Year: 2005
Director: Wes Craven
Cursed be you if you even venture to watch this. God knows what got into the otherwise awesome Wes Craven that he actually made this werewolf crapfest. Avoidable at all costs.
Year: 2006
Director: Jafar Panahi
Country: Iran
The year is 2005. 10,000 men wait outside a stadium in Iran to watch the football match between Iran and Bahrain; the match that can send Iran to the World Cup in Germany. Well, not quite 10,000 men. A few among them are women. Dressed as young boys or even soldiers. Waiting with bated breaths; waiting to get inside. Some have come with parents, some with friends. Some have come to pay tribute to friends who died in that stadium, others for the sole love of the beautiful game. The only problem: no women are allowed in the stadium and the cops are looking for them. Six of them get caught. Six women, who are strangers to one another, prisoners to the young cops who keep them inside a makeshift barricade; six women who share the same passion. Football. Iran. As the match progresses, the six women and the cops guarding them develop an inexplicable bond. At the end as Iran wins, the women and the cops get out on the streets together, dance hand in hand, light sparklers and sing. In a society tainted with inequality, football brings harmony. National pride wins.
Panahi actually shot this film entirely during the match mentioned above. And he used non-professional actors to make things look more natural. They sure do a commendable job. The extremely funny and witty script makes sure that there isn't one single dull moment in this film. True this is no "Talaye Sorkh" or "Dayereh"(which btw are excellent films). But this sure is one delightful piece of cinema. If you are looking for a light on your brains yet meaningful comedy, rent this. Its worth all of it. More so if your'e a football fanatic like me.
Jogo Bonito!Beautiful game. Beautiful cinema.
English Title: Lone wolf and the cub: Sword of vengeance
Year: 1972
Director: Kenji Misumi
Country: Japan
This is the original "Kill Bill". And better.
Ogami Itto is the official executioner of the Shogun. After the yagyu clan plans to takeover his job, his wife is brutally murdered and Itto is framed for treason. He escapes with his one year old son Daigoro. In a quest for vengeance, he wanders around the country with his son in a baby cart and offering service as an assassin to people who pay enough. Together, the father and the son come to be known as "the lone wolf and the cub".
This film is the perfect example of a samurai film. At some points, even better than "Yojimbo". And Tomisaburo Wakayama is absolutely badass as Ogami Itto. His portrayal of the measured, often silent, yet deadly samurai fares better than Mifune's Yojimbo or Eastwood's "the man with no name". Whenever he takes out the sword, you have hands and legs and heads lying around with blood gushing out from bodies in steady showers. This gory slaughter fest alongwith the wonderful background scores and the beautiful cinematography, makes it a treat to watch.
This is only the first of a six film series. And I hear that the rest are equally good. I can't wait to get my hands on them.
Title: Quantum of Solace
Director: Mark Forster
Year: 2008
First there was Bond. Then there were Bournes. If anyone thinks this was inspired by a Bourne film, go kiss Bourne's ass.
Casino Royale started it all. It gave birth to 007. But he was still a normal human being who loved, cared and placed revenge over duty. Quantum of Solace comes full circle as it makes Bond as we know him. A cold blooded assassin on a mission, and who has a way with his women. Fans cried that there wasn't enough action in Casino Royale. They've got plenty to watch here. Sexy, sultry Bond girls, scheming villains, motorboat chases, car chases, everything. There's still Q to come. With him, the gadgets. But this film is only a platform. It prepares Bond for what he will become in the next films to come, it just makes him the best agent in the business. So just lay back and enjoy the show as Bond becomes James Bond, agent 007. And I have a a strong feeling the next few films are gonna bring back the golden age of Bond films tarnished by Timothy Daltons and Pierce Brosnans.
And Craig IS the BEST Bond ever. Period.
English Title: Third part of the night
Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Country: Poland
Zulawski's debut film is also his toughest to watch. As passionate as his much acclaimed "Possession", this film is even more darker. This film is fairly biographical as a major part of it is inspired by his father's memoirs of the Nazi and Soviet occupied communist Poland in the 1970s. His very idealistic and strong political sentiments are very imminent in this film.
