovah’s witness , the religion didn’t stick , but the mindset did . “having that suppressive mentality in your family for so long , you think about really serious life things really young , ” she said . “you think about the world and whether it’s owned by the devil or by god , you think about politics , you think about the planet . you think globally ; you think universally . so i felt a big responsibility coming into the game . ”
after f & f bosses wanted to bring back han for the fourth movie after his death in tokyo drift , they didn ' t bother doing the whole
amnesia
trick back then . instead , they just made a load of prequels so that han could be part of dom ' s team for as long as possible .
after that , jesse is killed , letty and vince almost die , so i think it ' s understood that leon had had enough of that situation . the heat had become too risky and he didn ' t want anything more to do with the gang .
now in its eighth instalment , here’s our film - by - film guide to everything you need to know about the series so far .
when letty was a teenager , she and mia were caught up in an escape attempt somewhere in boyle heights . when they got trapped in a corner , letty drove her car , a ford torino cobra , through a retaining wall . [ 3 ] [ note 4 ]
michelle rodriguez did not know letty was actually alive until the end of fast five when she saw the movie in theaters . [ 5 ]
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so what happened to him ? well , actor johnny strong has his own theory . speaking to entertainment weekly , he noted how mia tells brian that leon
just showed up one night and never left
, so it ' s easy to assume he quit in the same manner .
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like the rest of the world , aussies raced to see the fate of the furious over the easter long weekend , revving up box office taking to $ 14 . 92 million in its first six days of release .
best action sequence : the entire 20 minute finale , with dom’s gang taking down shaw’s plane on the longest runway ever seen in the history of cinema – approximately 27 . 86 miles long , as estimated by aeronautics engineer gary spoors .
rodriguez had signed on to universal’s the fast and the furious despite having major beef with the arc intended for her character , streetwise racer letty ortiz . the formulaic screenplay called for a love triangle between letty , dominic toretto ( diesel ) , and brian o’conner ( walker ) . rodriguez was nearly ready to walk .
• johnson was cast after diesel asked his fans on facebook for story ideas on facebook . one suggested writing a villain role for the rock , so they did .
though the production used movie magic , some suspension of disbelief , and multiple passes over three weeks to shoot the final plane sequence , the runway as is in the final movie would allegedly be 28 . 829 miles long if calculated out correctly .
so , now that we’ve all seen it , and figured out why dom went rogue , we’re betting everyone has a few burning ( rubber ) questions they need answered .
the team then prepares to save mia , and letty tells them that she is going with them . they all ride out , and brian , dom and letty all get on the plane that shaw is attempting to escape in . letty then has another physical altercation with riley , she is on the losing end until hobbs tosses her a weapon , which she then uses to kill riley and shoot her out of the plane . she and hobbs escape , but dom stays behind to secure the chip .
letty ( michelle rodriguez ) and dom begin fate honeymooning in havana — but by the end of the movie , their familial situation looks rather different . picture : universal pictures
• asked by the studio to make a cameo appearance following badly - received test screenings , vin diesel only did so in order to gain the rights to the riddick franchise .
if you need a quick refresher , cipher finds dom in cuba on his honeymoon with letty ( michelle rodriguez ) where she coerces him to betray his beloved family in order to save a son he didn’t know he had . turns out elena ( elsa pataky ) got pregnant sometime between fast five and furious 6 , but she realized it just as dom learned letty was still alive , so she kept the news to herself with a plan to tell him after he got back from his honeymoon . and so we meet the little chubby - cheeked toretto without a name , which is a super soapy narrative move , but also one of the only justifications that would sell dom’s turn against his family .
letty and dominic ' s wedding , i think , was something they thought up specifically around the time they were writing the story . . . 2015 - 05 - 13t01 : 10 : 19z
tommy hopes to secure an inheritance from uncle claude , but he knows letty won’t impress the man , even before he’s heard of their encounter at the hotel . he falls into a scheme of wife exchange : his neighbor grace ( patsy ruth miller ) pretends to be married to him , and grace’s husband harry ( grant withers ) pretends to be married to letty until uncle claude leaves .
letty robbins ( charlotte greenwood ) is a loud and energetic woman who works as a solicitor for a beauty parlor . she’s married to tommy ( bert roach ) , a far less exuberant man .
