Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Familia Tortuga (Tortuga Family )
A remarkable directorial debut & one of the most pleasant surprises of contemporary Mexican cinema.
First-time Mexican writer/director Ruben Imaz Castro skillfully teases out the selfishness, vulnerability and ultimately quiet self-discovery, of the various members of a family on the eve of a special family day in this multi-award winning drama.
....After the mother has died from a Mexican middle-class family, an uncle, a brother-in-law and two children have to find a new balance together. With his dynamically designed film debut, Castro allows the silences to reverberate. Ruben Imaz, gives a brilliant and sensitive impression of an unknown future when a loved one ഗോഎസ്...
Awards
Best Film, 3 Festival Int. de Cine, Santiago
Best 1st Work, Festival Int. de Cine Mexico 2007
Best Film, Toulouse Latin American Film Fest
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
NEELAKKUYIL
NEELAKKUYIL was a turning point in Malayalam cinema. Released on October 22, 1954, the film was based on legendary Malayalam writer Uroob's (late P.C. Kuttikrishnan) story. Uroob himself penned the script. It revolutionized the Malayalam movie scene, when it was blindly following trends in Tamil and Hindi cinema.
It introduced new talents like Ramu Kariat and P. Bhaskaran as directors and A. Vincent as cinematographer. Vincent, hardly 22, broke the then prevailing concept in framing visuals and treatment of lights. T. K. Preekutty produced the film under Chandrathara productions. He was a well-known businessman who ventured into filmmaking.
കായലരികത്ത് വലയെറിഞ്ഞപ്പോള് വള കിലുക്കിയ സുന്ദരീ.... - നീലകുയില് (1954)
The songs of "Neelakkuyil" were an instant hit and rank among all time favourites today. Music director K. Raghavan and singers like Kozhikode Abdul Kader and Janamma David became very popular. Director P. Bhaskaran, also an acclaimed poet and actor, wrote the lyrics for the film.
Neelakkuyil was the first Malayalam film to get a national recognition. It had won the President's silver medal for the second best film in the country.
Forrest Gump
Robert Zemeckis (of Back to the Future fame) has collected another feather for his cap with his direction of this movie starring Tom Hanks as this childishly naive idiot savant. Though that description of Forrest Gump might be inadequate.
Gump, gifted with a low IQ which lets him be adorably childlike even as he grows up, leads a very charmed life: a mother who loves him immensely and who sleeps with the school principal in order to make sure her child has the best education, a miraculous incident that eliminates the need for him to have braces for his legs, a childhood girlfriend who remains faithful to him till the end, surviving Vietnam with a medal, and, in general, a propensity for turning everything that happens to him into good.
I wonder what the movie is trying to say. From one perspective, it implies that intelligence (as measured by IQs and the general idea of what "smart" is) is a very unnecessary trait. But I think one can look beyond that and say that childlike innocence, which can be considered stupid, has its rewards. Throughout the movie, Gump is in situations where he is harassed by other people but he never takes offense (except, of course, when his girl Jenny is being abused) at any of the insults thrown at him. He is indeed not completely stupid, even though he is portrayed as such, since he can re-assemble guns at high speed, run like crazy, play ping-pong like a maniac, and so on.
The fact that Gump doesn't take offense, I think, is what keeps him content. He becomes a millionaire, but gives most of the money away. He is honest and open and this, along with his Alabama accent, endears him to the audience. But this gets tiresome after a while (especially after 2 hours). I thought the movie was overly long, but that's the only negative thing I have to say.
Gump rubs elbows with many famous personalities over the last half of the century including Elvis Presley and Nixon, thanks to computer technology (General Dan doesn't really lose his legs either---they are just erased and the background is then touched up by using computer graphics programs). The account of how Gump is responsible for the gyrations that is so characteristic of Presley is very telling of the motives of this movie. Gump is contrasted to the famous males, who are idols (in some cases) in today's society, and it appears as though he is better off in comparison: Gump's choices in life seem to determine his niceness (he goes to Vietnam, keeps his promises ("a promise is a promise"), harbours no ill-feelings or grudges, and is not greedy with fame or money) and successes. Contrast this to the choices his lifetime girl friend Jenny makes: she wants to be famous and rich, but ends up being a druggie. The people she is surrounded by are all of a dubious nature: a sexually-abusive father, a show audience more interested in her naked body than her folk-music playing, and an abusive hippie-boyfriend.
