[Climatic Scene of 2008: A football odyssey]
The Hero walks into a room packed with 88 opponents. The young Hero is brave and confident and calmly proceeds to take on each opponent one by one. After he has dispatched about 40 or so men, he is still standing strong yet panting a little. However, by the time he has taken out 66 men, he is clearly tired. Unfortunately, there is no time for rest as the Hero only came by himself, leaving all his sidekicks home. Also, some of the Hero's sidekicks were still nursing their wounds from previous battles. The last 12 opponents prove to be quite tough for the hero as he is repeatedly beaten up and injured.
The Hero is knocked out and finds himself lying on the floor, almost lifeless. Just before his eyes shut, he remembers why he is fighting in the first place. He is fighting for a better future, a future where good and virtue would prevail. Images of his 19 year old son flash before his eyes, and with the speed and agility of a young boy, he gets up and knocks out the 88th person. Victory is achieved. Or so the hero thinks.
A rule for an action movie is to only celebrate when all the corpses have been confirmed terminated. One never turns their back on some half-dead opponents. As the Hero is limping away, one solitary opponent rises and delivers one final blow to the hero. The hero is knocked unconscious. The room doors open and in walks Fernaldooney, an old rival of the hero. Fernaldooney looks at the lying body of the hero and is delighted. He can finally put his rival to rest.
[Flashback]: The Hero and Fernaldooney have a long history of rivalry. In total, the two have been involved in 202 fights with Fernaldooney winning 81 and the hero claiming 76 wins. The remaining 45 fights had to be abandoned for various reasons like the arrival of police, etc. However, in the last 13 Premier fights Fernaldooney and the Hero are tied with each claiming 4 wins & the remaining 5 bouts drawn. There have been some memorable victories claimed by each rival with the Hero winning historic fights in 1998, 2002 and even in 2006/2007 while also suffering some humiliating defeats as well. Also, there was one fight in 2004 where Fernaldooney cheated and won a fight unfairly. [End Flashback]
Fernaldooney feels no threat from the Hero and is moving in for the final kick. However, the camera pans towards the ground and shows slight movement in the hero's right hand.
###@@@@@@ ##%#%#%#%# Missing Reel ##%#%#%##$###%#$######
[End. Roll credits]
Confused Audience Member #1: "What the f*** was that about?"
Audience Member #2: "Damn. That bastard Tyler Durden took the final reel home, again!"
Audience Member #1: "Who the hell is Tyler Durden?"
AM #2: "You know that guy who worked over at Fincher's Club F. on 19th and 99th"
AM #1: "Nope, no idea who he is."
AM#2: "Well he often takes reels from movies and then splices them on matinee shows on Sat and Sun."
AM#1: "So when will this reel show up?"
Audience Member #3: "I believe going by his track record, he might show it on a morning show on Sunday."
AM #2: "At this theater?"
AM #3: "No, probably at Theater D"
AM #1: "Well, hopefully the ending is worth it"
AM #2: "Yeah who knows, if things go good for the Hero, there might even be a sequel."
AM #1: "Who knows. The Hero was pretty badly bruised."
AM #2: "Yeah. But come on, who does not like a happy ending?"
Am #1: "Well, let's see what Sunday brings."
Friday, April 11, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
A story revisited.....
The Story: The Gallant Mane
Author: Anonymous. The story was mysteriously found near the old garbage dump in the borough of Islington.
A quick scan of the story reveals the following:
Hero: A young fast horse named The Red Mane. The horse's name comes from the combination of two French movies by Albert Lamorisse -- The Red Balloon and White Mane.
Villains: 4 horses named Mud, Chester, Ringo & Spurtz. Also, an unknown mystery man named Raul Bendez also falls under the villain role.
As per the story, the young horse Red Mane was a joy to watch as he effortlessly glided past all the other horses to win race after race. The more races he won for his owners, the more annoyed the rivals got. Just when things were looking good for the Red Mane, a minor stumble resulted. In the middle of the regular Premier Stallion Championship, the Red Mane's team accepted an invitation to participate in a charity trophy. There the Red Mane came across his rival Spurtz. Red Mane held an amazing record over Spurtz in that he had finished ahead of Spurtz in 21 previous attempts. But on this charity trophy event, Spurtz finished 4 seconds ahead of Red Mane. Such a margin was a huge shock but Red Mane's owners dismissed it as meaningless as it was just a charity trophy. The real prize lay in the Premier and European crowns. However, a few weeks after the charity loss, Red Mane lost yet another trophy, this time a friendly association title to rival Mud by once again a 4 second margin. Questions were being asked about Red Mane's capacity. Was the young horse getting burnt out? Or was the jockey not able to control Red Mane?
The management team decided to bring in a young fresh jockey (Alves) for a Premier race to shake things up. Unfortunately tragedy struck just 3 meters after the horses left the gate. The worst horse on the track, the old aging Maylor, charged towards Red Mane. Maylor raised his front two legs and knocked the young Alves off Red Mane. As Alves was knocked off & his legs were caught in the saddle, Maylor stomped on Alves. The sight of a 1500 pound horse falling on Alves made everyone present in the stands cringe. As per some rumours, Red Mane witnessed his new owner crying out in pain and even shed a tear.
After the tragedy, the owners of Red Mane struggled to find a new jockey. They cycled through 4 jockeys in the next few races but lost all of the races Nothing worked. They turned to a trusted experienced jockey only to lose a 5th straight race, this time to Chester. Things were getting grim for the owners of Red Mane. They had banked heavily on Red Mane pulling them through the year and had even released their other experienced horses and jockeys in the off season. Debate raged among the owners on what to do regarding the fate of Red Mane. Some said that the horse was done, burnt out, finished and should be laid to rest. Others wanted to give Red Mane some time.
It was agreed that the European crown was the final chance for Red Mane to shine. Unfortunately, some owners did not want to take a chance. They talked about bringing in the cold executioner Raul Bendez.
The Myth of Raul: The Spaniard Bendez, born in Madrid, was considered by some to be a cold executioner who could put down any horse without blinking. He was known to always formulate a perfect poison to kill each horse based on each horse's weight and age. Bendez was known to have studied his art of killing under the famed Hungarian Keyser Söze. Söze's greatest trick was to convince the world that he that never existed. Bendez learned from Söze and devised a poison that some say never existed, meaning his so called poison was just a placebo. His critics believed Bendez merely showed up at a stable in a white coat and glasses, had a syringe with no poison, injected the horse and by pure luck, the horse went down maybe due to fear. Others claimed that as nonsense and vouched that Bendez did indeed brew a vicious poison. Bendez made his career by putting down a prized horse named Rosso and from then on was respected in the industry. There are others who have a different version on the death of Rosso. They say after Bendez injected the horse, nothing happened. The horse in fact kicked into life and tried to run out of the stable. But as the horse was running out, a bucket from a height of 6 meters fell onto Rosso's head, bounced off his head and settled into a corner on some hay. Slowly and quietly Rosso fell on his knees and died. It is believed that the bucket killed Rosso but others say it was all part of Bendez's plan. The legend of Bendez grew from there.
So the owners of Red Mane wanted to use Bendez to put down their prized horse rather than face a possible defeat in the upcoming European crown race. This European race was to be held at a venue where Red Mane had failed to win the previous 4 Premier races, although Red Mane won Charity trophies within the last year at that ground. The venue was known for its beautiful architecture and contained an entire stand made out of copper and known as the copper end. Since the eyes of the European elite were focused on this race, defeat here would be costly. Plans were drafted to bring in Bendez. However, Red Mane's coach came up with a compromise. He proposed that if upon seeing Bendez approach with a syringe, if his horse kicked his leg and showed signs of life, he should be allowed to live. Otherwise, he would accept whatever the owners proposed.
