Knowing the other half of truth

I finally found a film society and rushed to it in the right time for the screening of the taiwan movie 'Yi Yi - A one and a two' by Edward Yang.To be honest , the movie was too long for an audience brought up on Indian cinema. In retrospect, we find out that the length was one of the key ingredient of what the movie portrays - Life.

So, where do i start to explain a movie about life, that too when the director tells it in the simplest of ways, if i try to retell it, it will be more complex and spoil the fun. I shall only to refer to the points where the director's ghost seems to be wandering around the characters and makes his presence felt subtly but so strongly, that the dialogues would only become proverbs in your life.The indispensible character in the director's endeavour turns out be the 8 year old kid, who drops words of wisdom with sweet innocence, be it asking his father "Why do we always know half the truth, we can only see whats in the front, we cant see whats behind at the same time". The best piece though, that had a loud applause from the audience is when the kid hands over a photogragh to his Uncle,picturing the back of his head and when asked why is he giving it to him, he replies in a saintly manner, wrapping himself in towel, "You cant see it yourself, i am trying to help you". Moments like this are sprinkled all over the movie, just when you start to yawn at the boring rituals of life intertwined with the inevitable complexes of the characters , the director makes you sit up with these subtle charges of dialogue.

It seems as if the director literally possessed the character of the Ting-Ting's boyfriend when he is discussing movies and says "My uncle says that , with movies , we live our life three times over". Thats when half the audience will be woken up to the fact that their life also would seem the same if presented through flickering frames. A Grandmother in coma as a sounding board for the characters is such an original experiment to pull the audience towards the characters.

The character development is so well done that the audience is set at the centre of a circle that the characters traverse only to come back to where they started and realise the futility of their internal struggles with guilt and mournful retrospections of lost opprtunities.Husband reliving his youth and realising that he is still restricted by the same fears and apprehensions.And its an experience to see his life intercut with his daughter's first date.

All in all, the movie is the directors signature on every frame, that for me is one of the most important thing in any movie,because in cinema, one man's command on his art becomes fountainhead of creative excellence of a larger number, i.e the cast and the crew.

Yi Yi is a movie which you shouldnt expect to entertain you or for that matter make you feel sad or make you laugh, you are not supposed to like it or hate it or judge it in any extent when you are watching it, you are only supposed to live it with the director and it will stay with your memory for a longer time.

Subramaniyapuram

Watching Subramaniapuram is definitely a bloody good experience.Despite the language being my neighbours tongue, I had a consolatory detail to associate with, the heroine being from the coochy-coochy talk show that used to beam on the telugu channel.

Thats where i say that sometimes it really helps, when you stop and read about the movie and the creator and his accomplices who cast this spell on you.

The director, lets call him the creator, he earns that position with all justice, for he wrote, directed and produced the movie and ofcourse acted in it. This gesture often brings out a sympathy from the distributors and sometimes even the audience. Please keep your condolences to yourself. Such a gesture is nothing but a persons love for the art he dreamt about and his desperation to give it a shape in his OWN way.If you have a good sight, you can find that deperation in every frame.

The most important thing for me though is , Sasikumar quoting that he likes RGV. Now lets get that simple, when someone says that he likes RGV, dont try to ask him 'How Much', Because you either hate RGV to Death or love him for life. If you are one of the RGV fans like me, you will start hallucinating with the virtual umbilical cord that the movie has all over, most of which might just be unintended coincidences, but who told you so ;) . The simplest thing could be Sasikumar calling his banner - Company Productions- doesnt that seem to come out of the factory. And then you only find more when camera races after people being chased through narrow alleys.And when you a see a street fight starting for no reason - you cant help that 'gotcha' smile on your face.

So, you know the rule when you sit for a RGV like movie, - Dont fall in love with the characters, because they are going to die a ruthless death. It will seem as the ghost of RGV has sprung out of screen and killed them. If you think i am exaggarating, try watching Siva at the time when telugu cinema was accelarating to sink like Titanic, you wouldnt bother when Raghuvaran kidnaps nagarjuna's niece and threatens to kill. You would be telling yourself "Come on, who are you fooling, when did villians become some honest, that too about killing kids". And then you sit up in a seat. I know, some would say, hadnt he done too much of such things after that. Well, i would only say,its anyday better than, Sharukh dying for 2 hours in Kal ho na ho.

Anyway, you will have to break the rule yourself, because you will fall in love with the characters for their innocence in crime and haplessness in love. So, you only give up all hopes and sit there watching your characters falling in love and then betraying each other and getting hacked to death.

