The Lady Eve

My piece on Preston Sturges' perfect comedy The Lady Eve is published on Wonders in the Dark's comedy countdown.

Ship of Theseus

Anand Gandhi's debut feature Ship of Theseus has been getting some stunning reviews since its world premier at TIFF a few months ago. The tantalizing and thought provoking trailers have only increased my desire to see the film. Although, I have a feeling I won't get to see the film until atleast mid-2013. Of course, I hope it gets wider distribution soon...

Trailer 1: 

Trailer 2: 

Trailer 3: 

Calgary Latin Wave Festival

The Third Annual Calgary Latin Wave Film Festival ran from Nov 2 - 4, 2012 and featured an excellent line-up of films. The following nine were shown this year:

The Delay (2012, Uruguay, Rodrigo Plá)
Distance (2011, Guatemala, Sergio Ramirez)
Gone Fishing (2012, Argentina, Carlos Sorin)
Habanastation (2011, Cuba, Ian Padrón)
Heleno (2011, Brazil, José Henrique Fonseca)
Juan of the Dead (2011, Cuba, Alejandro Brugués)
The Student (2011, Argentina, Santiago Mitre)
The Towrope (2012, Colombia, William Vega)
Violeta Went to Heaven (2011, Chile/Argentina/Brazil, Andrés Wood)

I had originally planned to see atleast six films but I could only make it out to four. Here are some brief comments on the films in order of preference.

1. Gone Fishing / Días de pesca

Marco (Alejandro Awada) heads to stunning Patagonia to find and patch-up with his daughter. With a little bit of work, he manages to find her but she is not in the mood to forgive him. The film doesn’t give anything away about his past but it is implied that his alcoholism and marriage break-up played a part in him not being there for his daughter when she was growing up. So naturally the daughter has scars that won’t heal overnight. Such a story could have gotten a completely different and more serious treatment in the hands of another director but Sorin smartly uses the visuals and pleasant score (composed by his son) to release any tension before it forms on the screen. When things are about to get serious Sorin ensures that the audience gets a nice reprieve either with a moment of humor or breathtaking beauty. Gone Fishing has a pleasant relaxed tone throughout even though there are some strained issues beneath the surface. However, those troubled issues never bubble to the surface but enough is depicted about the issues to allow audience to fill in their own version of events. Overall, Gone Fishing is a charming and thoughtful film that allows for plenty of contemplative moments.

 

2. Heleno

The name of Heleno de Freitas is not that well known in international soccer mostly because he didn’t play in a World Cup but also since his goals came in an era before television. But in his time, Heleno was a star who scored goals freely for his beloved Botafogo club. Those goals brought him fame, money, alcohol and women. Such a combination of temptations is never a healthy thing especially for a man whose career depended on being in top physical and mental shape. Also, Heleno had other characteristics, such as his ego, which also played a part in alienating him from those around him.

Jose Henrique Fonseca has created a devastating portrayal that perfectly depicts the self-destructive habits that led to Heleno de Freitas' decline. At times, it is painful to watch Heleno throw everything away but given his personality, his fall from grace was inevitable. Rodrigo Santoro has put in an incredible performance and plays the arrogant and fragile sides of Heleno perfectly. Also, a lot of credit goes to Angie Cepeda and Aline Moraes who light up with the screen with their presence. The music combined with the black and white visuals nicely evoke the 1940’s-50’s and enhance the mood of the film.

Heleno’s story also contains shades of Garrincha who was truly a great soccer player. Like Heleno, Garrincha also played for Botafogo. In fact, both played roughly the same amount of games for Botafogo, Heleno with 235 & Garrincha with 236. Both were stars in their own time but alcohol and women sped their decline. At the height of their powers, both players were rich but were completely broke near the end of their careers. The one difference between the two is that Garrincha played in 3 World Cups and won 2 while Heleno could never fulfill his dream of playing in the World cup.

 

3. The Student / El estudiante

Santiago Mitre, writer for Pablo Trapero’s Carancho and Lion’s Den, makes a stunning directorial debut with The Student, a razor-sharp film that examines core issues at the heart of politics: tactics, strategy, managing & manipulating people. Even though The Student is set in Argentina (University of Buenos Aires), it is universal in showing negotiations & backroom deals part of any political process. Mitre’s films also shares some sentiments with The Storm (Kazim Öz) & Haasil (Tigmanshu Dhulia) in depicting political fires lit in universities.

