"If Ray reflected the Tagorean enlightenment, Benegal is undoubtedly the chronicler of Nehruvian India. He shares its ‘socialistic’ bias and its foundations in secularism, pluralism, democracy, equality of opportunity, human rights, women’s rights and all their concomitants. His all-India identity is pronounced, obvious. Compare him to Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak and the difference leaps out. Ray was a Bengali and an Indian; Ghatak was only a Bengali; Benegal is only an Indian.” -- Chidananda Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing
Chidananda Das Gupta’s words about Shyam Benegal being “an Indian” certainly ring true. Benegal’s films cover India’s diverse landscape by focusing on a range of characters living in different social circles. His camera is not rooted in a specific region but instead effortlessly takes a journey from rural to urban centers to depict stories about villagers, landowners, priests, politicians, policemen, prostitutes, businessmen and industrialists. Benegal’s camera does not judge but instead presents characters in their moments of agony, suffering or happiness without melodrama thereby creating rich portrayals. Chidananda Das Gupta describes the key component to this style:
But the strand central to Benegal’s ideology and his oeuvre is of the documentary. His feature films turn fact into fiction; they grow out of the documentary approach. One should first look at his Fabian semi-documentaries on the theme of the cooperative movement, best illustrated by Manthan (milkmen and women), Susman (handloom weavers) and Antarnaad (fisher-folk).... -- page 268, Seeing is Believing
Looking at Benegal’s career, it is easy to understand why documentaries play such a fundamental role in his films. He started his film career by directing 22 documentaries in a seven year period from 1967 to 1974. Through these docs, Benegal examined social and economic issues affecting Indian society. He continued this keen examination in his early feature film career as Ankur (1974), his feature film debut, along with Nishant (1975) and Manthan (1976) appear as extensions of his documentary style packaged in a fictional framework. Such a style perfectly balances the villagers way of life, their economic hurdles, social oppression with intimate accounts of their lives. Manthan is a shining example of this approach. The film describes steps the villagers need to take in order to set up a milk cooperative, something which will prevent their exploitation at the hand of the local landowner. The cooperative debate is vital to the story but does not dominate the fictional framework of the film and instead forms just one of the tension points shown between the villagers, landowners and the city workers. As a result, one can understand the concerns and suspicions that exist on the opposing sides because the story and Benegal’s style allows a closeness to all the subjects including villagers, landowner and city workers thereby creating a realistic depiction of events.
In Chapter 8, "Film as Visual Anthropology", Chidananda Das Gupta uses the term "realistic New [Indian] Cinema" to perfectly explains Benegal’s style:
Both [Manthan & Susman] show a singular ability to make fiction out of documentary material without compromising the complexity and basic truth of the material. Technical fluency plus an extraordinary penchant for good casting and for the structuring of material make the films dramatic without being too fictional to be true. A remarkable sureness of feeling for people and places in this prolific film-maker enables him to overcome some elements of contrivance in the mix of drama and documentary. With Benegal we reach the frontiers of documentary and fiction and get the feeling that beyond this point, the portrayal would cease to be recognizable.
Near the end of the chapter, Chidananda Das Gupta also briefly mentions "Direct Cinema" when talking about North American cinema movement:
Later, the 'Direct Cinema' movement in the USA remained mainly peripheral both to the film industry and the corridors of power.
Even though he does not link the movement directly to Benegal’s films, the appearance of the words in the same chapter provide some food for thought. If one had to follow the pure definition of "Direct Cinema", then Benegal’s films won’t fit the bill but his films share plenty of sentiments not only with “Direct Cinema” but also with the “Actuality Dramas” of Allan King. In order to explore some similarities between Benegal’s style and Direct Cinema, I refer back to David Clandfield’s insightful essay From the Picturesque to the Familiar: Films of the French Unit at the NFB (1958-1964) which discusses the difference between Candid Eye movement and Direct Cinema.
Technically, of course, both movements had much in common: shooting without script or conscious staging, use of light-weight equipment, a search for the real which deliberately shunned the dramatic of the heroic.
...
For the Candid Eye filmmakers, the subject of the film was its subject matter rooted in objective reality. The starting point was a social or human event-- ephemeral, inscribed in an ephemeral world-- the form and meaning of which require the mediation of the filmic process to become evident. The function of the filmic process, then, was not to mould but to reveal form, and with it meaning.
For the cinéma direct filmmakers, the point of departure is the filmmaking process in which the filmmaker is deeply implicated as a consciousness, individual or collective. It is this process--this consciousness--which gives form and meaning to an amorphous objective reality. Instead of effacing their presence, the filmmakers affirm it.
Instead of rendering the technical process transparent (supposedly), they will emphasize its materiality. Instead of standing apart from their object of study or enquiry, they will implicate themselves within in. Their search for the authentic will involve not only the critical detachment of the empirical investigator in order to strip away “myth” or misconception, but also commitment to the social project under investigation in order to avoid the pitfalls of he aesthetic or the “picturesque.” The overt personal involvement of the subject-filmmaker in the object-reality of the pro-filmic event was, then, the key distinguishing factor of the Québécois cinéma direct from the Anglophone Candid Eye.
1) "shooting without script or conscious staging":
Benegal’s scripted trilogy was filmed with actors so that would not qualify it under a pure direct cinema label.
2) "a search for the real which deliberately shunned the dramatic of the heroic.":
These words apply to Benegal as his trilogy highlights “the real” in opposition to conventional hero vs villain scenarios. Benegal’s films presented both sides of the story and the camera peered into the homes of both landowners and villagers. At times, it is hard to tell who is the hero in these films as most characters are driven by their own fear and insecurities which clash with the needs of others.
3) "overt personal involvement of the subject-filmmaker.":
In Manthan, a milk cooperative paid for the film thereby forming a very valid connection with the filmmaker and the subject of the story. Also, the subject matter of the films show Benegal’s interest in the social plight of the villagers and the story gives a rare voice to the villagers. Although the villagers voice is provided by actors.
Direct Cinema-Actuality Dramas-New Realistic Indian Cinema
Michel Brault’s Direct Cinema, Allan King’s Actuality Dramas and Shyam Benegal’s Realistic Indian Cinema all share traits of portraying pure reality. Not surprizingly, all three directors started their career by making documentaries. Even though Benegal’s realistic cinema are fictional films, they contain elements of documentaries in depicting genuine events. And even when Brault directed Les Orders, a fictional film, it was a retelling of actual events based on interviews. Interestingly, all three directed some of their breakout works within a decade of each other. King’s Warendale and A Married Couple came out in 1967 & 1969 respectively, Brault’s Acadia Acadia?!? was released in 1971, Les Orders in 1974, and Benegal’s debut fictional film Ankur came out in 1974. King and Brault would have crossed paths because they worked in Canada but Benegal was probably not aware of either movements. Just like the 1950’s and 1960’s were a period of rich foreign cinema, it appears that the 1970’s and 1980’s were a period of rich reality based movements such as Direct Cinema, Actuality Dramas and the New Realistic Indian Cinema.
Equal Voice and balanced portrayal
Ankur, Nishant and Manthan are completely realized works because they provide an equal voice to both opposing sides whether it be villagers vs landowners, villagers vs city workers or men vs women. The female characters are essential to all three films and the camera ensures that they are given enough screen time to properly understand their situation. This balanced approach ensures the films are not one-sided. Benegal is also a rare Indian filmmaker who has given women a proper spotlight in his films, not only in terms of acting but also by story focus. Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil are key components of Ankur, Nishant and Manthan and would go on to play relevant parts in other vital Indian films. Later in his career, Benegal directed a women centric trilogy, Mammo (1994), Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa (2001), films which featured focus on three Muslim women. This equal portrayal just affirms his status of a genuine Indian filmmaker.
The past & present, religion & myth
Shyam Benegal not only depicted current state of events in Indian society but also explored Indian’s colonial past. Junoon (1979) takes place in colonial Indian and is set against the backdrop of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Whereas, Kalyug (1981) is a brilliant retelling of the Mahabharta in the closed Indian economy of the 1980’s when strict quotas for production resulted in corruption and labor disputes. The business model depicted in Kalyug was due to "License Raj", a term going back to 1947. In essence, Kalyug brings together one of Indian’s famous epics, post-British Indian legacy and contemporary Indian society in the 1980’s. So it depicts three time periods, or Trikal, which also happens to be the title of Benegal’s 1985 film which explores three time periods in Goa.
The dangers of blindly following a sage’s advice are perfectly highlighted in Kondura which shows that blind faith can sometimes result in someone being manipulated and committing a grave error. In the film, Parashuram (Anant Nag, a regular in Benegal’s films) gets a vision first from the sage Kondura (Amrish Puri) and then from a Goddess, both of whom warn Parashuram about stopping the growing sin in the village. Their instructions are vague and they never point to a specific case of evil in the village. It is left up to Parashuram on how to interpret their words. Parashuram’s few attempts to correct things, such as rebuilding a temple and the discovery of water in an arid land, lead some villagers to regard Parashuram as a sage. His ego is buoyed by his new found followers and combined with his intent in fulling the sage’s words causes Parashuram to fall into a trap set by the local landowner Bhairavmoorthy. The film cleverly includes some elements which question the authenticity of Parashuram’s visions. Kondura is only shown in one scene and is played by Amrish Puri, who provides the voice for Bhairavmoorthy even though the landowner is played by a different actor. Also, the Goddess that visits Parashuram takes the form of his wife Ansuya (Vanisri) which also lays a seed of doubt about whether Parashuram is imagining his visions.
Mandi stands apart from other Shyam Benegal films because of its sharp witty humor. Despite being light hearted than his other films, Mandi tackles plenty of relevant social issues in its portrayal of the women working in a bordello, the clients, landowners, policemen and politicians whose lives hover around the bordello. In fact, the humor manages to highlight the hypocrisy and selfish nature of the characters perfectly. The film is jam packed with movement where characters are constantly entering and exiting a frame thereby creating a theatrical like feel to the work. All the performances are top notch which is not a surprize given that the film contains a stellar cast of Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Saeed Jaffrey, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Ratna Pathak, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Kaushik, Harish Patel, Annu Kapoor and Ila Arun. Only Anant Nag is missing otherwise the film would have featured a complete lineup of key actors featured in India’s parallel cinema. Mandi also stars Aditya Bhattacharya, director Basu Bhattacharya’s son and director Bimal Roy’s grandson. Aditya is not well known as an actor even though his few acting titles include Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday and Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi but more importantly Aditya is know for his directorial debut film Raakh. Released in 1989, and starring Aamir Khan, Supriya Pathak, Pankaj Kapur, Raakh is one of the best Indian films to have been made in the last few decades. In fact, along with Parinda, Raakh set the stage for the wave of gritty and dark crime movies that emerged in India near the end of the 1990’s.
The following seven films were seen as part of this spotlight:
Ankur (1974)
Nishant (1975)
Manthan (1976)
Kondura (1978)
Junoon (1979)
Kalyug (1981)
Mandi (1983)
Only Manthan and Kondura were first time viewings while I revisited the remaining five after a long gap. Kalyug is the only film that I have seen multiple times while growing up and the recent viewing was particularly rewarding. Girish Karnad and Shyam Benegal’s screenplay incredibly adapts key characters and situations of the Mahabharta in a corporate business setting. The background score heightens the tension and sentiments of revolution and violence beautifully. For these reasons, Kalyug is a personal favourite film.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Driven
Driven written by James Sallis, published by Poisoned Pen Press.
Driven, the sequel to James Sallis' noir fiction Drive, catches up with Driver seven years after he left Bernie Rose for dead. Even though a lot of time has passed in between the two book's timelines, the opening words of Driven are directly related to events in Drive.
They came for him just after 11:00 on a Saturday morning, two of them. It was hot going hotter; sunlight caught in the fine sheen of sweat on Elsa's forehead. A hint of movement in the side of his eye as they passed a short side street -- and the first one was there. He spun, slamming his foot and the whole of his body weight against the outside of the man's right knee, and heard it give. By the time the man was down, that same foot hit his throat. ...
The two men have come for Driver because of what he did seven years ago. Driver thought he had escaped his past but unfortunately for him, and his fiancee, his past manages to crash his new life and identity. Driver now goes by the name of Paul West but despite a new name, some things have not changed in his life, such as his love for Mexican food and eating at reasonably priced restaurants. Many of Driver's conversations take place in such restaurants or diners serving thick black coffee and a good old fashioned piece of pie. The violence is also present in ample doses because Driver has to protect himself and seek revenge. His love of cars wins new admirers and opens new doors for him as he seeks to outrun his past.
Driven is a brisk read at 147 pages and even though it leaves one wanting more when it ends, the book is a tad disappointing and not a stellar work like Drive. A lot of the weaker moments in Driven are related to conversations of free will, purpose in life or attempts to examine Driver’s "sense of belonging". For example, the following words on page 18 take place before it is revealed that Driver met Elsa at the mall.
Back early on, back before the house, before the job, before Paul west, he had a fascination for malls. In ways he never understood, they drew him. Bright colors, lush displays in windows, the sense and sound of all those bodies moving separately and together, music, the cries of children, friendly banter. Malls were a country in miniature. He visited them, stepped into them, as though just off the ship. As though if only he sat in them long enough, put in enough miles along those arcades and scuffed floors, ate enough food court specials, something – some understanding, some sense of belonging – might solidify around him.