letty was presumably born and raised in the same neighborhood as the toretto family . she lived down the street from them . letty took an interest in cars when she was ten years old . dominic , a fellow car enthusiastic like his father ,
always had her attention
. however , when she became sixteen , dominic became romantically interested in her . [ note 3 ] [ 2 ]
letty is introduced as dom ' s girlfriend and they have been friends since childhood . although , letty expresses some concern about dominic ' s carjacking scheme she participates in every robbery . she is seen at race wars where she races and beats a fellow racer . in the end , during a botched highway robbery , she rolls her car and is injured but is saved by leon and survives .
we ' ll let off brian for knowing how to handle himself in a gunfight or actual fight , as he was a cop and later an fbi agent . but what about dom and letty ?
it was very cool to bring [ motherhood ] to the series once i was a mom myself . i actually played a mom before becoming a mom and i kind of got it , but not really . then , the minute i had julian i really understood . when i shot the scene with jack and he’s in the car and there’s this massive explosion , everything became so much more visceral , the stakes became so much higher , so it’s really fun to bring that element to the series . now , she’s a mom of two because in furious 7 mia told brian she’s pregnant with a little girl .
however , letty is not killed by the explosion . gisele yashar , an employee of braga , brings the wounded and amnesiac letty to the hospital . she was found two days later in the hospital , by owen shaw who had went there to kill her . however when he determined that she had no memory of her previous life , he decided she would be a good member on his team .
so , before heading back for seconds , hit the brakes as we hunt down the answers to some of the fate of the furious’ most nagging queries , direct from the horse ( power ) ’s mouth .
after the first film , undercover cop brian ( paul walker ) betrayed his fellow boys in blue by allowing dom ( vin diesel ) to escape . in doing so , he became something of a fugitive himself .
pilot ian hollingworth told the bbc that the cars were travelling at an average speed of 120mph , making that two miles per minute . even if some of the action sequences were happening at the same time , the runway would be around 18 - 20 miles long . that ' s nearly a whole marathon right there .
so , yeah , was dom a little guilty for doing that ? he let deckard shaw into his family for doing a lot worse . ok , fenix almost killed brian too , but still . justice for fenix !
“to me , it’s the equivalent of run dmc doing their first track with aerosmith , ” rodriguez exclaimed while reclining inside a luxury trailer parked at dodger stadium . “that’s how i feel we did in hollywood ! didn’t expect to make a splash , didn’t think we’d be around for long— booyakasha ! we ain’t going nowhere . ”
the crazy stunts . the ripe dialogue . the huge box office . the comraderie . as fast & furious 8 comes roaring down the road , here ' s our film - by - film guide to the franchise so far
• this was the most expensive film in the series so far . the train heist sequence alone cost $ 25 million to make , and involved buying a stretch of railway in mexico and an actual train to blow up .
the fate of the furious is the first film in a new trilogy . it is known . franchise star vin diesel and long - time writer chris morgan have been trotting out that exact verbiage in interviews over the last few weeks , making it clear that the events of fate will pay off in the ninth and tenth films . so now that we’ve all had a chance to see the movie ( at least judging by those box office returns ) , let’s take a look at the end of fate and what it sets up for the furious films to come .
best action sequence ( s ) : there are so many to choose from here , but the heist chase which sees dom and brian drag a huge bank vault along the streets of rio is as joyful as it is nonsensical .
dom actually bests hobbs ( johnson ) in a fight in fast five , letty beats ufc champion ronda rousey in 7 , and they both know how to handle all the guns in the world by 8 . dom is so hard , that cipher decides he ' s the only man in the world that can handle stealing a nuclear football from the russians in broad daylight , jack bauer - style . there must be something in the los angeles water .
letty tells him she needs some air and goes out . she is found by dom and a race . the two race , and letty , intrigued by dominic , tells him to follow her . they meet up , and dom tells her that he knows
everything
about her . he begins explaining the scars she has on her and how she got them . he also gives her the famous cross necklace . she grows emotional and leaves .