Moments before the European Race, Bendez entered the stable in a white coat with his patent goggles. As he quietly approached Red Mane, Bendez had a giant syringe in his hands. When Bendez was just 12 inches away from Red Mane, the horse kicked both his hind legs. Suddenly, Red Mane's coach exclaimed that the young horse still had some life so he should be given another chance. Reluctantly, the owners allowed Red Mane to compete in the prestigious European Crown race. Red Mane started off slowly in the race but never lost sight of his main challenger Ringo at any point during the course. As the horses came down the final stretch, Red Mane inched ahead of Ringo. With 6 meters to go, victory appeared to be Red Mane's until shockingly, the horse stumbled and fell on his knees. Ringo raced onto victory, much to the joy of the copper end faithful. Questions were asked on how Red Mane stumbled? There are some that say a mysterious man in the crowd appeared to throw something in the path of Red Mane. No one can confirm this rumour but those people swear that this man did exist and was dressed in a black trench coat and appeared to be a character out of the Swedish film The Seventh Seal. Others say that the problem lay in the middle portion of the race when Red Mane missed some glaring chances to pull ahead and was pegged back. Interestingly, the outcome of the race only increased the myth of Bendez. His supporters believed that Red Mane was already fading away but only kicked into life before the race thanks to Bendez -- the mere sight of Raul allowed the horse to live on borrowed time. Critics of Bendez argued that Bendez was brought in to quietly put down Red Mane but he was unable to do so because Red Mane kicked his legs of his own accord and didn't allow himself to be injected. The truth may not matter as history is mostly written by those win, leaving Red Mane and his owners to quietly accept the bitter outcome.
The owners of Red Mane decided to hold a crisis meeting that very night. They were concerned that their prized horse had lost a race to all his 4 major rivals through the course of a few months. In fact, the horse had only won 2 of the last 12 races it took part in all competitions and they had to decide what to do regarding the future. The meeting lasted throughout the night and after 8.5 hours, a decision was reached.
The Ending: Unfortunately, the story mysteriously ends here. The strange thing is that after the above words, there are exactly 5 blank pages to be found. It is unclear if those pages were meant to be filled in or if the ink faded away? Either way, the story is left without any ending. Maybe in an alternate universe, the missing 5 pages exist and might point towards a happy ending.
Author: Anonymous. The story was mysteriously found near the old garbage dump in the borough of Islington.
A quick scan of the story reveals the following:
Hero: A young fast horse named The Red Mane. The horse's name comes from the combination of two French movies by Albert Lamorisse -- The Red Balloon and White Mane.
Villains: 4 horses named Mud, Chester, Ringo & Spurtz. Also, an unknown mystery man named Raul Bendez also falls under the villain role.
As per the story, the young horse Red Mane was a joy to watch as he effortlessly glided past all the other horses to win race after race. The more races he won for his owners, the more annoyed the rivals got. Just when things were looking good for the Red Mane, a minor stumble resulted. In the middle of the regular Premier Stallion Championship, the Red Mane's team accepted an invitation to participate in a charity trophy. There the Red Mane came across his rival Spurtz. Red Mane held an amazing record over Spurtz in that he had finished ahead of Spurtz in 21 previous attempts. But on this charity trophy event, Spurtz finished 4 seconds ahead of Red Mane. Such a margin was a huge shock but Red Mane's owners dismissed it as meaningless as it was just a charity trophy. The real prize lay in the Premier and European crowns. However, a few weeks after the charity loss, Red Mane lost yet another trophy, this time a friendly association title to rival Mud by once again a 4 second margin. Questions were being asked about Red Mane's capacity. Was the young horse getting burnt out? Or was the jockey not able to control Red Mane?
The management team decided to bring in a young fresh jockey (Alves) for a Premier race to shake things up. Unfortunately tragedy struck just 3 meters after the horses left the gate. The worst horse on the track, the old aging Maylor, charged towards Red Mane. Maylor raised his front two legs and knocked the young Alves off Red Mane. As Alves was knocked off & his legs were caught in the saddle, Maylor stomped on Alves. The sight of a 1500 pound horse falling on Alves made everyone present in the stands cringe. As per some rumours, Red Mane witnessed his new owner crying out in pain and even shed a tear.
After the tragedy, the owners of Red Mane struggled to find a new jockey. They cycled through 4 jockeys in the next few races but lost all of the races Nothing worked. They turned to a trusted experienced jockey only to lose a 5th straight race, this time to Chester. Things were getting grim for the owners of Red Mane. They had banked heavily on Red Mane pulling them through the year and had even released their other experienced horses and jockeys in the off season. Debate raged among the owners on what to do regarding the fate of Red Mane. Some said that the horse was done, burnt out, finished and should be laid to rest. Others wanted to give Red Mane some time.
It was agreed that the European crown was the final chance for Red Mane to shine. Unfortunately, some owners did not want to take a chance. They talked about bringing in the cold executioner Raul Bendez.
The Myth of Raul: The Spaniard Bendez, born in Madrid, was considered by some to be a cold executioner who could put down any horse without blinking. He was known to always formulate a perfect poison to kill each horse based on each horse's weight and age. Bendez was known to have studied his art of killing under the famed Hungarian Keyser Söze. Söze's greatest trick was to convince the world that he that never existed. Bendez learned from Söze and devised a poison that some say never existed, meaning his so called poison was just a placebo. His critics believed Bendez merely showed up at a stable in a white coat and glasses, had a syringe with no poison, injected the horse and by pure luck, the horse went down maybe due to fear. Others claimed that as nonsense and vouched that Bendez did indeed brew a vicious poison. Bendez made his career by putting down a prized horse named Rosso and from then on was respected in the industry. There are others who have a different version on the death of Rosso. They say after Bendez injected the horse, nothing happened. The horse in fact kicked into life and tried to run out of the stable. But as the horse was running out, a bucket from a height of 6 meters fell onto Rosso's head, bounced off his head and settled into a corner on some hay. Slowly and quietly Rosso fell on his knees and died. It is believed that the bucket killed Rosso but others say it was all part of Bendez's plan. The legend of Bendez grew from there.
So the owners of Red Mane wanted to use Bendez to put down their prized horse rather than face a possible defeat in the upcoming European crown race. This European race was to be held at a venue where Red Mane had failed to win the previous 4 Premier races, although Red Mane won Charity trophies within the last year at that ground. The venue was known for its beautiful architecture and contained an entire stand made out of copper and known as the copper end. Since the eyes of the European elite were focused on this race, defeat here would be costly. Plans were drafted to bring in Bendez. However, Red Mane's coach came up with a compromise. He proposed that if upon seeing Bendez approach with a syringe, if his horse kicked his leg and showed signs of life, he should be allowed to live. Otherwise, he would accept whatever the owners proposed.
Moments before the European Race, Bendez entered the stable in a white coat with his patent goggles. As he quietly approached Red Mane, Bendez had a giant syringe in his hands. When Bendez was just 12 inches away from Red Mane, the horse kicked both his hind legs. Suddenly, Red Mane's coach exclaimed that the young horse still had some life so he should be given another chance. Reluctantly, the owners allowed Red Mane to compete in the prestigious European Crown race. Red Mane started off slowly in the race but never lost sight of his main challenger Ringo at any point during the course. As the horses came down the final stretch, Red Mane inched ahead of Ringo. With 6 meters to go, victory appeared to be Red Mane's until shockingly, the horse stumbled and fell on his knees. Ringo raced onto victory, much to the joy of the copper end faithful. Questions were asked on how Red Mane stumbled? There are some that say a mysterious man in the crowd appeared to throw something in the path of Red Mane. No one can confirm this rumour but those people swear that this man did exist and was dressed in a black trench coat and appeared to be a character out of the Swedish film The Seventh Seal. Others say that the problem lay in the middle portion of the race when Red Mane missed some glaring chances to pull ahead and was pegged back. Interestingly, the outcome of the race only increased the myth of Bendez. His supporters believed that Red Mane was already fading away but only kicked into life before the race thanks to Bendez -- the mere sight of Raul allowed the horse to live on borrowed time. Critics of Bendez argued that Bendez was brought in to quietly put down Red Mane but he was unable to do so because Red Mane kicked his legs of his own accord and didn't allow himself to be injected. The truth may not matter as history is mostly written by those win, leaving Red Mane and his owners to quietly accept the bitter outcome.
