Calling Black/Trivia

== Trivia ==
Annabella Sciorra initially had no desire to appear in the film, thinking that it would be too intense and sad. A read-through with Robin Williams convinced her otherwise.
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The title is derived from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (Act 3, Scene 1): "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause..."
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The original prints of the film, which were stored at a video vault in Universal Studios Hollywood's backlot, were lost in the June 1st, 2008 backlot fire.
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When Chris goes to the city in Heaven where people are flying around, watch for characters from "Peter Pan" (Wendy, Michael, John) and "Mary Poppins" (Mary Poppins) among the people flying.
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One of a few films shot on Fuji Velvia (RVM) film stock. Velvia is a type of film used most frequently for still photography of landscapes and other subjects because of its very high color saturation. It is only rarely employed for cinematography, usually when special effects are required.
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The "Hell" scenes were shot on the decrepit, rusted hulk of the Essex class aircraft carrier U.S.S. Oriskany (CV-34). The ship was later sunk to make room for an artificial reef on May 17, 2006. The "Hell" scenes were shot at the Alameda Naval Air Station in an indoor swimming pool surrounded by blue screen so that the visual effects could be later added in. Extras spent two twelve-hour days in the water as ghouls.
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The director's mother is among the people flying around in the great library.
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Chris Nielsen's fictional grave is located in Mount View Cemetery in Oakland, California. Near the scene's filming location is a real gravesite for an Anna Nielsen and her husband.
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Dawn Soler, the musical supervisor for the film has said in an interview that Axl Rose intended to have the unreleased Guns N' Roses song "This I Love" in this movie but for some reason the director didn't use the song.
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In the book by Richard Matheson, Chris Nielsen has four children. In the movie, he has two who died four years before him. In the book, Albert Lewis is his cousin who was sickly when they were young, and died at an early age. In the movie, Albert Lewis was Chris Nielsen's mentor as doctor who died before him.
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The original score was composed by Ennio Morricone. However, Morricone's score was rejected after some initial screen tests. No explanation for the rejection has ever been given by the director or producers.
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Michelle Pfeiffer and Meryl Streep turned down the role of Annie Collins-Nielsen.
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This was first announced by 20th Century Fox in 1984 with Wolfgang Petersen directing.
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Annette Bening auditioned for the role of Annie Nielsen.
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This is not the first time Annabella Sciorra and Robin Williams have worked together on a movie. They both starred in Um Conquistador em Apuros (1990).
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The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr.; and two Oscar nominees: Max von Sydow and Werner Herzog.
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Robin Williams and Max von Sydow previously appeared in Tempo de Despertar (1990). In both films, Williams played a doctor while Sydow played a doctors' professor.
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In the sea of faces that Chris Nielsen crosses to find Annie, the old face with glasses who talks to Chris (that he takes wrongly as his father) is the filmmaker Werner Herzog.
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When Chris Nielsen is with his dog Katie and comes across Albert Lewis, who is standing in the water, Chris recognizes him in his youth. Albert exclaims, "You last saw me when I was 63 stretched out in a cardiac ward....who wants to be 63 throughout eternity?!" Robin Williams passed away at age 63 on August 11, 2014.
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Vanessa Ross's debut.
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==== Spoilers ====
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
When Chris, Albert and The Tracker arrive at Hell, they can see an aircraft carrier called Cerberus. In Greek Mythology, Cerberus was a ferocious three-headed dog, guardian of Hades (land of the dead), whose mission was to prevent living people from entering Hades, and spirits of the dead from escaping from it.
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The main colors appear at different times, being the dominant in some scenes:
-Red: The entrance of Hell, full of flames.
-Blue: Chris watches a big tree lose its leaves, reflecting his sadness (Annie ruins her painting with acid).
-Green: When Chris visits Annie in the psychiatric clinic.
-Yellow: The great stairway full of people and the city between mountains, illuminated by an eternal sunset with people flying.
-Black: Chris crosses a stormy sea in a raft with Albert Lewis and The Tracker.
-White: Chris runs by a tunnel with a white light at the end of it.
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Above the bed, when Annie is about to die by suicide, you can see the triptych painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch. The third part of the triptych's theme is hell, the place where Annie is bound to go after her decision to die by suicide.
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Everytime that Chris almost loses himself in his search for Annie, he falls into the water, becoming completely submerged.
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When Chris leaves Annie's at cemetery and he vanishes from Earth, Chris appeared running by a tunnel with a white light at the end. This tunnel is the same painted by Hieronymus Bosch in his 1490's painting "Ascension of the Blessed", and depicted in the 1975's best seller "Life After Life", written by Dr. Raymond Moody.
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In the movie, the different places from Afterlife are created by the thoughts of main characters: Chris Nielsen imagines his house and landscape from Annie's pictures; the great stairway and golden city are taken from Marie's toys in her room; at Hell's entrance, there appears sunken aircraft carriers taken from Ian's memories when he modeled aircrafts; Annie's hell is shown like a gray ground full of faces, taken from a conversation between Chris and her; and finally, Annie's house in hell is a replicate from her house when all of them were alive.
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When Annie destroys the tree painting she is seen wearing a white robe with a black trim. She is actually wearing Chris' robe, which we see him wear in a flashback scene when he discusses with her about their son, Ian.
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While the film doesn't explicitly reveal how she committed suicide, it suggests she poisoned herself. Annie is shown eating an unknown substance from a bowl with her finger while 'talking" about killing herself in front of the mirror, and the bowl is shown again next to her on the bed while writing about the suicide in her diary. "Just this one loose end to ravel up"
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At one point in the movie, the deceased Chris forces the living Annie to write his name while she is writing in her diary. According to supernatural investigators, this is called Automatic Writing, a technique in which living people blank their minds to have it empty of thoughts, allowing a ghost or spirit to use the hand of the living to write messages from the afterlife. It was shown in Intermediário do Diabo (1980).
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In his searching for Annie's soul, Chris faces the four elements (water, earth, fire, and air) to find her:
-Water: Chris leaves Afterlife to approach Hell, crossing a stormy sea in a raft with Albert and The Tracker.
-Earth: Chris arrives at Hell, walking between sinking aircraft carriers.
-Fire: Albert tries to enter into a place full of ghost soldiers, stopped by Chris in the last moment. This entire place appeared surrounded by flames.
-Air: After walking by a ground full of faces, Chris makes a false step and he falls to a great abyss, finally locating Annie.
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While Chris still perceives Albert as blurry he shows him the blurry self portrait of Annie and says "Looks kind of familiar" Albert laughs. It is revealed later that Albert is actually Chris' son Ian and so is 'familiar'. It's possible that Chris in some part recognised Albert as his son.
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The film is about a deceased man whom leaves Heaven to search for his widow in Hell after she dies by suicide. Sixteen years after the film's release, Robin Williams died by suicide.
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Category:Trivia
Category:Calling Black