The Kicking Culture, part III
Some things are completely predictable. On cue, British players and managers are coming forward to offer support to Ryan Shawcross, the player responsible for breaking the leg of the extremely talented and promising 19 year old Aaron Ramsey. Only in English football can people who commit wrong be seen as victims. On the other hand, nothing is being said of Ramsey, the person whose future seemed so bright. Now, one can only wish that Ramsey recovers as soon as possible.
Thankfully there are a few intelligent and sane voices who are standing up. Martin Samuel of the Times puts things perfectly:
Yet malicious intent - the motivation to actually cause serious injury - is rare in football. One thinks of Roy Keane’s tackle on Alf Inge Haaland in the Manchester derby or the one by Gavin Maguire of Queens Park Rangers that ended the career of England full back Danny Thomas, and resulted in a compensation pay-out of £130,000.
Shawcross did not tackle Ramsey like that. He did however arrive late and with sufficient abandon to lose any chance of controlling the consequences. The greatest sickness in English football is that we do not recognise the wrong in that. 'Spare me about how nice Shawcross is,' Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said acidly; but the testimonials to his decency were already under construction.
But Martin Samuel's words are rare to find in both English and American media. One has to turn to various Arsenal blogs to find the truth.
DannyT is spot on as usual in his Arsenal Truth blog:
The only way the truly talentless can make a career for themselves in the Premier League is by replacing their lack of skill and technique with aggression and antagonism - anti-football. Why applaud that? What's that got to do with "the beautiful game"? Last time I heard, football was about 22 players kicking a ball around - not 11 players kicking the ball around while various others players try to impede them through intimidation, ferociousness and long throw-ins.
How many more Aaron Ramsey's do we have to witness before the FA grows a spine and drives this scourge out of the game.
And why do pundits applaud these tactics? For the life of me, I've never understood it. There is only one thing to applaud in football, skill! I'm not saying there is no place for the well-timed tackle, high-speed closing down, a shoulder barge or some grappling in the box - but there is never a reason to break a players leg. To break a players leg requires considerable force, the type of force that is never warranted or required to win a small round ball in a tackle - except perhaps in the most freakish of incidents, once every 20 years! Not three times in three years for one club, it's obscene.
Plenty of excellent evidence is gathered by Tim at 7amkickoff & Arseblog which show that Shawcross is a chronic leg breaker and not the nice guy the media is painting him to be. It is sad that the media are not doing the objective journalistic job they are meant to do and are instead so biased.
Tactics
It is extremely rare to find any discussion of football tactics in British papers as most soccer related articles are centered on a player's "commitment", "attitude" and "character". Yet, none of these things would matter if a team is not tactically prepared to handle an opponent. Which is why Jonathan Wilson's articles are so welcome because he breaks a game down in terms of the tactical details. Heck, he ever wrote an insightful book on the history of soccer tactics (Inverting the Pyramid). His newest article sees him outline Egypt's 3-5-2 formation prior to their match against England.
Filmi...
There's a brand spanking new issue of Indian Auteur out. The online magazine format certainly makes for a beautiful reading experience. On the other hand, one can access the articles via individual links. The Notes on Directors and Director's Report Card gives a worthy run down of current Indian directors plying their trade. And just like bad football, the bad directors continue to hog the headlines.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
The Secret Society
English Football's Secret Society:
There is a secret footballing society that exists in England and whose members trace their lineage back to the old days when the game first caught on in England. Currently, the members meet once a month just on the skirts of Stonehenge when the sun goes down. Some of the current Premier League managers sit on the member’s board. Most of the conversations revolve around the current nature of the game and how the game has gone ’soft’. The members long for the old days of the game when players never shied away from a tackle, when players were willing to shed blood for their team. The meetings always end when all the members quietly look at Argentina’s goal against Serbia from the 2006 World Cup where Argentina strung together 24 passes to put the ball into the net. The members are always horrified to look at this goal and vow that their English Premier League will never become like this. They vow that they will never allow one team to manage more than a few passes before a player gets taken out. They want to preserve a 'strong' league where players can take it like a man, where players can freely break other players legs and where players always get "stuck in".
The only thorn in this member’s sight is Arsenal, the only team that defies this society's beliefs. Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey have been victims of this society’s puppet pulls in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively. Other Arsenal players are constantly on the agenda as well. If Arsenal win in the face of such ugliness, then the society’s beliefs will be challenged and football in England might be saved. Otherwise if Arsenal continue to fall victim to these teams, then darkness will set in completely and English football will once again be nothing but long balls, fouling and leg breaking tackles.
There is a secret footballing society that exists in England and whose members trace their lineage back to the old days when the game first caught on in England. Currently, the members meet once a month just on the skirts of Stonehenge when the sun goes down. Some of the current Premier League managers sit on the member’s board. Most of the conversations revolve around the current nature of the game and how the game has gone ’soft’. The members long for the old days of the game when players never shied away from a tackle, when players were willing to shed blood for their team. The meetings always end when all the members quietly look at Argentina’s goal against Serbia from the 2006 World Cup where Argentina strung together 24 passes to put the ball into the net. The members are always horrified to look at this goal and vow that their English Premier League will never become like this. They vow that they will never allow one team to manage more than a few passes before a player gets taken out. They want to preserve a 'strong' league where players can take it like a man, where players can freely break other players legs and where players always get "stuck in".
The only thorn in this member’s sight is Arsenal, the only team that defies this society's beliefs. Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey have been victims of this society’s puppet pulls in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively. Other Arsenal players are constantly on the agenda as well. If Arsenal win in the face of such ugliness, then the society’s beliefs will be challenged and football in England might be saved. Otherwise if Arsenal continue to fall victim to these teams, then darkness will set in completely and English football will once again be nothing but long balls, fouling and leg breaking tackles.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Deja vu, Fate, Kicking culture
Feb 23, 2008: Birmingham 2-2 Arsenal -- Eduardo leg broken, a last minute penalty
Feb 27, 2010: Stoke 1-3 Arsenal -- Ramsey leg broken, a last minute penalty
History repeated itself in cruel fashion on Saturday Feb 27 when yet another Arsenal player's leg was broken recklessly in an away fixture. And just like the previous two occasions (Eduardo in 2008, Diaby vs Sunderland in 2006), the opposing player is labeled as a nice guy by the British media who have quickly tried to forget this incident as soon as possible. Yet, one has to ask why do Arsenal players keep getting injured in such fashion over and over? And this is not even including the rash years of fouling that Bolton (under Big Sam), Blackburn and even Man Utd (October 2004) dished out to Arsenal.
Part of the answers lie in an insightful book by Gianluca Vialli called The Italian Job which examines the differences in Italian and English footballing cultures and the different management styles that exist (the book includes some worthy interviews with Wenger). Vialli mentions how in England fans applaud a player attempting to run after a lost ball (meaning lost cause) and consider that attribute as part of a player's commitment because the fans believe the player is giving it his all and he cares for the game. Whereas, in Italy fans might consider that player as wasting his energy. Those words reflect how some players in England play with a false sense of commitment. One can imagine imagine the following words in the Birmingham dressing room before the Eduardo leg breaking game or in yesterday's Stoke game. Alex McLeish (or Tony Pulis) probably told his players to "give it their all", to "get stuck in", etc. Now, each player will interpret those instructions as per their ability. Martin Taylor and Ryan Shawcross are not in the same mould as Paolo Maldini, a player who could win the ball by not making sinister tackles. Maldini did not need to lunge because his understanding of the game was genius. Whereas from the tackle that Taylor made just two minutes into the Birmingham game, one can easily infer that he falls under an inept mould of a player. The smirk on his face after the tackle indicated that he had no consequences for his actions. His first thoughts were “that will teach ya” or “you are not getting past me” or he even thought that he had just shown the commitment his manager talked about, that sense of “getting stuck-in”, not backing away from a tackle. Shawcross on the other hand was distraught after he saw how serious the injury to Ramsey was, but the damage had already being done. And the fact that this is not the first time that Shawcross made such a dangerous tackle (Adebayor was put out by Shawcross) refutes the claim that Ryan is an innocent player.
