Cannes 2010

Almost all the Cannes 2010 films were announced today. And right on cue, the complaining has started. Already I have read the words "disappointing", "predictable" and "boring" describing the lineup.

I will tackle "predictable" first. Here's a look at some of the predictable Un Certain Regard films.

Udaan (India, Vikramaditya Motwane) -- yeah this is so predictable. The first Indian film in competition in 199 years and that too from Vikramaditya Motwane, clearly a household name making his directorial debut. Motwane was a writer on DevD which must have been the highest grossing film in the world because every western critic appears to be familiar with that movie and Anurag Kashyap. Yawn. So predictable.

Les amours imaginaires (Canada, Xavier Dolan) -- clearly everyone saw Dolan's brilliant 2009 film I Killed my Mother which is why that movie is on every best of 2009 list. His film was so popular that the Canadian Genies decided not to nominate it because they didn't want to give an award to a popular film.

Qu’est-il arrive a Simon Werner? (France, Fabrice Gobert) -- oh come on, everyone knew that Gobert's debut feature was always going to play at Cannes.

Octubre (Peru, Daniel Vega) -- when a Peruvian film won an award at Berlin in 2009 and was nominated for this year's Oscars, then everyone knew a Peruvian film would be selected at Cannes. And it is getting so tiring to see North American multiplexes playing one Peruvian film every week.

Then there is the new Godard, Hong sang-soo and Cristi Pulu. Expected.

In the Competition category:

Loong Boonmee Raleuk Chaat (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) -- just because Joe has never made a bad film does not mean his new film should be automatically selected!!! So predictable!

And then there are new films by Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Lee Chang-dong and Mike Leigh. Oh no.

Then there's "boring".

Normally I need to see a movie to decide if it is boring but I guess some all knowing critics know that a movie is boring just by the title. Nice gift to be able to judge a film by a title.

And then there's "disappointing".

Why is the new [insert director of choice]'s film not there? Oh my gawd. That is terrible.

hmmm, what if the director's film is not completed? Should an unfinished film be in the lineup? Apparently so because it is by a big name director. How dare the festival programmers leave out a film by a big name director!!! Shame.

And finally:

In Cannes 2009, there were plenty of auteur's films in competition. Was that not predictable? And look at how many knives were thrown at the films last year. So is the rule that Cannes should only select films from certain directors? Is the rest of the world not allowed to make films worthy of selection?

Once the festival starts, it won't be long before tweets will appear on how this year's Cannes is "average" or "terrible". And then before the year is over, someone will complain about how there are no good films being made and that since 1990 every film has been bad.

Uh-huh. Sure.

Personally, I can't wait for the disappointing, predictable and boring films to make their way to my part of the world. I need boring to balance out the pulsating cinematic excellence that is normally provided in my city's multiplexes courtesy of 3D green ogres and 2D autobots.

:)

The Barcelona Way -- Pass, Press and Score

Repeat words over and over again -- Barcelona are the best footballing side on the planet playing the game like no other team!

Last week, they dismantled Arsenal with remarkable ease and this past Saturday they brushed off their bitter rivals Real Madrid without much difficulty. Messi scored another goal against Madrid but it has been his 4 brilliant goals against Arsenal that have taken the Messi debate to another level. Words cannot describe Messi anymore. Sid Lowe's previous column mentioned that the Spanish press have run out of words to describe him. In fact, they had run out of words even before the Arsenal game. But for whatever reason, the English media remained silent on Messi until after the 4-1 Arsenal win. And as Lowe mentions, it should not have taken this long:

They said he didn't do it in big games - although goodness knows how they had the cheek to say that; did the clasico and the cup final not count? - so he did it in the Champions League final. They said he had never scored against an English team, and after a game in Santander it had been noted that he could not head a ball. Guardiola replied: "I advise you not to question Leo. One day, he's going to score a great header and shut you all up." Everyone laughed. He scored with a towering header, outjumping Rio Ferdinand.