The owners of Red Mane decided to hold a crisis meeting that very night. They were concerned that their prized horse had lost a race to all his 4 major rivals through the course of a few months. In fact, the horse had only won 2 of the last 12 races it took part in all competitions and they had to decide what to do regarding the future. The meeting lasted throughout the night and after 8.5 hours, a decision was reached.
The Ending: Unfortunately, the story mysteriously ends here. The strange thing is that after the above words, there are exactly 5 blank pages to be found. It is unclear if those pages were meant to be filled in or if the ink faded away? Either way, the story is left without any ending. Maybe in an alternate universe, the missing 5 pages exist and might point towards a happy ending.
Asian spotlight: India, part I
Part I: Books
Currently, we are in the third phase of the Western fascination with India over the course of the last century. The first phase took place during the British occupation and its "Raj" rule over India. The second phase started sometime in the 1960's when India's spirituality was deemed the cool thing in the West. Also, the Indian beaches of Goa, Madras and Kerala formed a trilogy of hot spots in South Asian adventure travels through the late 60's and early 70's. But then the changing political situation with the emergency rule and India's increasingly closed economy put it off the international map from the mid 70's through the 1980's. In the early 1990's when the Indian economy first opened to let Western corporations in, the Americanization of India started. However, it wasn't until the year 2000 did things really kick in gear. The outsourcing of computer jobs to solve the Y2K computer bug meant that India was able to provide a valuable service to the West. The third phase started around this time. After the Y2K work was over, India's contribution did not go unnoticed. Ofcourse, in a capitalist economy profit is king. So the cheap Indian labour certainly made Western eyes gleam and the outsourcing of jobs began in earnest. Along with jobs came foreign investment and investors seeking to maximize their profits by tapping into a new eager consumer market.
Nowadays, not a single day goes by when India is not in the headlines. The business sections of newspapers often talk about India and the emerging Asian sector and what it means to the West. Even today, The Globe and Mail has started a new series called "Made in India" to look at some of India's biggest companies. And bookstores have plenty of books about India, looking to provide the inside story about the "World's largest democracy".
Here's a look at three recent books:
In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce
Luce is well aware of the number of books that get written about India. So he begins with these words: This book is not about a love affair with the culture and antiquities of India. I have read too many paeans to India by foreigners to have any thoughts of adding to that extensive list. It is about the changing political economy and society of a country whose future will increasingly affect the rest of the world.
Indeed, his book is a good look at the Indian economy & society and covers aspects such as corruption, law & order, religious conflicts, nuclear power, political parties, class hierarchies, etc. What impressed me the most was Luce's covering of two topics that I have not seen in print but only seen covered by a few Bollywood films:
1) Kidnapings in Bihar: Bihar is considered a hot-bed of politics, a state where the political mind is fired up in college itself. There are plenty of politicians in Bihar who may not know how to read or write but understand the limitations of law so much so that they can bend it. Ofcourse, I learned all this first from watching Indian movies. When it comes to Bihar, Prakash Jha completely understands the state. His well made films go beyond the news headlines and show the reality of Bihar's criminal and political life. For example, Gangaajal shows how corruption in Bihar can reduce law officers to take matters into their own hands; his 2005 film Apaharan introduced me to the topic of kidnapings in Bihar. The movie shows the political game behind the kidnapings and how a cop tries to get to its root. Edward Luce dives into the social conditions of Bihar and examines this topic in good detail.
2) Encounter killings: Once again, I first heard of this through Bollywood films. The law system in India is flawed and slow. So criminals caught by the police often find themselves freed quickly and back on the street to commit more crimes. This frustration led (leads?) a few rogue police officers to execute the criminals by making the killing look like an "encounter" or a confrontation. Often the bullets are found in the back of the criminals bodies as they were running away from the police officers. After they are killed, a gun is slipped into the criminals hands. The brilliant film Ab Tak Chhappan covers this topic of encounters perfectly. The title translates to "so far 56" indicating the number of criminals killed by the lead inspector in such a manner. Edward Luce meets a Bombay police cop with more than 50 encounter killings to his name and covers a lot of similar ground to that shown in the movie. Considering that Ab Tak Chhappan is produced by Ram Gopal Varma, it is not surprizing to learn that a real cop would have been used an inspiration for his movie. Varma has based his crime movies (both directed and produced ventures) Company, D, Sarkar around real life characters but he will not openly admit it as that could lead to potential law suits, yet everyone knows who his characters are based on.
Edward Luce has spent time doing his research and each chapter is properly dedicated to a specific topic.
Planet India by Mira Kamdar
On the other hand, Mira Kamdar's book covers a vast amount of topics, often giving them just a page or two. Her book makes for a quick reading and can allow someone to believe they are an expert on modern India after a mere 2 hour read. She covers the entertainment industry (films, animation, etc), clothing sector (FabIndia gets the credit it deserves) and Technological side (Infosys, covered in great depth in Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, makes an appearance) along with nods towards the rural and agricultural life in India. One topic that Mira Kamdar covers that Luce did not is regarding the influence of genetically modified crops on the Indian agricultural industry and how poor yields has led to suicides among farmers.
Both Kamdar and Luce also talk about the damage to the environment from India's rapid growth, as that is indeed a pressing issue. However, one disappointment I have of both books is that they disregard the topics regarding how Western companies are attempting to steal & patent Indian crops and farming techniques. Vandana Shiva has been a voice in this fight for almost a decade now. Even tough Mira Kamdar heads into the direction of such a topic, she steers clear of any controversy. Edward Luce does not even talk about this. Why is this topic important? One of the problems facing India as it grows at a fast pace is how to sustain its population and food supply is an important piece of the puzzle. If there are influences that can limit the Indian food supply and even hamper the export of such crops outside the nation, then that would lead to food shortages in the country and dent the income received via exports.
The elephant, the tiger, and the cell phone by Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor is a well known writer whose older book India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond gives an excellent insight into the complex Indian landscape and its turbulent history. In The elephant, the tiger, and the cell phone, a collection of essays, he looks at the current growing Indian economy while revisiting some of the topics he touched upon in his earlier book India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond. Most of the essays are only 2 pages in length and make for a quick read. Interestingly, Tharoor also talks about the Edward Luce and Mira Kamdar book and includes his praise and shortcomings about both efforts.
Currently, we are in the third phase of the Western fascination with India over the course of the last century. The first phase took place during the British occupation and its "Raj" rule over India. The second phase started sometime in the 1960's when India's spirituality was deemed the cool thing in the West. Also, the Indian beaches of Goa, Madras and Kerala formed a trilogy of hot spots in South Asian adventure travels through the late 60's and early 70's. But then the changing political situation with the emergency rule and India's increasingly closed economy put it off the international map from the mid 70's through the 1980's. In the early 1990's when the Indian economy first opened to let Western corporations in, the Americanization of India started. However, it wasn't until the year 2000 did things really kick in gear. The outsourcing of computer jobs to solve the Y2K computer bug meant that India was able to provide a valuable service to the West. The third phase started around this time. After the Y2K work was over, India's contribution did not go unnoticed. Ofcourse, in a capitalist economy profit is king. So the cheap Indian labour certainly made Western eyes gleam and the outsourcing of jobs began in earnest. Along with jobs came foreign investment and investors seeking to maximize their profits by tapping into a new eager consumer market.