Easier to destruct than to create
Unfortunately, the league is full of players like Taylor and Shawcross. Players who sense of tackling is off, players who are not technically competent. So who gets punished? The player or the system that believes it is manly to take an opponent down, a system that encourages players that there is no shame in being physical to stop an opponent?
Question: How do you stop a skillful player?
In 1966, Portugal and Hungry answered this question by kicking the hell out of Pele. The players did not hide their vicious fouls and openly went after the Brazilian superstar.
Well, for the last few years plenty of teams have also answered this question by going after Arsenal in a physical manner (Manchester Utd in 2004, Bolton, Blackburn come to mind). What’s worse is that nothing is seen wrong in that. The excessive fouls are just put down to "physical part of the game". Yup, the physical part of the game that has always existed, exists and will always exist. Players have to be men enough to take the kicks, get up and carry on. And if a player complains about getting kicked too much? Well he is not a man! He is considered weak. A perception that existed in the English game long before the 1990’s was that foreign players were considered too weak to withstand the physical part of the game. Vialli makes a reference to this as well in his book. Ofcourse, the reverse is also true when quite a few English players could not make it in the Italian league because they did not possess the technical skills required to avoid defenders who would breathe on an attacker’s neck constantly. Thankfully those narrow views changed slightly in the last decade when an influx of talented foreigners came into the English league and the overall style of play changed to accommodate skillful passing. Yet one can still find commentators refer to some players as having a "silky touch" but not being physical enough. And there are plenty of teams who continue to spend time on getting their players ready to kick opponents.
The league will never take any serious actions against a player who makes a reckless tackle and ends an opponent's season or career. That is just not the English way. So the only way to fight this is for Arsenal to win against teams who have leg breaking players in their squad. If Arsenal and other teams win games against negative or anti-football, then that might mean that teams might be forced to improve technically and not resort to kicking to win games.
Fate signals
In 2008, Arsenal were leading 2-1 but a last minute mistake from Clichy gave Birmingham a penalty from which they tied the game up. Gallas, the then Arsenal captain, was in tears and sat in the center circle by himself. The players, who were rattled from the Eduardo injury, never recovered after the game and threw the title away. History books will show that Man Utd won the 2008 title but the truth is Man Utd didn't win the title but Arsenal instead lost the title.
Yesterday, with the game tied 1-1, Eduardo came on as a late sub. Fate gave him a chance to win the game but he put the ball wide. Then fate decided that a penalty must reverse Arsenal's fortunes from 2 years and so after Arsenal got a last minute penalty, their captain, Cesc Fabregas, stepped up and just managed to convert his penalty. Cue celebrations. And to emphasize their new found belief, Arsenal added a third goal via a Thomas Vermaelen tap-in. Vermaelen and Cesc were in shock after the Ramsey injury but both of them managed to score crucial goals. After the final whistle, the players huddled in a circle and showed their team spirit, something missing 2 years ago.
So does that mean that Arsenal will turn the tide and win the title this year? Fate has certainly given them a chance. A promising third act lies in store.
Feb 27, 2010: Stoke 1-3 Arsenal -- Ramsey leg broken, a last minute penalty
History repeated itself in cruel fashion on Saturday Feb 27 when yet another Arsenal player's leg was broken recklessly in an away fixture. And just like the previous two occasions (Eduardo in 2008, Diaby vs Sunderland in 2006), the opposing player is labeled as a nice guy by the British media who have quickly tried to forget this incident as soon as possible. Yet, one has to ask why do Arsenal players keep getting injured in such fashion over and over? And this is not even including the rash years of fouling that Bolton (under Big Sam), Blackburn and even Man Utd (October 2004) dished out to Arsenal.
Part of the answers lie in an insightful book by Gianluca Vialli called The Italian Job which examines the differences in Italian and English footballing cultures and the different management styles that exist (the book includes some worthy interviews with Wenger). Vialli mentions how in England fans applaud a player attempting to run after a lost ball (meaning lost cause) and consider that attribute as part of a player's commitment because the fans believe the player is giving it his all and he cares for the game. Whereas, in Italy fans might consider that player as wasting his energy. Those words reflect how some players in England play with a false sense of commitment. One can imagine imagine the following words in the Birmingham dressing room before the Eduardo leg breaking game or in yesterday's Stoke game. Alex McLeish (or Tony Pulis) probably told his players to "give it their all", to "get stuck in", etc. Now, each player will interpret those instructions as per their ability. Martin Taylor and Ryan Shawcross are not in the same mould as Paolo Maldini, a player who could win the ball by not making sinister tackles. Maldini did not need to lunge because his understanding of the game was genius. Whereas from the tackle that Taylor made just two minutes into the Birmingham game, one can easily infer that he falls under an inept mould of a player. The smirk on his face after the tackle indicated that he had no consequences for his actions. His first thoughts were “that will teach ya” or “you are not getting past me” or he even thought that he had just shown the commitment his manager talked about, that sense of “getting stuck-in”, not backing away from a tackle. Shawcross on the other hand was distraught after he saw how serious the injury to Ramsey was, but the damage had already being done. And the fact that this is not the first time that Shawcross made such a dangerous tackle (Adebayor was put out by Shawcross) refutes the claim that Ryan is an innocent player.
Easier to destruct than to create
Unfortunately, the league is full of players like Taylor and Shawcross. Players who sense of tackling is off, players who are not technically competent. So who gets punished? The player or the system that believes it is manly to take an opponent down, a system that encourages players that there is no shame in being physical to stop an opponent?
Question: How do you stop a skillful player?
In 1966, Portugal and Hungry answered this question by kicking the hell out of Pele. The players did not hide their vicious fouls and openly went after the Brazilian superstar.
Well, for the last few years plenty of teams have also answered this question by going after Arsenal in a physical manner (Manchester Utd in 2004, Bolton, Blackburn come to mind). What’s worse is that nothing is seen wrong in that. The excessive fouls are just put down to "physical part of the game". Yup, the physical part of the game that has always existed, exists and will always exist. Players have to be men enough to take the kicks, get up and carry on. And if a player complains about getting kicked too much? Well he is not a man! He is considered weak. A perception that existed in the English game long before the 1990’s was that foreign players were considered too weak to withstand the physical part of the game. Vialli makes a reference to this as well in his book. Ofcourse, the reverse is also true when quite a few English players could not make it in the Italian league because they did not possess the technical skills required to avoid defenders who would breathe on an attacker’s neck constantly. Thankfully those narrow views changed slightly in the last decade when an influx of talented foreigners came into the English league and the overall style of play changed to accommodate skillful passing. Yet one can still find commentators refer to some players as having a "silky touch" but not being physical enough. And there are plenty of teams who continue to spend time on getting their players ready to kick opponents.
The league will never take any serious actions against a player who makes a reckless tackle and ends an opponent's season or career. That is just not the English way. So the only way to fight this is for Arsenal to win against teams who have leg breaking players in their squad. If Arsenal and other teams win games against negative or anti-football, then that might mean that teams might be forced to improve technically and not resort to kicking to win games.
Fate signals
In 2008, Arsenal were leading 2-1 but a last minute mistake from Clichy gave Birmingham a penalty from which they tied the game up. Gallas, the then Arsenal captain, was in tears and sat in the center circle by himself. The players, who were rattled from the Eduardo injury, never recovered after the game and threw the title away. History books will show that Man Utd won the 2008 title but the truth is Man Utd didn't win the title but Arsenal instead lost the title.
Yesterday, with the game tied 1-1, Eduardo came on as a late sub. Fate gave him a chance to win the game but he put the ball wide. Then fate decided that a penalty must reverse Arsenal's fortunes from 2 years and so after Arsenal got a last minute penalty, their captain, Cesc Fabregas, stepped up and just managed to convert his penalty. Cue celebrations. And to emphasize their new found belief, Arsenal added a third goal via a Thomas Vermaelen tap-in. Vermaelen and Cesc were in shock after the Ramsey injury but both of them managed to score crucial goals. After the final whistle, the players huddled in a circle and showed their team spirit, something missing 2 years ago.
