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Sunday, March 08, 2009
The wait is over.....
Che, Part One (Director Steven Soderbergh): 8/10
Almost a year after the film made its premier at Cannes 2008, Che is finally released in my city. Part One made its debut this week while Part Two will be released March 13 onwards. I first heard about the movie when The Motorcycle Diaries was doing the rounds in the film festival circuit back in 2004. Part One of Soderbergh's film picks up Che's journey after his motorcycle tour of South America had first opened his eyes to the idea of seeing a unified Latin America. At the start of Soderbergh's film, Che is shown in Mexico City (1955) for his first meeting with Fidel. Both men exchanged their ideas regarding a proposed Cuban revolution. The plans arising from that meeting led to Fidel, Che and 80 other armed men taking off on a boat towards Cuba. A guerilla warfare resulted in the beautiful island of Cuba before the revolutionaries took control of the island and overthrew the US backed dictatorship. After Cuba was liberated, a soldier asks Che if he could go home because the revolution was over. To which Che replies that only the war over but the revolution was going to begin. In a way, from 1959 onwards not only did the revolution begin but so did the isolation of Cuba from the rest of the world.
Part One shows the early years of Che and how his ideas made him a symbol for global revolutions. The film alternates between the interview and U.N speech that Che gave in USA (1964) while depicting the guerilla warfare tactics that form the basis of most revolutions around the world . Overall, there are plenty of interesting moments in the movie but there is nothing ground breaking about the work. Although I will wait until seeing the second part to form an overall judgement of the work.
Some debating points that arise from the film are obviously regarding the US policy towards Cuba and one can extrapolate these to those of other nations that seek strategies to either isolate or befriend selected nations. Prior to 1945, one knew who the villains were and who the good nations were. But after WWII, things got less clear as the propaganda and spy games increased. As a result, the world became a place where nations despised their neighbors and befriended nations across the world. And if a nation had a leader that was not friendly to a foreign power, then the complicated series of coups and hate campaigns started. And the awful political mess that exists today in the world could directly be attributed to the years from 1950 until the 1970’s when so the all knowing “intelligent” men ran amok and thought they were helping to create a better world. Ha.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Spy games
What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?
-- Alec Leamas, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The description of a spy above is in complete contrast to the one created by Ian Fleming and the subsequent James Bond films. Even though Martin Ritt’s adaptation of John le Carré’s novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold came out in 1965, we still have not had a cinematic spy like Alec Leamas (Richard Burton). Leamas plays a lonely miserable spy struggling for money, who gets drunk frequently, and is not afraid to throw a punch or two. Credit for such a character has to go to John le Carré who was still a “spook” himself when the movie came out and one can see the brutal honesty involved in how the spy game is truly played. But then again, the British know a thing or two about spying since they spent centuries perfecting the art. The following dialogues spoken by Leamas’ boss Control (Cyril Cusack) show the false morality involved in the spying game and the mess such self-righteousness causes:
Our work, as I understand it.. is based on a single assumption that the West is never going to be the aggressor. Thus..we do disagreeable things..but we’re defensive. Our policies are peaceful..but our methods can’t afford to be less ruthless than those of the opposition.
You know, I’d say, uh..since the war, our methods - our techniques, that is - and those of the Communists, have become very much the same. Yes. I mean, occasionally...we have to do wicked things. Very wicked things indeed. But, uh, you can’t be less wicked..than your enemies simply because your government’s policy is benevolent.
Shockingly the above words could easily apply today as they did four decades ago.
Technology as a spy tool...or not
Martin Ritt’s film shows how local personnel are critical to the gathering of information and form the most important currency to assist spies. But in the last few decades, technology has given the ability to listen in on others conversations and follow someone’s movements. And this technology gives the false ability that one can understand the enemy. Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies shows that spy technology is useless when the enemy chooses to live off the grid and does not exchange messages via cell phones or the internet but rather meets face to face to discuss plans. In a way both The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Body of Lies show that if one needs to get information from others, then they need to gain their trust. Body of Lies contrasts this style of trust by showing how Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) opts to foster a healthy relationship by trusting the local people while his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) prefers to push people aside whenever he feels like it and is constantly looking to use people.
Another common element in both films is how the bank is used by both Leamas and Ferris to lead the enemy to suspect one of their own -- in The Spy Who Came from in the Cold a letter to the bank causes the damage while in Body of Lies it is an email that causes an innocent person to be blamed.
The Spy Who Came from in the Cold is a brilliant film that focuses more on the interaction with the characters while Body of Lies is a fascinating travelogue through the middle east depicting the complexity of the problems that lie there. As much as I enjoyed watching it, Body of Lies feels like a missed opportunity and could have been much better had it employed the framework of Syriana and Traffic. The explosions and Hollywood machismo does get in the way but thankfully Leonardo DiCaprio shines in a role akin to the brilliance he brought to Blood Diamond.
Smile..for that camera
London probably has the most CCTV cameras than any other city in the world and it is hard to escape the watchful eye of the cameras. The British TV series MI-5 shows some of the people that do their spying remotely while gathering feeds from these cameras. While the show is currently in the 7th season, I caught up with Season One which consists of 6 one hour episodes. The first episode is the weakest as it features a topic of pro-life activists. But thankfully the show started to take more risks as Season One progressed and the 6th episode depicts the complicated decisions involved in balancing the threat from two different enemies (Islamists and the IRA).
Ratings out of 10
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965, UK, Martin Ritt): 10
Body of Lies (2008, USA, Ridley Scott): 8.5
MI-5, Season One (2002, UK, various): 7.5
Darkness....and then some light...
Tauba tera jalwa, tauba tera pyar
Tera Emotional Atyachar
-- Dev D
Darkness is found aplenty in Anurag Kashyup’s films both in terms of the lighting and the story itself. Kashyap’s initial foray into Bollywood was as a writer for Ram Gopal Varma’s gritty gangster flick, Satya, a film which ushered in a new age of dark crime films in Bollywood. When Kashyup turned to direction his films got even darker -- Black Friday started off with the horror of the 1993 Mumbai blasts and ended by showing the levels of hatred that could cause men to plot against their own city and country; No Smoking was about a character’s descent into hell caused by his addiction to smoking and ends with the character’s soul literally burning up in flames.
And now his latest film Dev D shows the weakness in a man’s personality that can cause him to plunge towards a path of self-destruction.