The traditional male heroes that we have had are all dysfunctional in some respect or another and we are lost without heroes, as Bloom points out. Gump is a new kind of a role-model; he's A Nice Boy and everyone knows they're hard to find. As one reviewer said: "Today the last American hero is a Tom Hanks character with a small IQ".
Forrest Gump is the runaway hit movie of this summer. Many people claim it gets them in touch with their "inner child". Some reviewers attack it for the view that low IQ is a necessity for maintaining the child-like attitude Gump has. Gump never grows up or matures in the movie. He never becomes a man and remains a boy throughout. It is implied, at least, that his "stupidity" is what allows him to do this. This may or may not be true, but it is just a movie in the end. Most people in his position would not be so fortunate as he. And what about the converse: if you are intelligent, does this mean you cannot be child-like forever? That's not true, and I think Zemeckis did a good job in showing that anyone can retain their inner child as long they never grow up or become mature.
There's room for much analysis here, but the plot isn't new. Peter Sellers did this a long time ago.
"I'm tired now. I think I'm going home." --Forrest Gump
"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get." --Forrest Gump
"Stupid is as stupid does." --Forrest Gump
"I guess sometimes there just aren't enough rocks." --Forrest Gump
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)
Director: Tom Tykwer
Screenplay: Tom Tykwer
Cinematography: Frank Griebe
In German
First thing: it's fast. Even on second viewing, there is not a dull moment in the movie. From the heartpounding start and the lightning-speed exposition to the quirky final credits, this movie grabs you by the throat and, well, runs with it.
The conceit is simple: Lola (played by the wonderful Franka Potente) is in trouble. If she can't come up with 100,000 marks, her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) will die. The catch: she has only twenty minutes to come up with the money. Lola's race to save her lover is repeated three times with minor variations that lead to widely different endings. It's Groundhog Day on ecstasy.
Lola succeeds on all counts: it is a thrill ride that out-runs every other contender playing right now; it is a stylish visual feast that succeeds artistically by employing its tricks and gimmicks in ways that heighten the impact of the story; and it succeeds emotionally because we believe Lola's fear and love: a runner can't lie.
There is a study of chance, time, and fate hidden somewhere beneath the techno soundtrack. A pet turtle, a set of falling dominoes: there are details in this film that carry meaning you won't catch until a second viewing, but the mixture is nothing short of perfect: the deeper levels of German ponderousness, for those who enjoy this kind of thing, are buried deep enough to allow those of us who are just into it for the sheer exhilaration of watching Franka Potente run to not worry about any of it.
"Run Lola Run" is set in a brightly-colored fairy-tale world in which the elements of the story can be rearranged and connected at will. To see director Tom Tykwer play with nuns, bums, guns, crooks, bankers, ambulances, and policemen is pure delight - it's as if we were granted a glance at the creative process itself, three different drafts of the same story, revised and rearranged until the final version satisfies.
Friday, July 18, 2008
“Dreams” -By Akira Kurosawa
Yume (1990) AKA Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
The past, present, and future. The thoughts and images of one man... for all men. One man's dreams... for every dreamer.
A collection of tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
The past, present, and future. The thoughts and images of one man... for all men. One man's dreams... for every dreamer.
A collection of tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
Sunshine Through The Rain
There is an old legend in Japan that states that when the sun is shining through the rain, the "Kitsune" foxes have their weddings. In this first dream, a boy defies the wish of a woman, possibly his mother, to remain at home during a day with such weather. From behind a large tree in the nearby forest, he is witness to the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the foxes and runs. When he tries to return home, the same woman says that a fox had come by the house, leaving behind a short sword. The woman says that it is meant for the boy to commit suicide because the foxes are angry at the unwanted observer. The woman asks the boy to go and beg forgiveness from the foxes, although they are known to be unforgiving. So, the boy sets off into the mountains, towards the place under the rainbow in search for the kitsune's home...