So does that mean that Arsenal will turn the tide and win the title this year? Fate has certainly given them a chance. A promising third act lies in store.
Monday, January 25, 2010
A note from the past
A few years ago I came across José Suárez Carreño’s The Final Hours at an antique bookstore. I had never heard anything about Carreño but after flipping through a few pages, I decided to give the book a try. The 1953 hardcover book turned out to be the first American edition of the book and it was in surprizingly good condition, considering that the book was more than 5 decades old. I started reading the book but for whatever reason, I never finished it and put it aside. However, a few days ago I re-discovered the book and started to read through it again. This time around I made a surprizing discovery. Turning through the pages, I came across the following handwritten note buried halfway through the book:
This is the most horribly sordid book I have ever read. It makes one feel indecent & unclean, nearly made me sick! Thought you might like to read it though. Most extraordinary - what a mind Carreño must have! And it won a prize!! Don’t return it - burn it!
Now, I have bought many antique and second hand books in my life but this is the first time I have come across a handwritten note tucked away in any of the books. At most, I have books which have some comments written on a page but this handwritten note is something else entirely. Ofcourse, this means I have to finish the book to see what triggered these comments. Interestingly, whoever borrowed the book clearly did not follow the instructions to burn it. The borrower probably sold the book to a second hand bookstore and from there it must have changed many hands before landing up in my city. But the question is when was the note written? On the inside cover, there is a scribbled mark “Victoria/57” followed by a stamp giving a shop name & address in Victoria, B.C. So that means this book was sold via the Victoria bookstore but the note must have been a recent thing because otherwise someone would have removed the note. Or maybe the note has persisted through subsequent sales because either no one got past page 146 or people decided that the note is part and parcel of this book's life.
This is the most horribly sordid book I have ever read. It makes one feel indecent & unclean, nearly made me sick! Thought you might like to read it though. Most extraordinary - what a mind Carreño must have! And it won a prize!! Don’t return it - burn it!
Now, I have bought many antique and second hand books in my life but this is the first time I have come across a handwritten note tucked away in any of the books. At most, I have books which have some comments written on a page but this handwritten note is something else entirely. Ofcourse, this means I have to finish the book to see what triggered these comments. Interestingly, whoever borrowed the book clearly did not follow the instructions to burn it. The borrower probably sold the book to a second hand bookstore and from there it must have changed many hands before landing up in my city. But the question is when was the note written? On the inside cover, there is a scribbled mark “Victoria/57” followed by a stamp giving a shop name & address in Victoria, B.C. So that means this book was sold via the Victoria bookstore but the note must have been a recent thing because otherwise someone would have removed the note. Or maybe the note has persisted through subsequent sales because either no one got past page 146 or people decided that the note is part and parcel of this book's life.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Abundant Limited Choices
Sometime in the future....
“What movie do you want to go see?”
“I don’t know. What’s playing?”
“Transformers VI 3D, Shrek 6 3D, Spider Man 5 3D”.
“That’s it?”
“Yup. That’s it. Every multiplex in the city is only playing these three movies”
“Hmm. What do the critics say about these films?”
“What do you mean by critics?”
“You know, those people who review a film and sometimes give a rating. Their reviews are printed in the friday newspapers”
“Oh..You don’t remember, do you?”
“huh?”
“Well..I don’t know where to start. You see, there are no more newspapers and so there are no more film critics.”
“What!! When did this happen?”
“When was the last time you saw a movie or read a newspaper?”
“Oh, I guess it has been a long time now...”
“There have been no newspapers printed in this city for almost a year now and the same is true for all North American cities. Most film critics were laid off two years ago and there have been no film reviews of any film anywhere in North America, atleast not officially.”
“what does officially mean?”
“After the North American film critics were laid off, most of them quickly went off to Europe where they have had a thriving career because films are still appreciated in Europe. The few critics that remained started some underground web sites where they wrote critical analysis of films.”
“Why underground web sites?”
“The thing is most Hollywood studios did not want people to review or judge their films. A few years ago, Hollywood decided to rebrand their films as an entertainment experience and thus were not happy when people wrote negative comments about their films. Hollywood decided audiences should sit in their seats, put on their 3D goggles and just consume whatever they put on screen, be it talking animals or green alien creatures. In order to prevent any chatter about their films, they got the governments (both Canada and the US) to prevent any mention of their films on the internet. The newspapers were already in trouble, so it was easy to get the newspapers to remove the film critics. And then, the biggest coup for Hollywood was to ban all non-Hollywood films from entering North American shores. This was the real clincher. Once Hollywood prevented films from outside North America (such as Europe, Asia, Latin America) to ever be shown in any Canadian or American cinema hall, it became easy to control things. The independent/art house theaters quickly went out of business because they didn’t have any foreign films to show and they could not afford the expensive 3D Hollywood films and then only the multiplexes were left who took whatever film Hollywood provided without question.”
“I don’t remember any of this.”
“In a way, I should not be surprized. You got so busy in your life that you stopped watching any films and no matter how much I tried, you never had time. Eventually, I stopped talking to you about films as I had given up on you ever watching a film again.”
“I am sorry. I never thought this could happen.”
“It’s okay. Even if you had watched the foreign films, this was going to happen anyway.”
“So what now? What films do you watch?”
“I don’t watch too many Hollywood films. There are still a few talented directors working in the Hollywood system who make intelligent and artistic films and I try to catch their works but I have to be on my toes as their films are only shown for a few days before the multiplexes are cleared for the next Transformers or Avatar 3D film.”
“I did see that film, Avatar.”
“Yeah, the 4th film in the series is coming out next week.”
“I only remember seeing the first one. I didn’t know there were more than one”
“You did live under a rock then. The second and third films were almost mandatory viewings.”
“How were they mandatory?”
“Every night on TV, they kept announcing that this is the MUST SEE movie of the century and every human being on the planet must see the film. The ads and announcements worked in a way as lot of people saw the movie.”
“Did you see the movies?”
“I saw the first and second one and that was too much for me.”
“So what other films do you see?”
“Oh I try to go to Europe or Asia 1-2 times a year and get my films from there. Europe and Asia still have film festivals so it is possible to catch some great films there. And then, sometimes if I am feeling brave, I smuggle some foreign films home.”
“Smuggle?”
“Oh yeah. Officially, we are not allowed to bring any films into North America. And if one is caught with a foreign language film, they are then sent to a “cinema rehabilitation camp” for a week.”
“I thought you were going to say jail or something.”
“No, jail would be considered getting off easy. The “cinema rehabilitation camp” ensures that a person’s brain will be purged of any non-Hollywood film images and that one would not want to watch any foreign films ever.”
“Do you know what goes on in a “cinema rehabilitation camp”?”
“I have only heard rumours. Apparently they chain you in a seat and pry your eyes open and force you to watch 8-10 hours of 3D Hollywood films in a day, and then repeat that for a total of 7 days.”
“Are you serious?”
Silence.
Finally, a burst of laughter.
“No I am not serious. We live in a democracy after all and are free to make our choices.”
A sigh of relief.
“Good. So you been making all this up?”
“Well only the “cinema rehabilitation camp” part. We can bring in any foreign DVDs we want. But the rest is true, we can’t watch any non-Hollywood films in a North American theater and there are no newspapers or critics.”
“Oh.”
“Cheer up. We can stay home and watch this great film from Malaysia that I bought last year.”
“Oh. Wow. That sounds great.”
“I am just glad you finally want to watch a film.”
“I can’t wait...”
“Good. And if you like that, then I have some films from Romania, France, India, Thailand that you have to see as well.”
“What movie do you want to go see?”
“I don’t know. What’s playing?”