The film is a modern interpretation of Devdas , a story about a man ruining his life because he couldn’t get the woman he loved. Even though I have never read the original Bengali novel nor seen any of the previous cinematic adaptations, I am pretty certain that Dev D out does all of them in terms of the harsh reality and ugliness of the character portrayed. The original story and previous film versions had Devdas drinking himself crazy but Kashyup adds drugs to the mix and truly corrupts the character. The film boils down to a rich young man, Dev, having reckless sex, drinking himself silly, hating himself and wasting his life. And there is a bit thrown in about the consequences of drunk driving. Dev hates himself because he pushed his childhood sweetheart, Paro, away and caused her to marry someone else. While on a mission to destroy himself Dev meets the young prostitute (or “sex-worker”) Chanda, who has gone through her own version of hell. In the previous films, there was no hope for such a weak wretched Devdas character even though he finds another woman willing to love him. But Kashyup manages to show a tiny glimmer of light in the film and ends on a happy note.
Abhay Deol once again puts in a wicked performance and he continues his trend of picking smart roles in Indian films after Socha Na Tha, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local , Honeymoon Travels, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Manorama Six Feet Under. The film has a great look and feel to it and benefits from having two debuts -- Mahie Gill looks refreshing as Paro, while Kalki Koechlin has that innocent look that her young character requires. The music is good, even though there are a tad too many songs. However, the song Emotional Atyachar got me seriously hooked:
Rating: 8.5/10
Even though I liked the film it was not on the same level as Black Friday and No Smoking, two films that I absolutely loved. I am hoping Kashyup’s upcoming Gulaal is stellar. The trailer looks promising though.
Tera Emotional Atyachar
-- Dev D
Darkness is found aplenty in Anurag Kashyup’s films both in terms of the lighting and the story itself. Kashyap’s initial foray into Bollywood was as a writer for Ram Gopal Varma’s gritty gangster flick, Satya, a film which ushered in a new age of dark crime films in Bollywood. When Kashyup turned to direction his films got even darker -- Black Friday started off with the horror of the 1993 Mumbai blasts and ended by showing the levels of hatred that could cause men to plot against their own city and country; No Smoking was about a character’s descent into hell caused by his addiction to smoking and ends with the character’s soul literally burning up in flames.
And now his latest film Dev D shows the weakness in a man’s personality that can cause him to plunge towards a path of self-destruction.
The film is a modern interpretation of Devdas , a story about a man ruining his life because he couldn’t get the woman he loved. Even though I have never read the original Bengali novel nor seen any of the previous cinematic adaptations, I am pretty certain that Dev D out does all of them in terms of the harsh reality and ugliness of the character portrayed. The original story and previous film versions had Devdas drinking himself crazy but Kashyup adds drugs to the mix and truly corrupts the character. The film boils down to a rich young man, Dev, having reckless sex, drinking himself silly, hating himself and wasting his life. And there is a bit thrown in about the consequences of drunk driving. Dev hates himself because he pushed his childhood sweetheart, Paro, away and caused her to marry someone else. While on a mission to destroy himself Dev meets the young prostitute (or “sex-worker”) Chanda, who has gone through her own version of hell. In the previous films, there was no hope for such a weak wretched Devdas character even though he finds another woman willing to love him. But Kashyup manages to show a tiny glimmer of light in the film and ends on a happy note.
Abhay Deol once again puts in a wicked performance and he continues his trend of picking smart roles in Indian films after Socha Na Tha, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local , Honeymoon Travels, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Manorama Six Feet Under. The film has a great look and feel to it and benefits from having two debuts -- Mahie Gill looks refreshing as Paro, while Kalki Koechlin has that innocent look that her young character requires. The music is good, even though there are a tad too many songs. However, the song Emotional Atyachar got me seriously hooked:
Rating: 8.5/10
Even though I liked the film it was not on the same level as Black Friday and No Smoking, two films that I absolutely loved. I am hoping Kashyup’s upcoming Gulaal is stellar. The trailer looks promising though.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Zidane
17 cameras fixed on Zidane for the entire 90 minutes capturing his every movement. When I first heard about the idea for Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno’s film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait I was thrilled because it offered me a chance to witness something that I have longed for -- to observe what a soccer player, a great one at that, does for an entire 90 minutes. My interest was driven mostly because it is extremely hard to observe a player’s off the ball movement during a televised soccer game. In a regular 90 minute game the ball stays in play for an average of 60 minutes with the rest of time wasted on fouls and stoppages. I have seen games where the ball was in play for atleast 66 minutes and I have also seen some games where the ball was only in action for 43 minutes (an Italian Serie A game from a few years ago with plenty of kicking and no flow). So that gives each player an average of 3 minutes on the ball, provided all the players touch the ball equally (60 min / 20 outfield players or 66 min / 22 players). That is a remarkable number and means a soccer player would have to spend 87 minutes in off the ball movement. And this is where the most intelligent players thrive, positioning themselves perfectly so that when they receive the ball they make each touch count. Ofcourse, the best players also get to spend a lot more time on the ball than their team-mates.
Over the last few decades there have been few players as intelligent and remarkable as Zinedine Zidane. Which is what makes the film such a treat to watch. The game in the film is the April 2005 La Liga fixture between Madrid and Villarreal, almost a year before the World Cup final. We get to witness the calculative Zizou, the constantly thinking man looking for that great pass, and also the extremely focussed man who is able to blur out the noise of the restless crowd in the Santiago Bernabeau. We get to see his amazing control of the ball as he points to where he wants the ball and perfectly controls it with a single touch even if that touch is a backheel. And early in the second half, we see Zidane getting isolated from the game and drifting into his own world. But we then witness him regrouping and thankfully we get to see his genius as he dribbles past players and perfectly crosses the ball leading to a Madrid goal. And as the game progresses, we see Zidane get agitated until he lashes out resulting in a red card. Zizou only got a handful of red cards in his playing career, and two of them were in the World Cup, the first in the 1998 World Cup after he needlessly stomped on a player from Saudi Arabia and the second being that now infamous one in the 2006 World Cup final. The interesting aspect is that the film was released in May 2006 at the Cannes film festival and was just a month before the World Cup started and two months before that World Cup Final. So it gave a few months notice about Zidane’s red card incident. But then again, his reputation for carrying an angry side was already established when he played in Italy with Juventus. Ofcourse, his genius was far superior to those red cards.
The film shows the best and worst of Zidane and in that respect is a perfect testament to one of the greatest players to have ever played the game. Besides Zidane, we get to see plenty of other big name stars. The most prominent one is Roberto Carlos who manages to get Zidane to smile near the game’s end, the only time Zidane was able to relax. The camera also shows us Madrid’s golden boy Raul, along with Beckham and Ronaldo and if one blinks, they could miss Figo. On the Villarreal side, we get to see Marco Senna, Spain’s maestro at Euro 2008, Diego Forlan and the silky Juan Roman Riquelme.
It was a real pleasure to watch the film although there were moments where the directors decisions regarding the shot selection leads to some missed opportunities and needless blurred shots. A huge positive is the soundtrack by Mogwai which perfectly blends in with the action. At selected moments the soundtrack is turned off and we get to hear the crowd, either silent, talking or getting angry. Those moments of listening to the crowd and the long shots of Zidane, standing isolated like a lone warrior, are perfect.