 

4. The Towrope / La Sirga

At first, the isolated house in La Sirga appears as a peaceful retreat far from the chaos of the cities. But as the film progresses, that isolation appears less as an escape but more as a trap. In this regard, Vega’s film like Crab Trap depicts how an isolated picturesque part of Colombia is not immune to strains of conflict taking place elsewhere.

 

CIFF 2012 Wrap-up

The 13th Annual Calgary International Film Festival featured a mouth watering line-up of films from all corners of the world and excelled in both quality and quantity. Continuing the trend from last year, CIFF had encores of most films and added extra screening slots making it more convenient than ever before to catch the films. CIFF scheduled two weekday matinee screenings (2-2:30 pm, 4-5 pm) in addition to the two traditional weekday evening shows and also had a midnight film for all 10 days. These extra time slots opened the door for a dedicated cinephile to take in more than 50 films and at the same time made it a lot easier to see 40 films than previous years. I mention 40 films because this was a goal for a lot of friends in the past but they always fell short, sometimes ending up at either 36 or 39 films. I briefly played with the idea of making it to 40 films this year but I remembered the painful aftermath of seeing 30 films over 10 days a few years ago. So, I instead opted for a comfortable target of 20 films which allowed me to enjoy all the films with enough time for socializing and discussing films with fellow cinephiles.

Here are the 20 films seen in order:

Wrong (2012, USA, Quentin Dupieux)
The Day I Saw Your Heart (2011, France, Jennifer Devoldère)
See Girl Run (2012, USA, Nate Meyer)
Fat Kid Rules The World (2012, USA, Matthew Lillard)
Amour (2012, Austria/France/Germany, Michael Haneke)
Rust and Bone (2012, France/Belgium, Jacques Audiard)
The Misfits (2011, Mexico, Javier Colinas/Marco Polo Constandse/Jorge Ramírez Suárez/Sergio Tovar Velarde)

Reality (2012, Italy/France, Matteo Garrone)
Holy Motors (2012, France/Germany, Leos Carax)
As Luck Would Have It (2011, Spain/France/USA, Álex de la Iglesia)
No (2012, Chile/France/USA, Pablo Larraín)
Rebelle (2012, Canada, Kim Nguyen)
Battle of Warsaw 1920 (2011, Poland, Jerzy Hoffman)
Margarita (2012, Canada, Dominique Cardona/Laurie Colbert)

The World Before Her (2012, Canada, Nisha Pahuja)
Antiviral (2012, Canada/USA, Brandon Cronenberg)
I’m Flash (2012, Japan, Toshiaki Toyoda)
Mars et Avril (2012, Canada, Martin Villeneuve)
All In Good Time (2012, UK, Nigel Cole)
The Ambassador (2012, Denmark, Mads Brügger)

The relaxed schedule allowed me take something memorable from each of the 20 films and I am glad I was able to attend them. I hope to write longer about the films in the future but for now just some quick notes along with my top 5 films.

Top 5 Films in order of preference

1. Holy Motors: An incredibly wild and creative ride that effortlessly glides through all film genres. Leos Carax has managed to capture the essence of cinema from the silent era to contemporary times while playing homage to key genres throughout. This is pure cinema and proof for why films hold such sway over people.

2. The World Before Her: Back in 2001, I was lucky enough to see Nisha Pahuja’s debut documentary feature Bollywood Bound at CIFF. That lovely film proved Nisha to be a born filmmaker. And she has reaffirmed that with The World Before Her, a perfectly balanced and insightful film that examines two very different camps of thought in India. The two camps, beauty pageants & fundamentalism, contain the essence of issues that are both dividing and driving India. On one hand, western capitalist ideas are flowing through India while on the other hand, traditional religious and cultural values are trying to block the western tide. Nisha Pahuja examines these issues with an objective eye and treats her subjects respectfully thereby allowing them space to bare their souls. The end result is one of the best documentary films of the year, cleverly edited and infused with a refreshing soundtrack.