“Transformers VI 3D, Shrek 6 3D, Spider Man 5 3D”.
“That’s it?”
“Yup. That’s it. Every multiplex in the city is only playing these three movies”
“Hmm. What do the critics say about these films?”
“What do you mean by critics?”
“You know, those people who review a film and sometimes give a rating. Their reviews are printed in the friday newspapers”
“Oh..You don’t remember, do you?”
“huh?”
“Well..I don’t know where to start. You see, there are no more newspapers and so there are no more film critics.”
“What!! When did this happen?”
“When was the last time you saw a movie or read a newspaper?”
“Oh, I guess it has been a long time now...”
“There have been no newspapers printed in this city for almost a year now and the same is true for all North American cities. Most film critics were laid off two years ago and there have been no film reviews of any film anywhere in North America, atleast not officially.”
“what does officially mean?”
“After the North American film critics were laid off, most of them quickly went off to Europe where they have had a thriving career because films are still appreciated in Europe. The few critics that remained started some underground web sites where they wrote critical analysis of films.”
“Why underground web sites?”
“The thing is most Hollywood studios did not want people to review or judge their films. A few years ago, Hollywood decided to rebrand their films as an entertainment experience and thus were not happy when people wrote negative comments about their films. Hollywood decided audiences should sit in their seats, put on their 3D goggles and just consume whatever they put on screen, be it talking animals or green alien creatures. In order to prevent any chatter about their films, they got the governments (both Canada and the US) to prevent any mention of their films on the internet. The newspapers were already in trouble, so it was easy to get the newspapers to remove the film critics. And then, the biggest coup for Hollywood was to ban all non-Hollywood films from entering North American shores. This was the real clincher. Once Hollywood prevented films from outside North America (such as Europe, Asia, Latin America) to ever be shown in any Canadian or American cinema hall, it became easy to control things. The independent/art house theaters quickly went out of business because they didn’t have any foreign films to show and they could not afford the expensive 3D Hollywood films and then only the multiplexes were left who took whatever film Hollywood provided without question.”
“I don’t remember any of this.”
“In a way, I should not be surprized. You got so busy in your life that you stopped watching any films and no matter how much I tried, you never had time. Eventually, I stopped talking to you about films as I had given up on you ever watching a film again.”
“I am sorry. I never thought this could happen.”
“It’s okay. Even if you had watched the foreign films, this was going to happen anyway.”
“So what now? What films do you watch?”
“I don’t watch too many Hollywood films. There are still a few talented directors working in the Hollywood system who make intelligent and artistic films and I try to catch their works but I have to be on my toes as their films are only shown for a few days before the multiplexes are cleared for the next Transformers or Avatar 3D film.”
“I did see that film, Avatar.”
“Yeah, the 4th film in the series is coming out next week.”
“I only remember seeing the first one. I didn’t know there were more than one”
“You did live under a rock then. The second and third films were almost mandatory viewings.”
“How were they mandatory?”
“Every night on TV, they kept announcing that this is the MUST SEE movie of the century and every human being on the planet must see the film. The ads and announcements worked in a way as lot of people saw the movie.”
“Did you see the movies?”
“I saw the first and second one and that was too much for me.”
“So what other films do you see?”
“Oh I try to go to Europe or Asia 1-2 times a year and get my films from there. Europe and Asia still have film festivals so it is possible to catch some great films there. And then, sometimes if I am feeling brave, I smuggle some foreign films home.”
“Smuggle?”
“Oh yeah. Officially, we are not allowed to bring any films into North America. And if one is caught with a foreign language film, they are then sent to a “cinema rehabilitation camp” for a week.”
“I thought you were going to say jail or something.”
“No, jail would be considered getting off easy. The “cinema rehabilitation camp” ensures that a person’s brain will be purged of any non-Hollywood film images and that one would not want to watch any foreign films ever.”
“Do you know what goes on in a “cinema rehabilitation camp”?”
“I have only heard rumours. Apparently they chain you in a seat and pry your eyes open and force you to watch 8-10 hours of 3D Hollywood films in a day, and then repeat that for a total of 7 days.”
“Are you serious?”
Silence.
Finally, a burst of laughter.
“No I am not serious. We live in a democracy after all and are free to make our choices.”
A sigh of relief.
“Good. So you been making all this up?”
“Well only the “cinema rehabilitation camp” part. We can bring in any foreign DVDs we want. But the rest is true, we can’t watch any non-Hollywood films in a North American theater and there are no newspapers or critics.”
“Oh.”
“Cheer up. We can stay home and watch this great film from Malaysia that I bought last year.”
“Oh. Wow. That sounds great.”
“I am just glad you finally want to watch a film.”
“I can’t wait...”
“Good. And if you like that, then I have some films from Romania, France, India, Thailand that you have to see as well.”
Sunday, January 17, 2010
It's Official -- Awards = Popular
Kathryn Bigelow is robbed! The Hurt Locker was the best directed American film of 2009 not Avatar. But as expected, the best director award was given not on merit but on popular choice. The Hurt Locker is a much superior film in 2-D than the 3-D Avatar and if one took away the 3-D, then Avatar is nothing but an average summer Hollywood film. Yes, credit must be given where it is due. James Cameron certainly knows how to make popular films, movies that make a lot of money and appeal to the masses.
Friday, January 15, 2010
2010 Movie World Cup, part 2
[Update, Apr 2] -- Films from all 32 countries taking part in the soccer world cup have been located. Entries from North Korea and Honduras were proving to be a challenge but films from both nations have been identified and viewed recently. So a proper movie world cup can now take place and this total of 32 certainly improves on the 2006 movie world cup edition when films from only 22 of the 32 countries were found.
Notes:
How I Killed a Saint is technically a Macedonian film shot in Macedonia but it sneaks in because Slovenia is listed as a co-producer.
Due to unforseen circumstances the Danish entry of Allegro (2005, Christoffer Boe) is no longer readily available. The film Flame and Citron has to be drafted in as a substitute entry. June 1 is the deadline for the World Cup soccer teams to call on a substitute player in case of an injury, so I am using that same guideline to bring in a replacement film.