mirren : one of the strong themes in the fast and the furious [ movies ] has always been family , that family is important . i think that’s one of the reasons they’re popular films , because that is the one element that everybody all over the world can identify with simply , easily , and directly , so it’s great to see this other level being brought in with the different generations of the family , the fact that family actually goes on through many generations over long periods of time . i thought that that was a nice thing to introduce into the storyline .
so where in that timeline did they get married ? based on some of those flashbacks—and the timing of it all—it would have to have been during los bandoleros . in other words , they got married between the first and fourth films .
uncle claude comes to the ardmore beach hotel to see tommy and his wife . at the hotel , with his two granddaughters ruth and sally , uncle claude meets a wise talking employee named letty . . . see full summary »
another quip , uttered by letty , speaking of tommy : “he’s not very much to look at , judge , but he does lend atmosphere in the home ! he lends more sphere than atmos , but i like him . ”
“i just don’t do that ; i’m not that girl , you know what i mean ? they’ll probably have to kill letty . again , ” she laughed . “they’d have to kill her again cos she’s no nanny . sorry …
fun fact : the setting of fast five is foreshadowed in the beginning of fast & furious when letty tells dom , “i hear rio is good this time of year , ” while the pair ponder where to escape to next .
loftin rigged the truck with a dead clutch so the 18 - wheeler could drive without anyone behind the wheel . spielberg filmed the crash with seven cameras from multiple angles to be able to use some editing tricks to stretch out the scene .
letty was also a capable fighter . she easily punched a security guard to the floor when they tried to stop dominic from attacking tran and also overwlemed several security guards at a party . she also held her own against trained fighter kara ; they were so evenly matched that their fight ended in a draw when they crashed over a balcony and smashed through a table , both too dazed to keep fighting . she did struggle against riley during their fight in the subway , letty being overwelmed , barely preventing the women from handcuffing her to a pole and narrowly escaped an arm lock imposed on her . she did manage to tackle her down a flight of steps though , recovering fast enough to escape as riley was disorientated .
but as each movie has gone on they , along with the likes of roman ( tyrese gibson ) , tej ( ludacris ) and han , have become so adept at fist fights and weapons training that they might as well be james bond .
nathalie emmanuel : the thing i like about ramsey is that she’s an extremely talented hacker and she’s very intelligent and a problem solver . there’s a stigma about women in [ technological ] types of industries or in those types of jobs and i think that it’s really cool that ramsey is so good at what she does . in a way , that character breaks certain stereotypes and also how you might perceive somebody who is into that kind of thing might look or how they might dress or how they might be as a person . i think that she is a normal girl who just so happens to be quite skilled at computers , hacking , coding , and all of that fun stuff . i think that’s a really cool thing that she represents within the franchise , and i also like that she’s sort of independent of this family that’s been established for so long . she’s come in purely on her own merit and her own specific skillset and it’s useful to this group and what they do . as much as she’s become a part of the group , she’s come in independently and i quite enjoy that .
elsa pataky : it’s beautiful and really sad because i’m a mom too and it’s so difficult to see that story , how it started and how it ends . i think any mom in the world would sacrifice her life for the life of her son . it’s such a big love , and it’s so intense , all the scenes that she has with dom . she’s a police officer , so knows the power of this woman that charlize plays , how dangerous the situation is . she’s suffering and thinking about that helped me a lot with the scene because it breaks my heart . she knew something would happen to [ their son ] if [ dom ] wouldn’t do whatever [ cipher ] wanted . that’s what she focused on — just save our son .
letty , dominic and his new crew hijack a truck in the dominican republic narrowly escaping . after dom leaves her she goes to fbi agent brian o - connor to clear dom ' s name in order for him to return home . brian consequently puts letty undercover with arturo braga as a driver running drugs over the us - mexico border . however , after the job is complete she realizes that the leader of the team , fenix calderon , intends to murder the drivers : she escapes in her car .
in furious 7 , when letty regains her memory , we get a flash of the couple’s wedding day , and we see how they wrapped the necklace around their hands when they said their vows . suddenly , it all makes sense . well , most of it .
director f . gary gray has said the movie’s opening sequence — in which dom and letty’s cuban honeymoon is interrupted by a drag race through the streets of havana — wouldn’t have happened without former president barack obama “softening the relations” between the us and its southern neighbour .