3. No: Pablo Larraín’s gripping account of the 1988 plebiscite that put an end to Pinochet’s dictatorship may be rooted in Chilean history but the political issues at the core of the film are relevant to any nation trying to break free from an oppressive regime. The film also wonderfully recreates the grainy video look of the 1980’s and surprizingly contains one of the most catchy songs of the year.

4. Reality: Matteo Garrone’s film starts with a mesmerizing wide shot of Naples which depicts the vast beauty of the city and proceeds to follow a few different characters and does not settle in on one particular person. This creates the illusion that the film plans to chart the lives of multiple people. However, that illusion is shattered when the camera sets its focus on Luciano (Aniello Arena) and shuts the rest of the world out. This microscopic examination of Luciano results in a devastating case study of a man who is so blinded by his quest for fame that he starts to lose grip on reality.

Luciano bears a close resemblance to a young Robert De Niro which coupled with the film’s topic echoes De Niro’s performance in The King of Comedy. However, Martin Scorsese’s film heads into darker territory while Garrone’s film maintains an air of fantasy about it due to a dreamy musical score combined with a few Felliniesque moments. Reality is not on the same wavelength as Gomorra but it is a remarkable film about society’s obsession with celebrities and how that can cause some individuals to throw their life away.

5. Rust and Bone: Matthias Schoenaerts plays a different shade of his tough character from Bullhead. In Bullhead, Schoenaerts is a physical force of nature but one who has trouble finding love because of a past which has scarred him for life. His character is still physically imposing in Rust and Bone but he has no trouble getting love and can pick up a woman at the drop of a hat. The Dardennes' style used by Jacques Audiard ensures that Schoenaerts and Cotillard’s characters are properly showcased thereby finding beauty in moments of brutality & pain. Also, the visual style is definite proof that Marion Cotillard is gorgeous without any make-up.

A few quick notes on some other films

I unfortunately missed the opening night gala for Midnight’s Children but thankfully I caught the Black Carpet & Closing Night Gala for two other creative Canadian films. The Black Carpet Gala, Antiviral, marked the fascinating debut of Brandon Cronenberg. The film looks at a not too distance future where society’s obsession with celebrity culture results in people lining up to buy meat grown from celebrity cells and happily injecting themselves with the same virus that a celebrity has. Given current addiction to anything celebrity related, such a scenario is not entirely unbelievable so full credit to Cronenberg for extrapolating the present in such a thoughtful film. Martin Villeneuve adapted his own graphic novels for the poetic and meditative Mars et Avril, CIFF's closing night gala film. The visually beautiful Mars et Avril proves that a sci-fi film can be made without any horror or mindless action scenes. Both Brandon and Martin come from famous Canadian cinematic families as Brandon is David Cronenberg’s son while Martin is Denis Villeneuve’s brother. However, both Brandon and Martin have successfully made their own mark with their debut feature films.

Amour: For the most part, a warm film infused with plenty of humour that is hard to recognize as a Michael Haneke feature. Therefore, Haneke has included a scene or two to jolt the audience to let them know that he is still pulling the strings lest someone get too comfortable with the film.

Wrong: Quentin Dupieux’s follow-up to Rubber is a delightful leap forward and is packed with plenty of witty absurd humor.

Rebelle: This powerful film was joint winner of the CIFF narrative audience award along with My Awkward Sexual Adventure. In the hands of another director, Rebelle could have resulted in a violent film but Nguyen has ensured that the camera is not fixated on blood but instead on the characters and their plight.

My earlier preview post mentioned some of the other stellar films at this year's festival including Found Memories, The Bright Day, Unfair World, Teddy Bear, Barbara and King Curling which are some of the best films of the year.

Overall, it was another vintage year even though I missed some worthy features. Still, I preferred to properly enjoy each film as opposed to running from cinema to cinema to see 3-4 films a day, something which I regularly did in past festival editions.

L'Age D'or

My review of Luis Buñuel’s L'Age D'or is published on Wonders in the Dark as part of their Top 100 Comedy Countdown.