Such words give the impression that the book is just idling, buying some time with empty words, before the relevant material kicks in. This is because Drive was perfect in outlining the character and persona of Driver so the added descriptions in Driven are not required and come off as mere padding. Thankfully, these idle moments are few given the short length of the book and it is not too long before the juicy material of cars and thugs kicks in. The filthy characters and their shady backgrounds are the true meat of both books and any attempt to examine questions of self and the universe appear forced within the book’s framework. Perhaps, a future book might put things right as Driven feels like unfinished business especially because the ending is a wide open road that could lead to new adventures. And if there is another book in the series, it will likely be called Drove.
Driven, the sequel to James Sallis' noir fiction Drive, catches up with Driver seven years after he left Bernie Rose for dead. Even though a lot of time has passed in between the two book's timelines, the opening words of Driven are directly related to events in Drive.
They came for him just after 11:00 on a Saturday morning, two of them. It was hot going hotter; sunlight caught in the fine sheen of sweat on Elsa's forehead. A hint of movement in the side of his eye as they passed a short side street -- and the first one was there. He spun, slamming his foot and the whole of his body weight against the outside of the man's right knee, and heard it give. By the time the man was down, that same foot hit his throat. ...
The two men have come for Driver because of what he did seven years ago. Driver thought he had escaped his past but unfortunately for him, and his fiancee, his past manages to crash his new life and identity. Driver now goes by the name of Paul West but despite a new name, some things have not changed in his life, such as his love for Mexican food and eating at reasonably priced restaurants. Many of Driver's conversations take place in such restaurants or diners serving thick black coffee and a good old fashioned piece of pie. The violence is also present in ample doses because Driver has to protect himself and seek revenge. His love of cars wins new admirers and opens new doors for him as he seeks to outrun his past.
Driven is a brisk read at 147 pages and even though it leaves one wanting more when it ends, the book is a tad disappointing and not a stellar work like Drive. A lot of the weaker moments in Driven are related to conversations of free will, purpose in life or attempts to examine Driver’s "sense of belonging". For example, the following words on page 18 take place before it is revealed that Driver met Elsa at the mall.
Back early on, back before the house, before the job, before Paul west, he had a fascination for malls. In ways he never understood, they drew him. Bright colors, lush displays in windows, the sense and sound of all those bodies moving separately and together, music, the cries of children, friendly banter. Malls were a country in miniature. He visited them, stepped into them, as though just off the ship. As though if only he sat in them long enough, put in enough miles along those arcades and scuffed floors, ate enough food court specials, something – some understanding, some sense of belonging – might solidify around him.
Such words give the impression that the book is just idling, buying some time with empty words, before the relevant material kicks in. This is because Drive was perfect in outlining the character and persona of Driver so the added descriptions in Driven are not required and come off as mere padding. Thankfully, these idle moments are few given the short length of the book and it is not too long before the juicy material of cars and thugs kicks in. The filthy characters and their shady backgrounds are the true meat of both books and any attempt to examine questions of self and the universe appear forced within the book’s framework. Perhaps, a future book might put things right as Driven feels like unfinished business especially because the ending is a wide open road that could lead to new adventures. And if there is another book in the series, it will likely be called Drove.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
The Uptown
It is sad to hear about the Uptown cinema's closure. The Uptown was an integral part of Calgary's art-house theatrical scene and its closure will leave a huge void that may never be filled.
I have been fortunate to have seen many excellent foreign, indie and cult films at The Uptown over the years. The first film I ever saw there was Priyadarshan's excellent Virasat, a film that left me in awe. Over the years, I saw many memorable film festival titles such as Kontroll, The Motorcycle Diaries, Cache, Nostalgia for the Light, One Week, The Edge of Heaven, Ragnar Bragason's Children & Parents. Also, equally special were one time screenings + Q & A with directors such as the one with Crispin Glover a few years ago.
This news also brings Calgary one step closer to a future where cinemas in the city will only show Avatar sequels and endless reboots of Spider-Man, Batman or other Hollywood flicks.
I have been fortunate to have seen many excellent foreign, indie and cult films at The Uptown over the years. The first film I ever saw there was Priyadarshan's excellent Virasat, a film that left me in awe. Over the years, I saw many memorable film festival titles such as Kontroll, The Motorcycle Diaries, Cache, Nostalgia for the Light, One Week, The Edge of Heaven, Ragnar Bragason's Children & Parents. Also, equally special were one time screenings + Q & A with directors such as the one with Crispin Glover a few years ago.
This news also brings Calgary one step closer to a future where cinemas in the city will only show Avatar sequels and endless reboots of Spider-Man, Batman or other Hollywood flicks.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Zombies/The Walking Dead
Mention a zombie movie and images of flesh-eaters comes to mind, dead creatures who prey on humans. However, this image has drifted far from the original definition of a zombie which was about dead persons brought back to life through witchcraft. As a result, a zombie was only meant to be an empty shell whose actions were controlled by the person who resurrected them. The initial films which depicted zombies stayed true to this definition such as Victor Halperin’s White Zombie (1932) and Revolt of the Zombies (1936). In White Zombie, Bela Lugosi’s character uses magic to revive the dead who then work as per his bidding. The film is appropriately set in Haiti where the origins of the word "zombie" came from. Even Jacques Tourneu’s classic film I Walked with a Zombie (1943) was grounded in the true zombie definition of witchcraft, magic and trance. All this changed in 1968 with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, which is the first film that depicted zombies as flesh-eaters although the film never used the word zombie. As per an interview, Romero only applied the word zombies in subsequent films after fans used it. Still, Night of the Living Dead has served as a template for contemporary zombie works, which includes movies and graphic novels such as The Walking Dead (now a TV show as well). Basically, Romero’s film is the starting point for the contemporary zombie representation and everything before his film is forgotten so to speak, including witchcraft, trance and the Haitian definition.
Night of the Living Dead quickly begins with a zombie attack on a brother (Johnny) & sister (Barbara). Barbara escapes to a house where she finds other humans who are hiding from the flesh-eaters. No explanation is given as to why these creatures are eating human flesh and the only information Barbara and other house residents get is via radio and tv. The radio & tv broadcasts repeat around the clock, giving updates such as which safe houses people can get to. Meanwhile, humans have figured out that shooting the creatures in the head eliminates them, so that results in groups who gather weapons and go zombie hunting. The film does not feature much gore but one prominent scene near the end has been endlessly featured in subsequent zombie movies. Near the finale of Night of the Living Dead, an infected young girl is shown to be eating her father. As a visitor enters the room, the young girl leaves her father and slowly walks towards the visitor as the camera focusses on the young girl who has blood and flesh visible near her mouth. Unlike modern zombie movies, Romero’s film is not only about gore and violence but instead is a well crafted film that uses smart camera angles and music to heighten suspense and tension. Romero also incorporated a social commentary not only in Night of the Living Dead but also in Dawn of the Dead. The main hero in Night of the Living Dead is an African American (Ben played by Duane Jones) which is important because the film was released in 1968, at a time when Civil Rights issues was forefront in America. Ben treats everyone around him equally but he is accidentally killed by a mob who mistake him to be a zombie. The film ends with photos of Ben’s body prepared to be hung like an animal, images which are a reminder of mob lynchings and killings. In fact, those photos could easily be taken from newspaper clippings of racist crimes prior to 1968 and they manage to shatter the flesh-eating scripted framework of the film. In Dawn of the Dead, much of the zombie fighting takes place inside a mall, which contains slow moving creatures moving through the halls and up the escalators. Such images bring to mind modern consumerist habits when malls are packed with people shopping. In fact, a packed North American mall during Christmas time would be in line with what Romero intended with Dawn of the Dead.
Even though Night of the Living Dead deviated from a traditional zombie definition by making the walking dead prey on human flesh, Romero’s film atleast ensured the zombies moved slowly as per the original depiction of possessed creatures. However, in contemporary horror films, zombies are fast moving creatures that have vampire like thirst for human flesh. In the same wired interview, Romero also talks about this increased pace:
Romero also thinks videogames re-invented the zombie, turning the undead from slow, shambling horrors to speedy creatures more appropriated for action-oriented games. “In videogames they have to move fast,” he says. “They need to come at you quicker and quicker until you can’t do it anymore.”
Now those zippy zombies have transferred to film.
“Zack Snyder, in the remake of Dawn [of the Dead], has them running, and he under-cranked it so it made them seem even faster, which never made any sense to me,” Romero says. “I think subsequent people caught on and said, ‘Wait a minute, if they’re dead they can’t do these superhuman things, so we won’t make them dead! We’ll make them have caught a virus or something. Or they’ve got the Rage bug, and all of the sudden they’re these superhuman things.’ I don’t like that — to me it fights tradition.”
Shock and gore
Even though Night of the Living Dead didn’t fixate on gore, post-1970 zombie movies only seem concerned with the feeding and killing actions of the zombies. Lucio Fulci’s Zombie falls in this category and is more interested in depicting shocking scenes. The scene of a piece of wood piercing an eye is certainly cringing but equally effective are shots of zombies descending on New York, a dead creature chillingly rising from the ground and a zombie fighting a shark under the ocean. This last scene of the zombie being underwater is certainly an influence in last year’s Juan of the Dead. Overall, Fulci’s film is an example of a work interested in using zombies as a framework to depict as much blood as possible. It also provides an example of the low-budget zombie flicks that are commonplace today.
Zombies in war
Victor Halperin’s 1936 film Revolt of the Zombies is the first film that showed zombies used as soldiers. The opposing forces’ bullets have no effect on the zombies thereby making the undead the perfect weapons. This premise has certainly remained underutilized in horror culture although Red 5 Comics came up with the comic series ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction which uses this idea in a clever way:
With the financial, human and political costs of combat in the Middle East growing, the United States military has adopted an unusual, but highly effective, new weapon… zombies.
The opening pages of the comic shows zombies dropped like bombs in the desert after which the undead rise and go about fighting the war.
The virus, plague and survival
Most zombie works depict the flesh-eating aspect as a virus which spreads when an undead bites a human. Movies based on this idea often begin during the time of the virus when humans have to scramble for survival against the undead, thereby giving a feel of an apocalypse. However, very few works explore the origin of the virus or how it effects the human body. In this regard, the Season One finale of The Walking Dead is worth watching. In this episode, an animated computer recording shows the buzzing neurons in an alive human brain prior to infection. After infection, all the neurons go dead and the brain becomes dark. As per the episode, some infected subjects came alive as early as three minutes after death while the longest awakening took place after 8 hours. However, when the undead awaken, only a tiny portion of their brain is active. This tiny portion is not related to the self or memories of the original person. Instead, the only activated brain components are related to some basic bodily activities which can be inferred to mean feeding and rudimentary motor functions. This depiction nicely explains the primal hunting instinct of the zombies while their lack of speech or visible signs of intelligence.
Max Brooks’ novel World War Z looks back on the human vs zombies war and is therefore a post-apocalyptic work. The novel collects individual stories of survival from different parts of the world and outlines how humans found a way to defeat the undead. The book includes aspects of the infection while also featuring heroes who fought the zombies and the villains who tried to profit from the situation. In this regard, the book is a template for Contagion which also features heroes who try to save lives while others who seek to profit from death.
Comedy and some Politics
One of the variations of the zombie movie have been comedies such as Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Fido, Cemetery Man and the recent Juan of the Dead. These films have not restricted themselves to just blood and violence but have incorporated some social commentary about zombies. Alejandro Brugués’ Cuban film Juan of the Dead also smartly manages to include a political layer on top of the gore and comedy. The film references the Cuban revolution while radio & news bulletins describe the zombie crisis as an American disease. Also, the political humor is not lost when hundreds of cubans flock to the sea in whatever floating device they can find to escape the zombies.
The graphic novel Zombie Tales is an excellent example of the diverse treatments involving the walking dead. There are some stories focused on the disease and the survival elements but there are also a few suprizes such as Mark Waid’s “If You’re So Smart” where a girl figures out that scoring the highest marks in her school quiz is not good for one’s life. Her theory is that since zombies are not very intelligent “because they’re missing certain brain chemicals”, the smartest students in the class are likely to be fed to the zombies by the government as an experiment. John Rogers’ story “Four Out of Five” puts forward a new cure for the disease. The main character describes how zombies rose up once every one hundred years throughout human history. However, in the past the plague never survived because humans used to have “poor oral hygiene” which ensured that the undead’s teeth fell off so they could not bite humans. The character then figures this automatic cure went away after humans starting putting “fluoride in the water” thereby resulting in generations of humans with good teeth. So his cure is to get rid of zombie’s teeth so that the disease cannot spread. The story smartly ends with the character introducing himself and why he is a threat to the zombies:
“My name is Eugene Benjamin Markowitz. And I am a mother$#@$ing dentist.”
The anthology ends on a chilling note with a story that does not feature any zombies at all. Jim Pascoe’s “A Game Called Zombie” is about how a father used to play a harmless tag game with his son where they pretended that zombies were after them. Unfortunately, the son cannot snap out of the game and starts believing he is seeing zombies in real life. The story has deeper implications about the power of influence and the trance like situation it can sometimes cause. In this regard, the story is the only one in the collection which can trace its origin back to the original zombie definition.
The following are the different works seen or read as part of this spotlight.
Films
White Zombie (1932, Victor Halperin)
Revolt of the Zombies (1936, Victor Halperin)
Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero)
Dawn of the Dead (1978, George A. Romero)
Zombie (1979, Lucio Fulci)
Cemetery Man (1994, Michele Soavi)
TV show: The Walking Dead, Season 1
Books: World War Z by Max Brooks.
Graphic Novels
The Walking Dead, volumes 1 & 2, by Robert Kirkman.
Zombie Tales, Vol. 1, an anthology.