And, you see those drizzle of the new wave all over the screen, when the camera follows kasi steadily without cutting until he sits on milestone and reconcilliates what he has done. If you have forgotten how the old cinema or the so called Hi-Tech Cinema used to look, here it is, Flash on the screen-POV of Paraman : the sickle in hand rising high and coming down-Paraman screaming with blood oozing from a place where the sickle is least probable to strike-Flash again(with zzzzzzzzzzuk sound)-Kasi would be trying to pull out his hair- and then some infinite flashes with twice infinite sounds and the scene would have been benchmarked against the superhit daily serial.

Finally, there is something you will know when you only read about the flick that the lead protaganist and the creator are schoolmates, where the Music Director James Vasantham was Music teacher. Now there is one thing that teachers teach you very well, especially music teachers - How to say your prayers. Like a devotee touching the steps when entering a temple, like a dancer bowing to the stage before his performance, James Vasantham's first song that breaks out of the speakers is by Illayaraja and rest is bliss.

P.S: I have amazing fun when i read about these trivia regarding any movie i see.Subramaniapuram just turned out to be too much of it.

Movie Overload

Longer than you can imagine, this will be good feed for your boredom for this week. read on.

FLIX has started to take its job seriously more than ever. So, brace yourself for some real good movies.  We appreciate some people asking us what movies to watch today. A symptom of extreme boredom tagged with interest in intellectual cinema and need for entertainment. 

First of all, Gunda would be the first and last of its kind ( as it had been in the History of Bollywood itself). Now for the better ones.

Indian : While the debate of Indian Movies being of sub-optimal quality compared to the Hollywood, never seems to end, we definitely started to score better in the debate.

-Wednesday : The first time i watched it, the audience were clapping for every 15 minutes, it shows the level at which the movie was able to engage the audience. Packed with best of performances by best of actors, the film is flooded with freshness and audacity of the debutante director Neeraj Pandey.

- Rock On : The crowd would have already got to you and you would have got to the movie. SO i wouldnt say nothing much here.

- Mumbai Meri Jaan : Doesn't seem to end in the perfect possible way, but does leave a mark in your thoughts. Watch out for some good performances again by Paresh Rawal, Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Irfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan. But, out of the whole movie, best performance is definitely by Vijay Maurya who plays the rookie cop at the dawn of his career, grappling to come to terms with the law and order system.

-Welcome To Sajjanpur : This is undoubtedly the best pick of the season, (though it falters to tie up the loose ends in the end). Shyam Benegal stays truly Indian and disproves all those Multiplex theories of Indian Diaspora converging towards Urbanity . He takes you back to Sajjanpur through the letters and words of Mahadev's letters (brilliantly portrayed by Shreyas Talpade). What is surprising about the movie is its perfection in its execution in terms being so local/sajjanpuri, and yet being so universal. The movie leaves in an irony whether to appreciate the performances or not , because it might be difficult for one to acknowledge the acting itself for they lived their roles.

-Tahaan : Cannot really recommend because i didnt watch it, but can surely guarantee a pleasant experience through few of the reviews and just for the sake that Santosh Sivan had stayed simple and chosen J&K for a portrait infront of his camera.

I would just like to re-iterate that Indian Cinema is on a rise, as long as we can appreciate movies like these and at the same time don't give openings to movies like Drona that expect the audience to be dumbos.

English/Hollywood : N0thing in the recent past had really been interesting except for Wall-E and Dark Knight. Iron Man is claimed to be one of the smarter superhero flicks. So, interested ones can surely try out. Rotten tomatoes had also been tagging everything rotten except for Coen Brothers' (No Country for Old Men) Burn After Reading (starring Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and George Clooney) . So is the case with recently released Body of Lies (directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio). But one will have to wait for these as it will take some time for them to land here.

Do watch out for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(David Fincher and Brad Pitt get back) and Quantum of Solace(bond seems to get more natural than geeky).

If you have missed recent flix screenings, you sure can watch, In Bruges (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson , Ralph Fiennes) , trio you wouldnt want to miss. Movie gets a tad eerie by the end.

World Cinema and Critics Picks : Well , we have been trying to come to terms with fact that besides India, US and UK, Human species had not yet been extinct on other parts of the world and they surprisingly have developed and adopted this skill of film making. Technology and a few benevolent jobless people had bothered to make subtitles for the same . So they are also watchable and in fact they are good. So this section, takes care of good movies all over the world, which will include english and indian as well(fortuantely , we are still part of the world).