after the reveal , some fans are probably left wondering when dom and letty tied the knot . considering the twisted timeline of the fast and furious series , any confusion is certainly understandable . so here’s how the movies break down chronologically , in terms of story : the fast and the furious , 2 fast 2 furious , los bandoleros ( vin diesel’s short film ) , fast & furious , fast five , fast & furious 6 , the fast and the furious : tokyo drift , and then furious 7 ( or rather , furious seven ) .
with filmmaker edgar wright , spielberg explained , “ [ producer ] george eckstein told me after the network saw it , ‘well , we’re going back to the desert , they want to push the truck off the cliff again and blow it up again . ' i told george why that was such a terrible idea . i’d worked so hard to give the truck a long and painful death and i thought that’s what the audience wanted out of the resolution . i said , ‘if the network does force you to blow the truck up again , you get another director to do it because i’m not going to do it . ' george fought for me , and for himself because he agreed with me . ”
“he was a real fucking dude with a big - ass heart . like , fuck talking about doing shit for people , i’m going to go out there and start a charity . hands first . i love that boy so much . we weren’t thinking about anything else , man . ”
the movie debuted on november 13 , 1971 as abc’s movie of the week , and proved to be so successful that spielberg was given the opportunity to shoot additional footage ( the school bus scene and the railroad crossing scene ) to be able to release it in theaters at feature length .
director rob cohen modeled the film’s third act chases through the los angeles hills on similar san francisco - set scenes in the 1968 car - chase classic bullitt , starring steve mcqueen . cohen loved the movie so much that he cast actor paul walker because he thought he resembled bullitt ’s lead actor .
leticia
letty
ortiz is the wife of dominic toretto , sister in - law to mia toretto , and the stepmother of brian marcos . a protagonist in the fast and the furious franchise , letty ortiz is the childhood sweetheart of dominic toretto , turned street racer , mechanic and thief . when she volunteered to go undercover to expose arturo braga for the fbi , she was nearly killed and suffered from temporary amnesia as a result . she was later reunited with her family when luke hobbs of the diplomatic security service recruited the likes of dominic toretto and his crew to stop owen shaw .
• after the opening sequence , han says he’s planning to go to tokyo – a reference to his fiery destiny as revealed in tokyo drift . he doesn’t go yet , and keeps promising to go to tokyo for the next two instalments . he finally does so at the end of fast & furious 6 .
after all , nothing is sadder than a film franchise that should have ended several installments ago . just ask “die hard , ” “lethal weapon , ” “the expendables , ” or even “indiana jones . ” it would be so sad to see an arthritic dom slide behind the wheel of the latest muscle car .
letty became involved in street racing in her teens . when she was fifteen years old , she participated in a street race against dominic which resulted in both of their cars crashing . she managed to pull dominic from the wreck of his car , almost losing her arm in the process . [ 3 ]
ah , the classic
damn , we shouldn ' t have killed that character off
problem . after vin and the guys realised they wanted michelle rodriguez back in the team after letty died in fast & furious , they had to come up with a way of bringing her back from the dead .
against the odds and studio convention , 2001’s the fast and the furious went on to spawn six more supercharged sequels , making stars of its actors . and long before paul walker’s tragic death in 2013 , that cast had become a family both onscreen and off , attracting a loyal and emotionally invested fan following around a hollywood anomaly : the multicultural blockbuster film franchise . now more than ever , rodriguez feels the responsibility of repping the streets from inside the party .
mia : letty grew up just down the street . she was into cars since she was like ten years old . dom always had her attention . then she turned sixteen . . . brian : and she had dom ' s attention . mia : yeah , it ' s funny how that works out .
naturally a success like this needed a sequel . so what if vin diesel wasn’t available ? 2 fast 2 furious arrived in 2003 and introduced roman pearce ( played by tyrese gibson ) . tej ( aka ludacris ) is also in the film along with eva mendes . really , those are the most important plot points right there .
for years now , fans have watched dom risk his life to hold onto letty’s cross necklace . but why ? just because it reminds him of her ? well , now we know : it’s because they’re married , and have been for some time ! as for the necklace , we learned that it’s their version of wedding rings .