But still they wanted more, and more, and more. There seemed to be a strange, bloody-minded determination not to recognise him. So Messi provided it. He started racking up goal after goal but they said that anyone could score goals in Spain. So last night he became top scorer in the Champions League. For the second successive season. And, for those who had forgotten Rome, he obliterated Arsenal into the bargain. Now they're saying Messi is the best player in the world. It shouldn't have taken last night to realise it.

A Portrait of the Passer as an Artist

In modern football, it is mostly goal-scorers that get all the attention. But the goals have to be created by someone and it is puzzling why media and most fans treat this creator with indifference. There are exceptions of course, such as Zidane, who was a player that could not be ignored. Nor can one ignore Barcelona's Xavi. Sid Lowe has some stats to back up Xavi's achievements, although watching him in any Barcelona game is ample proof of his genius.

Last season, Xavi completed almost 100 passes at the Bernabéu. Last week, he completed more than all of Arsenal's midfielders put together. This season he has made over 400 passes more than any player in Spain; in the Champions League, he is 400 passes ahead of anyone from any other club. Even his own team-mates are 300 behind.

"I need team-mates, people to combine with," Xavi says. "Without team-mates football has no meaning. I am no one if they don't make themselves available." But it is not just that he sees the movement first, it is that he often sees the movement before it has happened, that rather than passing to the movement, he passes in such a way as to oblige the movement. He makes players' runs for them. "Xavi plays in the future," says Dani Alves. Coaches at Barcelona privately admit that sometimes he moves into areas that he should not – but that his technique is so good, his passing so precise, that ultimately it ends up looking like the right thing to do.

The Barcelona Press

Barcelona have won everything under the sun not only because of their pretty football but because they have married their passing game with some ruthless tactics. Jonathan Wilson illustrates their pressing game which reduced Arsenal to an amateur team in the two team's first leg meeting:

After 20 minutes last Wednesday, Barcelona had had 72% of the possession, a barely fathomable figure against anybody, never mind against a side so noted for their passing ability as Arsenal. Their domination in that area came not so much because they are better technically – although they probably are – but because they are better at pressing. In that opening spell, Barça snapped into tackles, swirled around Arsenal, pressured them even deep in their own half. It was a remorseless, bewildering assault; there was no respite anywhere on the pitch, not even when the ball was rolled by the goalkeeper to a full-back just outside the box.
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For pressing to be effective the team must remain compact, which is why Rafael Benítez is so often to be seen on the touchline pushing his hands towards each other as though he were playing an invisible accordion. Arrigo Sacchi said the preferred distance from centre-forward to centre-back when out of possession was 25m, but the liberalisation of the offside trap (of which more next week) has made the calculation rather more complicated.

Again and again, Arsenal's forwards would press, and a huge gap would open up between that line and the line of the midfield. Or the midfield would press, and a gap would open in front of the back four. What that means is that the player in possession can simply step round the challenger into space, or play a simple pass to a player moving into the space; the purpose of the pressing is negated. Or, if you prefer, it was as though Arsenal were false-pressing, without having achieved the first stage of the hustle which is to persuade the opposition you are good at pressing.

lleig, Feo, Ugly

And a final word about the not so beautiful side of Barcelona. They do have some players who are capable of fouling an opponent or diving to gain an advantage. Sergio Busquets provided examples of both these points in the second leg. First he kicked out at Theo Walcott because Busquets could not match Walcott's pace; second, he took the biggest dive of this season's Champions league when he somersaulted over the slightest touch. And in both cases, Busquets got the benefit of the call and got away without even a booking. Now, Busquets isn't the only Barca known to exaggerate a push or a touch. Messi used to do it a lot more in the past but in recent years he has let his feet do more of the talking. Unfortunately last Tuesday he did resort to his old ways against Arsenal on one occasion. Around the 30 minute mark, Denilson went sliding in and clearly won the ball but caught Messi after the ball was pushed away. So Messi rolled around on the ground thereby fooling the ref into booking Denilson and awarding Barcelona a free-kick. And young Bojan clearly seems to be inspired by Messi as on three separate occasions he cried foul when there was none. Thankfully, Barcelona's beautiful football covers over these ugly bits, but it does raise the point that if the most beautiful football team in the world can demonstrate unsporting activities, what can one expect from teams with limited technical abilities?