Night of the Living Dead quickly begins with a zombie attack on a brother (Johnny) & sister (Barbara). Barbara escapes to a house where she finds other humans who are hiding from the flesh-eaters. No explanation is given as to why these creatures are eating human flesh and the only information Barbara and other house residents get is via radio and tv. The radio & tv broadcasts repeat around the clock, giving updates such as which safe houses people can get to. Meanwhile, humans have figured out that shooting the creatures in the head eliminates them, so that results in groups who gather weapons and go zombie hunting. The film does not feature much gore but one prominent scene near the end has been endlessly featured in subsequent zombie movies. Near the finale of Night of the Living Dead, an infected young girl is shown to be eating her father. As a visitor enters the room, the young girl leaves her father and slowly walks towards the visitor as the camera focusses on the young girl who has blood and flesh visible near her mouth. Unlike modern zombie movies, Romero’s film is not only about gore and violence but instead is a well crafted film that uses smart camera angles and music to heighten suspense and tension. Romero also incorporated a social commentary not only in Night of the Living Dead but also in Dawn of the Dead. The main hero in Night of the Living Dead is an African American (Ben played by Duane Jones) which is important because the film was released in 1968, at a time when Civil Rights issues was forefront in America. Ben treats everyone around him equally but he is accidentally killed by a mob who mistake him to be a zombie. The film ends with photos of Ben’s body prepared to be hung like an animal, images which are a reminder of mob lynchings and killings. In fact, those photos could easily be taken from newspaper clippings of racist crimes prior to 1968 and they manage to shatter the flesh-eating scripted framework of the film. In Dawn of the Dead, much of the zombie fighting takes place inside a mall, which contains slow moving creatures moving through the halls and up the escalators. Such images bring to mind modern consumerist habits when malls are packed with people shopping. In fact, a packed North American mall during Christmas time would be in line with what Romero intended with Dawn of the Dead.
Even though Night of the Living Dead deviated from a traditional zombie definition by making the walking dead prey on human flesh, Romero’s film atleast ensured the zombies moved slowly as per the original depiction of possessed creatures. However, in contemporary horror films, zombies are fast moving creatures that have vampire like thirst for human flesh. In the same wired interview, Romero also talks about this increased pace:
Romero also thinks videogames re-invented the zombie, turning the undead from slow, shambling horrors to speedy creatures more appropriated for action-oriented games. “In videogames they have to move fast,” he says. “They need to come at you quicker and quicker until you can’t do it anymore.”
Now those zippy zombies have transferred to film.
“Zack Snyder, in the remake of Dawn [of the Dead], has them running, and he under-cranked it so it made them seem even faster, which never made any sense to me,” Romero says. “I think subsequent people caught on and said, ‘Wait a minute, if they’re dead they can’t do these superhuman things, so we won’t make them dead! We’ll make them have caught a virus or something. Or they’ve got the Rage bug, and all of the sudden they’re these superhuman things.’ I don’t like that — to me it fights tradition.”
Shock and gore
Even though Night of the Living Dead didn’t fixate on gore, post-1970 zombie movies only seem concerned with the feeding and killing actions of the zombies. Lucio Fulci’s Zombie falls in this category and is more interested in depicting shocking scenes. The scene of a piece of wood piercing an eye is certainly cringing but equally effective are shots of zombies descending on New York, a dead creature chillingly rising from the ground and a zombie fighting a shark under the ocean. This last scene of the zombie being underwater is certainly an influence in last year’s Juan of the Dead. Overall, Fulci’s film is an example of a work interested in using zombies as a framework to depict as much blood as possible. It also provides an example of the low-budget zombie flicks that are commonplace today.
Zombies in war
Victor Halperin’s 1936 film Revolt of the Zombies is the first film that showed zombies used as soldiers. The opposing forces’ bullets have no effect on the zombies thereby making the undead the perfect weapons. This premise has certainly remained underutilized in horror culture although Red 5 Comics came up with the comic series ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction which uses this idea in a clever way:
With the financial, human and political costs of combat in the Middle East growing, the United States military has adopted an unusual, but highly effective, new weapon… zombies.
The opening pages of the comic shows zombies dropped like bombs in the desert after which the undead rise and go about fighting the war.
The virus, plague and survival
Most zombie works depict the flesh-eating aspect as a virus which spreads when an undead bites a human. Movies based on this idea often begin during the time of the virus when humans have to scramble for survival against the undead, thereby giving a feel of an apocalypse. However, very few works explore the origin of the virus or how it effects the human body. In this regard, the Season One finale of The Walking Dead is worth watching. In this episode, an animated computer recording shows the buzzing neurons in an alive human brain prior to infection. After infection, all the neurons go dead and the brain becomes dark. As per the episode, some infected subjects came alive as early as three minutes after death while the longest awakening took place after 8 hours. However, when the undead awaken, only a tiny portion of their brain is active. This tiny portion is not related to the self or memories of the original person. Instead, the only activated brain components are related to some basic bodily activities which can be inferred to mean feeding and rudimentary motor functions. This depiction nicely explains the primal hunting instinct of the zombies while their lack of speech or visible signs of intelligence.
Max Brooks’ novel World War Z looks back on the human vs zombies war and is therefore a post-apocalyptic work. The novel collects individual stories of survival from different parts of the world and outlines how humans found a way to defeat the undead. The book includes aspects of the infection while also featuring heroes who fought the zombies and the villains who tried to profit from the situation. In this regard, the book is a template for Contagion which also features heroes who try to save lives while others who seek to profit from death.
Comedy and some Politics
One of the variations of the zombie movie have been comedies such as Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Fido, Cemetery Man and the recent Juan of the Dead. These films have not restricted themselves to just blood and violence but have incorporated some social commentary about zombies. Alejandro Brugués’ Cuban film Juan of the Dead also smartly manages to include a political layer on top of the gore and comedy. The film references the Cuban revolution while radio & news bulletins describe the zombie crisis as an American disease. Also, the political humor is not lost when hundreds of cubans flock to the sea in whatever floating device they can find to escape the zombies.
The graphic novel Zombie Tales is an excellent example of the diverse treatments involving the walking dead. There are some stories focused on the disease and the survival elements but there are also a few suprizes such as Mark Waid’s “If You’re So Smart” where a girl figures out that scoring the highest marks in her school quiz is not good for one’s life. Her theory is that since zombies are not very intelligent “because they’re missing certain brain chemicals”, the smartest students in the class are likely to be fed to the zombies by the government as an experiment. John Rogers’ story “Four Out of Five” puts forward a new cure for the disease. The main character describes how zombies rose up once every one hundred years throughout human history. However, in the past the plague never survived because humans used to have “poor oral hygiene” which ensured that the undead’s teeth fell off so they could not bite humans. The character then figures this automatic cure went away after humans starting putting “fluoride in the water” thereby resulting in generations of humans with good teeth. So his cure is to get rid of zombie’s teeth so that the disease cannot spread. The story smartly ends with the character introducing himself and why he is a threat to the zombies:
“My name is Eugene Benjamin Markowitz. And I am a mother$#@$ing dentist.”
The anthology ends on a chilling note with a story that does not feature any zombies at all. Jim Pascoe’s “A Game Called Zombie” is about how a father used to play a harmless tag game with his son where they pretended that zombies were after them. Unfortunately, the son cannot snap out of the game and starts believing he is seeing zombies in real life. The story has deeper implications about the power of influence and the trance like situation it can sometimes cause. In this regard, the story is the only one in the collection which can trace its origin back to the original zombie definition.
The following are the different works seen or read as part of this spotlight.
Films
White Zombie (1932, Victor Halperin)
Revolt of the Zombies (1936, Victor Halperin)
Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero)
Dawn of the Dead (1978, George A. Romero)
Zombie (1979, Lucio Fulci)
Cemetery Man (1994, Michele Soavi)
TV show: The Walking Dead, Season 1
Books: World War Z by Max Brooks.
Graphic Novels
The Walking Dead, volumes 1 & 2, by Robert Kirkman.
Zombie Tales, Vol. 1, an anthology.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Spaghetti Westerns
WHEN film critics and historians refer to the spaghetti western, they tend to mean four films directed by Sergio Leone: his "Dollars" trilogy with Clint Eastwood, and his epic, "Once Upon a Time in the West."
Alex Cox’s words certainly ring true as I made this association and only equated Spaghetti Westerns with Leone. But as Alex Cox points out in his NY Times article there are many other films that fall under this label:
But the spotlight on one director has tended to obscure the rest of the Italian western subgenre, which may include as many as 500 films. (A tiny fraction will be on display this month in a series at Film Forum in the South Village.)
Sam Juliano attended many films at this Film Forum spotlight and inspired by Sam’s experience, I decided to finally plug a gapping hole in my cinematic viewing. An initial search revealed that there are easily 20-30 Spaghetti Westerns that are readily accessible either via youtube or Mill Creek Entertainment’s DVD packs. So as a first pass, I decided to restrict my viewing to 11 essential films, which included revisiting four of Leone’s films:
A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Sergio Leone)
For a Few Dollars More (1965, Sergio Leone)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
Django (1966, Sergio Corbucci)
A Bullet for the General (1966, Damiano Damiani)
Arizona Colt/Man from Nowhere (1966, Michele Lupo)
The Great Silence (1968, Sergio Corbucci)
Sabata (1969, Gianfranco Parolini)
Duck, You Sucker (1971, Sergio Leone)
Four of the Apocalypse (1975, Lucio Fulci)
Keoma (1976, Enzo G. Castellari)
”Man with no Name” trilogy
One of the most remarkable aspects about Sergio Leone’s trilogy is that the films grow in scale and ambition with each installment which also nicely builds on the previous film's virtues. In the first film, A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood’s nameless character rides solo and manages to take on two clans on his own. His character gets a rival/partner in the form of Lee Van Cleef in the second film For a Few Dollars More while three characters are featured in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when Eli Wallach joins Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. The three films are appropriately expanded in length to allow each additional character to get a decent amount of screen time. A Fistful of Dollars is 99 min long, For a Few Dollars More clocks in at 132 min and the extended cut of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a staggering 179 minutes long. Also, Ennio Morricone’s music gets more elaborate in composition with each film and reaches a cinematic high in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It is hard to imagine how Leone’s films would feel without Morricone’s music, which is an essential component of the trilogy, especially in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The score for that film could easily be used to represent all western films because the music perfectly evokes the sentiment of a hero riding for a showdown against his enemy.
Clint Eastwood vs Lee Van Cleef
While Clint Eastwood perfectly embodies a rugged unshaven man who has seen off many villains in his time, Lee Van Cleef forms a polar opposite to Eastwood’s character. In For a few Dollars more, The Good, the bad and the ugly and Sabata, Lee Van Cleef plays a character that emits a cool dignified persona even moments before he kills someone. His character is “the bad” in Leone’s film but even when his character is on the side of good such as in For a few Dollars More or Sabata, it is with a shade of grayness. One is never sure when his character could flip sides.
The other Sergio..
If there were film lovers that had not heard of Sergio Corbucci before, then Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained will certainly ensure a new phase of discovery for Corbucci’s works. Corbucci’s Django and The Great Silence are certainly landmark films in the spaghetti western subgenre. Once can even see the influence that Django had in Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado. In Django, Franco Nero’s title character always pulls a coffin behind him. That leads to many jokes from other characters that Django is smart to bring his coffin with him. However, the coffin is not empty and contains Django’s machine gun. Desperado echoes this coffin in a different manner by featuring machine guns enclosed in guitar cases.
Django and The Great Silence are brutal uncompromising films which are not shy to leave the hero battered up. Django is left for dead and has his hands hands crushed but still manages to fire some final shots to extract his revenge. But no such justice is dished out in The Great Silence where the villain played by Klaus Kinski finishes off the hero. An alternate “happy ending” was created for The Great Silence because as the per the DVD, not all global audience could accept an unhappy ending.
The Great Silence is also a remarkable because it is a rare Western film that is shot mostly in snow. There is something lonely and beautiful about seeing a cowboy riding on a horse against a vast snowy mountain landscape.
Even though Keoma was directed by Enzo G. Castellari and released a decade after Django, it feels similar to Corbucci’s Django in terms of violence and brutality. It is not surprizing that an alternate title for Keoma was Django Rides Again. Keoma distinguishes itself from Corbucci’s film by incorporating an element of the Civil War and by making the title character a half-breed who has to fight his own family as well.
Shades of Gabbar
Sholay, one of the most loved Indian films ever made, is a curry western inspired by Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and also from The Magnificent Seven which in turn was a remake of The Seven Samurai. A memorable component of Sholay is the villainous character of Gabbar Singh played to perfection by Amjad Khan. No villain in Indian cinema has ever dwarfed Gabbar, which is why it was a real surprize to observe Fernando Sancho’s character of Gordo in Arizona Colt.
Gordo is a ruthless villain with a twisted sense of humor similar to Gabbar’s. However, Gordo is far from a fully developed Gabbar but in an alternate cinematic universe, Gordo would be Gabbar’s right hand man and be able to carry out Gabbar’s sinister tasks.
Under the Mexican Sun
A Bullet for the General and Duck, You Sucker are set in Mexico against a backdrop of revolution and political upheaval.
And finally....Robert Pires
Lucio Fulci’s Four of the Apocalypse shares some of the rugged terrain and savagery found in Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil. But Four of the Apocalypse eases up on the violence for some stretches of the film before finishing up with one final act of revenge followed by a customary ride off into the sunset.
On an unrelated note: Fabio Testi’s character in the film looks eerily similar to Robert Pires.
