FILM 2238: THE BIG CHILL (1983)

TRIVIA: Flashback scenes with Kevin Costner as Alex Marshall were filmed but then cut out of the movie. Costner is still visible as the body being dressed at the beginning of the film.

Kevin Kline met future wife Phoebe Cates when she auditioned for the part of Chloe, which eventually went to Meg Tilly.

The main cast members lived together for a few weeks before filming began.

Of the marathon improvisation period during the rehearsals period, director Lawrence Kasdan said: "It happened kind of spontaneously. We were working at the house and everyone was in costume and we decided it might be great if we all cooked a meal. That way they'd have to split up the tasks and approximate a group of close friends putting together a dinner. I chose to leave at that point and all I said was, 'You should do this in character'. I left and for five hours they remained in character without any authority figure, without any director to tell them if they were behaving or reacting in the correct way according to the writer's or director's ideas. They had to live in those characters' skins and instantly deal with input from each other character. It became a very intense experience and they all came out of it exhausted and drained. I'm not sure it would have developed as fully had I been there during that time. A rehearsal period goes through stages like a life cycle and we had already had three and a half weeks of rehearsal. But that happened at a crucial, crystallizing moment and it turned eight individual actors into an ensemble".

The name of Harold Cooper (Kevin Kline)'s "Running Dog" shoe-store chain is a play on the 'Mao Tse-tung' phrase, "the running dogs of capitalism".

The soundtrack of the movie consisted of many 1960s-era rock songs. Because of the success of the soundtrack, dozens of TV commercials used music from the same period.

The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1984 including Best Picture, Best Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Glenn Close, but the film failed to take home an Oscar in any category.

Lawrence Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark by himself, but due to this film, could only commit part time to writing Return of the Jedi. He and George Lucas took turns on alternate drafts. Kasdan's son, Jon Kasdan, who appeared in this film, went on to write Solo: A Star Wars Story with his father.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Watch this here…