40 Shades of Blue - The Movie

Have you ever had the experience when you watch a movie...and your house (the one you are watching the movie from and actually live in) is the set?

I went 30 years and 4 months living free of this...until Tuesday night.

#dwh2 is the primary set for the Ira Sachs movie "Forty Shades of Blue" filmed right here in Memphis in 2004. I tried to speculate what the movie was about prior to reading the blurb...but I'll spare you my interpretation and let you read it yourself....

"As James is a legend in Memphis, a white man who produced black music back in the 60s and 70s, the heyday of Memphis Soul. Now in his later years, hes still living the high life in a comfortable house in the right part of town. He lives with his girlfriend, Laura, a Russian beauty whom he met on tour in Moscow. Laura spends most of her time alone, raising their three-year-old son, Sam. A stranger in Memphis, she lives a comfortable but alienated life. Alan also has a grown-up son, Michael, with whom he has a complicated relationship fuelled by jealousy, disappointment and anger. When Michael returns home for the first time in many years the initial hostility he radiates towards his fathers girl develops into something much more, and a messy, dangerous affair ensues. In the bars and bedrooms of this very contemporary city, a love triangle forms, illuminating the hearts and souls of these three tangled lives."

The movie was the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize winner and nomimated at various other film festivals that year.

This movie is for sure an acquired taste what with the plot line and all, but I was glad to see a movie filmed in Memphis that was free from violence, drugs, and legal activity. It seems as though movies like Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, The Rainmaker, The Firm, The Client to name a few were full of scandal and legal conversation, and police officers.  (Which many people believe to be the nature of the city.) I am pleased to report that this movie didn't have a single police officer or arrest scene in it.

When we were looking at the house before purchase, we found out that a movie was filmed here but I thought perhaps it was just a single scene. As we were moving into the house, I was unpacking china in one of the cupboards and rolled up on the actual movie script. VERY FASCINATING!

While many of the interior rooms have stayed the same there have been some changes. The exterior is now a different color and the landscaping around the house is quite different. For example, we have a different fence. This was very obvious to us as we watched many of the outdoor scenes. The kitchen and breakfast room are the same, in fact our refrigerator is in the movie! (yes this dates our appliances...they're old) The living room and all of the original brown wood paneling is still the same. The blue bathroom is the same. The bathroom that Laura, the main character, uses in several scenes...what is now Geoff's bathroom, has different wallpaper, as does the master bedroom. Several rooms were repainted. In the little boy's room, there is an exposed brick wall. I knew it was there but it was fun to see what it actually looks like. At one point this room too had brown wood paneling and has since been dry walled and painted pink stripes. (I love.)

I highly recommend the movie. It was excellent.

It is for sure a piece of art and not that of a blockbuster with all of it's loud and flashy bells and whistles. It's an Indie film...it was at Sundance for Pete's sake....

It examines and exposes real live behaviors that probably do in fact happen within families. Many people probably found it to be slow. Instead of slow, I found it to be conceptually rich.
It's taken me 2 days to unpack all of the underlined themes and relationships.  Making connections is a key in this movie. Also, knowing the lifestyle climate in Memphis, I found this movie to be even more amazing. Actually...I suspect being in the space the movie was filmed is in contributes to my contemplation and further examination of the movie. I'm putting away clothes in the very closets, and closing doors in the same rooms. My perspective of this movie is going to be different...always.


to see stills from the movie click here then click on 40 Shades of Blue.
And...P.S. the music playing during the stills is a good representation of the movie's tone.