Rating: 9/10
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Canadian Theatres
I often end up complaining about the low number of theatres in my city along with the lack of quality films playing in them. I have seen 6 very good theatres (in terms of location and accessibility) shut down in the last decade. Even though Calgary has had three gigantic multiplexes opened in that time period, thereby ensuring more cinema screens, I feel the city could do with more theatres. I decided to do a quick look across this country to see if my complaints were justified in terms of quantity and quality.
Note: I am not counting the number of screens as there are some multiplexes with more than 10 screens. I am more interested in the number of the physical theatres themselves.
Quantity
1) Calgary – The city has just over a million people (1042892) with 12 theatres. There are 7 multiplexes, 3 art house theatres which show quality films regularly (and form the core of CIFF) and 2 cheap theatres which show older Hollywood films.
So dividing the population by # of theatres, the number comes out to 86907, or one cinema for 86907 people.
2) Toronto -- The greater Toronto area has about 5.5 million people. So it accordingly has 54 cinemas. In a way, the population is 5 times that of Calgary so they have 5 times more theatres in the greater Toronto area.
Ratio: 101851 or one cinema for 101851 people.
3) Vancouver -- Greater Vancouver area has between 2-3 million people. It has 28 theatres. Using an estimate of 2.6 million:
Ratio: 92857
4) Saskatoon -- around 225,000 people. 5 cinemas.
Ratio: 45000
5) Edmonton -- Million. 10 cinemas.
Ratio: 100000
6) Winnipeg -- 625,000 people. 10 cinemas (including a standalone IMAX). Not counting an art house space which is used to screen Winnipeg Cinematheque films as that is not a dedicated venue.
Ratio: 62500
7) Ottawa -- 1.1 million people have 9 cinemas.
Ratio: 122,222
8) Montreal -- 3.6 million in greater Montreal area. 36 cinemas
Ratio: 100,000
9) Halifax -- 360,000 people with 4 cinemas.
Note: In Halifax there are only 2 multiplexes but they have 17 & 8 screens respectively.
Ratio: 90,000
10) Yellowknife -- around 16,000 people. 1 cinema hall, with 3 screens
Ratio: 16000
Unfortunately, it turns out my complaints about the few number of cinemas in Calgary can't put up a fight in terms of population numbers. If we take a ratio of cinemas per person across this country, then Calgary's ratio is not bad. Winnipeg is a true surprize in that has almost as many theatres as Calgary but with 400,000 less people than Calgary. That is quite amazing.
A flaw in this count is that I didn’t take into account the distance of the theatres across each city. That would indicate the cities where cinemas are more accessible to a majority of the population. A project for later on, I suppose.
Quality
There is where my complaints are rightly justified. A quick look showed that the multiplexes in almost all the cities are playing the exact same Hollywood films with no variety whatsoever. My belief that Toronto and Vancouver would show better films was incorrect as well. It is true that the Cinematheques in both cities and the VanCity theatre in Vancouver ensures there are some world class films that play there regularly but the multiplexes in these cities are bogged down by the same run of the mill stuff. And I believe only 3 cinemas in this country are showing the almost 4 hour long film Che, with 2 showing it in Montreal and one in Toronto. And currently that is the only film I want to see :)
Note: I am not counting the number of screens as there are some multiplexes with more than 10 screens. I am more interested in the number of the physical theatres themselves.
Quantity
1) Calgary – The city has just over a million people (1042892) with 12 theatres. There are 7 multiplexes, 3 art house theatres which show quality films regularly (and form the core of CIFF) and 2 cheap theatres which show older Hollywood films.
So dividing the population by # of theatres, the number comes out to 86907, or one cinema for 86907 people.
2) Toronto -- The greater Toronto area has about 5.5 million people. So it accordingly has 54 cinemas. In a way, the population is 5 times that of Calgary so they have 5 times more theatres in the greater Toronto area.
Ratio: 101851 or one cinema for 101851 people.
3) Vancouver -- Greater Vancouver area has between 2-3 million people. It has 28 theatres. Using an estimate of 2.6 million:
Ratio: 92857
4) Saskatoon -- around 225,000 people. 5 cinemas.
Ratio: 45000
5) Edmonton -- Million. 10 cinemas.
Ratio: 100000
6) Winnipeg -- 625,000 people. 10 cinemas (including a standalone IMAX). Not counting an art house space which is used to screen Winnipeg Cinematheque films as that is not a dedicated venue.
Ratio: 62500
7) Ottawa -- 1.1 million people have 9 cinemas.
Ratio: 122,222
8) Montreal -- 3.6 million in greater Montreal area. 36 cinemas
Ratio: 100,000
9) Halifax -- 360,000 people with 4 cinemas.
Note: In Halifax there are only 2 multiplexes but they have 17 & 8 screens respectively.
Ratio: 90,000
10) Yellowknife -- around 16,000 people. 1 cinema hall, with 3 screens
Ratio: 16000
Unfortunately, it turns out my complaints about the few number of cinemas in Calgary can't put up a fight in terms of population numbers. If we take a ratio of cinemas per person across this country, then Calgary's ratio is not bad. Winnipeg is a true surprize in that has almost as many theatres as Calgary but with 400,000 less people than Calgary. That is quite amazing.
A flaw in this count is that I didn’t take into account the distance of the theatres across each city. That would indicate the cities where cinemas are more accessible to a majority of the population. A project for later on, I suppose.
Quality
There is where my complaints are rightly justified. A quick look showed that the multiplexes in almost all the cities are playing the exact same Hollywood films with no variety whatsoever. My belief that Toronto and Vancouver would show better films was incorrect as well. It is true that the Cinematheques in both cities and the VanCity theatre in Vancouver ensures there are some world class films that play there regularly but the multiplexes in these cities are bogged down by the same run of the mill stuff. And I believe only 3 cinemas in this country are showing the almost 4 hour long film Che, with 2 showing it in Montreal and one in Toronto. And currently that is the only film I want to see :)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Vintage European Football in 16 flavours
The Champions league is back and there are some mouth-watering ties to look forward to it. Interestingly 6 match-ups stack up evenly given the opponents domestic league standings.
1) Arsenal vs Roma
Arsenal currently lie in 5th place in the EPL 17 points off the top. While Roma lie in 6th place in Serie A 16 points off the top. Both teams possess enough talent on their lineups but unfortunately both have been off key in their respective domestic league season. Roma had an awful start to the domestic season when they found themselves lingering near the relegation zone. The Roman club have recovered since then but still can be found putting in below par performances.
