Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia(1974)

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.

Two sides of the same coin

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 :(

The man who wasn't there(2001)

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.

Righteous kill(2008)

Director: Who cares

Two great actors doesn't necessarily make a great film. The sooner Hollywood gets this simple fact, the better.

Fitzcarraldo(1982)

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.

Adams æbler(2005)

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

The best ever villains on screen

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.