The Peach Orchard
Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival, traditionally takes place in spring when the peach blossoms are in full bloom. The dolls that go on display at this time, they say, are representative of the peach trees and their pink blossoms. One boy's family, however, has chopped down their peach orchard, so the boy feels a sense of loss during this year's festival. After being scolded by his older sister, the boy spots a small girl running out the front door. He follows her to the now-treeless orchard, where, lo and behold, the dolls from his sister's collection have come to life and are standing before him on the slopes of the orchard. The living dolls berate the boy about chopping down the precious trees, but after realizing how much he loved the blossoms, they agree to give him one last glance at the peach trees by way of a slow and beautiful dance to gagaku music.
The Blizzard
A group of mountaineers struggle up a mountain path during a horrendous blizzard, gradually losing each other in the blinding snow and wind and becoming covered by snow. A strange woman (possibly the Yuki-onna of Japanese myth) appears out of nowhere and attempts to lure the last conscious man to his death. After coming to, the men discover that their destination wasn't too far from them at all.
The Tunnel
A Japanese army officer is travelling down a deserted road at dusk, on his way back home from fighting in the war. He comes to a large concrete pedestrian tunnel that seems to go on forever into the darkness. Suddenly, an angry, almost demonic-looking dog runs out of the tunnel and snarls at him, then disappears back into the hole. Slightly rattled, the officer nevertheless proceeds through the tunnel and comes out the other side, but then witnesses something horrific—the yūrei of one of the soldiers (Private Noguchi) whom he had charge over in the war comes out of the tunnel behind him, his face blue with death.
The soldier seems not to believe he's dead, but the officer convinces him and the soldier returns into the darkness of the tunnel. Just when he thinks he's seen the worst, the officer sees his entire third platoon marching out of the tunnel. He tries to tell them they're dead, and expresses his deep-seated guilt about letting them all die in the war. They go back, followed by a second appearance of the hellish dog which was used in the war as an Anti-tank dog. This is one of three "nightmares" featured in the film.
Crows
A brilliantly-colored vignette featuring director Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. An art student finds himself inside the vibrant and sometimes chaotic world inside Van Gogh's artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. The student loses track of the artist (who is missing an ear and nearing the end of his life) and travels through other works trying to find him. Van Gogh's painting Wheat Field with Crows is an important element in this dream.
Mount Fuji in Red
The film's second nightmare sequence. A large nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji has begun to melt down, painting the sky a horrendous red and sending the millions of Japanese citizens desperately fleeing into the ocean like lemmings. Three adults and two children are left behind on land, but they soon realize that the radiation will kill them anyway.
The Weeping Demon
A man (possibly Kurosawa himself) finds himself wandering around a misty, bleak mountainous terrain. He meets a strange oni-like man, who is actually a mutated human with one horn. The "demon" explains that there had been a nuclear holocaust which resulted in the loss of nature/animals, enormous Dandelions and humans sprouting horns, which caused them so much agony that you can hear them howling during the night. The last of the three "nightmare" sequences. This is actually a post-apocalyptic retelling of a classic Buddhist fable of the same name.
Village of the Watermills
A young man finds himself entering a peaceful, stream-laden village. Every house or building in the village has a watermill built into it. The traveller meets an old, wise man who is fixing a broken watermill wheel. The elder explains that the people of his village decided long ago to forsake the polluting influence of modern technology and return to a happier, cleaner era of society. They have chosen spiritual health over convenience, and the traveller is surprised but intrigued by this notion.
At the end of the sequence (and the film), a funeral procession for an old woman takes place in the village, which instead of mourning, the people celebrate joyfully as the proper end to a good life. This segment was filmed at the Daio Wasabi farm in the Nagano Prefecture.
(the screens are not from this torrent)
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