Top 5
There was plenty to admire and enjoy in all the 11 films but the following would be my preferred top 5:
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A complete film that features a stellar story, great acting and some memorable sequences, including an incredible final showdown between all 3 characters.
2. For a Few Dollars More: The rival and partnership between Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef’s characters make this an unforgettable film.
3. The Great Silence: Ruthless, brutal and poetic.
4. Keoma
5. Django
Alex Cox’s words certainly ring true as I made this association and only equated Spaghetti Westerns with Leone. But as Alex Cox points out in his NY Times article there are many other films that fall under this label:
But the spotlight on one director has tended to obscure the rest of the Italian western subgenre, which may include as many as 500 films. (A tiny fraction will be on display this month in a series at Film Forum in the South Village.)
Sam Juliano attended many films at this Film Forum spotlight and inspired by Sam’s experience, I decided to finally plug a gapping hole in my cinematic viewing. An initial search revealed that there are easily 20-30 Spaghetti Westerns that are readily accessible either via youtube or Mill Creek Entertainment’s DVD packs. So as a first pass, I decided to restrict my viewing to 11 essential films, which included revisiting four of Leone’s films:
A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Sergio Leone)
For a Few Dollars More (1965, Sergio Leone)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
Django (1966, Sergio Corbucci)
A Bullet for the General (1966, Damiano Damiani)
Arizona Colt/Man from Nowhere (1966, Michele Lupo)
The Great Silence (1968, Sergio Corbucci)
Sabata (1969, Gianfranco Parolini)
Duck, You Sucker (1971, Sergio Leone)
Four of the Apocalypse (1975, Lucio Fulci)
Keoma (1976, Enzo G. Castellari)
”Man with no Name” trilogy
One of the most remarkable aspects about Sergio Leone’s trilogy is that the films grow in scale and ambition with each installment which also nicely builds on the previous film's virtues. In the first film, A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood’s nameless character rides solo and manages to take on two clans on his own. His character gets a rival/partner in the form of Lee Van Cleef in the second film For a Few Dollars More while three characters are featured in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when Eli Wallach joins Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. The three films are appropriately expanded in length to allow each additional character to get a decent amount of screen time. A Fistful of Dollars is 99 min long, For a Few Dollars More clocks in at 132 min and the extended cut of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a staggering 179 minutes long. Also, Ennio Morricone’s music gets more elaborate in composition with each film and reaches a cinematic high in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It is hard to imagine how Leone’s films would feel without Morricone’s music, which is an essential component of the trilogy, especially in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The score for that film could easily be used to represent all western films because the music perfectly evokes the sentiment of a hero riding for a showdown against his enemy.
Clint Eastwood vs Lee Van Cleef
While Clint Eastwood perfectly embodies a rugged unshaven man who has seen off many villains in his time, Lee Van Cleef forms a polar opposite to Eastwood’s character. In For a few Dollars more, The Good, the bad and the ugly and Sabata, Lee Van Cleef plays a character that emits a cool dignified persona even moments before he kills someone. His character is “the bad” in Leone’s film but even when his character is on the side of good such as in For a few Dollars More or Sabata, it is with a shade of grayness. One is never sure when his character could flip sides.
The other Sergio..
If there were film lovers that had not heard of Sergio Corbucci before, then Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained will certainly ensure a new phase of discovery for Corbucci’s works. Corbucci’s Django and The Great Silence are certainly landmark films in the spaghetti western subgenre. Once can even see the influence that Django had in Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado. In Django, Franco Nero’s title character always pulls a coffin behind him. That leads to many jokes from other characters that Django is smart to bring his coffin with him. However, the coffin is not empty and contains Django’s machine gun. Desperado echoes this coffin in a different manner by featuring machine guns enclosed in guitar cases.
Django and The Great Silence are brutal uncompromising films which are not shy to leave the hero battered up. Django is left for dead and has his hands hands crushed but still manages to fire some final shots to extract his revenge. But no such justice is dished out in The Great Silence where the villain played by Klaus Kinski finishes off the hero. An alternate “happy ending” was created for The Great Silence because as the per the DVD, not all global audience could accept an unhappy ending.
The Great Silence is also a remarkable because it is a rare Western film that is shot mostly in snow. There is something lonely and beautiful about seeing a cowboy riding on a horse against a vast snowy mountain landscape.
Even though Keoma was directed by Enzo G. Castellari and released a decade after Django, it feels similar to Corbucci’s Django in terms of violence and brutality. It is not surprizing that an alternate title for Keoma was Django Rides Again. Keoma distinguishes itself from Corbucci’s film by incorporating an element of the Civil War and by making the title character a half-breed who has to fight his own family as well.
Shades of Gabbar
Sholay, one of the most loved Indian films ever made, is a curry western inspired by Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and also from The Magnificent Seven which in turn was a remake of The Seven Samurai. A memorable component of Sholay is the villainous character of Gabbar Singh played to perfection by Amjad Khan. No villain in Indian cinema has ever dwarfed Gabbar, which is why it was a real surprize to observe Fernando Sancho’s character of Gordo in Arizona Colt.
Gordo is a ruthless villain with a twisted sense of humor similar to Gabbar’s. However, Gordo is far from a fully developed Gabbar but in an alternate cinematic universe, Gordo would be Gabbar’s right hand man and be able to carry out Gabbar’s sinister tasks.
Under the Mexican Sun
A Bullet for the General and Duck, You Sucker are set in Mexico against a backdrop of revolution and political upheaval.
And finally....Robert Pires
Lucio Fulci’s Four of the Apocalypse shares some of the rugged terrain and savagery found in Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil. But Four of the Apocalypse eases up on the violence for some stretches of the film before finishing up with one final act of revenge followed by a customary ride off into the sunset.
On an unrelated note: Fabio Testi’s character in the film looks eerily similar to Robert Pires.
Top 5
There was plenty to admire and enjoy in all the 11 films but the following would be my preferred top 5:
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A complete film that features a stellar story, great acting and some memorable sequences, including an incredible final showdown between all 3 characters.
2. For a Few Dollars More: The rival and partnership between Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef’s characters make this an unforgettable film.
3. The Great Silence: Ruthless, brutal and poetic.
4. Keoma
5. Django
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Euro 2012 Final
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight
6 months, 16 books and 29 films later, it comes down to a single match to decide the winner of the Euro 2012 Book & Film spotlight. Before we get to the final between France’s L’Apollonide and Portugal’s The Strange Case of Angelica, a quick recap of how these two got to the final.
Each of the 16 nations could have had a maximum of one book in the competition and up to 2 films. That led to 16 book and 29 films competing over 3 round-robin games in the group stages.
Euro 2012 Books
Poland: House of Day, House of Night, Olga Tokarczuk
Russia: A Hero of our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
Czech Republic: The Joke, Milan Kundera
Greece: Z, Vassilis Vassilikos
Holland: A Posthumous Confession, Marcellus Emants
Germany: The Appointment, Herta Müller
Portugal: Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes
Denmark: The History of Danish Dreams, Peter Høeg
Spain: Quarantine, Juan Goytisolo
Italy: The Porthole, Adriano Spatola
Ireland: Kepler, John Banville
Croatia: The Ministry of Pain, Dubravka Ugresic
Ukraine: The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko
England: GB84, David Peace
France: The Giants, J.M.G Le Clezio
Sweden: The Dwarf, Par Lagerkvist
Euro 2012 Films
Poland: The Mill and the Cross (2011, Lech Majewski), In Darkness (2011, Agnieszka Holland)
Russia: Silent Souls (2010, Aleksei Fedorchenko), How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksey Popogrebskiy)
Czech Reoublic: Surviving Life (2010, Jan Svankmajer), Protektor (2009, Marek Najbrt)
Greece: Alps (2011, Giorgos Lanthimos)
Holland: C'est déjà l'été (2010, Martijn Maria Smits), Winter in Wartime (2008, Martin Koolhoven)
Germany: Storm (2009, Hans-Christian Schmid)
Portugal: Mysteries of Lisbon (2010, Raoul Ruiz), The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Manoel de Oliveira)
Denmark: Applause (2009, Martin Zandvliet), Terribly Happy (2008, Henrik Ruben Genz)
Spain: The Last Circus (2010, Álex de la Iglesia), Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009, Isabel Coixet)
Italy: The Salt of Life (2011, Gianni Di Gregorio), Terraferma (2011, Emanuele Crialese)
Croatia: Buick Riviera (2008, Goran Rusinovic), The Blacks (2009, Goran Devic, Zvonimir Juric)
Ireland: The Guard (2011, John Michael McDonagh), Kisses (2008, Lance Daly)
England: Shame (2011, Steve McQueen), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Tomas Alfredson)
Sweden: Play (2011, Ruben Östlund), Everlasting Moments (2008, Jan Troell)
France: House of Tolerance (2011, Bertrand Bonello), Rapt (2009, Lucas Belvaux)
Ukraine: My Joy (2010, Sergei Loznitsa)
At the conclusion of the group stage, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Holland, Croatia, Italy, Ukraine and France advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the quarters, Russia, Portugal, France & Ukraine progressed to the semi-finals which saw the elimination of Russia and co-hosts Ukraine.
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight Final
L’Apollonide (France) vs The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal)
France jumped into an early lead with a vibrant piece of acting but Portugal duly replied with a deft comedic acting touch. A strong story helped Portugal take a 2-1 lead just before half-time. In the second half, both nations traded goals in the direction and cinematography categories. Portugal held a 4-3 lead as the clock ticked away and their victory seemed certain but France managed a slick series of moves and angular passing to score a late goal in the production category to end the game 4-4 in regulation. That meant that Portugal faced a subjective penalty shoot-out for the 2nd straight game. And just like in the semi-final, Portugal easily prevailed in penalties to deservedly claim the title of Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight winner.
The film penalty shoot-out is an emotional affair so a winning film is one that resonates the most emotionally. In this regard, the French film L’Apollonide (House of Pleasures) was at a disadvantage because its setting and style portrays a cold closed-off world. When clients enter the brothel in Bertrand Bonello’s film, the outside world dissolves along with most of the client’s worries. There are some scenes in the film which show that the brothel is not immune from financial dealings of the outside world. However, for the most part the sheltered world of the brothel evokes a chilly response. On the other hand, The Strange Case of Angelica is warm, tender and a genuine pleasure. Manoel de Oliveira’s film opens the world up with its metaphysical story sprinkled with some dry humor and manages to hit all the right notes.
This spotlight belonged to Portugal from the first game until the final. Aside from The Strange Case of Angelica, the primary Portugese film Mysteries of Lisbon and António Lobo Antunes’ book Knowledge of Hell were also excellent selections. If all the Euro 2012 books and films were evaluated individually to come up with a top 4, then Portugal would be firmly present in both book and film categories.
Top 4 Books
Z, Vassilis Vassilikos, Greece
GB84, David Peace, England
The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko, Ukraine
Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Top 4 films
The Strange Case of Angelica, Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
My Joy, Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson, England
Mysteries of Lisbon, Raoul Ruiz, Portugal
Spain is the current favourite in European and International soccer but they were no match for the Portuguese Cinema and Literature selected for this spotlight.
Closing comments
This was both an enjoyable and exhausting spotlight. It required more time than I had planned because of the 16 books. 29 films was an easy number to tackle given that the 2010 World Cup Film Spotlight had 32 films. But it was the presence of the 16 books that took up majority of the time. Still, it was a worthwhile experience as I was able to discover new authors and also catch up with worthy works from established masters. Also, this is probably the last of such book and film spotlights that I will attempt as the next European Championship will have 24 nations. Reading 24 books over a course of 6 months may prove too much to handle. On the other hand, a pure film only spotlight might be much easier to get through.
6 months, 16 books and 29 films later, it comes down to a single match to decide the winner of the Euro 2012 Book & Film spotlight. Before we get to the final between France’s L’Apollonide and Portugal’s The Strange Case of Angelica, a quick recap of how these two got to the final.
Each of the 16 nations could have had a maximum of one book in the competition and up to 2 films. That led to 16 book and 29 films competing over 3 round-robin games in the group stages.
Euro 2012 Books
Poland: House of Day, House of Night, Olga Tokarczuk
Russia: A Hero of our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
Czech Republic: The Joke, Milan Kundera
Greece: Z, Vassilis Vassilikos
Holland: A Posthumous Confession, Marcellus Emants
Germany: The Appointment, Herta Müller
Portugal: Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes
Denmark: The History of Danish Dreams, Peter Høeg
Spain: Quarantine, Juan Goytisolo
Italy: The Porthole, Adriano Spatola
Ireland: Kepler, John Banville
Croatia: The Ministry of Pain, Dubravka Ugresic
Ukraine: The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko
England: GB84, David Peace
France: The Giants, J.M.G Le Clezio
Sweden: The Dwarf, Par Lagerkvist
Euro 2012 Films
Poland: The Mill and the Cross (2011, Lech Majewski), In Darkness (2011, Agnieszka Holland)
Russia: Silent Souls (2010, Aleksei Fedorchenko), How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksey Popogrebskiy)
Czech Reoublic: Surviving Life (2010, Jan Svankmajer), Protektor (2009, Marek Najbrt)
Greece: Alps (2011, Giorgos Lanthimos)
Holland: C'est déjà l'été (2010, Martijn Maria Smits), Winter in Wartime (2008, Martin Koolhoven)
Germany: Storm (2009, Hans-Christian Schmid)
Portugal: Mysteries of Lisbon (2010, Raoul Ruiz), The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Manoel de Oliveira)
Denmark: Applause (2009, Martin Zandvliet), Terribly Happy (2008, Henrik Ruben Genz)
Spain: The Last Circus (2010, Álex de la Iglesia), Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009, Isabel Coixet)
Italy: The Salt of Life (2011, Gianni Di Gregorio), Terraferma (2011, Emanuele Crialese)
Croatia: Buick Riviera (2008, Goran Rusinovic), The Blacks (2009, Goran Devic, Zvonimir Juric)
Ireland: The Guard (2011, John Michael McDonagh), Kisses (2008, Lance Daly)
England: Shame (2011, Steve McQueen), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Tomas Alfredson)
Sweden: Play (2011, Ruben Östlund), Everlasting Moments (2008, Jan Troell)
France: House of Tolerance (2011, Bertrand Bonello), Rapt (2009, Lucas Belvaux)
Ukraine: My Joy (2010, Sergei Loznitsa)
At the conclusion of the group stage, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Holland, Croatia, Italy, Ukraine and France advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the quarters, Russia, Portugal, France & Ukraine progressed to the semi-finals which saw the elimination of Russia and co-hosts Ukraine.