Searching for Honduran Cinema

Last year, when I decided to track down a film from all the 32 countries taking part in this summer’s soccer world cup, I had not realized that searching for a Honduran film would prove to be such a difficult task. I always expected that an entry from North Korea would be a tough find but ultimately a Honduran film was the last found title of the 32 candidates. Five possible candidates were identified early on:

Spirit of My Mother (1999, Ali Allie)

No hay tierra sin dueño (The Land of the Ogres) (2002, Sami Kafati)

Amor y frijoles (2009, Mathew Kodath/Hernan Pereira)

Corazon Abierto (2005, Katia Lara)

El porvenir (2008, Oscar Estrada)

Amor y frijoles had a limited release in the US last year but all the trailers indicated a print existed without English subtitles. Spirit of My Mother and The Lang of the Ogres were not found on DVD although prints of Sami Kafati’s feature appear to be available for film festival purposes. Sami Kafati’s name came up quite a bit in searching for Honduran cinema as he is credited with making the first ever Honduran film in 1962 -- a 31 minute short film called Mi Amigo Angel. However, none of his short films appeared to be available.

The last two entries in the list, Corazon Abierto and El porvenir, were found for viewing thanks to DocsOnline, the documentary film library. Interestingly, Corazon Abierto is a documentary about how Kafati’s No hay tierra sin dueño finally saw the light of day as Kafati died before he could finish the film. The documentary includes footage from the film and interviews with some of the actors and Kafati's family. Corazon Abierto is probably the closest I can get to seeing anything by or about Kafati.

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DocsOnline

DocsOnline has some films available for free viewing but all films require creation of an account. And I only found two ways to create an account -- by buying a monthly subscription (around 9 euros a month) or by purchasing a pay per minute plan. I opted for the latter and the minimum available minutes for purchase are 100 minutes for a total of 3 Euros, which depending on the day of the week might end up being anywhere from 4-5 Canadian dollars. It turned out the running time of both Corazon Abierto and El porvenir was 98 minutes so 3 Euros were more than enough to end my quest for finding not one but two Honduran films. DocsOnline has interesting documentaries from all over the world and is also a very good resource for finding films from countries with limited cinematic output such as Nicaragua, Guatemala and Bolivia (to give three examples besides Honduras). Some of the listed films have no entries in imdb.com and might be co-productions but they are the closest to finding films from certain countries.

4 Goals 3 Injuries 2 Reunions

Arsenal 2 - 2 Barcelona

Barcelona did not waste any time in establishing their superiority and from the first minute they played Arsenal off the field. It should have been 3-0 early on but Almunia, Arsenal's much despised goalie, bravely kept Arsenal in the game. It wasn't until the 22nd minute that Arsenal had their first meaningful shot on Barca's net, when a wicked curving effort by Nasri just went wide of the net. Before half-time, Arsenal lost Arshavin and Gallas through injury and then Cesc got a yellow card thereby suspending him from the return leg at the Nou Camp. He was visibly heartbroken as he was looking forward for the chance to play in his front of his friends and family.  All said and done, Arsenal were lucky to go into the break at 0-0 and not 0-5 down.

22 seconds into the second half, a long ball found Arsenal's defense sleeping and Zlatan coolly lobbed Almunia who was needlessly out of his goal. All of Almunia's good work in the first half was undone by yet another misjudged moment of error, something that he has shown consistently over his Arsenal career. The long ball tactic worked so well that Barca tried it again 13 minutes later with the same end result of Zlatan scoring a goal. With Arsenal 0-2 at home, the tie looked over. However, the introduction of Theo Walcott changed things. His pace and wonderful goal just before the 70th minute mark sparked an Arsenal revival as the last 20 minutes were dominated by the home team.

