Cinemascope
for my own referenceThursday, October 06, 2011
film list - 6th October 2011
Bombay ka babu: when dev anand arrives running away from a murder he thinks he has committed he arrives in a hill town and impersonates a runaway son (the same man he has killed). suchitra sen plays his sister/lover. the incestuous tug to the relationship is super interesting until then end when the bambai ka babu gives up his love for the sake of his adopted family. for a change the village is the corruptor in the form of the scheming villian who convinces anand to impersonate the son.
Ram
ke naam: anand patwardhan's landmark documetary about the babri masjid
demolition folllows the journey of the cavalcade as it attempts to demolish the
mosque ot make way for the temple. as in most agit prop documentary the
argument is flat and so are the characterisations- often though his brow
beating and villain casting become too pat and he ends up ridiculing the
'common people'. the time that the film rises above i when it looks at the
issue through its periphery- like the man with the lost spectacles on the
bridge.
Audition.
: Takashii Miike ultra violent sweet looking for love story that goes horribly
wrong when the audition for a future bride reveals a mad monster girl in the
guoise of a delicate ballet dancer. the turn from the sweet wry humour to the
dark end with amputated legs builds slowly and hits hard.
Belle
du jour: catherine deneuve is stunning as the pristine beauty soiled in mud. a bourgeois
upper class wife of a doctor her fantasies for sadomasochism lead her away in
the afternoons into an upper class whorehouse until her paramour in the other
life stalks her home.
The
Last emperor: there is of course the famous shot where the young newly croned
epereor runs out of the the curtain clad interior into the courtyard of the
forbidden city. The film cuts back and forthe between an older emperor in
ajapense prisoner of war camp and the story of his life as he grew up within
the forbidden city into a young man in the swining 20s. As a clash of value
systems- western ideals of freedom and individuality clash with tradition and
collectivism of the chinese tradtition. everyone speaks in english- which is
grating sometimes- and peter o'toole's grand scottish teacher is often the
valuse system that we are supposed to identify with
Sangam.
Vyjayanti in a swim suit as Gopal teases from a tree. Piano songs that
frame one of the vertices between the other two. The love triangle is a screen
geometry that multiplies in time. Plots, song lines, spaces triplicate in
unending triangles in triangles. Looks exchanged and ignored. Har dil jo pyar
karega... Men choose men over the grieving woman. the triangular patterns
Replicate in mountain tops and flight formations tricolour. every relationship
is haunted with its missing third point. and then Bagpipes and accordions are
symbols of European obsessions. So much of the film meanders in Tourism and the
plethora of Commodities in the fashion boutiques of paris.
Aah:
does love save raj kapoor from dying of tuberculosis? nargis and him fall in love over letters except that she is
impersonating her sister. its all very tragic and morose.
Camera
buff:kieslowski's bitter sweet film about a factory clerks romance with a
camera he buys for documenting his growing chld until the world of art takes
over his being. from the joy of the the
documentation of a life And the love of the world to the strange rituals of
nuclear attack Drills with gas masks on. he ends up looking for Something over
tranquillity. his obsessions for 'showing' end up in sacrificing a friend and
losing his wife- yet he can only see it through Turning the camera on himself.
The cranes are flying. socievt socailist realism in High perspective. a City of bridges and infrastructure in A liquid dappled light and shadowland. Faces and bodies move within this tapestry like smoothness. when out hero dies in the middle of the film in his mind the swirling trees remind him of that crazy rush up the stairs to meet his love before he left the city. the heroine is the strong suffering woman at home as the menfight on the front.
Just
cause: a run of the mill courtroom drama with sean connery being duped by a man
who he thinks is innocent.
Wilde: the oscar wilde story with stephen fry brilliant as oscar and jude law bratty and self obsessed as bosie.
Rosencrautz and Guildenstern Are dead. watching hamlet from the periphery, these two dont know hat there is a play going on. instead they participate int he action from the edge. in between stombling across the great discoveries of the Experiments of Galileo and Newton they veer between being on Stage and off stage. its all very philipophical and profound- but more than a little tedious.
Badlands. terence malick's foray into the violence of youthful energy and desperation against the tedium of suburban america. martin sheen is a boy from the other side of the tracks whose edgy charisma seduces the pretty girl into murder and a trip across the animal landscape of the americas.
The visit. ingrid bergman returns to the town of guellen as a
rich heiress out for revenge agains the very town that threw her out. but now
she has her eyes set on the life of the ex-lover who dumped her for the
daughter of a rich town merchant. she floods the town with commodiites and gets
the townspeople to act agianst its own.
The
night of the hunter. charles alughton's brilliant thriller. the killer preacher
follows the boy and his sister down the long river. chrisitanity and murder,
gospel music in the air, a body under water whoe hair swims like seaweed and
the murder sequence in the church like attic- black and white noir drama.