England: Of Time and the City (2008, Terence Davies)
Mexico: In the Pit (2006, Juan Carlos Rulfo)
Japan: The Human Condition, part I (1959, Masaki Kobayashi)
Portugal: Colossal Youth (2006, Pedro Costa)
Paraguay: Paraguayan Hammock (2006, Paz Encina)
France: Sans soleil (1983, Chris Marker)
Spain: The Spirit of the Beehive (1973, Victor Erice)
Italy: Il Divo (2008, Paolo Sorrentino)
USA: Ballast (2008, Lance Hammer)
Australia: Celia (1989, Ann Turner)
New Zealand: Black Sheep (2006, Jonathan King)
South Africa: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha (2005, Mark Dornford-May)
Denmark: Flame and Citron (2008, Ole Christian Madsen)
Germany: Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922, Fritz Lang)
Ivory Coast: Adanggaman (2000, Roger Gnoan M'Bala)
Nigeria: Without Shame (2005, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen)
Cameroon: A Trip to the Country (2000, Jean-Marie Téno)
Argentina: Liverpool (2008, Lisandro Alonso)
Ghana: The Perfect Picture (2009, Shirley Frimpong-Manso)
North Korea: A Day in the Life (2004, Pieter Fleury)
Algeria: Daughter of Keltoum (2001, Mehdi Charef)
Slovakia: Orbis Pictus (1997, Martin Sulík)
Holland: Amsterdam (2009, Ivo van Hove)
Switzerland: A Crude Awakening (2006, Basil Gelpke & Ryan McCormack)
Chile: Historias de fútbol (1997 Andrés Wood)
Slovenia: How I Killed a Saint (2004, Teona Strugar Mitevska)
Brazil: Almost Brothers (2004, Lúcia Murat)
Uruguay: Gigante (2009, Adrián Biniez)
Greece: The Lost Monument (2009, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, 27 min)
Honduras: El Porvenir (2008, Oscar Estrada)
Serbia: The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009, Mladen Djordjevic)
South Korea: Like you Know it All (2009, Hong sang-soo)
Mexico: In the Pit (2006, Juan Carlos Rulfo)
Japan: The Human Condition, part I (1959, Masaki Kobayashi)
Portugal: Colossal Youth (2006, Pedro Costa)
Paraguay: Paraguayan Hammock (2006, Paz Encina)
France: Sans soleil (1983, Chris Marker)
Spain: The Spirit of the Beehive (1973, Victor Erice)
Italy: Il Divo (2008, Paolo Sorrentino)
USA: Ballast (2008, Lance Hammer)
Australia: Celia (1989, Ann Turner)
New Zealand: Black Sheep (2006, Jonathan King)
South Africa: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha (2005, Mark Dornford-May)
Denmark: Flame and Citron (2008, Ole Christian Madsen)
Germany: Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922, Fritz Lang)
Ivory Coast: Adanggaman (2000, Roger Gnoan M'Bala)
Nigeria: Without Shame (2005, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen)
Cameroon: A Trip to the Country (2000, Jean-Marie Téno)
Argentina: Liverpool (2008, Lisandro Alonso)
Ghana: The Perfect Picture (2009, Shirley Frimpong-Manso)
North Korea: A Day in the Life (2004, Pieter Fleury)
Algeria: Daughter of Keltoum (2001, Mehdi Charef)
Slovakia: Orbis Pictus (1997, Martin Sulík)
Holland: Amsterdam (2009, Ivo van Hove)
Switzerland: A Crude Awakening (2006, Basil Gelpke & Ryan McCormack)
Chile: Historias de fútbol (1997 Andrés Wood)
Slovenia: How I Killed a Saint (2004, Teona Strugar Mitevska)
Brazil: Almost Brothers (2004, Lúcia Murat)
Uruguay: Gigante (2009, Adrián Biniez)
Greece: The Lost Monument (2009, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, 27 min)
Honduras: El Porvenir (2008, Oscar Estrada)
Serbia: The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009, Mladen Djordjevic)
South Korea: Like you Know it All (2009, Hong sang-soo)
Notes:
How I Killed a Saint is technically a Macedonian film shot in Macedonia but it sneaks in because Slovenia is listed as a co-producer.
Due to unforseen circumstances the Danish entry of Allegro (2005, Christoffer Boe) is no longer readily available. The film Flame and Citron has to be drafted in as a substitute entry. June 1 is the deadline for the World Cup soccer teams to call on a substitute player in case of an injury, so I am using that same guideline to bring in a replacement film.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Violence hits Soccer
It is not surprising that Togo have withdrawn from the African Cup of Nations after yesterday's bus attack. The entire episode has been shocking. Yes, such bus attacks have taken place many times before in various countries but this one is different because the bus was packed with soccer player. Soccer has always been an outlet for people to escape the troubles of their daily life but this time around soccer is directly harmed.
The famous Liverpool manager had a quote: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."
Well yesterday's incident should change that perception.
Will the tournament still go on? How will this effect the security question regarding the World Cup in South Africa?
The famous Liverpool manager had a quote: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."
Well yesterday's incident should change that perception.
Will the tournament still go on? How will this effect the security question regarding the World Cup in South Africa?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Best Films of 2009
I saw plenty of excellent films in 2009 and I cannot restrict my list to 10 or even 20 films. My short list has 57 titles that I enjoyed in varying aspects so I have decided to break things up into three categories to reflect a subjective ordering -- Gold (Favourites), Silver (Honorable Mention), Bronze (Worthy viewing). All the films in each category are listed in order of viewing and are 2009 released films or older films that only saw the light of day in my city this year (such as Zidane and Wendy and Lucy).
Zidane (France, Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno)
Wendy and Lucy (USA, Kelly Reichardt)
Birdsong (Spain, Albert Serra)
Call If You Need Me (Malaysia, James Lee)
Buick Riviera (Croatia, Goran Rusinovic)
Be Calm and Count to Seven (Iran, Ramtin Lavafipour)
Border (Armenia/Holland, Harutyun Khachatryan)
Everyone Else (Germany, Maren Ade)
Milk (Turkey, Semih Kaplanoglu)
Karaoke (Malaysia, Chris Chong Chan Fui)
Ain’t No Tomorrows (Japan, Yuki Tanada)
The Storm (Turkey, Kazim Öz)
The Hurt Locker (USA, Kathryn Bigelow)
District 9 (South Africa/New Zealand, Neill Blomkamp)
Katalin Varga (Romania co-production, Peter Strickland)
Police, Adjective (Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Happiest Girl in the World (Romania co-production, Radu Jude)
I Killed My Mother (Canada, Xavier Dolan)
Breathless (South Korea, Yang Ik-June)
The Prophet (France, Jacques Audiard)
The Class (France, Laurent Cantet)
In the Loop (UK, Armando Iannucci)
The Limits of Control (USA, Jim Jarmusch)
The International (USA/Germany/UK, Tom Tykwer)
Che, part two (USA, Steven Soderbergh)
The Blessing (Denmark, Heidi Maria Faisst)
Can go Through Skin (Holland, Esther Rots)
My Only Sunshine (Turkey co-production, Reha Erdem)
This Longing (Malaysia, Azharr Rudin)
Fujian Blue (China, Weng Shou Ming)
Lulu & Jimi (Germany/France, Oskar Roehler)
Daytime Drinking (Korea, Young-Seok Noh)
Vacation (Japan, Hajime Kadoi)
Independencia (Philippines, Raya Martin)
Mid-August Lunch (Italy, Gianni Di Gregorio)
Still Walking (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda)
Fish Eyes (Korea/China, Zheng Wei)
Rough Cut (Korea, Hun Jang)
Revache (Austria, Goetz Spielmann)
Wrong Rosary (Turkey, Mahmut Fazil Coskun)
Man on Wire (UK/USA, James Marsh)
Firaaq (India, Nandita Das)
The Damned United (UK/USA, Tom Hooper)
35 Shots of Rum (France, Claire Denis)
Dev D (India, Anurag Kashyup)
Gulaal (India, Anurag Kashyup)
Pontypool (Canada, Bruce McDonald)
Guidance (Sweden, Johan Jonason)
Amreeka (USA/Canada, Cherien Dabis)
Genova (UK, Michael Winterbottom)
Mary and Max (Australia, Adam Elliot)
Public Enemies (USA, Michael Mann)
The White Ribbon (Germany co-production, Michael Haneke)
The Last Lullaby (USA, Jeffrey Goodman)
Cooking History (Slovakia co-production, Peter Kerekes)
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (France, Dany Boon)
Tulpan (Kazakhstan co-production,Sergei Dvortsevoy)
Gold -- 23 titles
Zidane (France, Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno)
Wendy and Lucy (USA, Kelly Reichardt)
Birdsong (Spain, Albert Serra)
Call If You Need Me (Malaysia, James Lee)
Buick Riviera (Croatia, Goran Rusinovic)
Be Calm and Count to Seven (Iran, Ramtin Lavafipour)
Border (Armenia/Holland, Harutyun Khachatryan)
Everyone Else (Germany, Maren Ade)
Milk (Turkey, Semih Kaplanoglu)
Karaoke (Malaysia, Chris Chong Chan Fui)
Ain’t No Tomorrows (Japan, Yuki Tanada)
The Storm (Turkey, Kazim Öz)
The Hurt Locker (USA, Kathryn Bigelow)
District 9 (South Africa/New Zealand, Neill Blomkamp)
Katalin Varga (Romania co-production, Peter Strickland)
Police, Adjective (Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Happiest Girl in the World (Romania co-production, Radu Jude)
I Killed My Mother (Canada, Xavier Dolan)
Breathless (South Korea, Yang Ik-June)
The Prophet (France, Jacques Audiard)
The Class (France, Laurent Cantet)
In the Loop (UK, Armando Iannucci)
The Limits of Control (USA, Jim Jarmusch)
Silver -- 21 titles
The International (USA/Germany/UK, Tom Tykwer)
Che, part two (USA, Steven Soderbergh)
The Blessing (Denmark, Heidi Maria Faisst)
Can go Through Skin (Holland, Esther Rots)