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight Final
L’Apollonide (France) vs The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal)
France jumped into an early lead with a vibrant piece of acting but Portugal duly replied with a deft comedic acting touch. A strong story helped Portugal take a 2-1 lead just before half-time. In the second half, both nations traded goals in the direction and cinematography categories. Portugal held a 4-3 lead as the clock ticked away and their victory seemed certain but France managed a slick series of moves and angular passing to score a late goal in the production category to end the game 4-4 in regulation. That meant that Portugal faced a subjective penalty shoot-out for the 2nd straight game. And just like in the semi-final, Portugal easily prevailed in penalties to deservedly claim the title of Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight winner.
The film penalty shoot-out is an emotional affair so a winning film is one that resonates the most emotionally. In this regard, the French film L’Apollonide (House of Pleasures) was at a disadvantage because its setting and style portrays a cold closed-off world. When clients enter the brothel in Bertrand Bonello’s film, the outside world dissolves along with most of the client’s worries. There are some scenes in the film which show that the brothel is not immune from financial dealings of the outside world. However, for the most part the sheltered world of the brothel evokes a chilly response. On the other hand, The Strange Case of Angelica is warm, tender and a genuine pleasure. Manoel de Oliveira’s film opens the world up with its metaphysical story sprinkled with some dry humor and manages to hit all the right notes.
This spotlight belonged to Portugal from the first game until the final. Aside from The Strange Case of Angelica, the primary Portugese film Mysteries of Lisbon and António Lobo Antunes’ book Knowledge of Hell were also excellent selections. If all the Euro 2012 books and films were evaluated individually to come up with a top 4, then Portugal would be firmly present in both book and film categories.
Top 4 Books
Z, Vassilis Vassilikos, Greece
GB84, David Peace, England
The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko, Ukraine
Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Top 4 films
The Strange Case of Angelica, Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
My Joy, Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson, England
Mysteries of Lisbon, Raoul Ruiz, Portugal
Spain is the current favourite in European and International soccer but they were no match for the Portuguese Cinema and Literature selected for this spotlight.
Closing comments
This was both an enjoyable and exhausting spotlight. It required more time than I had planned because of the 16 books. 29 films was an easy number to tackle given that the 2010 World Cup Film Spotlight had 32 films. But it was the presence of the 16 books that took up majority of the time. Still, it was a worthwhile experience as I was able to discover new authors and also catch up with worthy works from established masters. Also, this is probably the last of such book and film spotlights that I will attempt as the next European Championship will have 24 nations. Reading 24 books over a course of 6 months may prove too much to handle. On the other hand, a pure film only spotlight might be much easier to get through.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Euro 2012: Semi-Final Results
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight: Semi-Final Results
Just like the Quarter-Finals, the Semi-finals of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight featured two closely fought matches with another subjective penalty shoot-out deciding a game.
Semi-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
Semi-Final #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs My Joy (Ukraine)
Russia and France split the story and acting categories while managed to match each other in direction and cinematography. In the end, the slick visuals of L’Apollonide provided to be the difference in sending France to the final.
Portugal and Ukraine split the acting and production categories but matched each other in the three remaining categories. Ultimately, penalties were used to pick a winner. Unlike the Euro soccer tournament, Portugal easily won the film penalty shoot-out. The Strange Case of Angelica hit all the right emotional notes and was a pure delight from start to finish. In the last round, the dark atmosphere of My Joy overcame the charming The Salt of Life. However, that atmosphere failed to work this time because even though The Strange Case of Angelica is light hearted, it features a tinge of grayness due to its metaphysical element.
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight, Final draw
The final will feature the French film L’Apollonide taking on the Portugese work The Strange Case of Angelica.
Soccer Semi-Finals
Spain overcame Portugal 4-2 on penalties after 120 minutes failed to produce a goal. In the other semi-final, Italy put on a class act and easily brushed aside Germany 2-1 to book a July 1 final meeting with Spain.
It was refreshing to see both Portugal and Italy take the game to their opponents instead of sitting back and soaking all the pressure. While Spain managed to survive the Portugese, Germany had no answer for Italy. In fact, Italy could have scored 4-5 goals in total and kept attacking despite holding a 2-0 lead.
A quick word about Portugal’s penalties. As Bruno Alves walked to take the third penalty for Portugal, Nani ran up to Alves, sent him back and instead took the kick himself. Nani confidently roofed the penalty but Alves had to make the walk to the penalty spot again a few minutes later. The fact that he had to make that stressful walk twice might have unhinged Alves who hit the crossbar with his kick.
Soccer vs Film
The Euro 2012 soccer final will be between Spain and Italy so there will be no overlap with the film spotlight final which will feature France and Portugal. Spain failed to make it out of the group stages of the book & film spotlight while the Italian film narrowly lost out in the quarter-finals.
Just like the Quarter-Finals, the Semi-finals of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight featured two closely fought matches with another subjective penalty shoot-out deciding a game.
Semi-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
Semi-Final #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs My Joy (Ukraine)
Russia and France split the story and acting categories while managed to match each other in direction and cinematography. In the end, the slick visuals of L’Apollonide provided to be the difference in sending France to the final.
Portugal and Ukraine split the acting and production categories but matched each other in the three remaining categories. Ultimately, penalties were used to pick a winner. Unlike the Euro soccer tournament, Portugal easily won the film penalty shoot-out. The Strange Case of Angelica hit all the right emotional notes and was a pure delight from start to finish. In the last round, the dark atmosphere of My Joy overcame the charming The Salt of Life. However, that atmosphere failed to work this time because even though The Strange Case of Angelica is light hearted, it features a tinge of grayness due to its metaphysical element.
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight, Final draw
The final will feature the French film L’Apollonide taking on the Portugese work The Strange Case of Angelica.
Soccer Semi-Finals
Spain overcame Portugal 4-2 on penalties after 120 minutes failed to produce a goal. In the other semi-final, Italy put on a class act and easily brushed aside Germany 2-1 to book a July 1 final meeting with Spain.
It was refreshing to see both Portugal and Italy take the game to their opponents instead of sitting back and soaking all the pressure. While Spain managed to survive the Portugese, Germany had no answer for Italy. In fact, Italy could have scored 4-5 goals in total and kept attacking despite holding a 2-0 lead.
A quick word about Portugal’s penalties. As Bruno Alves walked to take the third penalty for Portugal, Nani ran up to Alves, sent him back and instead took the kick himself. Nani confidently roofed the penalty but Alves had to make the walk to the penalty spot again a few minutes later. The fact that he had to make that stressful walk twice might have unhinged Alves who hit the crossbar with his kick.
Soccer vs Film
The Euro 2012 soccer final will be between Spain and Italy so there will be no overlap with the film spotlight final which will feature France and Portugal. Spain failed to make it out of the group stages of the book & film spotlight while the Italian film narrowly lost out in the quarter-finals.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Euro 2012: Quarter-Finals results & Semi-Final draw
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight: Quarter-Final Results
The Quarter-finals of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight features four absolutely mouth-watering match-ups with very little to choose between the different films. So it is not a surprize to find very close results and even one subjective penalty shoot-out to pick a winner.
Quarter-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs C'est déjà l'été (Holland)
Certainly not a very uplifting affair as death hovers the Russian film while the Dutch entry depicts a cycle of misery that envelopes three generations of a family. Still, both are excellent films that smartly use the camera to give audience a fly on the wall perspective towards many intimate and personal moments. It is hard to watch both films without feeling a gush of emotions which is why it is appropriate that the winner of this match is decided by a subjective penalty shoot-out.
The Russian film takes it confidently on penalties.
QF #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs The Mill and the Cross (Poland)
Two incredibly made films square off in a contest worthy to be a Euro Film final. Lech Majewski’s Polish film is a technical pleasure that dives into a painting and brings it to life. While Manoel de Oliveira shows a tender touch to craft a metaphysical love story which is light as a feather. The Strange Case of Angelica wins a narrow contest.
QF #3: Buick Riviera (Croatia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
One of the two match-ups where a personal favourite loses out when all the goals are tallied up. Buick Riviera is a film worthy of a final entry but L’Apollonide does a magnificent job of creating an intoxicating atmosphere in a French brothel. The characters and overall story of L’Apollonide may not be new but a brilliant treatment makes it a sensual pleasure. The panther stays long in the memory.
QF#4: My Joy (Ukraine) vs The Salt of Life(Italy)
The Italian film The Salt of Life is another personal favourite but it came up just short against My Joy. The Salt of Life It is a perfect summer film that makes one want to pass away the time at an Italian cafe with a glass of wine. On the other hand, My Joy is the complete opposite and reminds one of winter when darkness and cold weather numb the senses. As My Joy progresses, any shreds of hope and light are slowly extinguished and the film ends with one of the best fade-to-black sequences in recent memory. However, in this contest, darkness wins and My Joy progresses to the semi-final.
Semi-Final Draw
As per the draw, the winner of the Quarter-Final #1 meets the winner of QF#3 while the winners of QF#2 and #4 face-off. This results in the following:
Semi-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
SF #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs My Joy (Ukraine)
As a result of this draw, the two best films of the spotlight are drawn against each other in the second semi-final. This unfortunately means only one of The Strange Case of Angelica or My Joy will make it to the final. From another perspective, both semi-finals are perfectly balanced as Silent Souls and L’Apollonide have an equal chance of making the final. The only sure thing is that the winner of the Euro 2012 film spotlight will be one of The Strange Case of Angelica or My Joy.
Soccer Quarter-Finals
Czech Republic 0 - 1 Portugal
Germany 4 - 2 Greece
Spain 2 - 0 France
England 0 - 0 Italy, Italy win on penalties
For a change, all the four quarter-finals in the soccer tournament went as per plan. All the 4 attacking teams deserved to win their games even though the score-line may not reflect the overall dominance of Portugal, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The four quarters are in complete contrast to Copa America 2011 where all the four favourite teams lost in the quarter-finals.
Colombia 0 - 2 Peru
Argentina 1 - 1 Uruguay, Uruguay win on penalties
Brazil 0 - 0 Paraguay, Paraguay win on penalties
Chile 1 - 2 Venezuela
The Quarter-finals of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight features four absolutely mouth-watering match-ups with very little to choose between the different films. So it is not a surprize to find very close results and even one subjective penalty shoot-out to pick a winner.
Quarter-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs C'est déjà l'été (Holland)
Certainly not a very uplifting affair as death hovers the Russian film while the Dutch entry depicts a cycle of misery that envelopes three generations of a family. Still, both are excellent films that smartly use the camera to give audience a fly on the wall perspective towards many intimate and personal moments. It is hard to watch both films without feeling a gush of emotions which is why it is appropriate that the winner of this match is decided by a subjective penalty shoot-out.
The Russian film takes it confidently on penalties.
QF #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs The Mill and the Cross (Poland)
Two incredibly made films square off in a contest worthy to be a Euro Film final. Lech Majewski’s Polish film is a technical pleasure that dives into a painting and brings it to life. While Manoel de Oliveira shows a tender touch to craft a metaphysical love story which is light as a feather. The Strange Case of Angelica wins a narrow contest.
QF #3: Buick Riviera (Croatia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
One of the two match-ups where a personal favourite loses out when all the goals are tallied up. Buick Riviera is a film worthy of a final entry but L’Apollonide does a magnificent job of creating an intoxicating atmosphere in a French brothel. The characters and overall story of L’Apollonide may not be new but a brilliant treatment makes it a sensual pleasure. The panther stays long in the memory.
QF#4: My Joy (Ukraine) vs The Salt of Life(Italy)
The Italian film The Salt of Life is another personal favourite but it came up just short against My Joy. The Salt of Life It is a perfect summer film that makes one want to pass away the time at an Italian cafe with a glass of wine. On the other hand, My Joy is the complete opposite and reminds one of winter when darkness and cold weather numb the senses. As My Joy progresses, any shreds of hope and light are slowly extinguished and the film ends with one of the best fade-to-black sequences in recent memory. However, in this contest, darkness wins and My Joy progresses to the semi-final.
Semi-Final Draw
As per the draw, the winner of the Quarter-Final #1 meets the winner of QF#3 while the winners of QF#2 and #4 face-off. This results in the following:
Semi-Final #1: Silent Souls (Russia) vs L’Apollonide (France)
SF #2: The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs My Joy (Ukraine)
As a result of this draw, the two best films of the spotlight are drawn against each other in the second semi-final. This unfortunately means only one of The Strange Case of Angelica or My Joy will make it to the final. From another perspective, both semi-finals are perfectly balanced as Silent Souls and L’Apollonide have an equal chance of making the final. The only sure thing is that the winner of the Euro 2012 film spotlight will be one of The Strange Case of Angelica or My Joy.