There was a brief respite around the 77th minute mark when Zlatan went off and ex-Arsenal legend Thierry Henry stepped onto the pitch. Henry's appearance did not change Arsenal's momentum and 5 minutes from time, Arsenal amazingly tied the game up. After Cesc was judged to be blocked by Puyol, the Barca defender got a straight red card and Arsenal a penalty. Cesc smashed the kick home but appeared to hobble after the goal. With Arsenal having used all their three substitutes it seemed the game would be 10 vs 10 players but Cesc returned to the field and continued to limp until the finale.

For an hour, Barca showed why they are the best football side on the planet as their passes and movement was beautiful.  Barcelona are clearly the favourites in the return leg however they will be without their key defenders Puyol and Gerard Piqué both of whom are suspended. Arsenal on the other hand will be without Cesc, Gallas and Arshavin, three injuries which will have a huge impact not only on their European future but also their dreams of landing the league title . Both Cesc and Gallas are out for the rest of the season and it remains to be seen whether Cesc's brave heroics of playing with a broken leg and scoring that crucial penalty amount to anything for Arsenal's 2010 season.

The second leg should be equally entertaining and if Arsenal have any chance of pulling off an unlikely triumph they will need Samir Nasri to be in top form as he is the one remaining fit player who has a chance to provide a moment of genius to lift Arsenal.  On the other hand, Barcelona will be hoping that Messi, the world's best player, might finally make his presence felt as his impact in the first leg was minimal.

Rotterdam -- Cinematic Bliss

It was about four years ago that I started paying closer attention to Rotterdam’s International Film Festival lineups and since 2006, I have been constantly impressed by their programming and longed to make a trip to the festival. So this year I finally made my journey to Rotterdam, albeit for a very short stay. I ordered my film tickets online and picked them up at the De Doelen where the box office is located along with an amazing cafe where one can grab some delicious food and much needed drinks. During the festival the hall with its spacious seating area is normally buzzing with the sound of constant conversations in multiple languages and allows one to rub shoulders with festival goers, filmmakers and critics. The hall also has a merchandise store where one can buy t-shirts, catalogs and DVDs of films showcased in past Rotterdam festivals. Most of the DVDs (in PAL format) are films that are not yet available in Canada, so it is worth picking some of the titles up, although one has to make sure that the DVD contains English subtitles as not every DVD has that feature.

There are 6 primary theatre venues to choose from and two of the venues (Pathe and Cinerama) have 7 screens each which means in a particular time slot one can have a choice of anywhere from 10 - 16 films. One can begin each day as early as 9:30 am and see about 5-6 films a day with the final screenings starting as late as 10:45 pm. Most of the films are repeated more than once so one can plan accordingly. My time constraints prevented me from going to multiple venues so I confined myself to the Pathe across from De Doelen. In a way, that was more than enough since the Pathe is a spacious multiplex with comfortable seating that makes it a treat to watch foreign films. For me, the giant screen of the Pathe perfectly enhanced the experience of watching Heng Yang's fascinating Sun Spots, a film shot on HD video. The large screen ensured every image looked breathtaking and crisp. Sun Spots consists of 31 long single take scenes with no camera movements, meaning no pans or zooms. This style makes the film a challenging one to watch but it is also a rewarding experience because one can soak in the on-screen atmosphere and freely observe all the details present in each frame.

The remarkable aspect of Rotterdam 2010 was that even on the festival’s last day there was a breathtaking lineup of films available. On the final day, it was possible to start a cinematic journey in Suriname (Let Each One Go Where He May), hop over to Costa Rica (Agua fría de mar) or Mexico (Alamar), jump to Brazil (Avenida Brasilia formosa) or India (Sailor of Hearts, The Well), spend an evening in Africa (the several features that were part of the Where is Africa series) and end the night in Thailand (Mundane History) or the Philippines (two short features by Pepe Diokno & Lav Diaz). Or one could have confined themselves entirely to Europe and taken in the new Pedro Costa or Bruno Dumont along the way. Also, all the three Tiger Award Winners, Agua fría de mar, Alamar & Mundane History, were available for viewing on the final day along with the audience favourite winner, Yo, también (Spain). 10 days of such a wide array of films is enough to satisfy any cinephile's appetite.