2) Inter Milan vs Manchester United
Inter are 9 points clear at the top of Serie A while Man Utd are 7 points clear at the top of the English league. Essentially both teams have the fate of their respective domestic titles in their hands. For Inter the European trophy represents that elusive holy grail as they seek to improve on the two titles they have won, with the last one coming back in 1965, and continue to live in the shadows of their rivals AC Milan who currently have 7 European titles. The tie promises to garner enough attention because of the Jose vs Fergie mind games but it also brings together the meeting of football’s highest paid player (Zlatan) vs the current world player of the year.
3) Chelsea vs Juventus
Chelsea are 3rd in the EPL 10 points off the top while Juventus trail Inter by 9 points and lie in second place. Both have produced some average performances throughout the season but Chelsea are now under a new manager and might be on their way up. Juventus got some good news recently with the return of Trezeguet after his long injury lay off and do still have Del Pierro who certainly turned it on against Madrid in the group stages.
4) Real Madrid vs Liverpool
Both Madrid and Liverpool lie in second place in their respective leagues 7 points off the top. But Madrid are on the way up and have won 9 straight liga games and gained 5 points against Barcelona in the last two weekends. Liverpool on the other hand have dropped key points in the league since January with 4 draws and have given up their lead.
5) Lyon vs Barcelona
Lyon have been the top team in France for almost an eternity now but this season they briefly slowed down a bit to let other teams believe they had a chance before pulling ahead with a 6 point lead. Barcelona were on an amazing run with 10 straight liga wins until their 2-2 draw with Betis 10 days ago. This weekend’s shock home derby loss to Espanyol certainly has shown Barca to be human. It will be interesting to see if Barca can put the loss behind and regroup.
6) Sporting vs Bayern
Both teams are 4 points off the top in their domestic league with Sporting in 3rd place in Portugal while Bayern are in 4th spot in Germany.
7) Atletico vs Porto
Despite having some very talented players on their squad Atletico Madrid’s domestic season has been a huge let down as they trail Barcelona by 24 points after 24 games. While Porto are where they normally find themselves in the Portuguese league, at the top.
8) Villarreal vs Panathinaikos
Even though Villarreal have been another let down in Spain they still manage to produce some decent results. Robert Pires has shown that he still has some flair left. Panathinaikos trail rivals Olympiakos by 9 points in the Greek league so they will be looking forward to their European tie. The tie also brings together some former Gunners in Cygan, Pires and Gilberto.
Even though all match-ups look promising, they also might end up producing some cautious results because each team has a unique reason to win the Champions league. Still hoping for some great games.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A global mess requires an international film..
One would think that the arrival of film where the villain is a bank would make for great timing. Surely the film would benefit from the public’s resentment? Right? Apparently not. The International made about $10 million in the opening weekend despite opening in more than 2,000 screens. On the other hand, the 100th edition of Jason’s slasher adventures (dice, cut, scream, blood) made 4 times as much (yes it did open in 1000 more screens). The metacritic rating for The International is only 52/100, so clearly the critics were not impressed. So their bad reviews must surely have made a difference as it turns out that on the particular time I chose to see the film I was the only person inside a giant multiplex theater. Imagine that, a giant screen, stadium seating and I was the only person there. Surely that indicated that the film was awful, right? NO.
Tom Tykwer’s The International is an entertaining film that has a gripping action sequence (the bullet ridden shoot-out) and moves at a nice pace ensuring that the audience gets a good look at each locale (no fast cuts or frantic camera moments). Plus it has a very believable story regarding the evils of a big bank. Sure there are some flaws but the same problems plague most Hollywood films. Interestingly, most critics ignored such flaws when it game to The Dark Knight. Anyway, here are some interesting points the film brings up:
Cut out the middle man
When governments engage in stirring a revolution in another country they need massive funding for weapons and training. In democratic countries this means getting funding approved via some cryptic hidden causes because the general public can’t know that their tax money is being used to kill innocent citizens in another country. And when the funding is approved, the banks get to work moving the money around. All this process does take some time. So what if the banks decided to ignore the governments and start moving their own funds to stir up civil violence in nations? And when the civil war is over and the bank’s chosen government comes into power, guess which bank they will turn to get mega loans for rebuilding their nation?
There is a great line in the film which indicates that the goal of banks is to control the debt. So if a bank can know where to cause a war and where to stop one, then it would control that nation's debt. Hmmm...
Follow the weapons..
While following the money is important, in this day and age it is also important to follow the flow of weapons. There are only a handful of nations that manufacture weapons yet their weapons are freely available in most African and Asian nations. How? Why? If ones understands who moves the weapons and how then one understands the true villains of a conflict. But why is there no attention placed on the weapon flow? Because that would implicate the good nations who don’t want to get their hands dirty.
Don’t trust the man with the clean suit
Clive Owen’s Louis Salinger character constantly wears crushed suits. That is because he has no time to get his suit cleaned up as he is constantly in pursuit of his enemies. Most of the time he is unshaven and wears his anger on his face. On the other hand, the bankers and lawyers he meets are perfectly dressed -- clean shaven and wearing perfectly cut suits. These bankers and their lawyers do have a lot of money, blood money as it turns out, to ensure their looks and respectable appearance helps them trap more clients. There is an Italian politician in the film who is honest yet well dressed so obviously he can’t last long because the film ensures that the only well dressed men are the evil ones.
Look, look a bit longer and now action..
The film travels through multiple cities such as Berlin, Lyon, Milan, New York and Istanbul. And in each city the film ensures we get a good nice look at each specific location. There is a moment when the camera descends from the sky to give us a perfect view of Istanbul’s beauty. But unlike most movies the camera does not quickly cut away and it hovers a few extra seconds to ensure we can make out the people walking on the bridge and the cars driving about. A simple point but this aspect allows us to soak up the atmosphere and know the surroundings where the next moments of action will take place.
Note: The opening sky shot of Istanbul reminded me of Heaven and that is not surprizing as both both Tykwer and DOP Frank Griebe worked on that film as well.
Point A to B, Action, Point C to Point D, Action...
As soon as the film’s angry hero Salinger arrives at a location, the action takes place. On one hand it appears that each location is existing in a state of suspended animation and only when Salinger arrives do things move along. But there is a reason for this. There is a strict deadline that the bank works on in trying to eliminate all the people who can implicate them. At the film’s start when a innocent person is on the trail towards the bank’s evils, he is eliminated. The bank then eliminates the other person who could expose them within 9 hours. When Salinger goes on the move, he hits the road on the trail of an assassin. Since the assassin travels multiple cities via commercial flights (no private jets as the bank is probably cutting back) there are only a few fixed time slots on which he would appear in a city. So all Salinger has to do is follow him and as a result, he tags along all the film’s action sequences. Is that script cheating? I have seen this complaint in a few reviews so clearly people who don’t like the film use this. But no such excuse was used for The Dark Knight when the film moved from one action sequence to another.