My Only Sunshine (Turkey co-production, Reha Erdem)
This Longing (Malaysia, Azharr Rudin)
Fujian Blue (China, Weng Shou Ming)
Lulu & Jimi (Germany/France, Oskar Roehler)
Daytime Drinking (Korea, Young-Seok Noh)
Vacation (Japan, Hajime Kadoi)
Independencia (Philippines, Raya Martin)
Mid-August Lunch (Italy, Gianni Di Gregorio)
Still Walking (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda)
Fish Eyes (Korea/China, Zheng Wei)
Rough Cut (Korea, Hun Jang)
Revache (Austria, Goetz Spielmann)
Wrong Rosary (Turkey, Mahmut Fazil Coskun)
Man on Wire (UK/USA, James Marsh)
Firaaq (India, Nandita Das)
The Damned United (UK/USA, Tom Hooper)
35 Shots of Rum (France, Claire Denis)
Bronze -- 13 titles
Dev D (India, Anurag Kashyup)
Gulaal (India, Anurag Kashyup)
Pontypool (Canada, Bruce McDonald)
Guidance (Sweden, Johan Jonason)
Amreeka (USA/Canada, Cherien Dabis)
Genova (UK, Michael Winterbottom)
Mary and Max (Australia, Adam Elliot)
Public Enemies (USA, Michael Mann)
The White Ribbon (Germany co-production, Michael Haneke)
The Last Lullaby (USA, Jeffrey Goodman)
Cooking History (Slovakia co-production, Peter Kerekes)
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (France, Dany Boon)
Tulpan (Kazakhstan co-production,Sergei Dvortsevoy)
2009: Overview
Another film watching year is in the books! My final total of 338 films seen in 2009 is lower than the 445 films seen in 2008 and 385 in 2007. However, the quality of films I saw in 2009 was much higher than that of the previous two years. With the exception of a few films (soon to be outlined in a best of 2009 post), a majority of the best films I saw in 2009 came courtesy of the film festival circuit, routed via Sundance, Rotterdam, Cannes and eventually landing in CIFF. For me, the importance of Film Festivals cannot be emphasized enough and going into a new decade film festivals continue to be the only venue for most of the cinephiles around the world to peer into the existing beautiful cinematic universe. This is because the multiplexes are dominated with the usual gimmicky Hollywood [insert Bollywood or other local commercial offering] works and as a result, non-commercial films struggle to be seen. The number of art house venues cannot possibly show every worthy foreign/independent work and distributors only have a limited budget to grab a majority of these titles for DVD releases. Thankfully there are plenty of online/print film magazines/blogs which shed a light on the relevant cinema that exists but their film write-ups are still limited to a few titles from a select few film festivals. The onus is still on the cinephile to chase down titles on their own and try to discover works that others have missed. The good think is that there is plenty of potential to find new cinematic gems. For example, I was alerted to the lineup of films at The International Film Festival of Kerala thanks to Brown Country. Not only have I not seen any of the 14 competition films, I have not heard/read about them anywhere. So there remains a huge chance to find real gems in that list. How many of these 14 films will make the rounds around the world, via film festivals or DVD? Very few. What about the rest? They will sadly disappear as it often happens every year where sometimes worthy works go unnoticed because an important distributor/critic/film programmer did not get a chance to see the film. The fate of the Indian films in the IFFK list is even more bleak. Atleast Harishchandra’s Factory will get a wider release by UTV in January 2010 but the others might be inaccessible not only to international audiences but even to the people of India.
The Real Game Changer -- availability, not format
There has been a lot of talk this year about the new possibilities regarding 3D cinema. The buzz words around 3D now even apply to TV as 3D-TV should be available sometime in 2010 (very pricey though) and in 2009, one could have seen some 3D episodes of some TV series (one episode of the amazing Chuck comes to mind). Sure the experience of watching a film in rich 3D is rewarding but that experience only applies to a limited Hollywood selection and those films would have been easily available anyway in 2D and DVD anyway. On the other hand, I think something that allows cinephiles access to films from around the world is the real game changer. The current film festival calendar is broken and the film distribution network is not adequate enough to get films shown to people. For example, Cannes takes place in May and people in North America have to wait until TIFF premiers a select few Cannes titles in September before other film festivals can then start to show those films over the next few months (or a year as the case maybe). Then it is a further 6-8 months before a few of those titles would make it out to the art house/independent screens the following summer. And then the DVD release of those films could take another 6-8 months, meaning almost 2 years could have passed since a film’s Cannes premier before the film makes it to DVD in North America. This timeline applies to the few select award winning/big name Cannes films whereas the DVD release of other Cannes films could take even longer or never happen in some cases. That is not acceptable, especially when in an age where people talk about the speed and efficiency of data.
There has to be a major rethink about how fast film festival titles are made accessible to people. Here are my two cents to speed the process up:
1) The major film festivals with a distribution network (such as Sundance, Rotterdam, Cannes) should also broadcast films over the internet on a pay per view basis.
2) The festivals should provide a method to upload films via satellite to designated film theaters around the world.
Neither idea seems far fetched but the internet option might be more doable and recently The Auteurs tried something out with the Sao Paulo film festival where people from around Brazil could watch a selection of works shown at the Sao Paulo festival. I just think this model should be extended to allow international audiences to view films from the major film festivals. One argument why such a model cannot be opened up for people around the world has to do with a film’s international rights. But if a film does not have an international distributor, then I think it is better if the film is seen rather than wait 2-3 years for a future release or worse have the film never see life outside of the festival circuit. Overall, both options would benefit everyone -- the festival could get some extra revenue, the filmmakers can get a bigger audience for their works, cinephiles can finally have choices of what they watch, various film programmers can quickly decide what films they want to book for their festivals or cinematheque and prospective distributors can assess films without flying around the world to the various film festivals.
Will anything change in 2010? I don’t think so but I do hope that things will be better so that people can access quality cinema a bit more easily.
Here’s wishing to a Happy New Year and more film watching :)
The Real Game Changer -- availability, not format
There has been a lot of talk this year about the new possibilities regarding 3D cinema. The buzz words around 3D now even apply to TV as 3D-TV should be available sometime in 2010 (very pricey though) and in 2009, one could have seen some 3D episodes of some TV series (one episode of the amazing Chuck comes to mind). Sure the experience of watching a film in rich 3D is rewarding but that experience only applies to a limited Hollywood selection and those films would have been easily available anyway in 2D and DVD anyway. On the other hand, I think something that allows cinephiles access to films from around the world is the real game changer. The current film festival calendar is broken and the film distribution network is not adequate enough to get films shown to people. For example, Cannes takes place in May and people in North America have to wait until TIFF premiers a select few Cannes titles in September before other film festivals can then start to show those films over the next few months (or a year as the case maybe). Then it is a further 6-8 months before a few of those titles would make it out to the art house/independent screens the following summer. And then the DVD release of those films could take another 6-8 months, meaning almost 2 years could have passed since a film’s Cannes premier before the film makes it to DVD in North America. This timeline applies to the few select award winning/big name Cannes films whereas the DVD release of other Cannes films could take even longer or never happen in some cases. That is not acceptable, especially when in an age where people talk about the speed and efficiency of data.
There has to be a major rethink about how fast film festival titles are made accessible to people. Here are my two cents to speed the process up:
1) The major film festivals with a distribution network (such as Sundance, Rotterdam, Cannes) should also broadcast films over the internet on a pay per view basis.
2) The festivals should provide a method to upload films via satellite to designated film theaters around the world.
