| Last Days | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
| Produced by | Gus Van Sant Dany Wolf |
| Written by | Gus Van Sant |
| Starring | Michael Pitt Lukas Haas Asia Argento Jared Solano Scott Patrick Green Nicole Vicius Ricky Jay |
| Music by | Rodrigo Lopresti |
| Cinematography | Harris Savides |
| Editing by | Gus Van Sant |
| Studio | Picturehouse HBO Films |
| Distributed by | Newco Fine Line Features |
| Release date(s) | July 22, 2005 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $2,456,454 |
Last Days is a 2005 American drama film directed, produced, and written by Gus Van Sant, and is a fictionalized account of the last days of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005, and was produced by HBO. The film stars Michael Pitt as the character Blake, based on Kurt Cobain. Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, and Thadeus A. Thomas also star in the film. Director and friend of Van Sant's, Harmony Korine, appears in a brief club scene as well, playing a character similar to one in the movie Kids.
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Van Sant said he thought about the project for nearly a decade. At one stage, he wanted to do a biographical film about Cobain, but decided against the idea out of fear of being sued by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. He was not sure how Cobain's fans and family would react to the film. He spoke to Love several times over the years about his project and recently expressed his concern that it may be painful for her to see the film. Actress Asia Argento, who plays a dead-beat character in the film, stated, "It's been written that I play Courtney Love, and it's not true. I'm so upset. I don't know why people say that. I feel very sorry for her. She's been demonized and I feel sorry for anybody that's lost like that. But no, I play a character that's very dorky."[1] Last Days was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography, but failed to win any film festival awards.
The plot follows Blake (Michael Pitt), an alienated and disenchanted rock star who is escaping his turbulent life by isolating himself at his mansion. He eludes a private detective (Ricky Jay) looking for him and ignores his ex-wife's demands that he should come home. Blake spends much of the film walking around, muttering to himself. He sometimes wears a dress and plays music. At one point, he goes out to a seedy rock club, then returns home, where he dies, presumably by suicide. His friends and associates flee to avoid suspicion.
Much like the real-life Kurt Cobain case, the ending is left ambiguous. A mysterious figure with a black top hat, believed to be the resurrected former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln can be seen wandering around the greenhouse Blake dies in, before and after he dies.
In parentheses is the person the character is based on.
Last Days is the third, and supposedly final installment, in what Van Sant has frequently called his "Death Trilogy", which began with Gerry and continued with Elephant. The most obvious similar trait in this trilogy of unrelated plots is that the dialogue and narration are minimal, and not linearly connected. The technique is especially similar to Elephant, where scenes are revisited from new angles, starting at differing points in time, without a signal that the clock was turned back at some point. In Paranoid Park, a later film by Van Sant, the same technique is used. As in Gerry, the camera's attention is frequently diverted from the drama, by attachment to some situational detail. All three films are resistant to easy explanation, but they share the theme of (among other things) extreme isolation (physical in Gerry, social in Elephant, and mental in Last Days).
Last Days also features two original compositions by lead actor Michael Pitt, an acoustic song entitled "Death to Birth", an electric jam called "That Day", as well as another piece, "Untitled", by fellow actor Lukas Haas. Rodrigo Lopresti composed "Seen as None," and "Pointless Ride." [2] The character of Scott listens to "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground in the living room scene. Blake, in one lengthy sequence, absently watches a music video for the song, "On Bended Knee" by the band Boyz II Men on a television. Incidentally The Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs" features a lyric that refers to the line, "On Bended Knee". Pitt's character is also shown writing with his left hand but playing guitar right-handed, in contrast to Cobain's left-handed guitar playing. Soundscape piece called "Doors of perception" (Türen der Wahrnehmung) is work of Hildegard Westerkamp.
The film was shot in the Hudson Valley region of New York state, although its aesthetic style, due largely in part to cinematographer Harris Savides' specialized treatment of the film stock, suggests the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, where both Cobain and Van Sant find their roots.
The film was entered into the 2005 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Technical Grand Prize.[3]
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   | Official website - New Line Cinema : Gus Van Sant's Last Days |
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