It starts off with Michal, who is recovering from a terminal illness in a countryside with his family. While he takes a walk in the woods, his wife, son and mother gets killed by Russian soldiers. He returns to the city, goes underground and while attacked by the Gestapo, stunbles upon a woman in labor. The Nazis take in the husband of this woman mistaking him for Michal, while Michal helps the woman to deliver her son. Then Michal works as a lice feeder in a Nazi experiment to earn breads for himself and this woman, who resembles his dead wife. And then he goes on to try and free the husband. The basic storyline runs along on this path while Zulawski plays around with a lot of things. He plays around with the timeline, often disturbing the flow of the narrative to give it a non-linear look, and also with all sorts of metaphors. He uses the whole lice feeding scheme to depict the parasitism creeping into the Polish society, as it gets infected with guilt and oppression. He uses the concept of doppelgangers as parts of an identity by using the same female cast for Michal's dead wife and the pregnant lady. In fact, somewhere these two are not different personas. They are the same individual. The constantly moving camera catches the dynamics of Michal, who seems to be running away from failed relationships, his sense of oppression and guilt through labyrinthine alleyways and dark buildings. He seems to be running away from his dead wife and again coming back to the pregnant lady resembling his wife. His relation with his father, who cannot take any of this anymore and destroys his only belongings, music notes reminds us of the patriarchal society we so often see in a Kafka book. In fact, the guilt, the running away, the metamorphosis of the poilitically oppressed society seen through the eyes of Michal are all very Kafkaesque. This film is Zulawski's vision of the post World War II Polish society from a very compelling point of view. Just for the brilliant direction and lead performances, the film will definitely affect the viewer. This is as intriguing as cinema can get. And I also recommend a second viewing for better understanding of the film.
By far, the best Polish cinema I have ever seen.
A night in Casablanca(1946)
Monkey business(1931)
Animal crackers(1930)
This is Marxism as Karl wouldn't have dreamt of. Effing hilarious. The most insane comedy on screen. Ever.
Amen to almost 20 years of pure comedy that was the Marx Brothers. And I will always be a Marxist.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Let me warn you first. This is not a film for everybody. If you are a regular romanticised hollywood viewer, this film is not for you. If you are a serious, thinking viewer who likes complex, multidimensional cinema, this film is not for you. If you like humor as black as your coffee, if you have an eye for violence, if you can appreciate the dark macabre, this film is the ultimate joyride for you.
A landlord in rural Mexico discovers that his unmarried daughter has been impregnated by a playboy called Alfredo Garcia. He declares a prize of a million dollars on his head. Bounty hunters start looking for him. But no one except a piano player in a pub seems to know Garcia's whereabouts. The piano man, Benny, agrees to deliver the head to the bounty hunters for ten grands and resolving a personal agenda. Benny sets off on a road trip with his girlfriend with the biunty hunters in silent pursuit, for the head of Alfredo Garcia. Bloodbath follows. Twenty one deaths after, Benny has his revenge, his redemption, his death. Peckinpah in his usual style, makes the fights as violent as possible, the deaths as bloody as they can get. But yu will never feel disgusted by it all. Instead you will enjoy it immensely when Benny drives his car and talks continuosly to the severed head of Alfredo Garcia, wrapped in a sack and kept on the carseat. The script is witty, humorous. Warren Oates is wonderful as the driven to the edge Benny. The bleak rural Mexico provides a perfect backdrop. This film is as dark as it gets. And brutal. Thus, very enjoyable.
Film: Mou gaan dou(2002)
English title: Infernal Affairs
Director: Wai-keung Lau & Siu Fai Mak
This film is an absolute classic. It is the story of a mole in a police department and an undercover cop in a mafia gang. Their objectives are the same. To find who is the cop and who is the mole. The acting is brilliant. The directors take all their time in building up the plot. They take utmost care in their treatment of a simple story. And turn it into a twisted tale of honor and betrayal. The two protagonists walk almost the same road for a long long time. They play with the faith of one group of men and show utmost loyalty to another. The only thin line of difference between them is the sense of what is right and what is wrong. And when they cross each other's paths, only sparks follow. The film delves into the psyche of the two men, their emotions and still the tightly woven script doesn't allow the drama and the tension to wither away. It only makes the viewer wait eagerly for the two sequels.
