Last Days

 

Last Days is a 2005 American semi-biographical 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 theatres 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. Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, and Scott Patrick Green also star in the film. This is the first film from Picturehouse, a joint venture between Time Warner's New Line Cinema and HBO Films subsidiaries to release art house, independent, foreign and documentary films.

 

''Introspective artist Blake is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations and a mounting feeling of isolation. Dwarfed by towering trees, Blake slowly makes his way through dense woods. He scrambles down an embankment to a fresh spring and undresses for a short swim. The next morning he returns to his house, an elegant, if neglected, stone mansion. Many people are looking for Blake—his friends, his managers and record label, even a private detective—but he does not want to be found. In the haze of his final hours, Blake will spend most of his time by himself. He avoids the people who are living in his house, who approach him only when they want something, be it money or help with a song. He hides from one concerned friend and turns away another. He visits politely with a stranger from the Yellow Pages sales department, and he ducks into an underground rock club. He wanders through the woods and later plays a new song, one last rock and roll blowout. Finally, he stumbles into the greenhouse next to his mansion. Soon after his friends leave, while looking back into the greenhouse one of the friends looks in from the car to notice a man in an orange jumpsuit. The next morning by a worker he is found dead. A spectre of the musician, naked, slowly climbs out of his dead body and up the ladder possibly to the "nirvana" waiting above.''