If you love 90s movies you must have seen Groundhog Day, brilliant comedy with Bill Murray. Here are 10 curiosities about the film!
I’m starting over is the perfect example of cult movie 90s. The film (original Groundhog Day – Groundhog Day) is directed by Harold Raims, from 1993 and explores the trope of living the same day every day, but what is the difference between this and other films that deal with the same subject? Bill Murrayobviously!
Murray plays Bill Connors, a meteorologist who travels to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to report on the anniversary of Groundhog day, a holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. But he gets trapped in a time loop that will make him relive the same day: he wakes up every morning at 6 o’clock, hears the same song and the day goes by in exactly the same way as the previous ones.
The film is now known to all – it is in the literary series Great Movies Of Roger Ebert – not only for the humor of Bill Murray, but also for the presence of Andie McDowell, who plays the woman Bill falls in love with. But we have found 10 curiosities that perhaps not everyone knows about I’m starting over.
1. Groundhog problems
During filming and off the set, Bill Murray was bitten several times by the groundhog, so much so that he had to have injections against rabies, because the bite wounds were very serious.
2. Too much food
For the diner scene, Bill Murray was offered a basket into which he could spit morsels after each take, but the actor refused, eating all the sweets. But after the scene ended, he had eaten so many sweets that he felt sick. The angel food cake – the cake that is eaten in one bite – was the coup de grace.
3. The first script of I’m starting over
In Harold Reims’ first screenplay, Phil Connors was already trapped in Groundhog Day at the beginning of the story, but later the director changed his mind.
4. How many years is Phil Connors trapped for?
In the film’s special features, Harold Reims states that the initial idea was for Murray’s character to be trapped in Groundhog Day for ten thousand years. But really the protagonist – as the director suggests – lived in the time loop for about ten years.
5. The abduction of the groundhog in I’m starting over
During the groundhog abduction scene, Bill Murray improvised the line “Don’t drive angry, don’t drive angry!” (in Italian “Come on, go ahead, drive easy“), to hide the fact that the animal (which was holding the steering wheel of the car) was extremely agitated and was attempting to escape. Shortly after filming, the groundhog bit Murray so badly that the actor had to get medical attention. Years later, this joke inspired the title of a film with Nicolas Cage, from 2011.
6. Cinema and tourism
After the release of I’m starting overand its success, the city of Punxsutawney became a popular tourist destination in the United States.
7. The piano scene
About halfway through the film, there is a scene where Bill Murray’s character plays a Paganini tune on the piano. There is no stunt double, it is the actor who plays the piano.
8. Interview with the vampire
Danny Rubin, who wrote the story of I’m starting overstated that one of the moments that inspired the story is from the book Interview with the vampire. In fact, Rubin, after reading the book, wondered what it was like to live forever.
9. Tom Hanks
We all know that Bill Connor’s character is a disenchanted cynic. Here, initially the director for the part of Connor in I’m starting overhad thought of Tom Hanks, who at that time was more than ever on the crest of a wave, but soon changed his mind, admitting that Hanks was “too kind“.
10. The snowball scene in I’m starting over
Just to mention the kindness about Murray… For the snowball fight scene, Ramis told the kids to hit Murray as hard as they could. But Murray in turn hit them with equal force!