Soccer Quarter-Finals
Czech Republic 0 - 1 Portugal
Germany 4 - 2 Greece
Spain 2 - 0 France
England 0 - 0 Italy, Italy win on penalties
For a change, all the four quarter-finals in the soccer tournament went as per plan. All the 4 attacking teams deserved to win their games even though the score-line may not reflect the overall dominance of Portugal, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The four quarters are in complete contrast to Copa America 2011 where all the four favourite teams lost in the quarter-finals.
Colombia 0 - 2 Peru
Argentina 1 - 1 Uruguay, Uruguay win on penalties
Brazil 0 - 0 Paraguay, Paraguay win on penalties
Chile 1 - 2 Venezuela
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Euro 2012: Group Standings & Quarter-Final draw
Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight
The final standings from all three group games of the book & film spotlight. As per the rules, a decision can be made at the end of the group phase to choose a nation's secondary film over the primary film for the rest of the competition.
Group A
Russia easily won the group but things were very tight after that. Since Poland, Greece and Czech Republic had the same points, it came down to goal difference & head-to-head results. Poland & Greece had the same goal difference but Poland advance due to their 3-2 win over Greece in the first game.
Film moving on to the quarter-finals:
Silent Souls will represent Russia as it is better overall than How I Ended This Summer. While The Mill and the Cross will be the Polish film in the next round.
Group B
Both Mysteries of Lisbon and The Strange Case of Angelica are excellent films but I am going to opt for The Strange Case of Angelica to move into the next round. For Holland, C'est déjà l'été advances.
Group C
Buick Riviera & The Salt of Life will represent Croatia and Italy in the next round.
Group D
Ukraine only had one film in the competition so My Joy will be present in the quarter-finals while L’Apollonide will represent France.
Quarter-Finals of Book & Film Spotlight
So as per the Euro 2012 soccer draw:
First place in Group A vs Second place in Group B
First place in Group B vs Second place in Group A
First place in Group C vs Second place in Group D
First place in Group D vs Second place in Group C
That will result in the following film match-ups:
Silent Souls (Russia) vs C'est déjà l'été (Holland)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs The Mill and the Cross (Poland)
Buick Riviera (Croatia) vs House of Pleasures (France)
My Joy (Ukraine) vs The Salt of Life (Italy)
The film spotlight features both co-hosts from Euro 2012, unlike the soccer tournament.
Euro 2012 Soccer tournament results
For comparison, here are the final group standings & quarter-final draw for the soccer tournament.
Quarter-Finals
Czech Republic vs Portugal
Germany vs Greece
Spain vs France
England vs Italy
Soccer vs Book/Film
Portugal, France and Italy are the only three nations to make the quarter-finals of both soccer tournament & book/film spotlight. Interestingly, France & Italy take 2nd place in both instances.
The two eliminated soccer teams from Group A, Russia and Poland, take the top 2 spots in the book and film spotlight.
In Group B, Germany won all three games of the soccer tournament while finished bottom of the book & film spotlight and failed to register a single win.
Croatia were unfortunate to miss out on the soccer quarter-finals but they easily took first place in the book & film spotlight. Interestingly, Ireland finished bottom in both cases with 0 points and just one goal and conceded almost the same amount of goals: 8 in soccer & 7 in book/film.
In Group D, England surprized in both soccer & book/film but in different ways. Their top group finish in the soccer competition was a surprize considering they could not string even few passes together while it was an upset to see them miss out on the next round in the book/film spotlight despite having 3 strong candidates. Sweden finished bottom in both cases but atleast in soccer they managed a win aided by an incredible goal from Zlatan in their 2-0 win over France.
The final standings from all three group games of the book & film spotlight. As per the rules, a decision can be made at the end of the group phase to choose a nation's secondary film over the primary film for the rest of the competition.
Group A
Russia easily won the group but things were very tight after that. Since Poland, Greece and Czech Republic had the same points, it came down to goal difference & head-to-head results. Poland & Greece had the same goal difference but Poland advance due to their 3-2 win over Greece in the first game.
Film moving on to the quarter-finals:
Silent Souls will represent Russia as it is better overall than How I Ended This Summer. While The Mill and the Cross will be the Polish film in the next round.
Group B
Both Mysteries of Lisbon and The Strange Case of Angelica are excellent films but I am going to opt for The Strange Case of Angelica to move into the next round. For Holland, C'est déjà l'été advances.
Group C
Buick Riviera & The Salt of Life will represent Croatia and Italy in the next round.
Group D
Ukraine only had one film in the competition so My Joy will be present in the quarter-finals while L’Apollonide will represent France.
Quarter-Finals of Book & Film Spotlight
So as per the Euro 2012 soccer draw:
First place in Group A vs Second place in Group B
First place in Group B vs Second place in Group A
First place in Group C vs Second place in Group D
First place in Group D vs Second place in Group C
That will result in the following film match-ups:
Silent Souls (Russia) vs C'est déjà l'été (Holland)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal) vs The Mill and the Cross (Poland)
Buick Riviera (Croatia) vs House of Pleasures (France)
My Joy (Ukraine) vs The Salt of Life (Italy)
The film spotlight features both co-hosts from Euro 2012, unlike the soccer tournament.
Euro 2012 Soccer tournament results
For comparison, here are the final group standings & quarter-final draw for the soccer tournament.
Quarter-Finals
Czech Republic vs Portugal
Germany vs Greece
Spain vs France
England vs Italy
Soccer vs Book/Film
Portugal, France and Italy are the only three nations to make the quarter-finals of both soccer tournament & book/film spotlight. Interestingly, France & Italy take 2nd place in both instances.
The two eliminated soccer teams from Group A, Russia and Poland, take the top 2 spots in the book and film spotlight.
In Group B, Germany won all three games of the soccer tournament while finished bottom of the book & film spotlight and failed to register a single win.
Croatia were unfortunate to miss out on the soccer quarter-finals but they easily took first place in the book & film spotlight. Interestingly, Ireland finished bottom in both cases with 0 points and just one goal and conceded almost the same amount of goals: 8 in soccer & 7 in book/film.
In Group D, England surprized in both soccer & book/film but in different ways. Their top group finish in the soccer competition was a surprize considering they could not string even few passes together while it was an upset to see them miss out on the next round in the book/film spotlight despite having 3 strong candidates. Sweden finished bottom in both cases but atleast in soccer they managed a win aided by an incredible goal from Zlatan in their 2-0 win over France.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Euro 2012: Game 3 results
The game 3 results of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight. As per the rules, the only two possible scores could be either 1-0 or 1-1. The eight match-ups are listed in order of the group games.
Poland (In Darkness) vs Czech Republic (Protektor)
Both the Polish and Czech films depict stories of Jewish ordeal under Nazi occupation although the two films approach the subject in different manners. By focussing on a group of people, In Darkness looks at the struggle of a community as a whole. Whereas, Protektor uses a couple’s relationship and their career ups/downs to show the effect of the Nazi occupation. The two films are technically sharp and feature some memorable acting, so that made it difficult to pick an outright winner. However, the Czech film narrowly takes a 1-0 win.
Greece (Alps) vs Russia (How I Ended This Summer)
Another tough match-up given the varying scope of the two films. Alps makes a broader statement about society and human behavior while How I Ended This Summer has a microscopic on two characters isolated from the world. In the end, the Russian film wins out.
Holland (Winter in Wartime) vs Portugal (The Strange Case of Angelica)
The light and charming The Strange Case of Angelica registers another straight forward win for Portugal in the group phase.
Denmark (Terribly Happy) vs Germany (Storm)
Two engaging films went toe-to-toe in a very tight contest. The Germans took an early lead and maintained that lead until the final minutes when Denmark managed to spring a noirish surprize.
Ireland (Kisses) vs Italy (Terraferma)
The Irish film proudly held Italy for about an hour but Terraferma managed to score a late goal to earn all three points.
Croatia (The Blacks) vs Spain (Map of the Sounds of Tokyo)
On paper, this was supposed to be a close contest. But the early promise of the Spanish film quickly disappeared while the Croatia film grew in strength and finished strongly.
Ukraine (My Joy) vs England (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Easily the toughest game 3 match-up as two excellent films faced off. Also, both films are tied together by a common bond as well. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy examines the political games between East vs West and tackles corruption and loyalty. My Joy is firmly set in the East and also highlights corruption. The acting & editing in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy easily wins out but My Joy races clear on a visual front. So an extremely enjoyable 1-1.
France (Rapt) vs Sweden (Everlasting Moments)
The Swedish entry followed a predictable approach while the French film managed to stand apart because of its clever variation on a kidnapping story.
Poland (In Darkness) vs Czech Republic (Protektor)
Both the Polish and Czech films depict stories of Jewish ordeal under Nazi occupation although the two films approach the subject in different manners. By focussing on a group of people, In Darkness looks at the struggle of a community as a whole. Whereas, Protektor uses a couple’s relationship and their career ups/downs to show the effect of the Nazi occupation. The two films are technically sharp and feature some memorable acting, so that made it difficult to pick an outright winner. However, the Czech film narrowly takes a 1-0 win.
Greece (Alps) vs Russia (How I Ended This Summer)
Another tough match-up given the varying scope of the two films. Alps makes a broader statement about society and human behavior while How I Ended This Summer has a microscopic on two characters isolated from the world. In the end, the Russian film wins out.
Holland (Winter in Wartime) vs Portugal (The Strange Case of Angelica)
The light and charming The Strange Case of Angelica registers another straight forward win for Portugal in the group phase.
Denmark (Terribly Happy) vs Germany (Storm)
Two engaging films went toe-to-toe in a very tight contest. The Germans took an early lead and maintained that lead until the final minutes when Denmark managed to spring a noirish surprize.
Ireland (Kisses) vs Italy (Terraferma)
The Irish film proudly held Italy for about an hour but Terraferma managed to score a late goal to earn all three points.
Croatia (The Blacks) vs Spain (Map of the Sounds of Tokyo)
On paper, this was supposed to be a close contest. But the early promise of the Spanish film quickly disappeared while the Croatia film grew in strength and finished strongly.
Ukraine (My Joy) vs England (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Easily the toughest game 3 match-up as two excellent films faced off. Also, both films are tied together by a common bond as well. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy examines the political games between East vs West and tackles corruption and loyalty. My Joy is firmly set in the East and also highlights corruption. The acting & editing in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy easily wins out but My Joy races clear on a visual front. So an extremely enjoyable 1-1.
France (Rapt) vs Sweden (Everlasting Moments)
The Swedish entry followed a predictable approach while the French film managed to stand apart because of its clever variation on a kidnapping story.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Euro 2012: Books & Game 2 results
Entry #17 of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight briefly recaps the 16 books used for the second group games. The results are listed at the bottom of the entries which are arranged as per the soccer match-ups.
Group A
Poland: House of Day, House of Night, Olga Tokarczuk
As per the translator’s note at the start of book:
"The book is set in south-west Poland, in the region known as Silesia. This was part of the German Reich until 1945, when at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences the Allies agreed to move the borders of Poland westwards. Many Polish citizens were transported from the land lost to the east (annexed by the USSR) and resettled in formerly German territory to the west, where they were given the homes and property of evacuated Germans.
Readers are advised that some of the recipes in this book should carry the health warning, ‘Don’t try this at home!’ "
In this regard, House of Day, House of Night provides a look at a region of Poland whose history is not as well known. The book is nicely broken into smaller sections with titles such as “The Comet”, “The Fire”, “Franz Frost”, “The forest that comes crashing down”, etc which keeps the overall story engaging. Some of these sections contain some fascinating observations about humans in general thereby giving the book a nice universal feel to it as well.
Russia: A Hero of our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Lermontov’s remarkable book contains a story-within-story and multiple narrators and viewpoints. The 5 stories, packaged in 3 different parts, are not presented in order thereby requiring readers to put things together themselves. Of course, a reader does not have to put things together and can simply enjoy getting drawn into the richly depicted Caucasus complete with memorable characters.
Czech Republic: The Joke, Milan Kundera
"Optimism is the opium of the people! A healthy atmosphere stinks of stupidity! Long Live Trotsky!"
These hastily written words on a postcard throw Ludvik’s life in an unexpected direction. In this regard, Kundera’s book is even more relevant today because nowadays a single tweet can easily land someone in trouble and alter their fate. As it turns out, Ludvik’s joke totals 98 characters and would easily fit in a tweet.
Greece: Z, Vassilis Vassilikos
A brilliant novel that pieces together how a political murder was planned and executed. The book also shows that even if a crime is clear-cut, getting justice for it can be elusive because the men who are in charge of giving out orders often hide in shadows. Yet, these men are never short of people who are willing to carry out their doing. The people at the lowest rung of the hierarchy carry out murders because of money but as one goes up the ladder, a crime is not about money but power and ideologies.
Group B
Holland: A Posthumous Confession, Marcellus Emants
My wife is dead and buried.
I am alone at home, along with the two maids.
So I am free again. Yet what good is it to me, this freedom?
I am within reach of what I have wanted for the last twenty years (I am thirty-five), but I have not the courage to grasp it, and would anyhow no longer enjoy it very much.
And so begins Marcellus Emants’ A Posthumous Confession. If these opening words don’t get one’s attention, then the following words three paragraphs later certainly do:
Whenever I look in the mirror-still a habit of mine-I am astounded that such a pale, delicate, insignificant little man with dull gaze and weak, slack mouth (a nasty piece of work, some people would say) should have been capable of murdering his wife, a wife whom, after all, in his own way, he had loved.