CIFF 2012

The Calgary International Film Festival kicks off today, Sept 20, with the much anticipated opening gala of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children and runs until Sunday, September 30. As usual, the line-up is stellar and contains a healthy dose of worthy International, Canadian & American films. Also, new this year is a spotlight on 3D which contains a dazzling list of titles. I am looking forward to discovering some new gems and will put up a final report at the end of the festival but for now, here are ten favourite films that I have already seen.

Found Memories (Argentina/Brazil/France, Júlia Murat) 

A mesmerizing film that deceptively appears as a contemplative piece but contains another layer beneath the surface. The film starts off by capturing daily rituals in a sleepy Brazilian town, routines which are slightly disrupted by the arrival of young Rita. Rita does not attempt to alter the lives of the residents too much and keeps to herself while photographing sites and the town folk. However, she does not realize that her presence is critical to the residents, something which is only apparent by the film’s end. The ending, which puts a completely different spin on the overall film perception, haunts long in the memory because it forces one to rethink the lives of the residents and why they have continued to stay in a place cut-off from the rest of the world.

 

The Bright Day (India, Mohit Takalkar)

Mohit Takalkar, an experienced theatrical director, makes his cinematic debut with a beautiful, poetic and hypnotic film. The story revolves around Shiv who leaves his home to travel across India in search of his identity. There have been many films made about characters who undergo a self-discovery journey in India but those films were from the perspective of a foreigner arriving in India. On the other hand, The Bright Day shows a born and bred Indian who leaves to travel within his country. This makes a world of difference as the film does not focus on a checklist of items that must be shown in a film about India but instead dives deeply to uncover the torment that the main protagonist experiences. The visuals are striking as is the use of background music to enhance the film’s mythical tale. Plus, there are some smart touches such as using the same actor Mohan Agashe to play different characters that highlights how Shiv perceives people around him.

 

Unfair World (Greece/Germany, Filippos Tsitos)

This smart Greek film shows how two cops efforts to save an innocent person leads to murder thereby forcing them to cover their tracks. Each frame is packed with absurd comedic moments which are slowly revealed as the camera movements act like a drawn out punch line. The film’s comedic style is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki, Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) and the recent wave of Greek films directed by Giorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps) & Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg). Appropriately, Unfair World stars Christos Stergioglou who played the father in Dogtooth. The film swept the top Greek Academy awards this year and is Greece’s foreign film submission to next year’s Academy Awards.

 

Teddy Bear (Denmark, Mads Matthiesen)

A charming and delightful film that depicts an award winning bodybuilder who not only lives with his mother but is afraid of her. Despite his hulk like appearance, he has no luck with love. So he decides to fly to Thailand to find a bride. This setup brings plenty of humor and credit to the director to allow events to follow naturally without any extra drama.

 

Mallamall (Canada/India, Lalita Krishna)

An excellent and timely Canadian documentary that looks at India's economic rise via the countless malls being constructed there. The film also highlights a Canadian connection crucial in developing these mega stores, something that is hardly ever seen in any newspaper headlines.

 

King Curling (Norway, Ole Endresen)

Finally, a well made curling film! This Norwegian film incorporates some of the competitive in your face humor from Dodgeball within a deadpan framework similar to that of fellow Scandinavians Bent Hamer (O’ Horten and Kitchen Stories) and Roy Anderson (Songs from the Second Floor, You, The Living).

 

Generation P (Russia/USA, Victor Ginzburg) 

This Russian film combines the fierce energy found in Night Watch, the Russian film based on Sergey Lukyanenko’s novel, with some of Mad Men’s creative advertising ideas and tops things off with a layer of religion, nationalism, philosophy and mythology. There are plenty of conspiracy ideas presented and even though not all those ideas are tied up at the end, there is plenty to chew on.

 

Barbara (Germany, Christian Petzold)

Christian Petzold’s pitch perfect film features an incredible performance from Nina Hoss in depicting life in East Germany. Hoss plays the titular character, a doctor, who is sent away from Berlin to the countryside as a punishment for seeking to leave for the West German side. The forced exile does not dampen her plans as she tries to still seek an escape to the West with her lover. However, her presence is closely monitored forcing her not to trust anyone and maintaining a distance from the hospital staff. But with time, she slowly starts to warm up to her job and starts to develop relationships which force her to rethink her situation. Petzold’s cool looking film is completely different to The Lives of Others because of its singular focus on Barbara and using her as a lens to examine others. The film is Germany’s submission to next year’s Academy Awards.