Film: The departed(2006)
Director: Martin Scorsese
This is Scorsese's second attempt in adapting an older film. He didn't make the mark with "Cape fear". And he comes nowhere near with "The departed". This, indeed is an absolute waste of a film. Adopted from "Infernal affairs", the storyline has nothing new to offer. The major scenes are complete rip-offs. Matt damon, Mark Wahlberg are hard to watch. DiCaprio's whining character is still the best performance in this film. Nicholson is just watchable. The direction is wayward to say the least. For example, the undercover cop infiltrates the gang and becomes an important part in only a few months time. Give me a break! Both the protagonists are extremely one dimensional. They ar either good or bad. There's no shade of gray in them. Unlike the original, Scorsese fails to play around with questions of morality and trust. He, in turn makes the film a typical hollywoodish bad guy vs good guy flick. This film, IMHO is Scorsese's weakest production. Ever. And to think of it, he bagged an oscar for this!! Damned be the oscars!!
Trivia: "The departed" ranks 45th in IMDB's top 250 list. And "Infernal affairs" ranks a low 232. Guess I don't know much about films :(
Director: Coen brothers
Billy Bob Thornton excels as a chain smoking barber who gets mixed up in a murder mystery in a small town called Santa Rosa circa 1949, as he tries to blackmail his wife's(Frances McDormand) boss(James Gandolfini). The entire film is shot in black and white and the camerawork is no less than exquisite. The Coen brothers uses light and shadow to wonderful effect in this film . The film is definitely slow, but the music, the tight script and the wonderful performances from all the leads as well as from a very young Scarlet Johansson succeeds to keep the viewer more than interested. The unforeseen climax of the film takes it to a completely different height. It transcends to a film about one's identity, sense of guilt and also about the redemption one seeks in his lifetime. This is as close to a perfect noir as the Coen Brothers will ever get. Yes, keeping in mind "Blood simple" and "No country for old men", "The man who wasn't there" will be my favorite Coen Brothers film. For a long time to come.
Director: Who cares
Two great actors doesn't necessarily make a great film. The sooner Hollywood gets this simple fact, the better.
Director: Werner Herzog
Country: Germany
What if you can't move a mountain, you can always move a ship over a mountain. What if you can't find the golden gates of El Dorado, you can always build an opera house on the Amazon. That is exactly what this film is about. It is about dreams. It is about a visionary. It is about how he risks his life to pursue his dreams, his visions.
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald or "Fitzcarraldo" is a man who once wanted to build a railway through the amazon forests. Now bankrupt, he still dreams to build an opera house on the amazon. He tries ice production to raise money. Failed, he borrows money from his lady love and sets on one of the most ambitious projects ever taken up by man. He sails upstream on river pachitea in hope of setting up a rubber plantation. Deserted by almost his entire crew midway, he goes on with the help of local indians in the pursuit of his dreams.
The film boasts of some wonderful cinematography. Especially the dusk and night shots are no less than mesmerizing. Herzog, being the wonderful director that he is, makes this long, slow film extremely enjoyable. There are very prominent similarities to his earlier film "Aguirre, der zorn gottes". Like the backdrop of the amazon, the hostile indians, the megalomaniac central character and most obviously the last scene, where Fitzcarraldo stands on his ship with a content smile and an opera playing on the deck, which definitely reminds us of another man standing alone on a ship and uttering "when I Aguirre, the wrath of god asks the birds to fall dead from the trees, the birds will drop dead from the trees." He doesn't make this film to show us whether Fitzcarraldo fulfils his dream or not. Rather he shows us the extent to which this man can dare to dream, the extent to which he dares to go to fulfil his dreams.
And everything apart, the one singular thing that makes this film a must see is Fitzcarraldo himself, played by the greatest actor ever on earth. Klaus Kinski. He shouts, stares with mad eyes, gazes lovingly at indian kids, looks lost when he hears an opera playing, dreams, loves with utmost passion, shows authority over the crew of the ship, looks beyond the thinkable, his eyes have it all. If you want to watch this film for one reason, let it be Kinski. And he will have you in his spells. For ever.
English Title: Adam's Apples
Director: Andres Thomaas Jensen
Country: Denmark
I generally drop by my University Grad student lounge every thursday evening with a friend to catch a film. This thursday they weren't screening any. And the friend was busy. So I went out on a chilly evening, all alone in a quest to find the comparative literature department where they were supposedly showing a film. I found the building after a 20 minutes long search, but it was empty. I waited for another 20 minutes and then people started coming. I told to myself, the film better be good. And boy, it was!