Nowadays, not a single day goes by when India is not in the headlines. The business sections of newspapers often talk about India and the emerging Asian sector and what it means to the West. Even today, The Globe and Mail has started a new series called "Made in India" to look at some of India's biggest companies. And bookstores have plenty of books about India, looking to provide the inside story about the "World's largest democracy".
Here's a look at three recent books:
Luce is well aware of the number of books that get written about India. So he begins with these words: This book is not about a love affair with the culture and antiquities of India. I have read too many paeans to India by foreigners to have any thoughts of adding to that extensive list. It is about the changing political economy and society of a country whose future will increasingly affect the rest of the world.
Indeed, his book is a good look at the Indian economy & society and covers aspects such as corruption, law & order, religious conflicts, nuclear power, political parties, class hierarchies, etc. What impressed me the most was Luce's covering of two topics that I have not seen in print but only seen covered by a few Bollywood films:
1) Kidnapings in Bihar: Bihar is considered a hot-bed of politics, a state where the political mind is fired up in college itself. There are plenty of politicians in Bihar who may not know how to read or write but understand the limitations of law so much so that they can bend it. Ofcourse, I learned all this first from watching Indian movies. When it comes to Bihar, Prakash Jha completely understands the state. His well made films go beyond the news headlines and show the reality of Bihar's criminal and political life. For example, Gangaajal shows how corruption in Bihar can reduce law officers to take matters into their own hands; his 2005 film Apaharan introduced me to the topic of kidnapings in Bihar. The movie shows the political game behind the kidnapings and how a cop tries to get to its root. Edward Luce dives into the social conditions of Bihar and examines this topic in good detail.
2) Encounter killings: Once again, I first heard of this through Bollywood films. The law system in India is flawed and slow. So criminals caught by the police often find themselves freed quickly and back on the street to commit more crimes. This frustration led (leads?) a few rogue police officers to execute the criminals by making the killing look like an "encounter" or a confrontation. Often the bullets are found in the back of the criminals bodies as they were running away from the police officers. After they are killed, a gun is slipped into the criminals hands. The brilliant film Ab Tak Chhappan covers this topic of encounters perfectly. The title translates to "so far 56" indicating the number of criminals killed by the lead inspector in such a manner. Edward Luce meets a Bombay police cop with more than 50 encounter killings to his name and covers a lot of similar ground to that shown in the movie. Considering that Ab Tak Chhappan is produced by Ram Gopal Varma, it is not surprizing to learn that a real cop would have been used an inspiration for his movie. Varma has based his crime movies (both directed and produced ventures) Company, D, Sarkar around real life characters but he will not openly admit it as that could lead to potential law suits, yet everyone knows who his characters are based on.
Edward Luce has spent time doing his research and each chapter is properly dedicated to a specific topic.
On the other hand, Mira Kamdar's book covers a vast amount of topics, often giving them just a page or two. Her book makes for a quick reading and can allow someone to believe they are an expert on modern India after a mere 2 hour read. She covers the entertainment industry (films, animation, etc), clothing sector (FabIndia gets the credit it deserves) and Technological side (Infosys, covered in great depth in Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, makes an appearance) along with nods towards the rural and agricultural life in India. One topic that Mira Kamdar covers that Luce did not is regarding the influence of genetically modified crops on the Indian agricultural industry and how poor yields has led to suicides among farmers.
Both Kamdar and Luce also talk about the damage to the environment from India's rapid growth, as that is indeed a pressing issue. However, one disappointment I have of both books is that they disregard the topics regarding how Western companies are attempting to steal & patent Indian crops and farming techniques. Vandana Shiva has been a voice in this fight for almost a decade now. Even tough Mira Kamdar heads into the direction of such a topic, she steers clear of any controversy. Edward Luce does not even talk about this. Why is this topic important? One of the problems facing India as it grows at a fast pace is how to sustain its population and food supply is an important piece of the puzzle. If there are influences that can limit the Indian food supply and even hamper the export of such crops outside the nation, then that would lead to food shortages in the country and dent the income received via exports.
Shashi Tharoor is a well known writer whose older book India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond gives an excellent insight into the complex Indian landscape and its turbulent history. In The elephant, the tiger, and the cell phone, a collection of essays, he looks at the current growing Indian economy while revisiting some of the topics he touched upon in his earlier book India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond. Most of the essays are only 2 pages in length and make for a quick read. Interestingly, Tharoor also talks about the Edward Luce and Mira Kamdar book and includes his praise and shortcomings about both efforts.
It's official
The story The Gallant Mane does not have a happy ending after all. Red Mane is cruelly put down with the sinister Raul Bendez laughing. There are rumours that Red Mane was cheated out of his final two races, most notably thanks to two people --a Dutch and a Swede. The invisible arms reached out and made a difference.
For now, silencio.
Fade to Black.
For now, silencio.
Fade to Black.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Once Upon a Time.....
The Story: The Gallant Mane
Author: Anonymous. The story was mysteriously found near the old garbage dump in the borough of Islington.
A quick scan of the story reveals the following:
Hero: A young fast horse named The Red Mane. The horse's name comes from the combination of two French movie titles by Albert Lamorisse -- The Red Balloon and White Mane.
Villains: 4 horses named Mud, Chester, Ringo & Spurtz. Also, an unknown mystery man named Raul Bendez also falls under the villain role.
As per the story, the young horse Red Mane was a joy to watch as he effortlessly glided past all the other horses to win race after race. The more races he won for his owners, the more annoyed the rivals got. Just when things were looking good for the Red Mane, a minor stumble resulted. In the middle of the regular Premier Stallion Championship, the Red Mane's team accepted an invitation to participate in a charity trophy. There the Red Mane came across his rival Spurtz. Red Mane held an amazing record over Spurtz in that he had finished ahead of Spurtz in 21 previous attempts. But on this charity trophy event, Spurtz finished 4 seconds ahead of Red Mane. Such a margin was a huge shock but Red Mane's owners dismissed it as meaningless as it was just a charity trophy. The real prize lay in the Premier and European crowns. However, a few weeks after the charity loss, Red Mane lost yet another trophy, this time a friendly association title to rival Mud by once again a 4second margin. Questions were being asked about Red Mane's capacity. Was the young horse getting burnt out? Or was the jockey not able to control Red Mane?
The management team decided to bring in a young fresh jockey (Alves) for a Premier race to shake things up. Unfortunately tragedy struck just 3 meters after the horses left the gate. The worst horse on the track, the old aging Maylor charged towards Red Mane. Maylor raised his front two legs and knocked the young Alves off Red Mane. As Alves was knocked off & his legs were caught in the saddle, Maylor stomped on Alves. The sight of a 1500 pound horse falling on Alves made everyone present in the stands cringe. As per some rumours, Red Mane witnessed his new owner crying out in pain and even shed a tear.
After the tragedy, the owners of Red Mane struggled to find a new jockey. They cycled through 4 jockeys in the next few races but lost all of the races Nothing worked. They turned to a trusted experienced jockey only to lose a 5th straight race, this time to Chester. Things were getting grim for the owners of Red Mane. They had banked heavily on Red Mane pulling them through the year and had even released their other experienced horses and jockeys in the off season. Debate raged among the owners on what to do regarding the fate of Red Mane. Some said that the horse was done, burnt out, finished and should be laid to rest. Others wanted to give Red Mane some time.