Comments:
Overall, I enjoyed The International. But I might be just one of the few who not only bothered to see the film but actually relished spending time in an empty multiplex for this.
Rating: a subjective 9/10
Monday, February 16, 2009
Eduardo is back and the crowd goes wild......
pic: Getty Images, www.soccernet.com
What happens when one year of soccer related misery vanishes in a instant?
Joy..Immense Joy..Absolute, maddening joy
Question:
Despite being injured for almost a year, how did Eduardo manage to score two goals in his return game?
A) He is just that good. Pure Class.
B) He got lucky.
C) The opponents were not that good.
D) It is Written.
Flashback
On Feb 23, 2008 Arsenal's Eduardo was hacked down by Birmingham City's Martin Taylor. Taylor broke Eduardo's leg and even smirked after the incident. The British Media rushed to Taylor's defense turning the villain into a victim saying such tackles are part of the game and that Taylor was "a nice guy." Uh-huh. I am willing to bet that if the tackle was made by a non-Englishman on an English player the media would not have been so understanding and would have asked for blood. But since Eduardo was a Croatian and Arsenal were not Manchester United, things were left as is. Arsenal never recovered from that incident and threw away the title that was theirs, allowing the average Man Utd and Chelsea teams to overtake them. To make matters worse lucky Liverpool edged past Arsenal in the Champions League. Arsenal lost key players in the summer of 2008 and have been awful for most of the 2008/09 season so far.
Present Day: Feb 16, 2009
Almost a year later, Eduardo makes his first team return for Arsenal, scoring two goals in a 4-0 win over Cardiff City in the F.A Cup. Will this game undo events and uplift Arsenal? Who Knows but for now all that matters is Eduardo is back!!!!
The Answer
The logical answer is A) but my heart says it is....
D)
:)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Beautiful game....
Cinema Verite, football style! And...errr..not coming to a cinema hall near you..
Underground football played on a Ship. A feature film version would surely feature Mickey Rourke, Jean Claude Van Damme, Stallone and Eric Cantona can play the same role as in the commerical, a la KingPin but only thinner.
Underground football played on a Ship. A feature film version would surely feature Mickey Rourke, Jean Claude Van Damme, Stallone and Eric Cantona can play the same role as in the commerical, a la KingPin but only thinner.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Bollywood Hype x 3
Billu Barber (2009, Priyadarshan)
So much for the controversy regarding the title. Even though the title has the word "barber" in it, the film actually utilizes barely ten minutes of the character’s profession. Sure there are scenes in a barber shop but it could easily have been set in a chai stall or a corner store. There is a warm hearted story hidden in this film but like most bollywood films the final product is ruined because of needless songs and producer intervention. In this case since the producer is Shah Rukh Khan, the film ends up being an ode to a best of SRK’s filmi moments. In Billu Barber SRK plays Sahir Khan, a mega Bollywood star. Even though SRK takes on a different first name, he still manages to insert clips and posters from most of his films in Billu Barber and uses his “King Khan”. When he is not busy promoting himself, SRK also uses the film to clarify his positions regarding the rivalries with Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar. It is hard to know if a different director would have had the strength to prevent SRK from hijacking the film and making it into a self-promotion tool. The only recent exception seems to be Shimit Amin whose Chak De India managed to prevent SRK from hogging the camera and gave the young actresses a chance to shine but there are plenty of other directors in Bollywood like Farah Khan, Aditya Chopra or Karan Johar who pander to SRK’s every need. It is unfortunate to see Priyadarshan’s name added to that list now.
Another disappointing aspect of the film is that Priyadarshan took the easy way out and borrowed elements from his Malamal Weekly film, another comedy set in a village and tried to implement a similar style of comedy with identical themed jokes. The only saving grace of the film is Irrfan Khan and a charming Lara Dutta. Even though all the songs are quite bad, Deepika Padukone looks stunning in the opening video. Ok, stunning does not do justice. She sizzles...while the rest of the film is stuck in averageness.
Rating: 5.5/10
Luck, by Chance (2009, Zoya Akhtar)
Over the last decade or so there have been quite a few films made about the cut throat and ruthless nature of the Bollywood film industry such as Rangeela, Main Bhi Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Houn, Om Shanti Om, Khoya Khoya Chand, Superstar, Bollywood Calling and King of Bollywood. These films were either in the form of a parody or even tried to show the serious side of things. Plus there were also two very good documentaries such as Bollywood Bound and Sunset Bollywood. Was there place for one more film to be added to this list? Zoya Akhtar thought so and decided to try her luck by setting her debut film about Bollywood’s film studio system. Unfortunately, her film has nothing new to add to the existing view of tinseltown. In fact, her film verifies all the cliches and images people have about Bollywood. There are some moments of genuine delight in the film but in the end Zoya takes the easy way out and reduces her film to a tabloid gossip tale of stardom and affairs. Sure there are some inside jokes and some real life Bollywood actors play a parody of themselves such as Sanjay Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. But overall, the film is a run of the mill effort and not something one would expect from someone whose family has been involved with some memorable efforts in Indian cinema.
Rating: 7/10
Chandini Chowk to China (2009, Nikhil Advani)
Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Kinng was one of the most hyped Bollywood films of 2008 and it also turned out to be one of the worst films of 2008. And Akshay Kumar’s Chandini Chowk.. kicked off Bollywood’s 2009 calendar year with as much hype but thankfully the film is not as inept as Singh is Kinng was. Even though Chandini Chowk.. is B-grade film that brings back memories of the worst of Bollywood from the 1970’s and 80’s, the film does contain a few hilarious scenes where Akshay Kumar is able to show why he is the current comedic master in Bollywood.
Rating: 4/10
So much for the controversy regarding the title. Even though the title has the word "barber" in it, the film actually utilizes barely ten minutes of the character’s profession. Sure there are scenes in a barber shop but it could easily have been set in a chai stall or a corner store. There is a warm hearted story hidden in this film but like most bollywood films the final product is ruined because of needless songs and producer intervention. In this case since the producer is Shah Rukh Khan, the film ends up being an ode to a best of SRK’s filmi moments. In Billu Barber SRK plays Sahir Khan, a mega Bollywood star. Even though SRK takes on a different first name, he still manages to insert clips and posters from most of his films in Billu Barber and uses his “King Khan”. When he is not busy promoting himself, SRK also uses the film to clarify his positions regarding the rivalries with Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar. It is hard to know if a different director would have had the strength to prevent SRK from hijacking the film and making it into a self-promotion tool. The only recent exception seems to be Shimit Amin whose Chak De India managed to prevent SRK from hogging the camera and gave the young actresses a chance to shine but there are plenty of other directors in Bollywood like Farah Khan, Aditya Chopra or Karan Johar who pander to SRK’s every need. It is unfortunate to see Priyadarshan’s name added to that list now.
