5 posts tagged “cinema”

 

Purplesque reminded me about Ratatouille yesterday, and I also remembered some other films that I'd meant to review but forgotten.

 

Ratatouille was nicely done - a little unbelievable of course (a Cordon Bleu who's a rodent?!) but who says fairy tales should only happen in the "days of yore"? The story premise was familiar and a little jaded, as is with most commercial animated films, but it was unusual in the fact that instead of the beaten-to-death man vs. nature battle, man and nature join hands to come up trumps. That's what I liked about Bee Movie as well.

Story-wise, Brad Bird's two earlier films - The Iron Giant and The Incredibles - were better. But Ratatouille was nevertheless nicely animated, with excellent lighting and texture. Also it was obvious that a lot of effort had gone into the research of Paris's famous gastronomic culture, especially with the addition of the death-like food critic Anton (aptly named the "Grim Eater"!) However, I wish they had animated more scenes of the food, since that was so central to the plot.

 

 

Realm of the Senses. This Japanese film, made in 1976, is inspired by a real incident in the 1930s, when China was sending its troops into Japan. It's about a married landlord who has a torrid affair with a former protitute-turned-brothel-maid. It's a very explicit film - two hours of almost non-stop full frontal male erect nudity, penetration, the works - sometimes in close-up. Some scenes are borderline repulsive. This threatens threatens to overwhelm the story in parts, but it makes sense when you find out that the film was made specifically to rebel against Japanese censors, who had no problems with depiction of violence and rape, but were prudish about sex. (Damn movie censors - they're the same everywhere.) That explains why the cast and crew is Japanese but the producers are French.

I found the movie extremely boring beyond a point, and even the unusual ending didn't surprise me because I sort of expected it. It was only later when I was mulling over it that I realised how the female protagonist's character undergoes a sea change from the beginning to the end, but I had not noticed. That was interesting, if a bit too long.

If you can see beyond the pornography (I don't even know whether to call it pornography, because it was a fictionalised narrative in spite of the unsimulated sex) there are very interesting displays of Japanese cultural motifs - specifically blood and death. Both are so deeply ingrained with Japanese culture that it is present in virtually every aspect of Japanese art, and especially so in this film, where the colour red stands out in particular. Those familiar with Miyazaki's work will know that these are present in his films too, which can be enjoyed by children as well.

There is Japanese traditional vocal and instrumental music throughout the movie (the lead actor sings really well, by the way) and there is even an unusual Kabuki-inspired dance accompanying a post-wedding orgy. Those familiar with Indian classical music will find an unmistakeable similarity in their music and ours, whether it is the ragas, notes and style of singing. Very interesting.

Overall, not really a must-watch movie, but it does have some historic and cultural value.

 

 

Woman of The Dunes. This film, also Japanese, is one of the most intriguing I've ever seen. An entomologist is looking for insect specimens near a beach, when he learns he has missed the last bus home. So the local villagers lead him to a house inside a sand dune occupied by a lone woman, and he accepts her hospitality. The woman and her home are very strange - every night, they have to shovel the falling sand so the house does not get buried. Soon the man realises he is trapped, as he cannot climb out. The woman asks him to stay with her and help look after the house. He goes mad, and is extremely angry with his hostess because she is content to just live inside the dune forever and has no desire to explore the world outside. After various attempts to escape are thwarted, he hits upon a plan. Whether it works or not I won't tell because this is a must-see film, and a taut psychological thriller as well. The feeling of endlessness and claustrophobia are beautifully captured.

 

 

Billy Elliot. I saw this movie last night. I had last seen it several years ago on cable, so some scenes and dialogue were censored, so this time I had the pleasure of seeing it raw. A heartwarming film set in County Durham, North England, it tells the story of a boy who dared to learn ballet instead of boxing while his miner father and brother are on strike. It is set in 1984 but still very reminiscent of the 60s British New Wave - films like Tony Richardson's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - which portrayed the life of the working class.

Jamie Bell does an excellent job as Billy Elliott, and so does Julie Walters as the local ballet teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson. There's also an unapologetic exploration of sexuality - Billy's attraction to his teacher's daughter Debbie and his coming to terms with his friend Michael's homosexuality. This is a distinction in British cinema, which does not hesitate to have its child actors use swear words and enact scenes of sexual tension if the story demands it (also see December Boys, Daniel Radcliffe's first non-Harry Potter role.) Billy even dares to ask his ballet teacher if she fancies him! The scenes when Billy is saying his goodbyes before leaving for a career at the Royal Ballet school are especially wrenching.

The accents will take a little time to get used to, but they are authentic and do not distract from the film. Fun fact: Apparently, the Durham slang for gay is "poof"!

 

I'd rank this movie as a must-see, especially for Jamie Bell. That boy can swear, cry, tap-dance and pirouette like a pro. Too bad we aren't getting to see more of him on a regular basis.