 

I Wish (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda)

Hirokazu Koreeda has come up with another masterful work that looks at two young siblings who are forced to live across Japan due to their parent’s separation. It is always amazing to see how Koreeda manages to bring out such rich performances from his child actors. His style ensures that the acting is natural and the film maintains a perfect emotional tone without resorting to melodrama.

 

The Dynamiter (USA, Matthew Gordon) 

The film follows a young teenager Robbie who is forced to fend for himself and his younger brother in a harsh and unforgiving environment after the mother leaves the family. It is a steep learning curve for 14 year old Robbie as he finds himself as man of the house and at first, his actions and behavior land him in some trouble. But his teacher gives Robbie a chance to atone for his stealing and poor grades by asking Robbie to write an essay that will allow him to graduate. Robbie tries his best but his task is made harder by the arrival of an elder brother who is not the role mode that Robbie once thought. Full credit to director Matthew Gordon for maintaining a sense of hope in depicting the kids which makes for a fascinating character study. The Dynamiter is a visually stunning award winning film that belongs to the same category of New Realist American cinema such as Ballast and Wendy and Lucy, films that show a true slice of American life by focusing on characters completely absent from the big Hollywood productions.

 

The Samurai Trilogy

Criterion's release of Hiroshi Inagaki's The Samurai Trilogy this past summer is certainly a worthy event. While there have been many Samurai films, Inagaki's films stand out because of Toshiro Mifune's performance and the source material of the films. The films are based on Musashi Miyamoto's highly influential The Book of Five Rings. William Scott Wilson, who has written a biography of Miyamoto Musashi, sums up the interest in the book:

Since Musashi engaged in more than sixty duels during his lifetime and was never defeated, it may not be surprising that The Book of Five Rings is fundamentally a book about conflict and victory. It has long been revered not only by swordsmen but also by practitioners of karate, aikido, and other martial arts. However, The Book of Five Rings has found a much broader readership in recent years. Since its first English translation, its study has been touted as the equivalent of an MBA in Japanese business strategy—a competitive art, to be sure. At least one Japanese major-league pitcher keeps the book by his bedside for constant reference. Anyone whose life involves conflict may benefit from studying the techniques laid out in this slender volume.

Wilson also outlines some of the key principles in the book.

At the end of the first chapter of The Book of Five Rings, Musashi sums up his rules for understanding his style and putting it into practice:

1. Think in honest and direct terms.
2. Forge yourself in the Way.
3. Touch upon all the arts.
4. Know the Ways of all occupations.
5. Know the advantages and disadvantages of everything.
6. Develop a discerning eye in all matters.
7. Understand what cannot be seen by the eye.
8. Pay attention even to small things.
9. Do not involve yourself with the impractical.

Four other key points Musashi emphasizes in the book are as follows.
.....
The Way of Swordsmanship Is to Win
Fluidity of Mind
Psychology
The Everyday Mind

The films shown the spiritual growth in Musashi Miyamoto from a strong fighter to a pure samurai, a warrior who does not merely use his sword as a “murderous weapon” as referred to early in the second film in the trilogy. Along the way, Musashi also sheds some of his arrogance and his violent nature to adopt a more thoughtful approach in life and also towards his opponents. At the start of the trilogy, he would never back down from a fight but by the third film, he has become wiser and even instructs that sometimes it is better to run away so that one can win in the future “Lose today, win tomorrow.” The films do not show any blood but spend more time looking at characters' lives and their preparations leading to a climatic battle, which is over in a flash. As a result, the films don't glorify violence and are instead engaging character studies.

Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir is a director one encounters very early in their cinephilia journey, with The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu) most likely a first stop given that many consider the magnificent 1939 film as one of the greatest films of all time. In my case, The Rules of the Game is the only Renoir film to have played in local cinemas multiple times over the last decade. However, Renoir directed many other worthy films that I missed and so a spotlight was due in order to play catch-up. The following eight were chosen with 5 of the films part of a Renoir box-set.