Carefree: intantly forgettable little musical rom com about a psychoanalyst falling for his patient. happy little golf dance.
Barry Lyndon. the film unfolds like a novel. its not only the chapters and the omniscient narrator but time stretching across to allow you to think and the almost model like actors going thorugh the motions speaking carefully enunciating every word. the stor is about the rise and fall of adventurer barry.
The
Lion in winter: the castle is filled with the heat of language. katherine
hepburn and peter o'toole play the queen and king bickering over who gets to be
king among their three sons. each has their favourite. the homosexual
lionhearted hero vs the idiot child. between them is the cool calculating
machine.
Zelig:
woody allen brilliant and funny mock documentary about the amazing zelig who
became whoever he was in the company of- a republican, democrat, chinese or
eskimo. chameleon. it would be too pat to say the film is about capitalism and
the crisis of identity. it is .. but so what?
Easy
rider. the flash fade cuts between the sequences were like a the kicks of a
motorcycle until it cruises down the highway smoothly. the film is like a dream
or a nightmare about America and freedom. loved it.
The man who shot liberty valance. moral of the story : in civilizing the west men like gary cooper brought with them the constitution, but the men who made it possible were gunslingers like john wayne. sacrificing themselves for the great american nation.
the
french connection. terrific action sequences and the amazing chase scene below
the structure of the train rushing across the city. it is a gritty city of
garbage on the roadsa dn drug dealers everywhere.
agneepath.
vijay dinananth chauhan refuses to deal in drugs- but does everything elese.
great action sequences at the ganpati visarjan. and mithun makes an ass of
himslef with that terrible tamilian accent. i have heard they got rid of this
character for the hritik roshan remake. understandably.
the
sweet smell of success- the machinations behind the scenes of the american
publicity mechanism. tony curtis is to break up the love of a girl and her jazz
player to be able ot satisfy her nasty columnist brother. like dangerous
liaisons- a tragedy where words are knives.
kes-
to keep away from his future as a miner in the depths of the earth, the boy
keeps a falcon. lovely training sequences on the outskirts of the mining town.
mashaal-
yash chopra in bombay spends time in a slum called dogarbhatti where a
newspaperman reforms local goon anil kapoor by sending him away to bangalore.
when the boy returns the tables have turned. again, some surprisingly good
action sequences.
ankahee:
amol palekar's boring and regressive take on the old debate on science vs
faith. his father predicts that his first wife is going to die so he marries
another girl who has mental problems and proceeds to cure her with sex. what an
ego trip! when the other girl kills herself she saves the wife.
the
last picture show- a coming of age drama about two friends in a nowhere texan
town. the vixen blonde seduces the both of them on her way towards escape.
black and white longing.
on
the waterfront- terry malone cant imagine life outside the waterfront- his only
world- the only place where he could have been somebody- a contender. brando is
droopy eyed angst when he betrays his godfather to the cops.
film
socialisme- godards' most recent film is a three part meditiation on eurpoe,
palestine and of course film itself. shot in digital high saturated sharpness-
the film is in three sections. the first on a cruise line headed for nowhere,
the second in a suburban gas station and the third a trip across the europe's
most famous cities. dense allegories pack the film and tear it apart
brilliantly for most- except for the mid section whcih is just plain awful.
Labels: bollywood, english, france, hollywood, indian documentary, japan, poland, russia
Friday, September 16, 2011
film list - 16th september 2011
damnation:
in the desolate landscapes of rural-industrial hngary - a love triangle between
a torch singer in a restaurant, her husband and a lonely man. above them the
rattle and hum of the perpetually moving coal cart
trolley. black and white long
tracking shots stare at cracks on the walls of the crumbling small town.
the last rites: almost
pornographic gaze at the dark beauty of the ship breaking yard at chittagong.
men's bodies are aestheticized as gorgeous labour, the ships themselves as they
die are beautiful corpses.
gandu: all
controversy, not that much content. a film about adolescent sexuality where a
young rap wannabe meets a rickshaw driver with a bruce lee obsession. the shaky
hard close up black and white grittiness was mostly style- but adolescent
visual obsessions work for a film about adolescence. example: the graphic
sexual scene where gandu loses his sexuality is the only scene in colour.
nadodigal: three friends
in a village kidnap a girl for the sake of someone else's love. the lovers fall
out of love. very pointless and not very entertaining regressive stuff. a big
hit i am told. whatever.
lan yu: a gay love
story set in beijing of the early 90s. the tiananmen square incident takes
place off screen. a young architecture student is taken under the wing of a
corrupt businessman. a melodrama tear jerker that reminded me of so many douglas sirk films. the tragic end was
unnecessary and completely ineffective.