end credit sequence : han’s death from tokyo drift is caused by jason statham’s character , deckard shaw , the brother of luke evans ' furious 6 villain , owen shaw ( who previously mentioned his brother in the scene where he confronts dom after his street race with letty ) , which leads directly into the plot of furious 7 .
the performances from the entire cast are great , particularly the central foursome of letty , grace , tom , and harry . at times very exaggerated , the performances work because they suit the film’s outrageous mood . and though exaggerated , the performances are still very natural in the sense that the characters seem real and the dialogue isn’t stiffly delivered .
now , if you still haven’t watched los bandoleros , it’s the short film that vin diesel wrote and directed in order to explain what dom had been up to after leaving brian—and the country—in the first film . in it , dom and letty reunite in the dominican republic , which is where we find them at the start of fast & furious .
so ahead of the debut of furious 7 , take a look back at all the fun facts surrounding the making of the movie , including who originally wanted out of the first film , the actor who asked for a role in the franchise after it became a big hit , and the easter egg that connects the worlds of fast & furious and herbie .
the harrowing sequence was originally supposed to be the ending of fast five , and got so far into the production process of that movie that is was storyboarded and pre - visualized before being scrapped for budgetary reasons . the leftover storyboards and pre - viz were simply grafted on to furious 6 and updated to account for new characters and the new movie’s plot .
the premise has high potential for hilarity and it fully lives up to that potential , which has been pretty rare in my viewing of comedies from any era . so often films in this genre seem promising , only to fall flat due to bad casting or a poor script . ( still , when done right , it is one of my favorite genres . )
the logistics of the vault heist were so difficult that , like the train sequence , the scene was almost scrapped entirely . to portray a large vault being dragged by diesel and walker’s characters on - screen , six separate vaults were built to accommodate certain shots that were needed , including a full - size vault and a lightweight vault that could be easily towed .
dear universal , vin diesel , & family , a plea . after eight films and $ 4 . 4 billion and counting , it’s time for the “fast and the furious” series to eye the exit ramp . i’m not saying you have to send dom toretto into the great garage in the sky without giving him and letty and hobbs and the [ … ]
it was also the first time in eight years that diesel , walker , and jordana brewster had appeared on - screen together as their characters since the first film . though michelle rodriguez returned as letty ortiz , diesel is the only original cast member she shares screen time with , because her character ( allegedly ) dies off - screen after the opening sequence .
luke hobbs is sitting at his desk at the dss offices when u . s . customs agent , monica fuentes , presents him with a file on a heist committed in berlin . attached to the file is a photograph of letty [ note 5 ] suggesting that not only is she alive but she is involved in large - scale criminal activity . [ 4 ]
when dominic discovers vince has associated himself with hernan reyes after attempting to steal the device in the gt40 . dominic accuses vince of betrayal , but vince defends his character , and makes a point to say that dominic ' s failure to listen to him about brian o ' conner resulted in the loss of their home , family and the death of letty . [ 4 ]
who could have ever thought that the fast and the furious , a 2001 film about illegal street racing and michelle rodriguez’s lack of facial expressions , would grow into such a mega success ? this is a series that has gone from being need for speed : underground the movie to kill bill but with cars and now involves charlize theron with a submarine in wintery landscapes . how in the world did we get this far ? more importantly , what various plot twists should you be aware before watching the fate of the furious , the eighth film in the long - running saga ?
however , she is chased by calderon who manages to flip her car leaving her injured in the wreckage . as calderon approaches intending to shoot her , he instead shoots and blows up the car after letty crawled out of it . the explosion throws her into the underbrush , and calderon leaves her for dead . brian was left to assume that she had died as did dominic and mia .
in order to have the real actors behind the wheel of cars going upwards of 80 to 100 miles per hour , a special rig was built by second unit director and stunt coordinator mic rodgers that the filmmakers dubbed the “mic rig . ” it consisted of a high - powered truck with a long chassis in the back on which the bodies of the custom cars in the movie could be interchanged . a stunt driver drove the high - speed truck while the actors were behind the wheel of the dummy car in back , which made it look like they were really driving at dangerous speeds .
the film also has some visual interest . some of letty’s costumes have really odd details to them — an asymmetrical hat , a jacket adorned by an enormous bow that’s half her size . ( see the video below for a look at that outfit . ) in the beauty parlor scenes , though they are few , the old hair / makeup / spa contraptions are fun to see as well .