1. La fille de l’eau (1925)
2. Nana (1926)
3. Bondu Saved from Drowning (1932)
4. La Grande Illusion (1937)
5. La Marseillaise (1938)
6. The River (1951)
7. The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment (1959)
8. The Elusive Corporal (1962)

Renoir is a rare director who worked in three transitions of cinema, from silent films to talkies (both black and white) to color. Each new transition comes with its own set of technical challenges but also allows a director to treat cinema as an open canvas to freely explore new ideas and techniques. In this regard, Renoir made excellent use of each cinematic mode to keenly explore behavior of characters in different rungs of French society, from the lower to upper classes, from revolutionaries to politicians, from artists to the wealthy aristocrats. Remarkably, Jean Renoir’s first color film, The River, set in India shows that he was able to carry his sharp observations into a different culture. The River is based on Rumer Godden’s experiences which explain the intimate nature of the material but a huge credit goes to Renoir for properly balancing the Indian cultural observations with a tender touch. The film appears to have been made by someone who has lived and grown up in India for years not by a foreign director such as Renoir.

This spotlight was certainly a true pleasure and reaffirmed why Jean Renoir is one of the greatest directors in Cinema. However, I still missed out on some truly worthy Renoir films going by Sam Juliano’s comments where he rates Une Partie De Campagne and La Chienne as Renoir’s great films to go along with The Rules of the Game and The Grand Illusion. Also, Sam has high praise for La Bete Humaine as well.

Note: the only reason I saw Bondu Saved From Drowning was because of the film’s appearance on the comedy countdown at Wonders in the Dark, where Ed Howard has an excellent essay outlining the film perfectly.

Mrinal Sen's The Absence Trilogy

Mrinal Sen’s The Absence Trilogy consists of Ekdin Pratidin (1979), Kharij (1982) and Ekdin Achanak (1989). The films are separated by almost a decade and made in two different languages, with the first two in Bengali and the third in Hindi. Yet, the three films are linked together. In the Seagull published book The Absence Trilogy, which consists all three screenplays, Somnath Zutshi examines the underlying connection in the trilogy.

The first is that each of these films attempts to examine the effects, on a group, of one member suddenly going missing, whether temporarily or permanently. The second is that in each of these three films, we see the past haunting the present. And the conjunction of the two consists in this: it is precisely in the manifestation of the absence, that is, in the gap that has been left behind by the one who is not there, that we see the shadow of the past fall. -- Somnath Zutshi, The Absence Trilogy

The three films examine different states of an absence, with the first film Ekdin Pratidin looking at a temporary absence when the oldest daughter in a family goes missing for one night only to return back in the early hours of the morning. The absence in the other two films are permanent and leave the family to deal with consequences of losing a key member in their lives. In Ekdin Achanak, as implied by the title (Suddenly, One Day) the father walks out of his home one day never to return. His body is never found but no one in his family believes that he will ever come back. So even though his absence is assumed to be permanent, the lack of a dead body ensures that a complete closure will never take place for the family. On the other hand, a couple find the dead body of their young servant in Kharij forcing them to deal with the consequences of the death and any responsibility they might have had.

The absence halts the lives of the families in all three films, forcing them to abandon their daily routines to examine either the past or their current situation. In Ekdin Achanak, the family has no idea why the father left so they spend their energy pouring over past incidents to search for a clue. They chase down a dead end or two, such as assuming the father ran off with a younger student, but in the end have no more insight into his absence. At the end of the film, an entire year has gone by since the father’s disappearance yet the family is still stuck in the past despite their best efforts to move on. One can assume their lives will never truly move beyond the day when the father left. On the other hand, even though the daughter returns in Ekdin Pratidin, the family will never recover their dignity and peace of mind. As indicated in the film, if a son had gone missing for the night, then not much fuss would have taken place but a girl coming late at night puts her character into question. This differential treatment of a female is not restricted to Indian culture but many nations around the world use a different judgement scale towards men and women. In many cultures, men are free to do as they please, including staying out of the house for late hours, but if a girl does that, then she is harshly punished or judged.

The trilogy offers a fascinating case study of human behavior and depicts how people are often busy trying to make ends meet without having much time for reflection or analysis of their situation. However, a critical event forces them to freeze time and truly examine their lives and relationships.