 

 

A Review of BLOOD DIAMOND (2006)

Director: Edward Zwick

fiction

Sierra Leone, 1999. The famous diamond mines in this beautiful African nation are the reason for a terrible bloodbath raging across the country. Native Sierra Leonians are massacred by members of the RUF (Rebels United Front) who want to recruit people into their war against the government. They force the natives to hunt for diamonds that they want to smuggle into and export as Liberian diamonds. Those who try to pocket the precious stones are shot dead by the RUF, and those who manage to make it to the border are intercepted by the government officials. Since those stones are exported at great risk, they are sold for astronomical prices to Dutch and Belgian diamond merchants in .

The film chronicles one of those many stories, which entwines the lives of three characters. Solomon Vandy is a native fisherman with a wife and children, who leads a simple life. Danny Archer is a white South African mercenary who smuggles diamonds into and routinely gets arrested. Maddie Bowen is an American print journalist who is on assignment to chronicle the bloodbath in Sierra Leone.

While being forced to work in the fields, Vandy discovers a rare pink diamond, and hides it. However, the RUF leader spies him and tries to kill him, but they are intercepted by the government forces. Later, when they are both in prison, the RUF leader loudly accuses Vandy of having it on his person, which the latter vehemently denies. Archer, who is in prison for attempting to smuggle diamonds to England-based Dutch jeweller Van Der Kaap, hears this. He is intrigued and wants to get his hands on the diamond. Later, the RUF kidnaps Vandy’s son Dia, and Archer uses this as an opportunity to get the diamond in exchange for getting Dia back. To do this, however, he has to enlist the help of the inquisitive Maddie, who will not rest until she has the inside story of the coup and Archer’s part in it.

So between them, they strike a deal: Maddie helps Archer and Dia get to safely through the rebel territory, while Solomon helps Archer get the diamond in exchange for rescuing Dia with Maddie’s help. However, while returning, they are set upon by the rebels again, and Archer is forced to make a final decision between his diamond and staying back in his beloved . He chooses the latter, and Solomon, who manages to escape, agrees to trade in the diamond in exchange for asylum in – which is dutifully caught on camera by Maddie. As a result, Van Der Kaap lands in trouble, and the end shows a conference in where Vandy is much applauded and diamond merchants from around the world resolve to stop the trade of blood diamonds.

Sadly, Leonardo DiCaprio as David Archer could have been better etched. As a South African white and former member of a rebel army, now making a living as a diamond smuggler, there is a lot of potential for fleshing him out. But, despite his perfect Rhodesian accent and efforts, he is ultimately relegated to being the glamourous hero – good-looking, suave, fetchingly single, and a gold-hearted thief to boot. A pity, considering that he is capable of fine acting, as evidenced by his recent performance in The Departed.

Djimon Hounsou of Amistad fame, who plays Vandy, seems pretty wasted in a role that doesn’t require him to speak much. His performance appears a little stiff, but for a simple villager, whose only goal is to get back his son Dia from the rebel army, it is evocative enough. Unfortunately, his character does not have as much screen place as Archer, and his expressions are limited to intimidating glares. Again, a potentially interesting character pushed into oblivion.

A seemingly unnecessary addition that clinches Blood Diamond’s caving in to formulae is Jennifer Connelly as the holier-than-thou Maddie, who’s been to and and seems to be a journalist version Angelina Jolie. Maddie comes across as the maggot that crawls over the dead, who photographs their grief and puts it into words that creak under the weight of superlatives. She sits among the African refugees and watches over them, with that mixture of delightful curiosity and benevolence typical of scribes who do little more than make soap operas out of conflicts. If her performance was meant to annoy us, and make us gnash our teeth the way we do when we see such people on TV, Connelly succeeds admirably. Frankly, however, Maddie does not contribute much to the film – her exclusion wouldn’t have affected the film much – and besides, in the end, she too becomes the heroine, sexy, teary-eyed and vulnerable, a pallid effigy in comparison to that of the drug addict in Requiem For a Dream.

But to the film’s credit, Archer and Maddie do not develop a romantic relationship, which would have stretched the film unnecessarily and become yet another Romeo and Juliet.

The African rebels are portrayed as a bunch of trigger-happy, drug-toting thugs who engage in rowdy and murderous deeds. Fair enough. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is little of about them, despite their tropical hideouts, clothes and accents. Perhaps it’s the accents, which sound closer to American Ebonics than authentic African. That plus the fact that they listen to violent “gangsta” rap makes them appear all the more Hollywood Ghetto – black kids from crime-infested suburbs – photoshopped into the jungles of .

There are some groan-inducing moments – when Maddie sits among the refugees in a gesture of contemptuous benevolence; when Archer, hit by a bullet, makes his last call to Maddie; and when the diamond merchants stand up and applaud a smiling Solomon Vandy. These scenes in particular are supposed to be moving, but they fail miserably.