35 shots of rum; claire denis'
drama about the relationship between a train driver on the verge of reiterment
and his daughter. they love alone ina building overlooking the train tracks and
have an extended family of neighbours. a movie about letting go.
not on the lips: alain resnais-
as far as he can possibly get from the esoteric time space madness of
'hiroshima mon amour'. a 'saloon comedy'- does such a term exist? a rich
businessman calls his american partner over for a dinner. unknown to him this
american happens to be the ex-husband of his wife. a comedy of errors set to music.
light hearted fun
the adventures or baron munchausen: terry gilliam
goes crazy with the irrational impulses in this 'hatim tai' like journey. there
is adventure at every turn. the baron and his companions meet giant heads
without bodies and vice versa, kings of the underworld and giant momsters as
they try and save the kingdom from the invading turks.
the decameron. : pasolini's
sexually liberated world of medieval naples. in the stories as young men make
love to a convent full of nuns, a young couple make love on a terrace, a young
man is cheated out of all he owns, sin and salvation are intertwined in sex and
death.
the trial of joan of arc: bresson's
modernist take on the story of joan of arc. the look is disconcertingly
contemporary. bodies are fragmented in gestures. her strength lies within her
ambiguous sexuality.
the magnificent ambersons. a film about
the fin de siècle. the ambersons and their mansion disintegrates with
transforming fortunes unable to break with traditions and sceptical of the new
world symbolized by the automobile. exquisite looking black and white noir and
that incredible take of the ball room sequence; or the joy of racing in the
snow.
a matter of life and death. a powell and
pressburger rmasterpience- a fantasy film about war and love. when david niven
does not die and instead finds himself in the arms of a girl he loves the
clerks administering the entrance of the after life are distraught and a court
case begins. the british are held accountable for the atrocities they have
committed on the world. but love saves the day and paves the path for anglo
american romances. unforgettable image: the escalator to the sky. and the
filing cabinet of the dead.
dont look now: the first
nicholas roeg film. this was a thriller horror film set in the labyrinthine
lanes of venice. as donald sutherland tries to restore a church, him and his
wife are haunted by the sudden visions in a red raincoat of his daughter when
she drowned. the cut-up juxtapositions of space and time here make for
unexpected images
walkabout: from the
opening city shots showing the main characters in offices, playgrounds and in
schools we cut suddenly to the landscape of the autralian outback. here after a
brutal suicide a girl and her brother are left to fend for the themselves
within the wild. as they encounter the aboriginal and the natural the violence
of the civilized is brought into relief. as the animal and the plant confront
the ghosts of the primitive and the history of colonialism, aborigines dance
mad in the carcass of a burnt car; an aboriginal boy performs a love sex death
dance. the cut-up slicing of the space/time is fantastic.
performance: the first nicholas roeg film, where a london gangster on the run from his old buddies finds shelter in a bohemian home lorded over by a retiring rock star- a pouting made up mick jagger. the time space collisions continue until the langour of the upstairs boudoir takes over and begins to blur boundaries between the various inhabitants of the space. people morph into one another, sexuality is polymorphic, identities are all performed- being a man, being strong, being.
cries and whispers: distressed grieving sisters in a bourgeois home. one of them is dying and is being cared for by her maid. steeped in a palpable sadness, as a the death brings out the repressed desires and guilt's tied up behind the cage of being a woman and of belonging to a certain class. a film about boredom and death.
the exterminating angel. another bunuel dinner party. while in the 'discreet charm' the dinner never begins; in 'the exterminating angel' it never ends. when the workers within a bourgeois home leave, listlessness begins to set over the guests of the a dinner party. while the world outside waits to come in, from within none can fid the energy to step out even though death and boredom threaten.
singham; surya tears
the screen apart with his growl. a lion appears in sudden bursts when he roars;
he cuts arcs through the sky when his strikes. as capital m- man surya is
classic. the girl whimpers and pouts and he
saves the day by beating evil
kidnappers into a pulp.
taurus. the last days
of lenin in washed grey green. a dacha where the ailing leader is being taken
care a caring wife and a amused group of helpers. to make the myth a person.
stalin alternating between caring and calculating comes and meets with him on a
garden terrace as lenin contemplates poison.
barsaat: nimmis first film. a ramanand sagar story set in the hills where nubile young girls with lal dupattas flow free before young men from the city come to corrupt them with their cynicism and quick love. prem nath plays the cynical friend who breaks nimmis heart, while raj kapoor the poet romantic who falls in love with reshma played by nargis. while one love story ends in happiness, the other in tragedy- with tears of blood
Labels: bangladesh, bengali films, bollywood, china, english, france, hollywood, hungary, russia, spain, sweden, tamil
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