In order to make the reader understand his motives, the narrator Willem Termeer steps back in time to describe the internal and external forces that altered his personality. At first, the weight of his confession hangs over every page but that weight lessens in the face of Termeer’s brutally honest and unfiltered words which sketch a vivid picture of his transformation and of those around him.
Germany: The Appointment, Herta Müller
"I’ve been summoned". Thursday, at ten sharp.
Lately I’m being summoned more and more often: ten sharp on Tuesday, ten sharp on Saturday, on Wednesday, Monday. As if years were a week, I’m amazed that winter comes so close on the heels of late summer.
The reason why the narrator, a factory seamstress, is summoned for questioning are gradually revealed but there is no end date to the summons. Like a Kafka novel, the questioning that goes with the summons repeat in an infinite loop, much like the narrator’s tram ride through Bucharest. Each day time collapses in the tram, jumping into the past and cutting to the present, thereby making the tram ride last a week or even years. Will the narrator be finally free of the questioning? We may never know but the story gives a glimpse into Romanian life under the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu with a pinch of dark humor similar to the style depicted in recent Romanian cinema.
Portugal: Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes
When thinking of Portuguese literature, Jose Saramago’s name looms large. However, going by Knowledge of Hell, then António Lobo Antunes certainly deserves to be as well known. Antunes’ training as a psychiatrist and his time spent in Angola clearly serve as fodder for some of the themes explored in the book, which oscillates between Lisbon and Angola. The book is set in a Lisbon mental institution and is told from the viewpoint of a psychiatrist, who is in a prime spot to observe the insanity and slow degradation of the human condition. The book is packed with memorable quotes and the prose paints a descriptive and sometimes disturbing picture.
I discovered that loneliness, he said aloud to himself in the empty car, en route to the mountains, is a child’s gun in a plastic bag in the hand of a frightened woman...page 68, chapter 4
The birds, transformed by darkness into monstrous insects, crept noisily in the blackness repelling and attracting one another, scraping the slate of the fields with the red-chalk drone of their antennae...page 159, chapter 7
Denmark: The History of Danish Dreams, Peter Høeg
The History of Danish Dreams covers about four centuries of two family’s fortunes in less than 400 pages. The book starts off in the year 1520 and ends in 1989 which means some chapters move at a furious pace while others take their time in properly sketching out key characters.
Group C
Spain: Quarantine, Juan Goytisolo
Ab abstract novel that explores the holding place in between death and eternity while blending reality with dreams and nightmares. As per the back cover, the book: "..spans those forty days, during which, according to Islamic tradition, the soul wanders between death and eternity still embodies in a dreamlike form."
The book was written in 1991 and also manages to work the Persian Gulf war in the mix along with Dante and Ibn Arabi.
Italy: The Porthole, Adriano Spatola
Classifying Adriano Spatola’s book is not an easy task. It integrates war, religion, politics, poetry, horror and even porn (in the manner of X-rated comics) with comfortable ease. That is why the words "neo-avant-garde" and "experimental writing" are perfect when describing Spatola’s writing. Spatola’s work tears down the walls of a conventional framework and pushes words to their limit.
Ireland: Kepler, John Banville
Kepler is the second book in Banville’s Renaissance scientists trilogy with Doctor Copernicus and The Newton Letter being the first and third books. Kepler looks at the tough ordeal that Johannes Kepler had to go through to get funding for his research and ultimately to get his books published. The initial chapters are in chronological order and depict the struggles and pressures that Kepler faced while the later chapters present letters written by Kepler. The letters are presented in descending order and have no replies associated with them. As a result, they manage to highlight Kepler’s desperation and his gradual disappearance of hope.
Croatia: The Ministry of Pain, Dubravka Ugresic
Like the Croatian film entry Buick Riviera, The Ministry of Pain shows that pain suffered in one’s native country could result in revenge in another country. The main character in the novel, Tanja, is not looking to open old wounds but she does not realize her free flowing university lectures result in a strong reaction in one particular student who decides to extract revenge.
Group D
Ukraine: The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko
Taras Prokhasko’s The UnSimple is an fascinating novel that mixes history, folklore, fantasy and philosophy while telling the story of a young woman Anna in the town of Ialivets. The destiny of Anna and other town’s residents are looked over by the unsimple who are mysterious characters that are the heart of the book.
the unsimple are earthly gods. people, who with the help of inborn or
acquired knowledge, are able to do good or harm to others. that point is
important—inborn or acquired. they know something. at the same time this
can also be learned. acquired. in this way it’s possible to become unsimple
by learning something. part 2, page 73
Note: The Unsimple is the only electronic book used for this spotlight and is available for free online: part I and part 2.
England: GB84, David Peace
David Peace’s The Damned United and the Red Riding Quartet are better known works because of their film adaptations but GB84 deserves to be widely read as it riveting and highly relevant. The book mixes fact with fiction in looking at the coal mine strike that almost brought Britain to a halt. The story looks at a few principal characters and outlines some of secret deals that went on in between politicians and union leaders and how money changed hands.
France: The Giants, J.M.G Le Clezio
The Giants is a work that contains seeds of Alphaville, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 but instead of a straight-forward narrative, the story deconstructs words and asks its readers to put them together again. For example, a walk across a room becomes an infinite journey that soaks up every little detail of the room while questioning the origin of the words used to describe all the room’s objects.
Sweden: The Dwarf, Par Lagerkvist
A shocking depiction of the evil that lies inside a human soul. The book is set in an unnamed Italian city and that setting combined with the political manipulation brings Niccolò Machiavelli to mind.
Favourite Books
All the books proved to be worthy selections that demanded a lot more time than expected to properly digest the material. In fact, some books required a second reading just to fully comprehend the written text. As a result, there was little time left before the June 8 cut-off date to properly write a separate post for each book. The brief notes don’t do justice to the stellar works that I was fortunate to have read.
I liked several aspects of every book and found each selection to be rewarding in different ways. So it is hard for me to pick a few favourites but these would be my top 4 roughly in order of preference:
1. Z, Vassilis Vassilikos, Greece
2. GB84, David Peace, England
3. The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko, Ukraine
4. Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Game 2: Soccer vs book results
As per the rules, the two possible scores for the book match-ups could be either 1-0 or 1-1. That is why I didn’t expect to see any overlapping scores between the soccer and book results so Croatia’s tie with Italy is a surprize. While The Porthole is far more creative than The Ministry of Pain, the Croatian entry leaves a lasting impact with its carefully etched characters and their personal stories. Hence, a 1-1 tie.
Three nations, Spain, Portugal & England, registered a win in both soccer and book games. Two of those nations, Portugal & England, were involved in the four soccer vs book match-ups that were decided by a single goal. Germany vs Holland & Czech Republic vs Greece were the other two match-ups that were won by a single goal.
Group A
Poland: House of Day, House of Night, Olga Tokarczuk
As per the translator’s note at the start of book:
"The book is set in south-west Poland, in the region known as Silesia. This was part of the German Reich until 1945, when at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences the Allies agreed to move the borders of Poland westwards. Many Polish citizens were transported from the land lost to the east (annexed by the USSR) and resettled in formerly German territory to the west, where they were given the homes and property of evacuated Germans.
Readers are advised that some of the recipes in this book should carry the health warning, ‘Don’t try this at home!’ "
In this regard, House of Day, House of Night provides a look at a region of Poland whose history is not as well known. The book is nicely broken into smaller sections with titles such as “The Comet”, “The Fire”, “Franz Frost”, “The forest that comes crashing down”, etc which keeps the overall story engaging. Some of these sections contain some fascinating observations about humans in general thereby giving the book a nice universal feel to it as well.
Russia: A Hero of our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Lermontov’s remarkable book contains a story-within-story and multiple narrators and viewpoints. The 5 stories, packaged in 3 different parts, are not presented in order thereby requiring readers to put things together themselves. Of course, a reader does not have to put things together and can simply enjoy getting drawn into the richly depicted Caucasus complete with memorable characters.
Czech Republic: The Joke, Milan Kundera
"Optimism is the opium of the people! A healthy atmosphere stinks of stupidity! Long Live Trotsky!"
These hastily written words on a postcard throw Ludvik’s life in an unexpected direction. In this regard, Kundera’s book is even more relevant today because nowadays a single tweet can easily land someone in trouble and alter their fate. As it turns out, Ludvik’s joke totals 98 characters and would easily fit in a tweet.
Greece: Z, Vassilis Vassilikos
A brilliant novel that pieces together how a political murder was planned and executed. The book also shows that even if a crime is clear-cut, getting justice for it can be elusive because the men who are in charge of giving out orders often hide in shadows. Yet, these men are never short of people who are willing to carry out their doing. The people at the lowest rung of the hierarchy carry out murders because of money but as one goes up the ladder, a crime is not about money but power and ideologies.
Group B
Holland: A Posthumous Confession, Marcellus Emants
My wife is dead and buried.
I am alone at home, along with the two maids.
So I am free again. Yet what good is it to me, this freedom?
I am within reach of what I have wanted for the last twenty years (I am thirty-five), but I have not the courage to grasp it, and would anyhow no longer enjoy it very much.
And so begins Marcellus Emants’ A Posthumous Confession. If these opening words don’t get one’s attention, then the following words three paragraphs later certainly do:
Whenever I look in the mirror-still a habit of mine-I am astounded that such a pale, delicate, insignificant little man with dull gaze and weak, slack mouth (a nasty piece of work, some people would say) should have been capable of murdering his wife, a wife whom, after all, in his own way, he had loved.
In order to make the reader understand his motives, the narrator Willem Termeer steps back in time to describe the internal and external forces that altered his personality. At first, the weight of his confession hangs over every page but that weight lessens in the face of Termeer’s brutally honest and unfiltered words which sketch a vivid picture of his transformation and of those around him.
Germany: The Appointment, Herta Müller
"I’ve been summoned". Thursday, at ten sharp.
Lately I’m being summoned more and more often: ten sharp on Tuesday, ten sharp on Saturday, on Wednesday, Monday. As if years were a week, I’m amazed that winter comes so close on the heels of late summer.
The reason why the narrator, a factory seamstress, is summoned for questioning are gradually revealed but there is no end date to the summons. Like a Kafka novel, the questioning that goes with the summons repeat in an infinite loop, much like the narrator’s tram ride through Bucharest. Each day time collapses in the tram, jumping into the past and cutting to the present, thereby making the tram ride last a week or even years. Will the narrator be finally free of the questioning? We may never know but the story gives a glimpse into Romanian life under the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu with a pinch of dark humor similar to the style depicted in recent Romanian cinema.
Portugal: Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes
When thinking of Portuguese literature, Jose Saramago’s name looms large. However, going by Knowledge of Hell, then António Lobo Antunes certainly deserves to be as well known. Antunes’ training as a psychiatrist and his time spent in Angola clearly serve as fodder for some of the themes explored in the book, which oscillates between Lisbon and Angola. The book is set in a Lisbon mental institution and is told from the viewpoint of a psychiatrist, who is in a prime spot to observe the insanity and slow degradation of the human condition. The book is packed with memorable quotes and the prose paints a descriptive and sometimes disturbing picture.
I discovered that loneliness, he said aloud to himself in the empty car, en route to the mountains, is a child’s gun in a plastic bag in the hand of a frightened woman...page 68, chapter 4
The birds, transformed by darkness into monstrous insects, crept noisily in the blackness repelling and attracting one another, scraping the slate of the fields with the red-chalk drone of their antennae...page 159, chapter 7
Denmark: The History of Danish Dreams, Peter Høeg
The History of Danish Dreams covers about four centuries of two family’s fortunes in less than 400 pages. The book starts off in the year 1520 and ends in 1989 which means some chapters move at a furious pace while others take their time in properly sketching out key characters.
Group C
Spain: Quarantine, Juan Goytisolo
Ab abstract novel that explores the holding place in between death and eternity while blending reality with dreams and nightmares. As per the back cover, the book: "..spans those forty days, during which, according to Islamic tradition, the soul wanders between death and eternity still embodies in a dreamlike form."
The book was written in 1991 and also manages to work the Persian Gulf war in the mix along with Dante and Ibn Arabi.
Italy: The Porthole, Adriano Spatola
Classifying Adriano Spatola’s book is not an easy task. It integrates war, religion, politics, poetry, horror and even porn (in the manner of X-rated comics) with comfortable ease. That is why the words "neo-avant-garde" and "experimental writing" are perfect when describing Spatola’s writing. Spatola’s work tears down the walls of a conventional framework and pushes words to their limit.
Ireland: Kepler, John Banville
Kepler is the second book in Banville’s Renaissance scientists trilogy with Doctor Copernicus and The Newton Letter being the first and third books. Kepler looks at the tough ordeal that Johannes Kepler had to go through to get funding for his research and ultimately to get his books published. The initial chapters are in chronological order and depict the struggles and pressures that Kepler faced while the later chapters present letters written by Kepler. The letters are presented in descending order and have no replies associated with them. As a result, they manage to highlight Kepler’s desperation and his gradual disappearance of hope.
Croatia: The Ministry of Pain, Dubravka Ugresic
Like the Croatian film entry Buick Riviera, The Ministry of Pain shows that pain suffered in one’s native country could result in revenge in another country. The main character in the novel, Tanja, is not looking to open old wounds but she does not realize her free flowing university lectures result in a strong reaction in one particular student who decides to extract revenge.