Over the years, Rotterdam has become a great source for discovering fascinating foreign film titles, especially Asian ones, and is not shy to show longer works, such as Wang Bing’s documentaries The Journey of Crude Oil (a running time of 14 hours), West of the Tracks (9 hours) or Lav Diaz's Death in the Land of Encantos (9 hours) and Melancholia (7.5 hours). At Rotterdam, one can find artistic films easily rubbing shoulders with some commercial offerings and since the festival is not concerned with only showing premieres, one can catch some great titles which graced the festival circuit the previous year while trying to discover new gems. And there are plenty of gems to discover. Since 2007, a few of those gems from Rotterdam have ended up at CIFF, first thanks to Angela Kempf and last year thanks to Trevor Smith, both of whom made a journey to the famous port city. Three of the best films that featured at CIFF 2009, Be Calm and Count to Seven (Iran), Breathless (South Korea) and Wrong Rosary (Turkey), were all Tiger Award winners at Rotterdam. While the Cannes Film Festival in May gets the most attention with regards to new foreign film titles, in reality, the foreign film calendar is kicked off as early as January when Rotterdam announces its lineup.

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Note: originally published on CIFF's website

Liberating the Prisoner

A prisoner. Unshaven, haggard and released from a physical prison. Beat up apartment. Old typewriter. Click, click. Novel. Money. Maya. Liberation.

Siddharth: The Prisoner (2008, India, Pryas Gupta)

After Siddarth is released from prison, he goes about unburdening his soul by feverishly typing away his novel on an old typewriter using scribbled notes from his prison term. When he has finished the book, he heads to an internet cafe to send an email to his publisher. After he pays the internet cafe manager, Mohan, he picks up a wrong briefcase and leaves the briefcase with his novel behind. The incorrect bag, that Mohan was looking after for a gangster, is full of money. Sid is delighted to come across this fortune, especially since the money can assist in his plan. We learn later on in the film that the purpose of his book is to regain some of the fame and money that he had prior to his prison term so that he can have a chance to win the custody of his son in a divorce battle with his wife. Now with money in front of him, Sid thinks he can bypass a step in his process. Naturally, Mohan gets in trouble over losing the money and goes about trying to locate Sid in order to save his own life. It turns out that the money will not be enough for Sid so he needs to locate his novel. As both men try to rectify their mistakes, their desperation and methods parallel each other’s. At one stage in the film, both men photocopy items they need to return (the novel in Mohan's case, money in Sid's case) because they want to cover up losses they have encountered along the way – Mohan accidentally ends up burning some pages of the novel and Sid spends some of the money.

The simple story is filmed so beautifully and poetically by Pryas Gupta that one hardly notices the lack of dialogue spoken by Rajat Kapoor in his role as Sid. The pacing of the scenes is leisurely, the action is not rushed and the camera allows us to observe all relevant details without trying to spoon feed anything. The Buddhist ending of Siddharth.. shares a sentiment with Pan Nalin's wonderful Samsara and is perfectly in keeping with the tone and nature shown in the film. In Siddharth.., we see Sid slowly realize that money, the longing for his son, the need to get his book published are weights that are dragging his soul down and are preventing him from observing the illusionary nature of his life. Gradually, Sid starts to shed all his worldly chains and is completely liberated in the end. The final shot also echoes what Lisandro Alonso established with Farrel's walk towards the snowy landscape in Liverpool.

Gupta's first film marks one of the best debuts by an Indian director in the last few years. It is clear that Gupta has not compromised anything as the filming style represents a clear vision that he had for this treatment, something that is rare to find in a majority of Indian films where directors are forced to bow down to producer interference. When Siddharth.. was released in Indian theaters in 2009 hardly anyone saw the movie and the few critics that did slammed it. Thankfully, the film is now available on DVD in most Indian stores and hopefully through word of mouth this film will finally get the audience that it deserves. This is a movie that needs to be seen and is one of the best Indian movies to have been made in recent years and Pryas Gupta keeps the hope alive that there are cinephiles in India who are capable of making intelligent and thoughtful films.