1) Ekdin Pratidin: The entire film in 10 parts.

2) Kharij / The Case is Closed

No online links for the film but the critical scene of Palan’s death can be found here.

3) Ekdin Achanak: Entire film.

Bengali Cinema

This The Absence Trilogy is part 1 of a multi-part spotlight looking at Bengali Cinema.

Tony Scott

The aftermath of Tony Scott’s shock death revealed how his films divided cinephiles and were not given much thought. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky’s excellent article points to this:

While the last few years have seen Scott embraced by a certain cinephilic community (the Cinema Scope  crowd, the Mann-Scott-Baysian "vulgar auteurists," etc.), he remains, for the most part, a director of immensely popular and commercially successful films who has never been all that popular or successful with critics or "serious film types."

I was certainly not aware of this polarization even though I should have figured something was amiss given the lack of articles exploring his works. I had seen 12 out of his 16 directed features but I couldn't remember reading a single in-depth critical analysis of his films, although many articles have now surfaced, some of which were written a few years ago. One of those older must read articles is Cinema Scope’s brilliant piece which uses Deja Vu as a jumping point to gaze at other Tony Scott features.

All the wonderful articles on Tony Scott inspired a quick film spotlight. The starting point was obviously to catch up with the 4 missing films from my viewing list, The Hunger (1983), Revenge (1990), Man on Fire (2004) and Deja Vu (2006). I revisited a few other titles to have an eight film spotlight, half of Tony’s total feature output.

The Hunger (1983)
Revenge (1990)
Days of Thunder (1990)
True Romance (1993)
Man on Fire (2004)
Domino (2005)
Deja Vu (2006)
Unstoppable (2010)

Trying to maintain control

"Control is an illusion," Kidman already said to Cruise’s NASCAR driver way back in Days of Thunder (1990), and in hindsight it seems an announcement of themes, even style. -- Cinema Scope 29

Christoph Huber and Mark Peranson hit the nail on the head with regards to “control” in Tony’s films. Obvious examples are films in which characters try to control fast moving objects such as planes in Top Gun, cars in Days of Thunder and a speeding train in Unstoppable. However, control is not limited to objects and a few of Tony Scott’s films explore emotional control. Crimson Tide is about staying calm and in control, something which is required in Domino & Man on Fire as well. On the other hand, The Hunger, True Romance & Revenge depict events that unfold when characters give in to their urges and fail to keep their emotions in check. It is incredibly difficult to maintain control when love is involved so it is not a surprize to find that a lot of Tony Scott’s films have love at their core. True Romance and Revenge are clear examples but Tony’s films are not limited to physical love but explore compassion and parental love as well. In Spy Game, Brad Pitt’s Tom Bishop puts his life in danger because of a woman (Catherine McCormack’s character of Elizabeth Hadley) while Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) puts his life savings and reputation on the line because of the father-son like relationship he shares with Bishop. A parental concern is also echoed in Man on Fire with Denzel Washington’s desire to save young Pita (Dakota Fanning). Deja Vu shows that love can manifest itself even when two people don’t share the same physical space. In the film, Denzel Washington’s Doug Carlin falls madly in love with Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton) just by looking at photos and pixels of her.

Love is present in many of Tony’s films but that emotion does not dominate the films which are jam packed with thought provoking ideas packaged in a pulsating framework. Spy Game is set against the backdrop of complicated political policies, Man on Fire looks at corruption and kidnappings in Mexico, Deja Vu examines the possibilities when space-time is folded while Domino is a fierce commentary on reality television. As a result, Scott’s films are not hollow entertainment but offer an insight into society and human behavior in general.

Top 5

There are many Tony Scott films that I have enjoyed and revisited multiples times over the years but the following would be a current rough ordering:

1. Deja Vu: The film perfectly mixes elements of Rear Window and Minority Report with a tender loving touch.

2. Spy Game: Espionage, terrorism, compassion and some clever trickery while the clock ticks away.

3. The Taking of Pelham 123

4. Unstoppable: Besides the obvious attempt to control a runaway train, the film is also a brilliant take on the modern economic crisis by showing how an employee's blind rush results in a problem that gets bigger with each passing minute. If this employee had taken an extra few minutes to properly complete his job, then a small one person problem would not have turned into a gigantic mess that impacted millions.