Neither idea seems far fetched but the internet option might be more doable and recently The Auteurs tried something out with the Sao Paulo film festival where people from around Brazil could watch a selection of works shown at the Sao Paulo festival. I just think this model should be extended to allow international audiences to view films from the major film festivals. One argument why such a model cannot be opened up for people around the world has to do with a film’s international rights. But if a film does not have an international distributor, then I think it is better if the film is seen rather than wait 2-3 years for a future release or worse have the film never see life outside of the festival circuit. Overall, both options would benefit everyone -- the festival could get some extra revenue, the filmmakers can get a bigger audience for their works, cinephiles can finally have choices of what they watch, various film programmers can quickly decide what films they want to book for their festivals or cinematheque and prospective distributors can assess films without flying around the world to the various film festivals.
Will anything change in 2010? I don’t think so but I do hope that things will be better so that people can access quality cinema a bit more easily.
Here’s wishing to a Happy New Year and more film watching :)
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Ethical Red Button
The Box (2009, USA, Richard Kelly): 8/10
When I was a young kid, I remember staying up late to watch episodes of the Twilight Zone. I have forgotten most of the episodes but the episode based on the "Button, Button" short story stayed with me. The episode ended on a chilling note and I can still remember the ethical dilemma the couple faced while sitting in front of a simple box with a button in the center. When I first heard about Richard Kelly’s film adaptation, I was intrigued about how this short story could be extended into a feature. Given Richard Kelly’s previous two features, I had a feeling that The Box would certainly be fresh and innovative. Sure enough, I was not let down as The Box is indeed one of the most though provoking films to come out of the normally stale and cliched Hollywood film industry.
**** Some spoilers ****
The short story ended with the idea that the young couple could die next when the box would be given to someone the couple didn’t know. The feature picks on up this idea and shows that the box follows a closed loop where death will next take place in the household that last pressed the button. Since there are multiple such boxes doing the rounds in America, a scenario is setup where various paths of life/death will be made. On a macro level, the boxes also seem to serve as an elaborate game theory model where pressing a button also triggers codes for a possible global game of destruction. The game theory angle is never mentioned but can be inferred at the continuously changing world map listing the various US combat command centers around the world. Does the map change everytime someone presses the button? Possibly, because in one instance the deliverer of the box, Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), mentions the game will stop when enough people decide to not press the button. The game theory angle could have been the perfect explanation for the film had there not been the additional layers of an alien invasion, government conspiracy and religious implications thrown in the mix. Not to mention the mind control element and portals used to give people a glimpse of the after life or to transfer them from one location to another. I am unable to find a unified theory to explain everything in the movie but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the film. Two other films came to mind while watching The Box -- David Twohy’s 1996 feature The Arrival regarding the radio communication with aliens and the ending of John Carpenter’s 1987 feature Prince of Darkness. The ending of Prince of Darkness showed that someone from the future was sending messages at a frequency which was picked up by the people in the church only in their dreams, meaning only when the people fell asleep were they able to get the same dream, which turned out to be an encoded message. In The Box, people’s mind is controlled via a frequency which renders them into zombies and in turn transmits the images they see back to a central source.
The Box requires an investment from the audience to think ahead and to piece things together. Given the poor reviews the film has received, it is clear that most people were not willing to invest their time in this film and slammed it. The same reaction was given to Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, a film which was much less complicated than The Box and even to Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking, a film which was jam packed with intelligent ideas. If The Box was instead an animated film, then some people might have accepted what they saw on screen. I can’t remember many people complaining too much about how an elderly man could spend a single night to blow up enough helium filled balloons to uproot his house in Up. No one seemed to further question how a young boy could then navigate this flying house in the movie correctly to South America with just a compass? A cartoon allows one to easily digest any deviation from reality whereas a flesh and blood feature allows very little room for imagination. Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko became a cult hit on video and DVD and I certainly hope The Box does find an audience on DVD. While the film may not be on the same level as Donnie Darko, The Box certainly needs to be seen and not dismissed lightly.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Champions League, Round of 16
A fascinating round of 16 draw for the Champions League was made on Friday, Dec 18:
The words emotional rivalry come to mind regarding the Inter vs Chelsea match-up. Jose Mourinho was a favourite of the Chelsea players and fans and it was because of Jose that Chelsea finally won the league title after a gap of 50 years. So his return to Stamford Bridge will certainly be an interesting event and another fascinating element to this tie is that Jose's opponent will be Carlo Ancelotti, the once successful player and manager of AC Milan, Inter's bitter rivals.
Milan lock horns with Man Utd again and it will be interesting to see if David Beckham will lineup against Man Utd. If everyone at Man Utd is fit, then they should progress against Milan but if Milan spend wisely in the January transfer window, then they might provide Man Utd a challenge.
It seems no Champions League season would be complete if Porto didn't face either Chelsea or Arsenal. This time since Porto already met Chelsea in the group stages, it is appropriate that they face Arsenal in the two legged affair. Arsenal will struggle as usual in their away trip to Portugal similar to their last two visits to Porto (a 2-0 loss and a 0-0 tie). However, Arsenal's last two home results against Porto were 4-0 and 2-0 wins. Given Arsenal's injury problems, it is hard to know what shape the Arsenal team will be in February. If Arsenal are to progress, then they will need an away goal in Portugal and have to keep a clean sheet at home. For Porto, a 1-0 win at home will be more than enough as they are capable of grinding out a 0-0 or 1-1 result in London.
What to make of Lyon vs Madrid? Once upon a time, Lyon thrashed Madrid 3-0 and 2-0 in back to back seasons (2006, 2007) and managed 1-1, 2-2 ties in their away results. Ofcourse, those were seasons that Lyon should have won the Champions League but for one reason or another, Lyon always struggled in the knock out round. Along with Arsenal, Lyon are the other European team that has had enough talent to merit a Champions League title but the European Cup is not won on the strength of a squad on a piece of paper. Lyon's best years in the Champions League appear to be a distant memory and it is hard to see this squad avoid getting brushed aside by Madrid.
Barca should be able to see off Stuttgart comfortably while the CSKA Moscow vs Sevilla game should be an open tie that sees two former UEFA Cup Champions lock horns. Bayern should progress against Fiorentina but sometimes with the German side it is better to flip a coin instead as it is hard to know which team will show up. Also, it is uncertain if Luca Toni will get to face his former team. Olympiacos vs Bordeaux gives the French Champions an excellent chance to progress while Zico's team have to win their home leg in Greece if they are to have any chance of upsetting Bordeaux.
The two big game changing variables between now and February would be if any of the 16 teams strengthen their squads in January and whether any of the team's African stars come back injured from the African Cup of Nations.
Still, some mouth-watering ties await.
Lyon vs Real Madrid
AC Milan vs Manchester United
FC Porto vs Arsenal
Bayern Munich vs Fiorentina
VfB Stuttgart vs FC Barcelona
Olympiacos vs Bordeaux
Inter Milan vs Chelsea
CSKA Moscow vs Sevilla
The words emotional rivalry come to mind regarding the Inter vs Chelsea match-up. Jose Mourinho was a favourite of the Chelsea players and fans and it was because of Jose that Chelsea finally won the league title after a gap of 50 years. So his return to Stamford Bridge will certainly be an interesting event and another fascinating element to this tie is that Jose's opponent will be Carlo Ancelotti, the once successful player and manager of AC Milan, Inter's bitter rivals.
Milan lock horns with Man Utd again and it will be interesting to see if David Beckham will lineup against Man Utd. If everyone at Man Utd is fit, then they should progress against Milan but if Milan spend wisely in the January transfer window, then they might provide Man Utd a challenge.
It seems no Champions League season would be complete if Porto didn't face either Chelsea or Arsenal. This time since Porto already met Chelsea in the group stages, it is appropriate that they face Arsenal in the two legged affair. Arsenal will struggle as usual in their away trip to Portugal similar to their last two visits to Porto (a 2-0 loss and a 0-0 tie). However, Arsenal's last two home results against Porto were 4-0 and 2-0 wins. Given Arsenal's injury problems, it is hard to know what shape the Arsenal team will be in February. If Arsenal are to progress, then they will need an away goal in Portugal and have to keep a clean sheet at home. For Porto, a 1-0 win at home will be more than enough as they are capable of grinding out a 0-0 or 1-1 result in London.
