The
Danish School Bag Goes to the Movies
Whether on or off the screen, the Danish School Bag is a “Souperstar”.
Even in cameo parts, the Souperbag steals the scene - time after time.
Ghostbusters - Sigourney Weaver carries a brown Souperbag,
shot by the great Lazlo Kovacs of Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces fame.
For you trivia buffs, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man suits cost approximately
$20,000 each. Three were made and all were destroyed during filming. No
Danish School Bags were destroyed.
Last Days of Disco – A brown Souperbag is carried
by a young advertising exec in the last of Whit Stillman’s trilogy
on yuppies seeking the meaning of life.
First Born - Terri Garr stars as single mom to two rambunctious
sons who carry Souperbags throughout the film. Cameraman Ralf D. Bode
(who shot Coal Miner's Daughter) clearly loves these bags -- lots of close-up
shots. "Hey, did John Reynolds direct this film?"
The Freshman – Starring Marlon Brando and Matthew
Broderick, the film portrays Komodo dragons as an endangered species.
Clearly not the case for the blue Souperbag carried by a student in the
campus scene (shot in Montreal) near the end of film.
She's Gotta Have It - Spike Lee made sure his favorite
Danish School Bag from NYU film days appeared in this popular film. Look
for the blue Souperbag carried by the female agent in a white suit. Cinematographer
Ernest R. Dickerson (Malcolm X) makes the Danish School Bag look so good
that viewers say they gotta have it.
Manhattan (and other Woody Allen films) features the
grey Souperbag. Allen’s prop master keeps assorted Danish School
Bags in the prop closet. His cameraman Gordon Willis hails from Queens,
NY, and is famous for shooting all three Godfather films and the Souperbag.
School of Rock - A wannabe rock star in need of cash
poses as a substitute teacher at a prep school where the students carry
monogrammed grey Souperbags while learning Classic Rock 101.
Dancer in the Dark – Lars von Trier’s first
draft of this film starring Bjork was called "Taps" and featured
tap dancing in every scene. The idea was dropped, but not the small Danish
School Bag that she carries throughout.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Many techniques
were attempted to portray the aliens, who were played by little kids in
rubber suits. Vilmos Zsigismond (Heaven's Gate, The Deer Hunter and Deliverance)
deliberately overexposed the scenes with the extraterrestrials so they
would appear fuzzy and diffuse but kept the small Danish School Bag, carried
by Richard Dreyfuss, in sharp focus.
Interview – This award-winning Canadian Film Board
film shows artist/ filmmaker Veronika Soul running around snowy Montreal
with her brown Souperbag. The bag stands out in a blizzard plus holds
spare Eskimo mits and a dozen fresh bagels from the famous Bagel Factory.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Ingrid Bergman stars as an eccentric old lady who befriends two New
York City kids who run away from home and spend the night in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Cinematographer Victor Kemper (Pee Wee’s Big Adventure)
zeroes in on the grey Souperbag as they carefully load it up with everything
they'll need for their overnight museum adventure.
The World According to Garp - Shot in New York's Bryant
Park, New Jersey and Tuckahoe, New York, this whimsical look at the life
of Garp opens with an unforgettable close-up of a wide-eyed baby bouncing
in the sky. Glenn Close (sensible, utterly sexless nurse), John Lithgow
(the sweetest transsexual ex-pro football player) and the Danish Souperbag
(parking lot scene) all deserve an Oscar for their performances in this
romantic comedy.
Remember My Name - With songs by the great blues singer
Alberta Hunter, this modern film noire feature stars Tony Perkins of Psycho
fame and an obsessive Geraldine Chaplin who stalks him. Viewers gave this
thriller (produced by Robert Altman) 6 stars out of 10 but were far more
obsessive about the Danish Souperbag which scored 10 out of 10. Nothing
to sing the blues over.
Monster
in a Box - In this Monster of a monologue film, writer/performer
Spalding Gray recounts his adventures in Los Angeles, New Hampshire, Nicaragua,
New York and Russia where he tours the Hermitage Museum carrying a Danish
Souperbag bag filled with Pilot pens. Proof that even without a gilded
frame the Souperbag can be found in museums around the world.
Salvador - The Souperbag ventures into the chaos of civil
war in Oliver Stone's edgy semi-autobiographical tale of a foreign correspondent
who is down on his luck in El Salvador during the early 1980s. In this
gripping testosterone-fueled film complete with an assassinated Archbishop,
neofascist generals, guerilla fighters and various CIA types, journalists
prefer the Souperbag -- just as in real life.
Every Which Way But Loose - Clint Eastwood pairs up with
an orang-utan named Clyde and gets into a fist fight over a handful of
peanuts at a bar in this road comedy version of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Writer Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, who later wrote and directed Going Ape!,
is the godfather of the modern ape chase movie. Viewers go ape over Sondra
Locke's brown Danish Souperbag in the industrial meat refrigerator scene.
NOTE: Since many theaters
today frown on patrons bringing in their own refreshments, simply load
up your Souperbag so you and your honey can have an indoor picnic in the
dark as your afternoon delight. Just remember -
Do Not Litter -
but then we Souperbaggers know better anyway, right?
Hey, if you saw one of our bags in a movie not on the above list,
let
us know and we'll check it out . If you are correct we'll send you a
small bag. FYI, that's NOT a Danish Souperbag the lead actor carries
in The Station Agent. False alarm. But keep looking.
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