Boy A : English flick about a man-child who tries to be good after a childhood crime, but is still struggling to wash his hands clean of it. Well portrayed by the protaganist, the movie keeps prodding the question of forgiveness that society buries under reinforced sensationalism and fear.

Nouvo Cinema Paradiso : Italian : The movie bowls you out with its simplicity and the serene portrait of an italian town and its characters bound to the only cinema theatre in the town : Cinema Paradiso. Thanks to an impeccably sweet performances by the Projectionist and his friendly disciple , you would neither smile nor stop smiling through the first half. The second grows a bit responsible with the characters , but the ending is something you wouldn't want to miss.

13 tzameti : French Thrilling Absurd tale of Human Behaviour, as someone put it . Watch it not for the best of the movies but for its tangential idea and film making. Shot in inky Black and White , the story of young man, who doesnt know what he is heading into can be nothing but a thriller.

The Great Dictator : Charlie Chaplin's satire on the Nazi's still ranks the best in its Genre. Acted and Directed by Charlie Chaplin, you sure would want to have a laugh at it.

Seventh Seal (sjunde inseglet det) : Swedish : Hailed as Ingmar Bergman's best, Seventh Seal is a harsh but subtle take on the eternal question of God, After life and Man's belief in them. Set in the Post Crusades era, the director carves excellent characters as metaphors for his discussion. The scenes with  Converstions with  Death are something that would beat your imagination and visualisation Film Making.

These will do for now :) . If you still want to pursue good movies, need to do some intersting hard work. Here are a few sites you can refer to :

1) This site itself :P

2) dearcinema.com

3) rottentomatoes.com

4) ibnlive.com - rajeev masand's review to stay off the bad movies atleast and to get to a few occasional good reccos.

5)UTVworldmovies.com - its running a series on 50 movies you want to watch before you die (few reccos above are from the same)

6)http://movies.nytimes.com/pages/movies/index.html - reviews from newyork times to be updated about the best and the worst.

I think blogger will crash now. So, thats it.

Coming Soon : Gango's Reccos (Yes, you read it right)

The Darkest Knight

Batman couldn't be better unless Christopher Nolan surprises himself. Here he is , yet again, with a power packed starcast, who strapped themselves in the back seat wearing the masks that their master provided them with , while he took his audience off to a thrilling ride. 

It is difficult to stand out of the typical template of a superhero movie, but not for  Christopher Nolan, not for the one who redefined the rules of screenplay through Memento, challenged the intelligence of audience through Prestige , and turned Batman into what he is. (While i am yet to watch Insomnia, His first venture into film making 'Following' shot on a shoe-string budget on London Streets and at his friend's place is strikingly original for a thriller). One should appreciate the drive of this man, who continues to guarantee what true cinema stands for and deserves - The Intelligence of Art.

 

What is it about Dark Knight?

Christian Bale plays the Caped Crusader, with his love interest being Rachel Dawes played by Maggie Gyllenhaal , a surprise and a worthy new entry , Aaron Eckhart(Remember the witty and canny lobbyist from Thank you for Smoking) plays Gotham's District Attorney Harvey Dent who fights against the mob crimes, Alfred the Butler , played by Michael Caine, Inspector Jim Gordon played by Gary Old man, and Lucious Fox by Morgan Freeman.

 

Even if i have a mental disorder or a pathetic memory, It is difficult to miss this one name, Dark Knight is about this one character 

 

      The Joker

 

One of my friend commented , "A cheap make up and a crazy smear shall be remembered forever" Chris Nolan couldn't have left a better memorial for Heath Ledger.

 

Joker is Funny, he laughs on the face of every character, he makes a mockery of the shortcomings of human mind, he feeds on the weakness and makes it his strength. He is silly, he is arrogant, he is frightening, he is an idiot, or as he calls himself, he is a freak, he is a dog who chases chases cars but doesnt know what to do with them . He just does things.

 

He is called a clown, as he puts you to a tragic laugh, his antiques and make-up, a regular slurpy noise he makes, as he swipes his tongue across his cheek, his smirky grin, his voice thats Baritone, Squeaky and husky at the same time, his anecdotes of how he got to his victims,his rationality behind anarchy and philosophy of subconscious fear. In a huge starcast movie, where everyone is sharing a bit of screen space, he is everywhere, he is in the internal conflict of Batman, he is in the weakness of Harvey Dent, he is in the fear of Gotham.