It was agreed that the European crown was the final chance for Red Mane to shine. Unfortunately, some owners did not want to take a chance. They talked about bringing in the cold executioner Raul Bendez.
The Myth of Raul: The Spaniard Bendez, born in Madrid, was considered by some to be a cold executioner who could put down any horse without blinking. He was known to always formulate a perfect poison to kill each horse based on each horse's weight and age. Bendez was known to have studied his art of killing under the famed Hungarian Keyser Söze. Söze's greatest trick was to convince the world that he that never existed. Bendez learned from Söze and devised a poison that some say never existed, meaning his so called poison was just a placebo. His critics believed Bendez merely showed up at a stable in a white coat and glasses, had a syringe with no poison, injected the horse and by pure luck, the horse went down maybe due to fear. Others claimed that as nonsense and vouched that Bendez did indeed brew a vicious poison. Bendez made his career by putting down a prized horse named Rosso and from then on was respected in the industry. There are others who have a different version on the death of Rosso. They say after Bendez injected the horse, nothing happened. The horse in fact kicked into life and tried to run out of the stable. But as the horse was running out, a bucket from a height of 6 meters fell onto Rosso's head, bounced off his head and settled into a corner on some hay. Slowly and quietly Rosso fell on his knees and died. It is believed that the bucket killed Rosso but others say it was all part of Bendez's plan. The legend of Bendez grew from there.
So the owners of Red Mane wanted to use Bendez to put down their prized horse rather than face a possible defeat in the upcoming European crown race. This European race was to be held at a venue where Red Mane had failed to win the previous 4 Premier races, although Red Mane won Charity trophies within the last year at that ground. The venue was known for its beautiful architecture and contained an entire stand made out of copper and known as the copper end. Since the eyes of the European elite were focused on this race, defeat here would be costly. Plans were drafted to bring in Bendez. However, Red Mane's coach came up with a compromise. He proposed that if upon seeing Bendez approach with a syringe, if his horse kicked his leg and showed signs of life, he should be allowed to live. Otherwise, he would accept whatever the owners proposed.
The Ending: Unfortunately, this story has no end. Mysteriously, the final page in the story is blank. Either it has not been written or it has been wiped out. So each reader is allowed to draw their own happy ending.
Author: Anonymous. The story was mysteriously found near the old garbage dump in the borough of Islington.
A quick scan of the story reveals the following:
Hero: A young fast horse named The Red Mane. The horse's name comes from the combination of two French movie titles by Albert Lamorisse -- The Red Balloon and White Mane.
Villains: 4 horses named Mud, Chester, Ringo & Spurtz. Also, an unknown mystery man named Raul Bendez also falls under the villain role.
As per the story, the young horse Red Mane was a joy to watch as he effortlessly glided past all the other horses to win race after race. The more races he won for his owners, the more annoyed the rivals got. Just when things were looking good for the Red Mane, a minor stumble resulted. In the middle of the regular Premier Stallion Championship, the Red Mane's team accepted an invitation to participate in a charity trophy. There the Red Mane came across his rival Spurtz. Red Mane held an amazing record over Spurtz in that he had finished ahead of Spurtz in 21 previous attempts. But on this charity trophy event, Spurtz finished 4 seconds ahead of Red Mane. Such a margin was a huge shock but Red Mane's owners dismissed it as meaningless as it was just a charity trophy. The real prize lay in the Premier and European crowns. However, a few weeks after the charity loss, Red Mane lost yet another trophy, this time a friendly association title to rival Mud by once again a 4second margin. Questions were being asked about Red Mane's capacity. Was the young horse getting burnt out? Or was the jockey not able to control Red Mane?
The management team decided to bring in a young fresh jockey (Alves) for a Premier race to shake things up. Unfortunately tragedy struck just 3 meters after the horses left the gate. The worst horse on the track, the old aging Maylor charged towards Red Mane. Maylor raised his front two legs and knocked the young Alves off Red Mane. As Alves was knocked off & his legs were caught in the saddle, Maylor stomped on Alves. The sight of a 1500 pound horse falling on Alves made everyone present in the stands cringe. As per some rumours, Red Mane witnessed his new owner crying out in pain and even shed a tear.
After the tragedy, the owners of Red Mane struggled to find a new jockey. They cycled through 4 jockeys in the next few races but lost all of the races Nothing worked. They turned to a trusted experienced jockey only to lose a 5th straight race, this time to Chester. Things were getting grim for the owners of Red Mane. They had banked heavily on Red Mane pulling them through the year and had even released their other experienced horses and jockeys in the off season. Debate raged among the owners on what to do regarding the fate of Red Mane. Some said that the horse was done, burnt out, finished and should be laid to rest. Others wanted to give Red Mane some time.
It was agreed that the European crown was the final chance for Red Mane to shine. Unfortunately, some owners did not want to take a chance. They talked about bringing in the cold executioner Raul Bendez.
The Myth of Raul: The Spaniard Bendez, born in Madrid, was considered by some to be a cold executioner who could put down any horse without blinking. He was known to always formulate a perfect poison to kill each horse based on each horse's weight and age. Bendez was known to have studied his art of killing under the famed Hungarian Keyser Söze. Söze's greatest trick was to convince the world that he that never existed. Bendez learned from Söze and devised a poison that some say never existed, meaning his so called poison was just a placebo. His critics believed Bendez merely showed up at a stable in a white coat and glasses, had a syringe with no poison, injected the horse and by pure luck, the horse went down maybe due to fear. Others claimed that as nonsense and vouched that Bendez did indeed brew a vicious poison. Bendez made his career by putting down a prized horse named Rosso and from then on was respected in the industry. There are others who have a different version on the death of Rosso. They say after Bendez injected the horse, nothing happened. The horse in fact kicked into life and tried to run out of the stable. But as the horse was running out, a bucket from a height of 6 meters fell onto Rosso's head, bounced off his head and settled into a corner on some hay. Slowly and quietly Rosso fell on his knees and died. It is believed that the bucket killed Rosso but others say it was all part of Bendez's plan. The legend of Bendez grew from there.
So the owners of Red Mane wanted to use Bendez to put down their prized horse rather than face a possible defeat in the upcoming European crown race. This European race was to be held at a venue where Red Mane had failed to win the previous 4 Premier races, although Red Mane won Charity trophies within the last year at that ground. The venue was known for its beautiful architecture and contained an entire stand made out of copper and known as the copper end. Since the eyes of the European elite were focused on this race, defeat here would be costly. Plans were drafted to bring in Bendez. However, Red Mane's coach came up with a compromise. He proposed that if upon seeing Bendez approach with a syringe, if his horse kicked his leg and showed signs of life, he should be allowed to live. Otherwise, he would accept whatever the owners proposed.
The Ending: Unfortunately, this story has no end. Mysteriously, the final page in the story is blank. Either it has not been written or it has been wiped out. So each reader is allowed to draw their own happy ending.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Arsenal vs Liverpool, Round 2
Time for game 2 of the Arsenal and Liverpool series. Even though it may look tiring to play the same opponent in quick succession, each game presents a different flavour and in turn a unique challenge. The first game was meant for Arsenal to gain a good advantage, maybe a 1-0 or even a two goal lead while Liverpool's intentions were to sit back and limit Arsenal to just one goal, or get an away goal themselves. The second game means more to Arsenal than Liverpool as Arsenal need 3 precious points, while a single point might do for Liverpool; the game itself should present some of the Liverpool subs with a chance to make their mark. It is only in the third game that one would see Liverpool try to attack and get a goal in front of their home crowd. Prior to the three games, Liverpool would have been happy with two goal-less draws in the first two games, with a 1-0 win in the third. In Arsenal's case, it was always about winning the three games and scoring goals. So Arsenal's task was always going to be harder, while Liverpool would be content to sit back for 2 of the three games.