“they’re not going to bring your mum in unless there’s something down the line . there’s so much opportunity for what we can understand about where the shaw family is really from , what they’re really capable of . . . i don’t want to spoil what they’ve got coming , but they’ve got some really good stuff coming . that would include helen and , obviously . . . i’m not gonna say anything ! ”
so , how come everyone in tokyo drift is using flip phones and other gadgets that are nearly 10 years old ? the last time we checked , tokyo is pretty ahead of the curve with this kind of stuff . plus , how come sean ( lucas black ) has aged about 9 years in between scenes after dom shows up ? there ' s some weird timey - wimey voodoo at work here , clearly .
rodriguez sat out the second and third films , she says , after diesel opted out . but when the studio and filmmakers floated the idea of bringing the gang back together as the franchise was rebirthed under director justin lin , letty ortiz gave fans two of their biggest surprises—a shocking offscreen demise in 2009’s fast & furious , and a cathartic return from the dead in the closing moments of 2011’s fast five .
chronologically , the film segues into the fast and the furious from 2009 . letty is dead ( like , totes , for real ) , having worked with a drug dealer named braga and paid with her life . dom is determined to find her killer and brian is somehow working for the fbi ( and falling for dom’s sister mia ) again . in the midst of all this , a convoluted plan is cooked up to have dom and brian serve as braga’s drivers . lo and behold , however , letty was working undercover with brian . following some unnecessary twists and turns , braga is finally apprehended . though brian tries to gain clemency for dom , the latter is sentenced to jail for 25 years . psych ! brian and mia in fact free dom because this franchise just has to keep going . next stop : rio !
so , a little retconning was needed by the time fast & furious 6 rolled around . it turns out she was alive all this time ! not only is this a silly plot twist ( if this happened in real life it would have at least made the news ) , but she just magically got back her memories for no apparent reason at the end of furious 7 . why ? don ' t worry about it .
after the lobotomy rage hit american shores , dr . walter freeman took to traveling the country in his
lobotomobile
 ( no , really ) , performing the technique on everyone from catatonic schizophrenics to disaffected housewives . his road - ready procedure involved inserting a small ice pick into the brain through the eye socket and wiggling it around a bit . while some doctors thought he ' d found a way to save hopeless cases from the horrors of life - long institutionalization , others noted that freeman didn ' t bother with sterile techniques , had no surgical training whatsoever , and tended to be a bit imprecise when describing his patients ' recovery .
originally the tank sequence was supposed to take place in the streets of london , and the production planned to re - create 12 city blocks on a soundstage to shoot what they needed ( london city officials wouldn’t grant the production access to city roads because the olympics were happening at the same time they shot the movie , so most of the street scenes were shot in glasgow , scotland as a stand - in for the uk capital ) .
tommy’s uncle claude ( claude gillingwater ) , a millionaire , comes to town for a visit . he and his granddaughters , flapper girls ruth ( marion byron ) and sally ( helen foster ) , are staying at the posh beach hotel where letty’s salon is . not knowing who claude or the girls are , she tries to sell them salon services . claude takes an instant dislike to her , not realizing she’s married to tommy .
when she arrives back to shaw ' s lair , he questions her to see if she remembers dom at all , to which she says she doesn ' t . later , she meets up with dom ' s team again , when going to investigate a phone call made by the man who made special vehicles for them . a shoot out ensues , in which her team mate , ivory , is killed by gisele . letty tries to escape through the subways , but is followed by riley . the two fight each other , and letty tackles riley down the stairs , and finally escapes on a subway train . she heads back to shaw , and tells him that ivory was killed , but his lack of caring frustrates her . shaw then comes to her and tells her that he has a soft spot for her because she is a blank page who remembers nothing .
shaw is captured , and they all go back to the military base . when the guy in charge attempts to arrest letty too for working with shaw , dom steps forward and says ,
she ' s always been one of us
. brian then goes up to her to apologize , feeling that everything is his fault , to which she tells him that no one makes her do something she doesn ' t want to do .