At first glance, Blood Diamond appears to belong to that category of films for whom would be happy hunting ground. It’s all there – an unusual story of the violence surrounding African diamond exports; beautiful but scarred Sierra Leone, a country on the West African coast that is rarely portrayed in cinema; snapshots of village life, goats and fishermen; diamond thieves attempting to smuggle stones into Liberia using ingenious methods; African rebels recruiting child soldiers and training them with AK-47 assault rifles. The attempt certainly seems sincere, but the failure becomes apparent as the film progresses. It ultimately culminates in a clichéd all’s-well-that-ends-well where one protagonist dies in a blaze of glory and the other starts a new life.

Blood Diamond certainly is a good film for the most part, both conceptually and visually – the green hills of Sierra Leone’s diamond country, the villagers fishing against the sunset, the locals hunting for diamonds at gunpoint and being shot mercilessly for disobedience; the rebels shooting every living thing in sight while kidnapping children for recruitment into their armies; and the mindless bloodshed and mayhem that ensues from the consequent conflicts. There is attention given to tiny details of African life - the places and ways in which smugglers hide the diamonds; Solomon’s anger at his wife on discovering his son is missing; the methods using which child soldiers are inducted into the rebel forces; and the streets and sounds of . But, for a film into which so much effort has been put, with an unusual and authentic storyline, setting and depiction of the politics of world trade, Blood Diamond should have been more than just a film worth watching once.

And I've been working like a dog...

It's been a hard day's night...

I should be sleeping like a log ...

But when I get home half-dead,

And I look at my bed,

That's when I know I'll be all right ..."

Hehe ... sorry for tweaking the lyrics to suit my state of mind! Just got back from watching the film - for the second time. I LOVE the Beatles, as does my dad. It's not just a great musical, it's also a great comedy! I can't get enough of the Liverpudlian accents and the dialogues. Here are some gems:

Norm: The place is surging with girls.

Lennon: Please sir, sir, can I have one to surge me sir, please sir?

Journalist: How did you find America?

Lennon: Turned left at Greenland.

Journalist: Do you often see your father?

McCartney: No, actually we're just good friends.

ROTFLMAO. Priceless.

Best. Boy. Band. Ever.

The courtship of the penguins is, in which they find their mates through singing in true cinematic style, is both comical and sweet. Since males are fewer than females, the law of Nature is sometimes reversed when the usually aggressive males are fought over by a few females. The males don’t seem to mind, and the narrator even makes a mention of how similar they are to human males. It is set to romantic music, which is beautiful but might seem cheesy; fortunately, however, the visuals are so arresting that the music does not overpower them. Several frames linger on penguin couples huddling together, resting after their long journey, or simply enjoying each other’s company. They are almost like humans in a bittersweet love affair, knowing they have to part soon, and the yellows and oranges on their bodies and beaks seem to be the only splashes of colour in the vast icy realm.

The return of the mothers (with bellies full!) is met with much relief by the fathers - or so we’d like to think! It was amusing the way they looked up as if to say “Just WHERE have you been all this while?” After a brief period of togetherness, once the chicks have recognized their mothers, the fathers return to sea to eat after almost four months. Thereafter, the parents take turns going to and from the sea to take turns feeding their chicks. Finally, for the last time, the mothers leave them to fend for themselves once they are old enough. It was heartbreaking to see a few chicks, unable to accept this new turn in their lives, trying to catch up with their mothers! However, they eventually resign themselves to their fate, and continue to grow bigger. Eventually, they take to the water as if they were born in it, and it is amazing to see these rotund birds who look like walking eggs on land, travelling in the water like the sleekest of torpedoes. And the cycle of life continues to repeat itself.

Since penguins do not have access to technology like we do, they are completely at the mercy of Nature. The law of survival of the fittest cannot find a better place to be respected than on Antarctica. So it is only natural that these birds suffer several losses – the loss of eggs that have been exposed to the cold too soon after being laid; the winter causing more ice to develop on the seashore, forcing the returning mothers to travel longer distances and increasing their possibility of death; and the loss of mothers at sea, when they are eaten up by predators. More eggs are lost during the winter storms, which also claim some of the fathers; as are the newborn chicks whose father’s warmth could not save them; and finally, the chicks who are forced to die because their mothers have not returned in time and their fathers are forced to abandon them to feed themselves. It is a grim reminder of the fickleness of life, especially in Antarctica, but also of how tough these creatures are to survive in such conditions and still not be classified as endangered.