Rating: 9/10

Alonso vs Martel, 2nd Leg

The 1st leg between these two film-makers was summarized back in summer 2009 where Alonso's Los Muertos was the clear winner over Martel's La ciénaga.

The second leg was to feature Alonso's Liverpool vs Martel's The Headless Woman. The Martel feature was first out of the gate and found it much better than La ciénaga. Still, I felt that if Alonso's Liverpool was as good as Los Muertos, then he would easily be the winner.

It turns out that Alonso's Liverpool is much better than Los Muertos and as a result, his film easily wins the second leg over the Martel feature.

Space, Environment and Freedom

While both Martel and Alonso are very good directors, liking one over the other depends on personal choice. The reason I prefer Alonso is because his films allow one to breathe in the environment because his camera is very flexible in capturing space around his characters whereas Martel restricts space because she wants to get in close with not so nice rich characters, people who are not meant to be liked in the first place. Alonso’s characters are probably not nice either. The character, Vargas, in Los Muertos is released from Jail for murder while Farrel in Liverpool ran away from home committing a possible rape but since Alonso places a distance between audience and his characters, we can observe freely and objectively. Plus Alonso takes the audience on a ride through an Argentine country side we hardly see on screen whereas Martel's features are rooted in cities -- all three of Martel's features are filmed in Salta.

Parallels -- Land & Water

Both Los Muertos and Liverpool start with two lonely men leaving a confined space and heading off into a vast open land. Their modes of transportation vary a little as Los Muertos starts on land and then moves onto water (via a boat) while Liverpool starts on a ship and then moves onto land. Both films contain men trying to search for their past in order to find a closure. The ending of Liverpool signifies liberation as one can see all the weight from Farrel's shoulders drop off and he walks away lighter into the snowy landscape.

The lonely nature of Farrel's journey in Liverpool also reminds of the main character in Carlos Reygadas’ Japon. The two characters are almost mirrors of each other but with a different past and journey purpose. In Japon, the character wants to end his life whereas in Liverpool Farrel seeks closure so as to live the rest of his life in peace.

Essential Alonso Reading

Michael Guillen's excellent interview with Alonso at the Evening Class.

James Quandt's brilliant essay in Art Forum which overlooks all of Alonso’s works.

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The 2010 Movie World Cup

Argentina, in the form of Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool, is so far a leading contender for winning my movie world cup. Although there should be strong competition from Portugal (via Pedro Costa), Brazil, Germany, Spain and France. Interestingly, all these teams will be among the favourites in the summer soccer tournament as well.

The Best Cinema

The two best films of 2010 might be not be seen at Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York or Mumbai. Instead, they might be discovered in 90 minute segments shown only for a single night in both Barcelona & North London. It is hard to imagine how scripted cinema can possibly compete with the technical genius, skill and talent that will be on display when Barcelona play Arsenal over two mouth watering Champions League ties. It would have been pleasure enough to watch the two best football playing sides on the planet go against each other but what makes things fascinating are the other stories that will be found just besides the football.

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry will return back to North London in front of his adoring fans. Plus, Henry will go against players who emerged from his shadow.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fàbregas will return to his home city to the club he joined at the tender age of 10. Arsenal signed Cesc when he turned 16 but there have always been rumours as to when Cesc would resign for Barcelona.

Cesc vs Messi -- both were childhood friends who trained together at Barca's youth team. Now, the two are not only the biggest stars of their respective teams but also the best players in the world.

Wenger vs Guardiola -- Wenger's genius & achievements are well documented along with his flaws & failures, but the young Guardiola has managed to outdo Wenger in winning all club trophies possible in his short managerial career. And it wouldn't be far fetched to imagine that one day Guardiola could replace Wenger at Arsenal because both managers believe in playing good football, involving slick passing and imaginative space creation.

There are plenty of other intriguing match-ups, especially those involving Barca's genius duo of Xavi (provided he recovers from his injury) & Iniesta, who are responsible for pulling all the strings, vs Nasri & Song.