“the reason dom went to jail in the original film is he did some violence against someone who hurt his family . deckard’s story is not too far away from that . the reason he comes after our guys ( in f7 ) is because he has a similar code — he looks after family . so . . . that felt like you might be able to turn him , in a way that you could start understanding what his motivations were . ”
“i was really worried that it would be a cover - up , that it wouldn’t be a legacy , that it would be a machine thing—‘what’s next , what’s next ? ’” said rodriguez . “man , [ universal ] surprised me with their respect . they were human . they had heart . and they really gave a shit . everybody involved , down to catering . they all put so much heart into it and i’m proud . i think he would be . ”
the coma - therapy trend began in 1927 . viennese physician manfred sakel accidentally gave one of his diabetic patients an insulin overdose , and it sent her into a coma . but what could have been a major medical faux pas turned into a triumph . the woman , a drug addict , woke up and declared her morphine craving gone . later , sakel ( who really isn ' t earning our trust here ) made the same mistake with another patient—who also woke up claiming to be cured . before long , sakel was intentionally testing the therapy with other patients and reporting a 90 percent recovery rate , particularly among schizophrenics . strangely , however , sakel ' s treatment successes remain a mystery .
like her husband dominic , letty is an extremely skilled race car driver . she was able to outrace a contestant at a race with relative ease and was recruited to be a part of braga ' s drug cartel , which required driving prowess to cross the border at high speed . she was even a match for dominic , narrowly losing to him in their one on one race in london , despite having held the lead for the majority of the race .
now the fast and the furious : tokyo drift , released in 2006 , comes into play . it’s mostly about some brat who can’t drift learning to do so thanks to han’s teachings . han is assassinated in the film , a race is had and the brat rules tokyo or something . in the end of fast and furious 6 however , we learn that it was deckard shaw , owen shaw’s brother played by “are they seriously trying to make this cast manlier” jason statham .
those women include michelle rodriguez ( letty ) , jordana brewster ( mia ) , nathalie emmanuel ( ramsey ) , elsa pataky ( elena ) , nathalie kelley ( neela ) , and helen mirren ( magdalene ) , who spoke with ew about their characters , how those roles evolved over the years , the state of women in action films today , why representation in the genre matters , and how the fast films ( and hollywood ) can improve on that representation .
somehow , dom was able to make contact with magdalene ( who presumably just happened to be in new york at the time ) , despite being under the watchful eye of cipher and her goons . he was then able to somehow give her the god ' s eye device so that she and deckard could find where owen was being locked up . and they were able to come up with the whole plan in the five - minute window dom had before cipher knew something was up .
“it’s been 14 years since i’ve been the lead in a movie , since i’ve carried a movie on my own , ” she said . “i’ve just been so shocked by life in the last two years . i’m going to open up . i’ve kind of made myself a carcass of safety and i’ve protected myself against playing the ‘girlfriend’ or ‘the girl who gets raped and then gets empowered , ’ ‘the girl who gets empowered and then dies’… they’re always taking the power away from the women . ”
after the shocking reveal that dom’s a dad , the even - more - shocking disposal of dom’s baby mamma elena by that heartless villain cipher ( boo , hiss , charlize theron ! ) , and the more - ridiculous - than - shocking rescue of the baby by that ex - villain deckard shaw ( hoorah , the stath ! ) , the fate of the furious ends up all happy families with dom introducing the new kid to his girl letty and the rest of the fast family .
the verdict : with a title that falls firmly under so - bad - it ' s - good , it ' s disappointing that the rest of the film doesn ' t follow suit . 2 fast is paper - thin and full of highly questionable racial and gender stereotypes , and the while the original film is hardly shakespeare , we could forgive the film its flaws if the race sequences were any good . they’re not , though – they’re overly cartoony , and it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going on .
the movie was shot primarily on location in tokyo , which doesn’t grant filming permits . so for many shots , including the ones of lead actor lucas black wandering around highly populated areas like shibuya crossing , the director and a minimal crew just shot black amongst real pedestrians until the police shut the production down . to make sure lin wouldn’t get into trouble or thrown in jail and have the production halted , he had the production manager trick the police by telling them that he was the director and not lin .