5. Domino

Of course, just like Deja Vu this list would have been completely different four days ago.

Final thoughts

Domino (written by Richard Kelly) and True Romance (written by Quentin Tarantino) also show that Tony Scott nicely incorporated the writers sentiments with his visual take on the material. One can observe seeds of Kelly’s Southland Tales in Domino with regards to an over hyped pop culture while Tarantino’s trademark crisp dialogues and love of movies are all over True Romance.

And lastly, if I had to pick one frame to depict the sentiment of control and speed shown in Tony Scott’s films, I would pick the wheelchair race in Days of Thunder that takes places in the hospital between Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) and Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker). In the scene, a nurse is pushing Rowdy’s wheelchair down the hall when Cole’s wheelchair enters the frame. For a few brief seconds, Cole and Rowdy find themselves side by side before Cole decides to edge his chair forward a bit. Cole’s act is a call to war for Rowdy who then pushes himself ahead. And it isn’t too long before both Cole and Rowdy are racing down the hospital in their wheelchairs. A race that started in cars continues in wheelchairs. And even if there were no wheelchairs, both characters would have still found a way to race against each other. No injury could remove the urge to speed from their DNA.

Indian Films in Sight & Sound

In Sight & Sound's 2012 poll, 39 Indian films got votes. This number only includes Indian productions or co-productions directed by Indians, such as Salaam Bombay!. Foreign co-productions such as Gandhi are not included in this number.

Aaja Nachle (2007), Anil Mehta
The Adversary (1971), Satyajit Ray
Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Manmohan Desai
Andaaz (1949), Mehboob Khan
Aparajito (1956), Satyajit Ray
Arguments and a Story or Reason, Debate and a Tale (1974), Ritwik Ghatak
Awaara (1951), Raj Kapoor
The Bogey-Man (1980), Govindan Aravindan
Charulata (1964), Satyajit Ray
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960), Ritwik Ghatak
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), Satyajit Ray
Devdas (1955), Bimal Roy
Dil Se… (1998), Mani Ratnam
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Aditya Chopra
Distant Thunder (1973), Satyajit Ray
The Duo (1997), Mani Ratnam
The Emperor of the Mughals (1960)/Mughal-E-Azam, K. Asif
The Golden Thread (1965), Ritwik Ghatak
Johnny Gaddaar (2007), Sriram Raghavan
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Guru Dutt
Kalpana (1948), Uday Shankar
Mahal (1949), Kamal Amrohi
Man of the Story (1996), Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Maqbool (2004), Vishal Bharadwaj
Mother India (1957), Mehboob Khan
The Music Room (1958), Satyajit Ray
Om Dar-ba-Dar (1988), Kamal Swaroop
Our Daily Bread (1970)/Uski Roti, Mani Kaul
Pakeezah (1972), Kamal Amrohi
Pather Panchali (1955), Satyajit Ray
Pyaasa (1957), Guru Dutt
Rang De Basanti (2005), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
A River Called Titas (1973), Ritwik Ghatak
Saint Tukaram (1936), Vishnupant Govind Damle, Sheikh Fattelal
Salaam Bombay! (1988), Mira Nair
Sholay (1975), Ramesh Sippy
Siddheshwari (1989), Mani Kaul
Teesri Kasam (1966), Basu Bhattacharya
The World of Apu (1958), Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak have the most film mentions with 8 and 4 respectively. In total, Satyajit Ray’s films got 56 votes from critics (plus 17 director votes) while Ghatak’s films got 12 votes (plus 6 director votes). For many Western Critics, Indian cinema starts and ends with Ray and Ghatak, so it is not a surprize to discover these two directors have the most votes. Thankfully, Guru Dutt & Mani Kaul are included in the poll albeit with a tiny number. Guru Dutt’s 2 films got a total of 9 votes from critics while Mani Kaul's 2 films got a single vote each. Sadly, there are no mentions for Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen or Gulzar, something that feels worse considering that Aditya Chopra & Anil Mehta got one vote each. In another decade, Anurag Kashyap will likely be included and Amit Dutta might get a mention if he continues to make films.

Shyam Benegal

"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.

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.

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.

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.