My Blueberry Nights

Since moving to Memphis two years ago, it's amazing to me how much we hear about famous people visiting the city. I know Memphis is a very historic city and has lots of draws, but I still find it really neat that Memphis gets such attention. It's great for the city and really makes me proud to live here.

Last summer, there was buzz about a movie being filmed in Memphis in the South Main Arts District. I was curious, so I drove down there to investigate. Sure enough, there were camera crews and tech guys all over the place. They were filming the movie inside Ernestine & Hazel's, a seedy but really great bar that is located in a former brothel house.

The movie they were filming was My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman..and many more big name actors. Of course, the scene they filmed here in Memphis could only be a 3 minute scene in the actual movie, but who cares. The whole idea that these people were in Memphis and filming at a bar that I've been to is really pretty cool. I'll definitely be going to see it when it comes out in theatres (early April, I think).

Go here to see the trailor.

Update: 9/16/08: Please don't even waste your time with this movie. We finally rented it over the weekend and watched it, and it was difficult to get through. Bad dialogue, some really boring acting on Norah Jones' part, and really really annoying stop-motion (is that what it's called?) cinematography. You know, where everything is sort of blurry, like they are trying to make the scene more dramatic. Blah. Something else that was very irritating is that they would have a shot of say, traffic lights, and it would be all blurry/choppy (dramatic again), and the shot would stay on these dumb traffic lights for a good ten seconds or so. And it had no meaning. It was like the director was all, "Ok, crew, let's try to up the drama here and focus on these swinging traffic lights. Yeah, that's good - just like that!". Ugh.