 

Christopher Nolan needed a master on screen to run the show on his behalf, to move the characters, to make them run and Heath Ledger stood up to the job.

 

If I could borrow a line from RGV's Blog, 'Any story is about Character Conflict' - The Dark Knight is the same, while Joker walks away with the credit of creating a conflict in Batman's character and turning him into The Dark Knight , Christian Bale as Batman walks away as the hero who outgrows the human shortcomings challenged by Joker and becomes the super hero that we would all fall in love with. Don't blink, while you watch the scene when these two meet in the Interrogation Cell, you would hardly see a conversation so taut, where eyes shoot at eyes.(The last time i saw such a scene was from Drohi, between Kamal Hassan and Nasser)

 

Technically, I don't stand to evaluate Nolan(as i couldn't watch it in a theatre, which i surely will). He sticks to his trademark screenplay of continuously tricking the audience, though he saves us from time travel, one still needs to get his brains charged before watching it. The Nolan Brothers succeed to surpass themselves in the artistic quality after Prestige. The dialogues grow out of the best fit between the actors and the roles they donned, be it Michael Caine who says "Endure Master Wayne"  and when he adds his pun saying "Will they take me in for being your accomplice" , while Bale replies "Accomplice? I would say you are the one who planned it all". Aaron Eckhart saying "You either die as a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villian" , "I make my own luck" and of course yet again the Joker - "If you are good at something, never do it for free" and the trademark phrase "Why So Serious?"

 

Watch it, Watch it ASAP, WATCH IT ONLY IN THEATRES, watch it for the adrenalin rush, watch it for the fear, watch it for the thrill, watch it for the chill down your spine,watch it for the amazing visuals, watch it for the scary sound track while Joker threatens his victims, watch it for the so called Subtle Gadgets and Accessories, ranging from Bat Suit , Bat Pod and the Lamborgini.

Watch it for Cinema at its best.

If you couldn't watch it or didn't watch it, don't worry, 

The Joker will get to you.

 

Disclaimer : the above piece might be exaggarated due to my extreme respect and admiration towards Christopher Nolan :) . And yeah, the IMDB Top #1 is more an effect of the marketing department.

Soylent Green (1973)

Synopsis
Richard Fleischer directed this nightmarish science fiction vision of an over-populated world, based on the novel by Harry Harrison. In 2022, New York City is a town bursting at the seams with a 40-million-plus population. Food is in short supply, and most of the population's food source comes from synthetics manufactured in local factories -- the dinner selections being a choice between Soylent Blue, Soylent Yellow, or Soylent Green. When William Simonson (Joseph Cotten), an upper-echelon executive in the Soylent Company, is found murdered, police detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) is sent in to investigate the case. Helping him out researching the case is Thorn's old friend Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson, in his final film role). As they investigate the environs of a succession of mad-from-hunger New Yorkers and the luxuriously rich digs of the lucky few, Thorn uncovers the terrible truth about the real ingredients of Soylent Green.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Academy Awards
Best Actor (Gregory Peck)
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Henry Bumstead, Alexander Golitzen, Muzamiel Hady, & Oliver Emert)
Best Writing Adapted Screenplay (Horton Foote)


Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula.

Synopsis
Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch, magnificently embodied by Gregory Peck. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of rape. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the eyes of Finch's six-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). While Robinson's trial gives the film its momentum, there are plenty of anecdotal occurrences before and after the court date: Scout's ever-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with precocious young Dill Harris (a character based on Lee's childhood chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna), her father's no-nonsense reactions to such life-and-death crises as a rampaging mad dog, and especially Scout's reactions to, and relationship with, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his movie debut), the reclusive "village idiot" who turns out to be her salvation when she is attacked by a venomous bigot. To Kill a Mockingbird won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Peck), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Academy Award Nominations (1971):
Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
Best Film Editing (Bill Butler)
Best Picture (Stanley Kubrick, producer)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Stanley Kubrick)


A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 satirical science fiction film adaptation of a 1962 novel of the same name, by Anthony Burgess. The adaptation was produced, co-written, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It stars Malcolm McDowell as the charismatic and psychopathic delinquent Alex DeLarge.

Synopsis

A Clockwork Orange features disturbing, violent imagery to facilitate social commentary on psychiatry, youth gangs, and other topics in a futuristic dystopian society. The film features a soundtrack comprising mostly classical music selections and Moog synthesizer compositions by Wendy Carlos.