The story starts with Adam, a neo-nazi who's serving a sentence. He arrives at a church in a Danish countryside to serve community service. The church has a vicar, Ivan and two more such fugitives, Gunnar and Khalid. Each of these men are unique. Gunnar is an overweight, alcoholic, ex tennis champ who spends his day fondling his cat and drinking and stealing other peoples stuff. He's kleptomaniac. Khalid is an Arab, who's saving money and buying guns because he wants to rob some people and then run away to Saudi Arabia. Ivan puts up a smiling face all the time and finds the best in everything around him. He believes that god is with him in all his endeavors. And there's the village doctor, who plays the perfect devil's advocate. As Adam, the Hitler worshipping neo-nazi ruffian arrives, Ivan assigns him the job of looking after the church apple tree so that later he can bake a pie with them. The film then meanders through the labyrinths of belief, good, evil, redemption. As events unfold we learn that Ivan had such a terrible past(his mother died young, he was raped by his father his wife committed suicide, his only son is spastic) that he become inane to all the evil in this world. He believes in the goodness of life. To Ivan, anything bad happening is the satan testing his goodness. His belief is so strong that he walks joyfully even with a huge brain tumor. It is here where the main conflict of the film is. Adam thinks he is pure evil and he can't help it. He thinks Ivan is just a hopeless liar when he claims that his wife died from an accident or his son is a normal child. Ivan refuses to see the evil Adam poses. Ivan puts another cheek forward when Adam hits him. Adam tries to break through Ivan's demeanor of faith continuously. In the process he starts believing in the goodness of life instead.
Thomsen as Adam and Mikkelsen as Ivan puts up wonderful performances. The constant tension between the two alongwith the director's very very crooked sense of humor adds so much spice to the film. The ensemble of a powerful side cast also helps the cause. Jensen uses some recurrent themes allover the film. Like the song "how deep is your love" which Ivan loves and Adam despises. And there's also the reference to St.Augustine who told that one should read the bible from where one opens it 'cause that is the story of one's life. Jensen uses this beautifully as whenever Adam or Ivan chances to throw away the bible, the book opens at "The book of Job" which is deeply concerned with the same parables of faith and redemption as this film. He uses small things like the apple tree, fruit worms, crows to excellent effect to add to the theme. Boasting of a very tight script, the film definitely catches you and makes you question your own ideas about good and evil.
In short, it was worth so much more than the endeavor :P
I have been watching a lot of thrillers lately. Maybe thats the reason I'm writing this post. Whatever, who cares! Here's the list:
1) Joker(The Dark Knight)- not the Nicholson joker Joker. but the Ledger badass Joker. The most terrifying personification of evil on screen. Ever.
2) Max Cady(Cape Fear)- if looks could kill, Cady would be a murderer. One of the very few villains who does little but terrifies most. Again, not the roguish De Niro Cady, but the classic Mitchum Cady.
3) Reverend Harry Powell(Night of the hunter)- "love" and "hate". Mitchum can be any child's nightmare for lives to come.
4) Dr. Hannibal Lecter(Silence of the lambs)- he's going to have you for supper. With chianti and fava beans.
5) Norman Bates(Psycho)- don't dare to book a room at the Bates motel. The mother will come looking for you.
6) Jack Torrance(The shining)- heeeere's Johnny! Be scared when daddy's home. 'Cause he's gonna cut you up in little pieces.
7) Anton Chigurh(No country for old men)- call it. Just call it. You stand to win everything. You lose, he will come for you. Even in your smallest hole in the farthest corner of the earth. He definitely will.
8) Alex DeLarge(A clockwork orange)- rape, Beethoven, drugs. Voila!
9) Hans Beckert(M)- he couldn't help it. So he killed. Only children. How much more terrifying can you get?
10) Harry Lime(The third man)- how can you fight a villain who isn't even there?
11) Dr.Christian Szell(Marathon man)- Hitler died. Some nazis didn't. They still terrorise the face of the earth. And some, like Dr.Szell can make you afraid of dentists. Very much.
12) Freddy Krueger(Nightmare on elm street)- don't fall asleep. Or Freddy is going to tear you apart. The demon who makes nightmares come true, Freddy is right up there.
There are a lot more I wanted to add. Like Leatherface(Texas chain saw massacre), Henry(Portrait of a serial killer) etc. But then its going to be a never ending list. This looks much better.
Provided that I average around two films a day, I should have been writing this blog quite long ago. The most obvious deterrent was my exceptional expertise in "lyaad khaoa". But I had to write this blog, someday. Today be it. Hence, I start sharing my very little understanding and experience into the wide wide world of the wonderful art that is cinema.
This blog is obviously dedicated to the few people who taught me to watch cinema. I, in turn shall try to inspire a few. Happy viewing everyone.