What to make of Lyon vs Madrid? Once upon a time, Lyon thrashed Madrid 3-0 and 2-0 in back to back seasons (2006, 2007) and managed 1-1, 2-2 ties in their away results. Ofcourse, those were seasons that Lyon should have won the Champions League but for one reason or another, Lyon always struggled in the knock out round. Along with Arsenal, Lyon are the other European team that has had enough talent to merit a Champions League title but the European Cup is not won on the strength of a squad on a piece of paper. Lyon's best years in the Champions League appear to be a distant memory and it is hard to see this squad avoid getting brushed aside by Madrid.
Barca should be able to see off Stuttgart comfortably while the CSKA Moscow vs Sevilla game should be an open tie that sees two former UEFA Cup Champions lock horns. Bayern should progress against Fiorentina but sometimes with the German side it is better to flip a coin instead as it is hard to know which team will show up. Also, it is uncertain if Luca Toni will get to face his former team. Olympiacos vs Bordeaux gives the French Champions an excellent chance to progress while Zico's team have to win their home leg in Greece if they are to have any chance of upsetting Bordeaux.
The two big game changing variables between now and February would be if any of the 16 teams strengthen their squads in January and whether any of the team's African stars come back injured from the African Cup of Nations.
Still, some mouth-watering ties await.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Pedro Costa, finally....
Criterion has finally announced the date for the Pedro Costa Box Set: March 30, 2010.
So that means my 3.5+ year search for Costa's films can finally end.
2006: The search started around the same time that Mark Peranson asked his Cinema Scope readers to "Vote for Pedro", Costa that is.
2007: The Pedro Costa film series traveled through North America but only touched down in two Canadian Cities (Toronto & Vancouver). I had planned on going to the Vancouver one but the plan fell through.
2008: Cinema Scope announced that they would give away copies of Costa's Colossal Youth for new and existing subscribers. Unfortunately, nothing come of that.
2009: Rumours of Criterion releasing Costa's films began to surface. Then a glimmer of hope arrived courtesy of Second Run DVD in the UK who released Costa's first feature O Sangue in the fall. Shortly after, Criterion announced that Costa's Fontainhas trilogy would be released in "Early 2010".
And now, there is a date. Finally!!!!!!!
This also means that I can finally choose a Costa film to represent Portugal in my 2010 Movie World Cup. Although, if I had this information a few weeks ago, I surely would have had a more involved dialogue with my mystery caller, whose identity still lurks in the shadows.
So that means my 3.5+ year search for Costa's films can finally end.
2006: The search started around the same time that Mark Peranson asked his Cinema Scope readers to "Vote for Pedro", Costa that is.
2007: The Pedro Costa film series traveled through North America but only touched down in two Canadian Cities (Toronto & Vancouver). I had planned on going to the Vancouver one but the plan fell through.
2008: Cinema Scope announced that they would give away copies of Costa's Colossal Youth for new and existing subscribers. Unfortunately, nothing come of that.
2009: Rumours of Criterion releasing Costa's films began to surface. Then a glimmer of hope arrived courtesy of Second Run DVD in the UK who released Costa's first feature O Sangue in the fall. Shortly after, Criterion announced that Costa's Fontainhas trilogy would be released in "Early 2010".
And now, there is a date. Finally!!!!!!!
This also means that I can finally choose a Costa film to represent Portugal in my 2010 Movie World Cup. Although, if I had this information a few weeks ago, I surely would have had a more involved dialogue with my mystery caller, whose identity still lurks in the shadows.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Follow the silence...
Back in 1999, on a rainy sunday night, I got my first text message on a cellphone. The cellphones back then were a lot bulkier than the current models and on this particular night, that large cellphone stood motionless on my coffee table until the arrival of that text message. The sudden vibration of the cellphone disturbed the quietness in the room and the words of that first ever text message simply read:
“Follow the white rabbit”.
Ha. It was obviously a joke by a friend who knew I had recently seen The Matrix. Since there was no phone number associated with the message, I had to resort to a guessing game of sorts. As the days went by, I could not find any trace of this mystery person. Eventually, a few weeks later it turned out to be someone unexpected who sent the message from the cellphone company’s internet page.
Now almost a decade later, another mysterious person got in touch with me. The phone number was unlisted when I picked up the phone.
Silence.
“Hello”
Silence.
I said hello once again and was about to hang up when I heard some static on the other end of the line. Then finally a voice.
“I have what you want.”
“Hello..who is this?”
“It does not matter. I have the Costa.”
“Sorry, I am not sure what you mean. Who are you?”
“You wanted to see the Pedro Costa films? Well I have them, all of them.”
By now, I was going through the short list of people who knew about my desire to trace down Pedro Costa’s films.
“Yes. I want to see them,”
“Good. Meet me at.....”
“How will I recognize you?”
“You don’t have to. I will approach you.”
I was certain this was a new prank from of my friends. So I went along.
However, I could not make it out to the location on the specified date & time. I tried but the icy roads coupled with the snow storm in the city made it almost impossible for me to make it. I was stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours and after seeing a dozen accidents on the roads, I decided it would be safer for me to head back home. The next day, after making a few inquiries, I could not get any verification about this mystery person.
Two weeks have now gone by. The weather is still brutally cold and more importantly, I have still not heard back from this mysterious person again.
For the record, I have already seen three Pedro Costa films -- Casa de Lava, Where Does your Hidden Smile Lie? & O Sangue. I am waiting for Criterion’s Fontainhas Trilogy due in 2010 which will check off three more Costa features off my list. So I am not that worried about missing that date with the mysterious person.
On the other hand, mystery person, if you are reading this, I would really appreciate it if you could dig up a film from North Korea, Honduras, Slovakia (Czech Republic will not do), Slovenia (besides Spare Parts which I have seen and love), Ghana and Nigeria.
“Follow the white rabbit”.
Ha. It was obviously a joke by a friend who knew I had recently seen The Matrix. Since there was no phone number associated with the message, I had to resort to a guessing game of sorts. As the days went by, I could not find any trace of this mystery person. Eventually, a few weeks later it turned out to be someone unexpected who sent the message from the cellphone company’s internet page.
Now almost a decade later, another mysterious person got in touch with me. The phone number was unlisted when I picked up the phone.
Silence.
“Hello”
Silence.
I said hello once again and was about to hang up when I heard some static on the other end of the line. Then finally a voice.
“I have what you want.”
“Hello..who is this?”
“It does not matter. I have the Costa.”
“Sorry, I am not sure what you mean. Who are you?”
“You wanted to see the Pedro Costa films? Well I have them, all of them.”
By now, I was going through the short list of people who knew about my desire to trace down Pedro Costa’s films.
“Yes. I want to see them,”
“Good. Meet me at.....”
“How will I recognize you?”
“You don’t have to. I will approach you.”
I was certain this was a new prank from of my friends. So I went along.
However, I could not make it out to the location on the specified date & time. I tried but the icy roads coupled with the snow storm in the city made it almost impossible for me to make it. I was stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours and after seeing a dozen accidents on the roads, I decided it would be safer for me to head back home. The next day, after making a few inquiries, I could not get any verification about this mystery person.
Two weeks have now gone by. The weather is still brutally cold and more importantly, I have still not heard back from this mysterious person again.
For the record, I have already seen three Pedro Costa films -- Casa de Lava, Where Does your Hidden Smile Lie? & O Sangue. I am waiting for Criterion’s Fontainhas Trilogy due in 2010 which will check off three more Costa features off my list. So I am not that worried about missing that date with the mysterious person.
On the other hand, mystery person, if you are reading this, I would really appreciate it if you could dig up a film from North Korea, Honduras, Slovakia (Czech Republic will not do), Slovenia (besides Spare Parts which I have seen and love), Ghana and Nigeria.
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