Stanley Kubrick dissects the nature of violence in this darkly ironic, near-future satire, adapted from Anthony Burgess' novel, complete with "Nadsat" slang. Classical music-loving proto-punk Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "Droogs" spend their nights getting high at the Korova Milkbar before embarking on "a little of the old ultraviolence," such as terrorizing a writer, Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee), and raping his wife while jauntily warbling "Singin' in the Rain."

After Alex is jailed for bludgeoning the Cat Lady (Miriam Karlin) to death with one of her phallic sculptures, Alex submits to the Ludovico behavior modification technique to earn his freedom; he's conditioned to abhor violence through watching gory movies, and even his adored Beethoven is turned against him. Returned to the world defenseless, Alex becomes the victim of his prior victims, with Mr. Alexander using Beethoven's Ninth to inflict the greatest pain of all. When society sees what the state has done to Alex, however, the politically expedient move is made. Casting a coldly pessimistic view on the then-future of the late '70s-early '80s, Kubrick and production designer John Barry created a world of high-tech cultural decay, mixing old details like bowler hats with bizarrely alienating "new" environments like the Milkbar.

Alex's violence is horrific, yet it is an aesthetically calculated fact of his existence; his charisma makes the icily clinical Ludovico treatment seem more negatively abusive than positively therapeutic. Alex may be a sadist, but the state's autocratic control is another violent act, rather than a solution. Released in late 1971 (within weeks of Sam Peckinpah's brutally violent Straw Dogs), the film sparked considerable controversy in the U.S. with its X-rated violence; after copycat crimes in England, Kubrick withdrew the film from British distribution until after his death. Opinion was divided on the meaning of Kubrick's detached view of this shocking future, but, whether the discord drew the curious or Kubrick's scathing diagnosis spoke to the chaotic cultural moment, A Clockwork Orange became a hit. On the heels of New York Film Critics Circle awards as Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, Kubrick received Oscar nominations in all three categories.

For A Few Dollars More (1965) (Per Qualche Dollaro In Più)

For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volontè. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was released in the United States in 1967 and is the second part of what is commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy.

Synopsis
This pulse-pounding follow-up to Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars brings back Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cigar-chewing "Man With No Name." Engaged in an ongoing battle with bounty hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), the Man joins forces with his enemy to capture homicidal bandit Indio (Gian Maria Volontè). Both the Eastwood and Van Cleef characters are given understandable motivations for their bloodletting tendencies, something that was lacking in A Fistful of Dollars. In both films, however, the violence is raw and uninhibited -- and in many ways, curiously poetic. Leone's tense, tight close-ups, pregnant pauses, and significant silences have since been absorbed into the standard spaghetti Western lexicon; likewise, Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score has been endlessly imitated and parodied. For a Few Dollars More was originally titled Per Qualche Dollaro in Più; it would be followed by the last and best of the Man with No Name trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006)

Awards: Best Foreign Language Film Winner (2007)

The Lives of Others (original German: Das Leben der Anderen) is a German film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Synopsis
A man who has devoted his life to ferreting out "dangerous" characters is thrown into a quandary when he investigates a man who poses no threat in this drama, the first feature from German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It's 1984, and Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is an agent of the Stasi, the East German Secret Police. Weisler carefully and dispassionately investigates people who might be deemed some sort of threat to the state. Shortly after Weisler's former classmate, Lt. Col. Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), invites him to a theatrical piece by celebrated East German playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) informs Weisler that he suspects Dreyman of political dissidence, and wonders if this renowned patriot is all that he seems to be.

As it turns out, Hempf has something of an ulterior motive for trying to pin something on Dreyman: a deep-seated infatuation with Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), Dreyman's girlfriend. Nevertheless, Grubitz, who is anxious to further his career, appoints Weisler to spy on the gentleman with his help. Weisler plants listening devices in Dreyman's apartment and begins shadowing the writer. As Weisler monitors Dreyman's daily life, however (from a secret surveillance station in the gentleman's attic), he discovers the writer is one of the few East Germans who genuinely believes in his leaders. This changes over time, however, as Dreyman discovers that Christa-Maria is being blackmailed into a sexual relationship with Hempf, and one of Dreyman's friends, stage director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), is driven to suicide after himself being blackballed by the government. Dreyman's loyalty thus shifts away from the East German government, and he anonymously posts an anti-establishment piece in a major newspaper which rouses the fury of government officials. Meanwhile, Weisler becomes deeply emotionally drawn into the lives of Dreyman and Sieland, and becomes something of an anti-establishment figure himself, embracing freedom of thought and expression.