Another disappointing aspect of the film is that Priyadarshan took the easy way out and borrowed elements from his Malamal Weekly film, another comedy set in a village and tried to implement a similar style of comedy with identical themed jokes. The only saving grace of the film is Irrfan Khan and a charming Lara Dutta. Even though all the songs are quite bad, Deepika Padukone looks stunning in the opening video. Ok, stunning does not do justice. She sizzles...while the rest of the film is stuck in averageness.
Rating: 5.5/10
Luck, by Chance (2009, Zoya Akhtar)
Over the last decade or so there have been quite a few films made about the cut throat and ruthless nature of the Bollywood film industry such as Rangeela, Main Bhi Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Houn, Om Shanti Om, Khoya Khoya Chand, Superstar, Bollywood Calling and King of Bollywood. These films were either in the form of a parody or even tried to show the serious side of things. Plus there were also two very good documentaries such as Bollywood Bound and Sunset Bollywood. Was there place for one more film to be added to this list? Zoya Akhtar thought so and decided to try her luck by setting her debut film about Bollywood’s film studio system. Unfortunately, her film has nothing new to add to the existing view of tinseltown. In fact, her film verifies all the cliches and images people have about Bollywood. There are some moments of genuine delight in the film but in the end Zoya takes the easy way out and reduces her film to a tabloid gossip tale of stardom and affairs. Sure there are some inside jokes and some real life Bollywood actors play a parody of themselves such as Sanjay Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. But overall, the film is a run of the mill effort and not something one would expect from someone whose family has been involved with some memorable efforts in Indian cinema.
Rating: 7/10
Chandini Chowk to China (2009, Nikhil Advani)
Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Kinng was one of the most hyped Bollywood films of 2008 and it also turned out to be one of the worst films of 2008. And Akshay Kumar’s Chandini Chowk.. kicked off Bollywood’s 2009 calendar year with as much hype but thankfully the film is not as inept as Singh is Kinng was. Even though Chandini Chowk.. is B-grade film that brings back memories of the worst of Bollywood from the 1970’s and 80’s, the film does contain a few hilarious scenes where Akshay Kumar is able to show why he is the current comedic master in Bollywood.
Rating: 4/10
Monday, February 09, 2009
barber: must censor awful word...
I was looking forward to the Irrfan Khan starrer Billu Barber out this Friday. But it seems that the word "barber" won't be present in the title as producer Shah Rukh Khan was forced to yank the word out because of protests. This is what Uday Takke, president of a Maharashtran hair association, had to say: "We want Billu Barber to be called Billu Hairdresser as barber is a derogatory and insulting term. We choose hairdressing as a profession because it is an art. Also there are many women hairstylists if Billu Barber becomes a hit, women hairdressers will be called barbers too!"
Huh? Who cares about Mr.Uday Takke's profession? I don't. I am happy that Mr. Takke chose to be a hairdresser. But this movie is not about him nor is it about his friends or employees. It is about a character called Billu. And it is up to the writer, director and producers what they think the title of their film should be.
Although I think there is more to this story. As part of the film's promotions, posters were sent to about 500 barber shops. So this is just a stunt for some people to flex their muscles. Moreover, in India the term barber is not used anyway as it is in North America.
For the record, this is the definition of "barber"
a person whose occupation it is to cut and dress the hair of customers, esp. men, and to shave or trim the beard.
Huh? Who cares about Mr.Uday Takke's profession? I don't. I am happy that Mr. Takke chose to be a hairdresser. But this movie is not about him nor is it about his friends or employees. It is about a character called Billu. And it is up to the writer, director and producers what they think the title of their film should be.
Although I think there is more to this story. As part of the film's promotions, posters were sent to about 500 barber shops. So this is just a stunt for some people to flex their muscles. Moreover, in India the term barber is not used anyway as it is in North America.
For the record, this is the definition of "barber"
a person whose occupation it is to cut and dress the hair of customers, esp. men, and to shave or trim the beard.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Aye...hip hopper...
I couldn't recall the first hearing but I did remember the beat.
On a second hearing, I was interested.
By the time I heard it a third time, I was hooked.
On a second hearing, I was interested.
By the time I heard it a third time, I was hooked.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Snapshots of War
Stage One: Man to Man Combat
In ancient times war was an accepted part of life. Be it over a matter of land or a girl, a man gathered his group to avenge and fight for his cause. While the weapons were not as lethal as those in modern warfare, the savagery was not any less. Chopping and hacking was aplenty ensuring maximum blood. The one thing that made the ancient form of warfare stand out was that everyone fighting on both sides knew the reason for their war and in most cases knew their opponents.
Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol shows an example of the persistent state of war in ancient times. While the film is about the rise of Genghis Khan and his conquests in ancient Mongolia, many of the elements of war could apply to other nations in ancient times like the Nordic or Moghul India. In Mongol love and war keep equal pace at times and when the blood letting starts, the family and loved ones have to be left behind until the next battle, which is always around the corner.
Stage Two: Trench warfare
As the weapons used to kill other men got more sophisticated and advanced, the distance between the fighting soldiers also increased. The hand to hand combats were replaced by the trench warfare, where opposing armies lay in hiding before firing bullets over to the other side. In such cases, a solider never really knew if he managed to kill someone or not and even if he did kill someone, didn’t find out the identity of his enemy. In Kon Ichikawa’s masterpiece Fires on the Plain one of the Japanese soldiers utters this very relevant truth when he hears the American soldiers in the distance. He peeks to get a look at a passing group of American soldiers in trucks and comments that was his first look at the enemy despite being in combat for months. It is hard to imagine that men fought other men with neither side speaking the same language. In fact, they didn’t need to communicate as they let the bullets do all their talking. Fires on the Plain takes place in Philippines between the American and Japanese soldiers and also highlights another changing aspect of warfare in that two nations would fight in a third nation’s turf, a much more common aspect of war starting from WWII onwards.
War is a savage thing no matter how much one tries to defend its reasons. Kon Ichikawa captures this animal nature of war perfectly in his film while also accomplishing the rare feat of objectively showing the war from the perspective of the soldiers, the everyday men forced into combat. There is no jingoism in the film with none of the soldiers ever talking about the “good of the nation” as each person is only trying to survive and do what they believe is right, even if that means eating another man’s flesh.
Stage Three: Remote warfare, espionage and propaganda
World War II combined both past and even futuristic aspects of war. On one hand, trench warfare was still common but so was the use of aerial bombing, with the two atomic bombs signaling the future nature of combat. But World War II also ushered in a new stage of espionage and its spy game routines led directly to the cold war. Information became just as important as weapons and the cat-mouse game certainly ensured that the war was a complicated affair.
In ancient times, there was no need to sell war to ones citizens. But in the modern civilized world, war had to be sold to its citizens as men and women had to be given a reason why war was necessary. So propaganda became a very common currency during WWII, on both sides of the fighting.