History and all that:
In the 200 games that the two teams have played against each other, Liverpool hold a slight edge with 80 wins compared to Arsenal's 70 with 50 games being tied. The 10 game winning margin presents itself in the 167 league meetings between as Liverpool have 68 wins compared to Arsenal's 58. The first time these teams played each other was in the old second Division when Liverpool thumped Arsenal 5-0 back on Oct 1893. In fact, Liverpool won the first 4 meetings with Arsenal, outscoring the Gunners 12-0. It was only in 1905 when both teams were in Division 1 did Arsenal manage a 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
Historically, there have been cases where both these teams played each other more than 3 times in a season. In the 1979/80 season, the two played each other 7 times, with 4 of those games being an F.A Cup tie in the days of playing replays until a winner was found. In the 1981/82 season, the two met 4 times, while a 5 game meeting took place in that eventful 1988/89 season when Arsenal won that memorable away game to Anfield 2-0 to take the title. Arsenal played Livepool 4 times in the 1989/90 season, with another 4 games taking place last season thanks to the two Cup games in quick succession when Arsenal went to Anfield and came away with 6-3 (League Cup) and 3-1 wins (F.A Cup).
Given the number of games between Arsenal and Liverpool, there have been plenty of memorable moments from matches. Anfield 1989 stands out because that title provided the foundation for the current era of Arsenal success. The 4-2 Highbury win provided a calm path towards the unbeaten title in 2004. The F.A Cup loss in 2001 also stands out because of the manner in which Arsenal lost -- Arsenal dominated the game, created plenty of chances yet only took a 1-0 lead, before two late goals sunk them. Arsenal would find that pattern of dominating possession, creating plenty of chances, yet not winning repeated again and again over the last 7 years.
Create at one end, prevent at the other:
In a match if a team creates atleast 7-10 goal scoring chances, then it would be a good result if they scored 2 or 3 goals. Also, it is important on how many chances the team limits the opposition to. If the opponent is limited to a few chances and either only one goal is conceded or the team keeps a clean sheet, then victory is assured. In order to win, a good balance is required between the attack and defense. However, wins can still be achieved if one part is much more stronger than the other. George Graham's Arsenal teams had a rock solid defense and had a good chance to keep a clean sheet, so the attack could get away with only one goal (Alan Smith's lone strike in the 1994 Cup Winner's Cup final is a perfect example). When Wenger took over, he inherited that solid defense. So that allowed Wenger to build on that and modify the team's attack. The goals flowed in and the defense held firm. When GG's defense started aging away and disappearing, at first it was not a problem as Arsenal kept creating plenty of changes and scoring enough goals to get by. Only when the chances were limited and the goals dried up, the limitations of the poor defense came into focus.
Given that plenty of Wenger teams have fallen prey to similar defensive mistakes like being caught out by long balls, poor at defending set-pieces, it does not seem likely that over-night the Arsenal team would start having a rock solid defense. If the mistakes have not been fixed over a span over 4-5 years, they certainly won't start correcting themselves in a matter of weeks. So that leaves more pressure to ensure that the attack can carry a large burden on their shoulders. But in order to score goals, chances have to be created. If in a game a team only creates 5 chances, then the pressure is on the team to take full advantage. Out of those 5 changes, if one chance is incorrectly called back for off-side, or a valid penalty not given, then the pressure on the team increases as they have to extra sharp in front of goal as the next chance might not come for a long while.
Advantage creator vs Advantage destructor:
As history and every day life show, it is easy to destruct rather than create. Likewise, it is easier to break up a team's creative play than it is for a team to creatively split open an opponent's defense. Liverpool have flaunted their destructive mentality in the Champions league for the last 3 years and Wednesday's game was no exception. So on Sat, once again the pressure will be on Arsenal again to take advantage of Liverpool's sit-back & watch approach. Arsenal need an early goal on Sat to break Liverpool's shell mentality. But before a goal is scored, a chance has to be created.
History and all that:
In the 200 games that the two teams have played against each other, Liverpool hold a slight edge with 80 wins compared to Arsenal's 70 with 50 games being tied. The 10 game winning margin presents itself in the 167 league meetings between as Liverpool have 68 wins compared to Arsenal's 58. The first time these teams played each other was in the old second Division when Liverpool thumped Arsenal 5-0 back on Oct 1893. In fact, Liverpool won the first 4 meetings with Arsenal, outscoring the Gunners 12-0. It was only in 1905 when both teams were in Division 1 did Arsenal manage a 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
Historically, there have been cases where both these teams played each other more than 3 times in a season. In the 1979/80 season, the two played each other 7 times, with 4 of those games being an F.A Cup tie in the days of playing replays until a winner was found. In the 1981/82 season, the two met 4 times, while a 5 game meeting took place in that eventful 1988/89 season when Arsenal won that memorable away game to Anfield 2-0 to take the title. Arsenal played Livepool 4 times in the 1989/90 season, with another 4 games taking place last season thanks to the two Cup games in quick succession when Arsenal went to Anfield and came away with 6-3 (League Cup) and 3-1 wins (F.A Cup).
Given the number of games between Arsenal and Liverpool, there have been plenty of memorable moments from matches. Anfield 1989 stands out because that title provided the foundation for the current era of Arsenal success. The 4-2 Highbury win provided a calm path towards the unbeaten title in 2004. The F.A Cup loss in 2001 also stands out because of the manner in which Arsenal lost -- Arsenal dominated the game, created plenty of chances yet only took a 1-0 lead, before two late goals sunk them. Arsenal would find that pattern of dominating possession, creating plenty of chances, yet not winning repeated again and again over the last 7 years.
Create at one end, prevent at the other:
In a match if a team creates atleast 7-10 goal scoring chances, then it would be a good result if they scored 2 or 3 goals. Also, it is important on how many chances the team limits the opposition to. If the opponent is limited to a few chances and either only one goal is conceded or the team keeps a clean sheet, then victory is assured. In order to win, a good balance is required between the attack and defense. However, wins can still be achieved if one part is much more stronger than the other. George Graham's Arsenal teams had a rock solid defense and had a good chance to keep a clean sheet, so the attack could get away with only one goal (Alan Smith's lone strike in the 1994 Cup Winner's Cup final is a perfect example). When Wenger took over, he inherited that solid defense. So that allowed Wenger to build on that and modify the team's attack. The goals flowed in and the defense held firm. When GG's defense started aging away and disappearing, at first it was not a problem as Arsenal kept creating plenty of changes and scoring enough goals to get by. Only when the chances were limited and the goals dried up, the limitations of the poor defense came into focus.
Given that plenty of Wenger teams have fallen prey to similar defensive mistakes like being caught out by long balls, poor at defending set-pieces, it does not seem likely that over-night the Arsenal team would start having a rock solid defense. If the mistakes have not been fixed over a span over 4-5 years, they certainly won't start correcting themselves in a matter of weeks. So that leaves more pressure to ensure that the attack can carry a large burden on their shoulders. But in order to score goals, chances have to be created. If in a game a team only creates 5 chances, then the pressure is on the team to take full advantage. Out of those 5 changes, if one chance is incorrectly called back for off-side, or a valid penalty not given, then the pressure on the team increases as they have to extra sharp in front of goal as the next chance might not come for a long while.
