Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood film movement and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time. Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a BAFTA Award.
This Is Spinal Tap is a 1984 American mockumentary comedy film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner. The film stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as members of the heavy metal band Spinal Tap, who are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands". Reiner plays Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows them on their American tour. The film satirizes the behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands and the perceived hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries such as The Song Remains the Same (1976) and The Last Waltz (1978), and follows the similar All You Need Is Cash (1978) by the Rutles. Most of its dialogue was improvised and dozens of hours were filmed.
Power pop is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and cheerful-sounding music underpinned by a sense of yearning, longing, despair, or self-empowerment. The sound is primarily rooted in pop and rock traditions of the early-to-mid 1960s, although some artists have occasionally drawn from later styles such as punk, new wave, glam rock, pub rock, college rock, and neo-psychedelia.
Air is a French music duo from Versailles, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Their critically acclaimed debut album, Moon Safari, including the track "Sexy Boy", was an international success in 1998. Its follow-up, The Virgin Suicides, was the score to Sofia Coppola's first film of the same name. The band has since released the albums 10 000 Hz Legend, Talkie Walkie, Pocket Symphony, Love 2, Le voyage dans la lune and Music for Museum. The band is influenced by a wide variety of musical styles and artists.
Redd Kross is an American rock band from Hawthorne, California, who had their roots in 1978 in a punk rock band called the Tourists, which was started by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald while Steve was still in middle school. With the addition of friends Greg Hetson and John Stielow on drums, the band's first gig was opening for Black Flag. The band has since released eight albums and three EPs.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a 1991 American documentary film about the production of Apocalypse Now, a 1979 Vietnam War epic directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
David Markey is an American film director.
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s.
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.
Ghoulies is an American comedy horror film series that consists of four films released from 1985 to 1994. The films center on a group of small demonic creatures that have a wide range of twisted appearances.
"Sabotage" is a song by American rap rock group Beastie Boys, released by Grand Royal Records in January 1994 as the first single from their fourth studio album, Ill Communication (1994). The song features traditional rock instrumentation, turntable scratches, heavily distorted bass guitar riffs and lead vocals by Ad-Rock. A moderate commercial success, the song was notable for its video, directed by Spike Jonze; it was also nominated in five categories at the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards.
Directors Label is a series of DVDs released by Palm Pictures compiling the work of notable music video directors.
Spirit of '76 refers to the patriotic sentiment engendered by the American Revolution.
A tourist is a person travelling for recreational, medical, leisure or business purposes.
Toby Ross is an American film director who made straight and gay pornographic films in the 1970s and 1980s and later on went to produce nonsexual and cult films with a strong sense of comedic flare. Many film aficionados consider Ross the only missing link between adult films and commercial independent films, as Ross calls it The Antarctica of the film business. He was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. At the age of eight, his mother having remarried an Austrian Jew, he moved with his mother and stepfather to Israel. He served two years in the Israeli army. After studies in Los Angeles, attracted by stories of the freedom in San Francisco, he moved there in the 1970s.
The Virgin Suicides (Music from the Motion Picture) is the soundtrack accompanying the 1999 debut feature film by director Sofia Coppola. Released by Emperor Norton Records on March 28, 2000, the album features classic rock and pop songs by Todd Rundgren, Heart, Sloan, The Hollies, Al Green, Gilbert O'Sullivan, 10cc and Styx; plus two tracks from the French electronic music duo Air.
Werner Erhard and his courses have been referenced in popular culture in various forms of fictional media including literature, film, television and theatre. The original course, known as est, was delivered by the company Erhard Seminars Training (est). Under the name The Forum, they were delivered by Werner Erhard and Associates. Also, the Landmark Forum, a program created by Erhard's former employees after purchasing his intellectual property, has had an influence on popular culture. Some of these works have taken a comedic tack, parodying Erhard and satirizing the methodology used in these courses.
Steven Shane McDonald is an American rock musician, best known as the bass guitarist in the Los Angeles alternative rock/power pop band Redd Kross. He is a founding member of the hardcore punk band OFF! – serving as a member from 2009 to 2021 – as well as bassist for Melvins since 2015. McDonald has appeared in numerous film projects with his older brother Jeff McDonald, including the 1984 film Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and its sequel Lovedolls Superstar; and the 1990 film Spirit of '76.
Susan Meredith Finch is an American film producer, writer, casting director, and director. She has an independent film company called Wildwell Films, based in Los Angeles. She has been married to Roy Finch since November 28, 1999. They have one daughter born in 2009.
Lucas Joseph Reiner is an American painter, printmaker, photographer and filmmaker. He is most known for painting series that mix elements of representation, narrative, symbolism and abstraction. The work explores subjects such as the collision between organic growth and urban life, the atmospheric effects of fireworks and spiritual themes. His work belongs to the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, among others, and a monograph of his paintings, drawings and photographs, Los Angeles Trees (2008), was selected as one of the Los Angeles Times "Favorite Books of 2008." That paper's critic David Pagel wrote that his "paintings of trees trimmed to within inches of their lives have the pathos of circus freaks and the stubbornness of survivalists." Reiner has exhibited in the U.S., Germany, Italy and Mexico, at institutions including Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Museo de la Estampa. He is based in Los Angeles and Berlin, and married to Maud Winchester.