While Arsenal's beautiful football was only formed when Wenger took over the club in 1996, Barcelona's legacy for good football goes all the way back to 1973 when the Dutch Master and co-creator of total football Johan Cruyff stepped foot in the Nou Camp. Both sets of fans have been spoiled for good football over the decades and so one can be sure the two legged affair will not resort to the boring dull 'tactical' football that is played in some other parts of Europe. That being said, the games might not feature a lot of goals, but atleast the technical level of the game will be top notch.

Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno used 17 cameras to capture every moment of Zidane in their film but even 170 cameras will not be enough for these two games as there are plenty of worthy players whose every move deserves to be recorded.

Those other games..

It is easy to forget that there are 3 other quarter-final ties and two of them should be quite interesting.

Lyon vs Bordeaux -- The all French affair is eye catching for many reasons. After Barcelona and Arsenal, it is Lyon who have produced some of the best football in the Champions League over the years but unfortunately for Lyon, their good football normally ends prior to the Quarter Final stages. Domestically, Lyon won 7 straight league titles until Bordeaux ended that run last season and currently, Bordeaux are narrowly sitting atop Ligue 1. So if Lyon are to progress and reach their first ever Champions League Semi-Final then it makes sense they overcome their current domestic rivals. Meanwhile Bordeaux can challenge Lyon's European credentials if they reach the semi's of the CL before Lyon. Plus, the current Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc is highly sought after so this tie gives him a chance to further enhance his reputation as one of Europe's brightest new managers.

Bayern Munich vs Man Utd -- It all goes back to 1999 on an incredible night in the Nou Camp when Man Utd stole the European Cup away from Bayern Munich with two goals in the final minutes. The two have met a few times since then, but that 1999 game should be plenty of incentive for the Germans. And for Manchester, well something about an English vs German rivalry that is hard to miss.

Inter Milan vs CSKA Moscow -- Inter & Jose have been all over the news after their well deserved & phenomenal win over Chelsea. CSKA will not be an easy opponent but it is hard to see how the Russians can stop Inter, especially if Inter are brave enough to continue with three forwards and let Wesley Sneijder do his magic.

Memory + Image

Back in 2005, I came across an intriguing Mexican film called Sangre by Amat Escalante. Even though there were plenty of wonderful moments and memorable images in the film, I had mixed overall feelings because I found a few segments frustrating. Still, I could never forget the images I saw in Sangre and one of my favourite sequences in the film takes place when the main character Diego finds his small car against a giant mound of garbage. As the camera draws back, the full scale of the mountain of garbage is made apparent. But Diego is not concerned with the mountain of garbage to his left. Instead his eyes are further ahead because he needs to search for something in another mountain of garbage. The difficulty of his task is made apparent while one can't help but think of the sheer wastage that humans are leaving behind, as the garbage dump is only one of millions that exist throughout the planet.

When I had seen Sangre I had not seen anything by Carlos Reygadas. Now having seen all of the three features Reygadas has directed, I have a better appreciation of what Escalante attempted with Sangre. Escalante was an assistant director on Reygadas' Battle in Heaven and Reygadas was a producer on Sangre. As a result, there are plenty of similarities between Sangre & Battle in Heaven, like the usage of unprofessional actors to depict the everyday mundane lives of ordinary characters and awkward sex scenes featuring people with non-model like bodies, aspects which one rarely finds in films. In fact, Sangre makes for a worthy double bill along with Battle in Heaven because the two films compliment each other so well.

I still have not seen Escalante's second feature Los bastardos but it is high on my list of films to watch. And both Escalante & Reygadas have short features in Revolución, a film that recently showed at the Berlin Film Festival. The other directors who contributed segments in Revolución are Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Rodrigo García, Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá and Patricia Riggen. Definitely, Revolución is one film to look out for.

Song but no dance

The year is only a few months old but it is hard to believe that there will be too many Indian songs this year that will be more soulful than Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji found on the soundtrack of Ishqiya.

Football & Film reading...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”