Advantage creator vs Advantage destructor:
As history and every day life show, it is easy to destruct rather than create. Likewise, it is easier to break up a team's creative play than it is for a team to creatively split open an opponent's defense. Liverpool have flaunted their destructive mentality in the Champions league for the last 3 years and Wednesday's game was no exception. So on Sat, once again the pressure will be on Arsenal again to take advantage of Liverpool's sit-back & watch approach. Arsenal need an early goal on Sat to break Liverpool's shell mentality. But before a goal is scored, a chance has to be created.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The oilman cometh
An interesting story in the Sunday NY Times regarding how an oilman managed to swindle people out of money by the promise of oil wealth. This certainly makes Daniel Plainview look like a clean-cut honest man in There Will be Blood. And even if Daniel Plainview is indeed out there today, you can be sure he won't flaunt his wealth and instead would stay hidden away in a mansion somewhere where he would either bowl or enjoy using that straw. A Milkshake maybe?
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Alien x 3
Sometimes key scenes of a film find a way into popular culture and end up serving as inspiration for other movies including spoofs. Such is the case with the Alien movies and its shots of the Alien creature encountering Sigourney Weaver's character of Ripley. During a recent conversation with friends, the talk of the Alien films came up. Even though I had a visual memory of some of the scenes that they were talking about, I had no recollection of the films themselves. I believed I had only seen the second film but I remembered scenes from the first movie only via other sources like tv clips. So I decided to sit down and watch the first three movies, leaving the fourth film as a possible option.
While looking up the movies, I realized that all the movies were directed by different directors, with the first three movies done by directors in the early stages/start of their careers. I only knew that James Cameron had directed the second movie and was utterly surprized to learn that David Fincher directed the third movie and Jean-Pierre Jeunet was behind the 4th one.
Alien (1979, Ridley Scott):
Ridley Scott directed only his second feature with the 1979 film before he went on to more fame with Blade Runner in 1982. One can assume that Blade Runner was probably only made possible for Scott after the Alien film.
Aliens (1986, James Cameron):
James Cameron directed the second Alien film 2 years after achieving success with Terminator. Ofcourse, after Aliens Cameron found more success with Terminator 2 (1991), True Lies (1994) and that 1997 film about a sinking ship.
Aliens 3 (1992, David Fincher):
David Fincher directed his first feature with the third Alien film. I only learned about Fincher from Seven (1995) before enjoying Fight Club (1999) & even last year's Zodiac.
Alien: Resurrection (1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Jean-Pierre directed the 4th Aliens film on the back of success with 1995's City of Lost Children and 1991's Delicatessen. The biggest acclaim for Jean-Pierre came with 2001's Amelie, the film he directed immediately after Aliens: Resurrection.
The Films:
In a way it was interesting to see the three films back to back as a few similarities showed up.
The Alien was disposed of in a similar manner in the ending of both the first and second film.
All three films started with the character of Ripley waking up after a state of frozen slumber.
In the second and third movie she is only found after someone encounters her space shuttle accidentally. It was amusing to see that at the end of the first and second movie her character escapes in a shuttle to safety, only for the shuttle to drift off course & end up lost before being discovered at the start of the next film.
Ripley does find a way back to Earth in the second movie, before heading out to space again and ending up in a different planet in the third movie. One could have imagined an endless cycle of Quantum Leap like films where her character would wake up in a different planet only to continue fighting the same alien. But thankfully, the ending of the third movie squashed any such possibility. That was until Hollywood managed to find a way to resurrect Ripley again for more Alien battles in a 4th movie.
Aliens 3 was the worst of the bunch and almost painful to watch. The first two movies atleast managed to create a coherent thread despite being separated by a gap of 7 years. I enjoyed the start of the second movie the most where Ripley's character has to justify her actions (like attempting to destroy a multi-million dollar spaceship) before a committee. But three movies was a bit too much to take as all three movies offered up similar concepts of predator-prey and alien hunting episodes. I will have to put off watching that 4th movie for a long time.
While looking up the movies, I realized that all the movies were directed by different directors, with the first three movies done by directors in the early stages/start of their careers. I only knew that James Cameron had directed the second movie and was utterly surprized to learn that David Fincher directed the third movie and Jean-Pierre Jeunet was behind the 4th one.
Ridley Scott directed only his second feature with the 1979 film before he went on to more fame with Blade Runner in 1982. One can assume that Blade Runner was probably only made possible for Scott after the Alien film.
James Cameron directed the second Alien film 2 years after achieving success with Terminator. Ofcourse, after Aliens Cameron found more success with Terminator 2 (1991), True Lies (1994) and that 1997 film about a sinking ship.
David Fincher directed his first feature with the third Alien film. I only learned about Fincher from Seven (1995) before enjoying Fight Club (1999) & even last year's Zodiac.
Jean-Pierre directed the 4th Aliens film on the back of success with 1995's City of Lost Children and 1991's Delicatessen. The biggest acclaim for Jean-Pierre came with 2001's Amelie, the film he directed immediately after Aliens: Resurrection.
The Films:
In a way it was interesting to see the three films back to back as a few similarities showed up.
Ripley does find a way back to Earth in the second movie, before heading out to space again and ending up in a different planet in the third movie. One could have imagined an endless cycle of Quantum Leap like films where her character would wake up in a different planet only to continue fighting the same alien. But thankfully, the ending of the third movie squashed any such possibility. That was until Hollywood managed to find a way to resurrect Ripley again for more Alien battles in a 4th movie.
Aliens 3 was the worst of the bunch and almost painful to watch. The first two movies atleast managed to create a coherent thread despite being separated by a gap of 7 years. I enjoyed the start of the second movie the most where Ripley's character has to justify her actions (like attempting to destroy a multi-million dollar spaceship) before a committee. But three movies was a bit too much to take as all three movies offered up similar concepts of predator-prey and alien hunting episodes. I will have to put off watching that 4th movie for a long time.
Chasing a Fantasy
After I recently saw the French film The Russian Dolls, I was reminded of a conversation I had from a vacation trip to Vancouver back in June 2000. To avoid the rain, I decided to grab a drink in a Martini bar. I ended up staying at the bar for a few hours as I was busy chatting with the bar tender, Adam, who decided to share a few of his martini recipes. In between moments of great conversation, I tried to sample some of Adam's proudest martini creations, one of which was an expresso martini, the first of its kind that I ever sampled. The martini bar no longer exists as I found out from subsequent visits but one conversation with Adam still stays fresh in my mind. It was regarding the movie High Fidelity. When I asked him if he had seen it, he replied after a few seconds pause that he made the mistake of taking his girlfriend to see the movie.
"Did you not like the movie?", I asked in a surprized tone.
"The movie was good but it revealed too many secrets!" was his response.
I knew what he meant as High Fidelity was a rare movie that gave an insight into how men thought about women and even approached relationships. Prior to seeing High Fidelity, a majority of Hollywood and Bollywood movies that I had seen showed men as either macho studs who rescued women, womanizers who dumped their lovers as soon as the sun rose or innocent guys who only eyed girls/women through a starry eyed purity. But what about the everyday guy who is conflicted about the love in his life? How does this man finally decide a woman is the one for him? The thought process of when a man finally realizes that his girlfriend is the love of his life is hard to capture on screen but thanks to Nick Hornby's novel, John Cusack's character is able to convey his feelings clearly in a very enjoyable film.
The Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch also follows a similar ground to High Fidelity in that the main character (Xavier played by Romain Duris) realizes that the models he chases are just fantasies while the down to earth Wendy (Kelly Reilly) is his true love. The Russian Dolls is an enjoyable film with some very quirky characters. Klapisch first introduced these set of characters in the 2002 film The Spanish Apartment and it is interesting to see the progress some characters make in The Russian Dolls. Although The Spanish Apartment has some hilarious moments and some tender relationship scenes, I prefer The Russian Dolls as that is a better developed and mature film.
"Did you not like the movie?", I asked in a surprized tone.
"The movie was good but it revealed too many secrets!" was his response.