Valkyrie combines the espionage and propaganda elements that took place during WWII. The film shows a true story about an assassination attempt of Hitler. Even though one knows that the characters attempt will end in failure, the film is still a gripping watch.
Stage Four: The inner war and path to recovery
Ok, the war is over. Now what? Can the horror be erased from the soldiers minds? Can the warring leaders actually enjoy the peace and listen to soothing music? Unfortunately, history has shown that peace can never be achieved with war. It never was and it never will. But this does not stop nations from trying to achieve peace with wars. After the war is over, the soldiers are left to fend on their own. In some cases, the men are fine and integrate into society. In other cases, the men can’t shut off the inner demons and look for a new war. Gran Torino can add its name to the list of movies where the men are never really free from their war. Even though the main character Walt (Clint Eastwood) appears to be at peace with his killings in the Korean war, when things get ugly he does reveal that he is still haunted by his demons and heads towards a very un-Hollywood like resolution in hopes of achieving peace for himself and his neighborhood.
Stage Five: Filming the war
Ever since Apocalypse Now, there have been directors who have aimed to film the most realistic war movie by ensuring their audience gets the grim details of war and feels the blood for themselves. Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder tries to parody such a director who aims to make the most realistic war film ever! In his quest for perfection, the director (Steve Coogan) take his cast to a jungle far away from the comforts of a studio set. But things don’t go as per plan and the cast hilariously find themselves in a real war. While the film does a very good job of assembling some excellent characters such as the sleazy film executive (Tom Cruise), the shallow agent (Matthew McConaughey), the fake war writer (Nick Nolte) and the actors aching to dive into their characters (Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.), it comes across as a missed opportunity for something greater.
Ratings out of 10 for films seen in this series:
Fires on the Plain (1959, Japan, Kon Ichikawa): 10
Mongol (2007, Russia/Mongolia/co-prod, Sergie Bodrov): 8.5
Gran Torino (2008, USA, Clint Eastwood): 8
Valkyrie (2008, USA, Bryan Singer): 7.5
Tropic Thunder (2008, USA, Ben Stiller): 5
In ancient times war was an accepted part of life. Be it over a matter of land or a girl, a man gathered his group to avenge and fight for his cause. While the weapons were not as lethal as those in modern warfare, the savagery was not any less. Chopping and hacking was aplenty ensuring maximum blood. The one thing that made the ancient form of warfare stand out was that everyone fighting on both sides knew the reason for their war and in most cases knew their opponents.
Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol shows an example of the persistent state of war in ancient times. While the film is about the rise of Genghis Khan and his conquests in ancient Mongolia, many of the elements of war could apply to other nations in ancient times like the Nordic or Moghul India. In Mongol love and war keep equal pace at times and when the blood letting starts, the family and loved ones have to be left behind until the next battle, which is always around the corner.
Stage Two: Trench warfare
As the weapons used to kill other men got more sophisticated and advanced, the distance between the fighting soldiers also increased. The hand to hand combats were replaced by the trench warfare, where opposing armies lay in hiding before firing bullets over to the other side. In such cases, a solider never really knew if he managed to kill someone or not and even if he did kill someone, didn’t find out the identity of his enemy. In Kon Ichikawa’s masterpiece Fires on the Plain one of the Japanese soldiers utters this very relevant truth when he hears the American soldiers in the distance. He peeks to get a look at a passing group of American soldiers in trucks and comments that was his first look at the enemy despite being in combat for months. It is hard to imagine that men fought other men with neither side speaking the same language. In fact, they didn’t need to communicate as they let the bullets do all their talking. Fires on the Plain takes place in Philippines between the American and Japanese soldiers and also highlights another changing aspect of warfare in that two nations would fight in a third nation’s turf, a much more common aspect of war starting from WWII onwards.
War is a savage thing no matter how much one tries to defend its reasons. Kon Ichikawa captures this animal nature of war perfectly in his film while also accomplishing the rare feat of objectively showing the war from the perspective of the soldiers, the everyday men forced into combat. There is no jingoism in the film with none of the soldiers ever talking about the “good of the nation” as each person is only trying to survive and do what they believe is right, even if that means eating another man’s flesh.
Stage Three: Remote warfare, espionage and propaganda
World War II combined both past and even futuristic aspects of war. On one hand, trench warfare was still common but so was the use of aerial bombing, with the two atomic bombs signaling the future nature of combat. But World War II also ushered in a new stage of espionage and its spy game routines led directly to the cold war. Information became just as important as weapons and the cat-mouse game certainly ensured that the war was a complicated affair.
In ancient times, there was no need to sell war to ones citizens. But in the modern civilized world, war had to be sold to its citizens as men and women had to be given a reason why war was necessary. So propaganda became a very common currency during WWII, on both sides of the fighting.
Valkyrie combines the espionage and propaganda elements that took place during WWII. The film shows a true story about an assassination attempt of Hitler. Even though one knows that the characters attempt will end in failure, the film is still a gripping watch.
Stage Four: The inner war and path to recovery
Ok, the war is over. Now what? Can the horror be erased from the soldiers minds? Can the warring leaders actually enjoy the peace and listen to soothing music? Unfortunately, history has shown that peace can never be achieved with war. It never was and it never will. But this does not stop nations from trying to achieve peace with wars. After the war is over, the soldiers are left to fend on their own. In some cases, the men are fine and integrate into society. In other cases, the men can’t shut off the inner demons and look for a new war. Gran Torino can add its name to the list of movies where the men are never really free from their war. Even though the main character Walt (Clint Eastwood) appears to be at peace with his killings in the Korean war, when things get ugly he does reveal that he is still haunted by his demons and heads towards a very un-Hollywood like resolution in hopes of achieving peace for himself and his neighborhood.
Stage Five: Filming the war
Ever since Apocalypse Now, there have been directors who have aimed to film the most realistic war movie by ensuring their audience gets the grim details of war and feels the blood for themselves. Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder tries to parody such a director who aims to make the most realistic war film ever! In his quest for perfection, the director (Steve Coogan) take his cast to a jungle far away from the comforts of a studio set. But things don’t go as per plan and the cast hilariously find themselves in a real war. While the film does a very good job of assembling some excellent characters such as the sleazy film executive (Tom Cruise), the shallow agent (Matthew McConaughey), the fake war writer (Nick Nolte) and the actors aching to dive into their characters (Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.), it comes across as a missed opportunity for something greater.