Group D
Ukraine: The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko
Taras Prokhasko’s The UnSimple is an fascinating novel that mixes history, folklore, fantasy and philosophy while telling the story of a young woman Anna in the town of Ialivets. The destiny of Anna and other town’s residents are looked over by the unsimple who are mysterious characters that are the heart of the book.
the unsimple are earthly gods. people, who with the help of inborn or
acquired knowledge, are able to do good or harm to others. that point is
important—inborn or acquired. they know something. at the same time this
can also be learned. acquired. in this way it’s possible to become unsimple
by learning something. part 2, page 73
Note: The Unsimple is the only electronic book used for this spotlight and is available for free online: part I and part 2.
England: GB84, David Peace
David Peace’s The Damned United and the Red Riding Quartet are better known works because of their film adaptations but GB84 deserves to be widely read as it riveting and highly relevant. The book mixes fact with fiction in looking at the coal mine strike that almost brought Britain to a halt. The story looks at a few principal characters and outlines some of secret deals that went on in between politicians and union leaders and how money changed hands.
France: The Giants, J.M.G Le Clezio
The Giants is a work that contains seeds of Alphaville, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 but instead of a straight-forward narrative, the story deconstructs words and asks its readers to put them together again. For example, a walk across a room becomes an infinite journey that soaks up every little detail of the room while questioning the origin of the words used to describe all the room’s objects.
Sweden: The Dwarf, Par Lagerkvist
A shocking depiction of the evil that lies inside a human soul. The book is set in an unnamed Italian city and that setting combined with the political manipulation brings Niccolò Machiavelli to mind.
Favourite Books
All the books proved to be worthy selections that demanded a lot more time than expected to properly digest the material. In fact, some books required a second reading just to fully comprehend the written text. As a result, there was little time left before the June 8 cut-off date to properly write a separate post for each book. The brief notes don’t do justice to the stellar works that I was fortunate to have read.
I liked several aspects of every book and found each selection to be rewarding in different ways. So it is hard for me to pick a few favourites but these would be my top 4 roughly in order of preference:
1. Z, Vassilis Vassilikos, Greece
2. GB84, David Peace, England
3. The UnSimple, Taras Prokhasko, Ukraine
4. Knowledge of Hell, António Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Game 2: Soccer vs book results
As per the rules, the two possible scores for the book match-ups could be either 1-0 or 1-1. That is why I didn’t expect to see any overlapping scores between the soccer and book results so Croatia’s tie with Italy is a surprize. While The Porthole is far more creative than The Ministry of Pain, the Croatian entry leaves a lasting impact with its carefully etched characters and their personal stories. Hence, a 1-1 tie.
Three nations, Spain, Portugal & England, registered a win in both soccer and book games. Two of those nations, Portugal & England, were involved in the four soccer vs book match-ups that were decided by a single goal. Germany vs Holland & Czech Republic vs Greece were the other two match-ups that were won by a single goal.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Euro 2012: Game 1 results
Results of the first games of the group phase for the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight. As per the rules:
The first match will see the two films compete against each other in five categories which will count as goals scored by a nation.
Five Categories: Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography & Production values
a) If one film is superior to another film in a category, then the superior film will get one goal while the other film will get 0.
b) If both films match each other in a category, they will score one goal each.
c) If both films fail in a category, they will get 0 goals each.
Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
Poland (The Mill and the Cross) vs Greece (Alps)
The stellar technical aspects of The Mill and the Cross allow it to register a narrow win over Alps which features some memorable acting and a decent story.
Russia (Silent Souls) vs Czech Republic (Surviving Life)
The warm and tender Silent Souls easily wins over the humorous Surviving Life.
Group B: Holland, Denmark, Germany, Portugal
Holland (C'est déjà l'été) vs Denmark (Applause)
Both the Danish and Dutch entries echo films by master directors. Applause, powered by an incredible performance by Paprika Steen, takes a page out of John Cassavetes’s Opening Night while the Dutch entry C'est déjà l'été is clearly inspired by the Dardenne brothers. Overall, C'est déjà l'été is a much richer work that looks at a family’s downfall.
Germany (Storm) vs Portugal (Mysteries of Lisbon)
The first match will see the two films compete against each other in five categories which will count as goals scored by a nation.
Five Categories: Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography & Production values
a) If one film is superior to another film in a category, then the superior film will get one goal while the other film will get 0.
b) If both films match each other in a category, they will score one goal each.
c) If both films fail in a category, they will get 0 goals each.
Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
Poland (The Mill and the Cross) vs Greece (Alps)
The stellar technical aspects of The Mill and the Cross allow it to register a narrow win over Alps which features some memorable acting and a decent story.
Russia (Silent Souls) vs Czech Republic (Surviving Life)
The warm and tender Silent Souls easily wins over the humorous Surviving Life.
Group B: Holland, Denmark, Germany, Portugal
Holland (C'est déjà l'été) vs Denmark (Applause)
Both the Danish and Dutch entries echo films by master directors. Applause, powered by an incredible performance by Paprika Steen, takes a page out of John Cassavetes’s Opening Night while the Dutch entry C'est déjà l'été is clearly inspired by the Dardenne brothers. Overall, C'est déjà l'été is a much richer work that looks at a family’s downfall.
Germany (Storm) vs Portugal (Mysteries of Lisbon)
This was not really a contest. Mysteries of Lisbon easily wins although Storm has a relevant story that highlights why it is so difficult to convict war criminals.
Group C: Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia
Spain (The Last Circus) vs Italy (The Salt of Life)
The Last Circus has a strong political heart but unfortunately, the film goes off the rails and prefers to hammer its point home. On the other hand, The Salt of Life has an easy going style and is a joy from start to finish.
Ireland (The Guard) vs Croatia (Buick Riviera)
Even though The Guard features an excellent performance by Brendan Gleeson, it is still a run of the mill mismatched buddy-cop drama. While Buick Riviera is an engaging and well made film.
Group D: France, England, Ukraine, Sweden
France (L’Apollonide) vs England (Shame)
The only match-up to feature a 0-0 in a category because I felt neither film has an original story. L’Apollonide contains many characters & scenarios one expects from a film set in a brothel while Shame also follows a predictable arc in depicting its main character’s addiction and race to hit rock-bottom. However, L’Apollonide's nicely created mood makes for an engaging viewing in certain segments.
Ukraine (My Joy) vs Sweden (Play)
Play might have fared a bit better had it been drawn against another film. As it stands, Play provided little threat to My Joy.
Soccer vs Film
Here is a comparison of the soccer vs film results from the first round of match-ups.
Only Russia, Croatia and Ukraine won both the soccer and film matches while Russia registered 4 goals on both counts.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Euro 2012: Russian Films
Entry #16 of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight looks at the two Russian films.
Silent Souls (2010, Aleksei Fedorchenko)
Two men undertake a journey so that one of them can perform the final rituals to cremate his wife. The two share a deep friendship as illustrated by their interaction especially the comfortable silence they share. They understand each other and are perfectly content to sit quietly when needed and not fill the silence with empty words. There are many tender scenes spread throughout Silent Souls which reaches a high emotional moment during the cremation and spreading of ashes. The river/sea play a key part in the film’s theme as illustrated by some of the cinematography and dialogues. In one sequence when the two friends are talking, the shot of traffic in the background appears like a river, constant and ever flowing. The film also contains the following lines:
”because a live woman’s body is also a river that carries grief away...
It’s only a shame you can’t drown in it.”
Like another Russian film Euphoria, Silent Souls is elevated to a grander scale by its microscopic focus on two characters. The film depicts unique moments in their lives but those sentiments can also be extrapolated to apply on a larger scale.
How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksey Popogrebskiy)
An experienced meteorologist Sergey (Sergey Puskepalis) is working with a younger man, Pavel (Grigoriy Dobrygin), in a lonely outpost in the Arctic taking measurements. Sergey can’t wait to return home to his wife and his child while Pavel has no such family attachments but still can’t wait to return to civilization. When Sergey goes on an extended fishing trip, Pavel receives a radio message regarding an accident in Sergey’s family. Pavel knows the news will cause Sergey to worry so he decides to delay the news until a ship will come to take Sergey home. However, covering up the lie proves too difficult for Pavel and the guilt combined with the isolation drives him crazy. As a result, the film heads off into a different direction with paranoia and fear overtaking events.
How I Ended This Summer focusses on two men just like Silent Souls. The difference is that Sergey and Pavel are not friends but brought together because of their job. If Sergey and Pavel men shared a friendship, then that would have ensured a more open communication between the two and not the direction the film takes. There is no rational explanation to describe why Pavel acts the way he does but his inexperience and fear cause him to make things more difficult than needed.
Silent Souls (2010, Aleksei Fedorchenko)
Two men undertake a journey so that one of them can perform the final rituals to cremate his wife. The two share a deep friendship as illustrated by their interaction especially the comfortable silence they share. They understand each other and are perfectly content to sit quietly when needed and not fill the silence with empty words. There are many tender scenes spread throughout Silent Souls which reaches a high emotional moment during the cremation and spreading of ashes. The river/sea play a key part in the film’s theme as illustrated by some of the cinematography and dialogues. In one sequence when the two friends are talking, the shot of traffic in the background appears like a river, constant and ever flowing. The film also contains the following lines:
”because a live woman’s body is also a river that carries grief away...
It’s only a shame you can’t drown in it.”
Like another Russian film Euphoria, Silent Souls is elevated to a grander scale by its microscopic focus on two characters. The film depicts unique moments in their lives but those sentiments can also be extrapolated to apply on a larger scale.
How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksey Popogrebskiy)
An experienced meteorologist Sergey (Sergey Puskepalis) is working with a younger man, Pavel (Grigoriy Dobrygin), in a lonely outpost in the Arctic taking measurements. Sergey can’t wait to return home to his wife and his child while Pavel has no such family attachments but still can’t wait to return to civilization. When Sergey goes on an extended fishing trip, Pavel receives a radio message regarding an accident in Sergey’s family. Pavel knows the news will cause Sergey to worry so he decides to delay the news until a ship will come to take Sergey home. However, covering up the lie proves too difficult for Pavel and the guilt combined with the isolation drives him crazy. As a result, the film heads off into a different direction with paranoia and fear overtaking events.
How I Ended This Summer focusses on two men just like Silent Souls. The difference is that Sergey and Pavel are not friends but brought together because of their job. If Sergey and Pavel men shared a friendship, then that would have ensured a more open communication between the two and not the direction the film takes. There is no rational explanation to describe why Pavel acts the way he does but his inexperience and fear cause him to make things more difficult than needed.
Euro 2012: Czech Republic Films
Entry #15 of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight looks at the two Czech films.
Surviving Life (2010, Jan Svankmajer)
Evžen (Václav Helšus) has met the perfect woman. However, there is one tiny problem, she is only present in his dreams and disappears once he wakes up. Since Evžen’s real life isn’t very exciting, he longs to go to sleep as much as possible in order to meet his dream woman. Surviving Life is packed with the stop-animation technique associated with Jan Svankmajer’s films, such as Lunacy. The animation seamlessly blends reality and fantasy thereby creating a medium where worthy ideas about dreams are presented in a lighthearted manner.
Protektor (2009, Marek Najbrt)
Director Marek Najbrt and co-writers Benjamin Tucek and Robert Geisler smartly depict how a couple’s relationship is altered by the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Before the Nazi invasion, Hana (Jana Plodková) is an upcoming actress who is the talk of the town while her husband Emil (Marek Daniel) quietly watches from the sidelines. A colleague warns Hana that the Nazi invasion would change things because of her Jewish identity and that she should leave the country. Hana dismisses the warnings but his words prove true as Jews are banned from the arts and Hana is forced to stay home. In the meantime, Emil’s radio show becomes popular and his voice makes him a vital mouthpiece for the Nazis. The Nazis even turn a blind eye towards Hana because of their need for Emil. However, Hana is not happy to be locked in her home and starts to rebel in her own ways. Emil is also not happy with his situation and is forced to make a choice to either aid the Nazis or assert his Czech identity.
Protektor includes a pulsating score that propels the momentum especially in the multiples scenes of the two actors riding their bikes. Overall, a slick production that also pays a loving tribute towards classic cinema.
Surviving Life (2010, Jan Svankmajer)
Evžen (Václav Helšus) has met the perfect woman. However, there is one tiny problem, she is only present in his dreams and disappears once he wakes up. Since Evžen’s real life isn’t very exciting, he longs to go to sleep as much as possible in order to meet his dream woman. Surviving Life is packed with the stop-animation technique associated with Jan Svankmajer’s films, such as Lunacy. The animation seamlessly blends reality and fantasy thereby creating a medium where worthy ideas about dreams are presented in a lighthearted manner.
Protektor (2009, Marek Najbrt)
Director Marek Najbrt and co-writers Benjamin Tucek and Robert Geisler smartly depict how a couple’s relationship is altered by the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Before the Nazi invasion, Hana (Jana Plodková) is an upcoming actress who is the talk of the town while her husband Emil (Marek Daniel) quietly watches from the sidelines. A colleague warns Hana that the Nazi invasion would change things because of her Jewish identity and that she should leave the country. Hana dismisses the warnings but his words prove true as Jews are banned from the arts and Hana is forced to stay home. In the meantime, Emil’s radio show becomes popular and his voice makes him a vital mouthpiece for the Nazis. The Nazis even turn a blind eye towards Hana because of their need for Emil. However, Hana is not happy to be locked in her home and starts to rebel in her own ways. Emil is also not happy with his situation and is forced to make a choice to either aid the Nazis or assert his Czech identity.
Protektor includes a pulsating score that propels the momentum especially in the multiples scenes of the two actors riding their bikes. Overall, a slick production that also pays a loving tribute towards classic cinema.
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