The mating habits of the penguins and their (temporarily) monogamous lifestyle makes it very tempting to compare them to humans. It is but natural that their way of dealing with their losses, not to mention the fact that they are flightless and clumsy on land and therefore, technically helpless, would affect us as a thinking and emotional species, but it would be wise to remember that they have been doing this for thousands of years. They may have smaller brains but are far ahead of us in terms of evolution, so it would not be prudent to take their society as something to model our own upon. Unfortunately, people have made their own socio-political interpretations of the film. Some consider the film as ideal propaganda material for the cause of “conservative family values”, with the father, mother and child being together, since this has been portrayed in the film along with several other behavioural patterns of penguins that are similar to those of humans. The filmmaker, Luc Jacquet, has expressed his outrage against these anthropomorphic comparisons and connotations, as have others.

Personally, I found it romantic and cute (the birds themselves are adorable), but not necessarily something that we humans need to model our lives upon. Frankly, if I were living in a place where the average temperature is –30 degrees Celsius, I’d be more worried about feeding myself rather than bringing up a family! It’s this mentality of people to compare humans and animals and try to bridge the gap that eventually creates ecological troubles. It would be wise to remember that all animals are millennia ahead of us, and we’re still infants as far as evolutionary history is concerned, and that the so-called “gap” is actually the size of Gondwanaland. It would be better to admire and respect them and look for ways to conserve them without disrupting the ecosystem, rather than to conjure up religious and social ideals in connection to them.

This is one of more than just an unforgettable documentary films, not only for its content but also for showcasing, in lush imagery, a place where there is practically nothing. The vast expanse of ice and snow is breathtaking and the sunsets and sunrises are spectacular, more so when the ice reflects the light and scatters it into myriad shades of pink, yellow and orange. One particularly outstanding scene is one where the egg-incubating male penguins are huddled into groups and the Southern lights - aurora australis - dance above, making it appear like a penguin discotheque. (This film was also thought to be the basis for the hugely successful Happy Feet, an animated film about an outcast Emperor penguin who becomes the hero of his tribe.) The courage it must have taken for the cameramen and everyone else involved on-location, to make the film while braving the snow and blizzards, is indeed admirable.

A treat for nature lovers and film buffs alike, March Of The Penguins is a must-watch and undoubtedly deserved its Oscar win for Best Documentary.

A Review of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999)
Director: Wim Wenders
documentary

Most documentaries are boring. It’s a fact that somehow a real life incident or person doesn’t seem as interesting when shown as-is, rather than in widescreen format with Dolby Surround, a glamorous ensemble cast, elaborate realistic sets and lots of extra spice. However, there are always exceptions to the rule – gems like William Nessen's The Black Road (I actually had the fortune to meet him when he visited NID), Elle Flander's Zero Degrees Of Separation, Mahnaz Afzali's The Ladies’, and that greatest of all documentary musicals, Buena Vista Social Club.

The film traces the journey of American guitarist Ry Cooder and his percussionist son Joachim to in March 1998, in search of the forgotten musicians whose rhythms filled nights in the years preceding World War II. These musicians were members of the Buena Vista Social Club, and used to perform regularly, with the club at its peak during the 1940s. The Cooders find these musicians living practically on the streets of , almost forgotten, but very much alive as far as their spirit and extraordinary musical talent is concerned. Through the help of local musician Juan de Marcos González (who plays the guiro), who helps to regroup the members and coordinate their performances at the EGREM studios in , the music from the old days is recreated. Needless to say, so is the magic.

The members include the honey-voiced son and bolero singer Ibrahim Ferrer (who also plays the conga, claves and bombo), singer Omara Portuondo (the only female member, who has worked with Nat King Cole), Compay Segundo (vocals and tres), legendary pianist Rubén González, bassist Orlando "Cachaito" López, trumpet player Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, percussionist Amadito Valdés and the younger members, laúd player Barbarito Torres, singers Manuel "Puntillita" Licea and Pío Leyva, and guitarist-singer Eliades Ochoa.

The film intersperses some of the band’s finest songs with interviews of the members speaking about their lives, along with footage of their live performances at in April and ’s Carnegie Hall in July of that same year. It’s incredible hear Ferrer and Segundo sounding as robust as people half their age, and if there ever is such a thing as musical lightning, it’s ably demonstrated by nanogenarian González’s fingers flying over the piano keys, or by Torres playing the laúd behind his own back.. Tracks like “Chan Chan” (the overwhelming favourite), “Dos Gardenias”, “El Cuarto De Tula” are just a few of the gems on the soundtrack. By turns bittersweet, sensuous and mischievous, it is as much an aural feast as it is visually.

I went to see Buena Vista Social Club because I expected to hear some mind-blowing Cuban jazz. Not only was I not disappointed, I left the theatre with the goosebumps still on my arms, long after the notes had faded into the recesses of my memory.

Here is my favourite track, Chan Chan, performed by Compay Segundo. It's what I describe as a sensuous musical massage - the kind you could dance to with your querido on a moonlit night, with a glass of wine in your hand.