Ratings out of 10 for films seen in this series:
Fires on the Plain (1959, Japan, Kon Ichikawa): 10
Mongol (2007, Russia/Mongolia/co-prod, Sergie Bodrov): 8.5
Gran Torino (2008, USA, Clint Eastwood): 8
Valkyrie (2008, USA, Bryan Singer): 7.5
Tropic Thunder (2008, USA, Ben Stiller): 5
Labels:
Clint Eastwood,
Japan,
Kon Ichikawa,
Mongolia,
Russia,
Sergie Bodrov,
USA,
War
Monday, January 26, 2009
of rights and wrongs
Well I was wrong as The Dark Knight didn't get a best film nod and Slumdog.. did. But the hype over Slumdog.. is quite puzzling. I first heard of the film last summer before TIFF gave it a slot. Back then it was very difficult to find the book Q&A in North America but I managed to get it via some good sources in Delhi. Now I hear the book is selling very well in Delhi bookstores and closer to home even Costco is carrying the novel albeit with the title of the movie. Back in December only one theater in the city was showing the movie but now the movie has opened wider with almost all the big multiplexes playing the title. All of this makes for some interesting conversations with friends and family about the movie. Some have loved the movie but others have questioned the film's choices about portraying India in a negative light. Most negative comments I have heard so far have to do with the film's choices of including elements that the original story didn't contain like the boy covered in shit or the Hindu-Muslim riots that killed Jamal's mother. In the novel, the main character was an orphan who was named Ram Mohammed Thomas by the priest who found him in order to ensure that whatever religion the boy was born in would be covered. The name ofcourse was inspired by the 1977 Bollywood film Amar Akbar Anthony with a title that ensured that the main characters were listed in order of the religious hierarchy in India. But Slumdog.. made the main character a Muslim and instead brought the religious divide into focus. I have a feeling that if the movie was going to be shot in 2009 then surely an element of terrorism would have crept into the screenplay. While I do think that the screenplay does a very good job of balancing the past and present, unfortunately the major changes in the story appear contrived to ensure that only certain elements of India are shown.
There was an interesting observation I came across from a film fan who said that all the previous Indian films to have been nominated for an Oscar dealt with either poverty or villages -- Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) & Lagaan (2001). While Slumdog.. is not an Indian film, it certainly carries on the tradition of poverty in riding to its fame. All these four films are completely different yet the common thread of poverty does stick out.
Overall, I still think Slumdog.. is an entertaining film with all of its problems attributed to either the screenplay or the weak acting. Accomplished actors like Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan are given bit parts and not allowed to shine, while Dev Patel is quite weak in the main role. The real gems in the film are all the technical aspects such as cinematography, editing and the music. A.R Rahman's music is very good but then again he has scored amazing tracks for more than a decade in India.
There was an interesting observation I came across from a film fan who said that all the previous Indian films to have been nominated for an Oscar dealt with either poverty or villages -- Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) & Lagaan (2001). While Slumdog.. is not an Indian film, it certainly carries on the tradition of poverty in riding to its fame. All these four films are completely different yet the common thread of poverty does stick out.
Overall, I still think Slumdog.. is an entertaining film with all of its problems attributed to either the screenplay or the weak acting. Accomplished actors like Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan are given bit parts and not allowed to shine, while Dev Patel is quite weak in the main role. The real gems in the film are all the technical aspects such as cinematography, editing and the music. A.R Rahman's music is very good but then again he has scored amazing tracks for more than a decade in India.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Popular awards...
The 9 films short-listed for the Best Foreign film Oscar are:
The Baader-Meinhof Complex (Germany, Uli Edel) The Class (France, Laurent Cantet) Departures (Japan, Yojiro Takita) Everlasting Moments (Sweden, Jan Troell) The Necessities of Life (Canada, Benoit Pilon) Revanche (Austria, Gotz Spielmann) Tear This Heart Out (Mexico, Roberto Sneider) Three Monkeys (Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan) Waltz with Bashir (Israel, Ari Folman)
The most alarming miss from the list is Gomorra. I refuse to believe that all of the above 9 films are better than Gomorra. Ofcourse, I can only speculate about the validity of these movies as it will probably take me another 2 years to see the above films as none of the above 9 films have opened in my city yet although Three Monkeys had a solitary show at CIFF last year.
Anyway, here are some predictions for the sake of it:
Waltz With Bashir will win the foreign film award and maybe that will be enough to ensure that the movie opens in my city.
The Dark Knight will not only get a nomination for best film but will win the award. Why? Because if an average yet highly popular movie like Titanic can win best film then The Dark Knight has a great chance.
Slumdog Millionaire will not get a nomination for best film but Danny Boyle will be nominated for best director. In fact, Slumdog.. will not win any awards and that includes A.R Rahman.
Unlike the Golden Globes, I think the Oscars will ensure that all the awards will only go to big Hollywood studio films and well known American actors. That is a feeling I got after seeing the expression of a majority of the people when some of the winners were announced at the Globes. Example: there seemed to be some puzzled looks when Shah Rukh Khan came on stage and joked with the Slumdog.. team. Only a few Hollywood actors, including Christina Applegate, appeared to be applauding for Slumdog..while the rest sat puzzled. Maybe most of the Hollywood actors had no idea who Shah Rukh Khan was or why Anil Kapoor seemed so happy? Or maybe they were still grappling with how to pronounce A.R Rahman's name, something the announcer mangled horribly?
Honestly, I am not that concerned about who wins but the unfortunate reality is these awards dictate what movies open in smaller cities across Canada and America. So if a lesser known film wins then that will give hope that it might open in a city outside of L.A, New York and Toronto. Otherwise, one has to wait another year for a DVD release of the film while the multiplexes continue to be packed with movies about green ogres and flavor of the month super-heroes.
The most alarming miss from the list is Gomorra. I refuse to believe that all of the above 9 films are better than Gomorra. Ofcourse, I can only speculate about the validity of these movies as it will probably take me another 2 years to see the above films as none of the above 9 films have opened in my city yet although Three Monkeys had a solitary show at CIFF last year.
Anyway, here are some predictions for the sake of it:
Unlike the Golden Globes, I think the Oscars will ensure that all the awards will only go to big Hollywood studio films and well known American actors. That is a feeling I got after seeing the expression of a majority of the people when some of the winners were announced at the Globes. Example: there seemed to be some puzzled looks when Shah Rukh Khan came on stage and joked with the Slumdog.. team. Only a few Hollywood actors, including Christina Applegate, appeared to be applauding for Slumdog..while the rest sat puzzled. Maybe most of the Hollywood actors had no idea who Shah Rukh Khan was or why Anil Kapoor seemed so happy? Or maybe they were still grappling with how to pronounce A.R Rahman's name, something the announcer mangled horribly?
Honestly, I am not that concerned about who wins but the unfortunate reality is these awards dictate what movies open in smaller cities across Canada and America. So if a lesser known film wins then that will give hope that it might open in a city outside of L.A, New York and Toronto. Otherwise, one has to wait another year for a DVD release of the film while the multiplexes continue to be packed with movies about green ogres and flavor of the month super-heroes.
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