I knew what he meant as High Fidelity was a rare movie that gave an insight into how men thought about women and even approached relationships. Prior to seeing High Fidelity, a majority of Hollywood and Bollywood movies that I had seen showed men as either macho studs who rescued women, womanizers who dumped their lovers as soon as the sun rose or innocent guys who only eyed girls/women through a starry eyed purity. But what about the everyday guy who is conflicted about the love in his life? How does this man finally decide a woman is the one for him? The thought process of when a man finally realizes that his girlfriend is the love of his life is hard to capture on screen but thanks to Nick Hornby's novel, John Cusack's character is able to convey his feelings clearly in a very enjoyable film.
The Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch also follows a similar ground to High Fidelity in that the main character (Xavier played by Romain Duris) realizes that the models he chases are just fantasies while the down to earth Wendy (Kelly Reilly) is his true love. The Russian Dolls is an enjoyable film with some very quirky characters. Klapisch first introduced these set of characters in the 2002 film The Spanish Apartment and it is interesting to see the progress some characters make in The Russian Dolls. Although The Spanish Apartment has some hilarious moments and some tender relationship scenes, I prefer The Russian Dolls as that is a better developed and mature film.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Arsenal vs Liverpool, Champs League
Champions League football is back again. Although, the almost month long wait feels like an eternity. That is because days after the joyous March 4 away win to Milan, things have not gone as per a happy script for Arsenal. Dropped points in the league before a loss to London rivals Chelsea threw Arsenal's title hopes into a spin. Things appeared to get more grim after 45 rain soaked minutes away to Bolton; the rain appeared to be drowning Arsenals' promising season down the drain. Yet amazingly this young team took a page out of previous Wenger and even George Graham teams in able to turn a game around when there was absolutely no sign of hope. 3 second half goals, including a snooker like winning goal ensured that there is still some life in this young Arsenal team.
Liverpool come into this game on the back of an impressive 5 game winning Champs league streak. After a poor start where they only picked up 1 point from their opening 3 games, Liverpool turned things around when staring group elimination in the face by going on an amazing run of 8-0 (Besiktas), 4-1 (Porto) and 4-0 wins (away to Marseille) before their 2-0 home and 1-0 away win to Inter. Arsenal on the other hand started the Champs League group stages in the impressive manner as their league campaign -- stylish wins and a handful of goals. Arsenal were impressive in taking care of a Juande Ramos Sevilla side 2-0 and followed that with a 1-0 away win to Steaua before turning it on against the new comers Slavia 7-0. With qualification in sight, Arsenal let their foot off the pedal and only managed a 0-0 away tie to Slavia and a poor 3-1 away loss to Sevilla cost them top spot in the group before their final 2-1 win over Steaua. However, top spot meant nothing as Arsenal outplayed and completely dominated the defending Champs Milan to reach the Quarter Finals. Liverpool also dominated their Milan opponents, although one can argue they only had to do it against 10 men in both legs.
Arsenal and Liverpool will get an intimate look at each other over the next week and their 3 meetings will go a long way towards deciding the future of both teams as well. Which team will be left fighting for silver-ware and what will each team's league standing be after all is said and done? The questions should start answering themselves starting Wed, April 2.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Not so great movies
There is a hilarious article in the Guardian by Joe Queenan as he attempts to define a criteria for the worst movies of all time.
In his own words:
To qualify as one of the worst films of all time, several strict requirements must be met.
For starters, a truly awful movie must have started out with some expectation of not being awful.
Two, an authentically bad movie has to be famous; it can't simply be an obscure student film about a boy who eats live rodents to impress dead girls.
Three, the film cannot be a deliberate attempt to make the worst movie ever, as this is cheating.
Four, the film must feature real movie stars, not jocks, bozos, has-beens or fleetingly famous media fabrications like Hilton.
Five, the film must generate a negative buzz long before it reaches cinemas; like the Black Plague or the Mongol invasions, it must be an impending disaster of which there has been abundant advance warning; it cannot simply appear out of nowhere. And it must, upon release, answer the question: could it possibly be as bad as everyone says it is?
Six, to qualify as one of the worst movies ever made, a motion picture must induce a sense of dread in those who have seen it, a fear that they may one day be forced to watch the film again - and again - and again.
There is one other requirement for a movie to be considered one of the worst ever: it must keep getting worse. By this, I mean that it not only must keep getting worse while you are watching it, but it must, upon subsequent viewings, seem even worse than the last time you saw it.
I normally try to steer away from so called bad movies but every now and then for whatever reasons, I force myself to watch a few not so pleasant movies. In that regards, almost all the bad movies I have seen have forced me to add this criteria:
The movie is so bad that it makes for a hilarious viewing.
Ofcourse, no one intends to make a bad movie. Most films start out with good intentions but then things go wrong. On the plus side, bad films are good case studies on how to not do things. Also, often good movies spring up from the graves of bad movies. The re-launched Batman series is a perfect example of this. Each subsequent Batman movie kept getting worse until rock bottom was reached with Batman & Robin. Out of the ashes from that disaster rose a slick and smart Batman Begins in 2005.
Over the last two months, these are the worst rated movies on my viewed list: Ghost Rider, London, Sunday, 300, Ali G Indahouse, My Name is Anthony Gonsalves, 30 Days of Night.
But these are just personal tastes. I found 300 to be a laughably bad movie but currently the average imdb.com rating for the film stands at 8/10 as per 164,552 votes. Moreover, I know a lot of people who love the movie. I loved the look and feel of 30 Days of Night but everything else frustrated me. Even though the Bollywood film Sunday is quite bad, it provided me with plenty of genuine laughs. Same goes with the Ali G movie -- bad but there were some very funny moments. I honestly have nothing good to say about Ghost Rider.
Although I have a funny story regarding My Name is Anthony Gonsalves. I tried watching this Bollywood movie but after 20 minutes or so, I had to turn it off. A few days later, I was at a party where my friend was asking for some new film recommendations. A fairly polite guy heard us and told my friend that he had to see My Name is Anthony Gonsalves. He turned to me and asked if I had seen it? I replied that I had not finished it as I found it a bit dull. The guy and his wife had such a shocked look on their face as both of them loved the movie and must have thought that I had poor taste in films. When I got back home, I tried to finish the movie. And the film only kept getting worse and worse, satisfying part of Queenan's final criteria. The biggest disappointment regarding this movie is that it is not made by a new director but by E. Niwas who at the tender age of 23 directed a masterful movie (Shool) back in 1999. Unfortunately, his subsequent efforts have been not as good and My Name is Anthony Gonsalves is the latest in a string of substandard fare.
Maybe once I am done all my regular film spotlights this year, I should try to put together a bad film festival where I try to see the worst of the worst. It will be painful but it should be worth a few laughs.
In his own words:
To qualify as one of the worst films of all time, several strict requirements must be met.
I normally try to steer away from so called bad movies but every now and then for whatever reasons, I force myself to watch a few not so pleasant movies. In that regards, almost all the bad movies I have seen have forced me to add this criteria:
Ofcourse, no one intends to make a bad movie. Most films start out with good intentions but then things go wrong. On the plus side, bad films are good case studies on how to not do things. Also, often good movies spring up from the graves of bad movies. The re-launched Batman series is a perfect example of this. Each subsequent Batman movie kept getting worse until rock bottom was reached with Batman & Robin. Out of the ashes from that disaster rose a slick and smart Batman Begins in 2005.
Over the last two months, these are the worst rated movies on my viewed list: Ghost Rider, London, Sunday, 300, Ali G Indahouse, My Name is Anthony Gonsalves, 30 Days of Night.
But these are just personal tastes. I found 300 to be a laughably bad movie but currently the average imdb.com rating for the film stands at 8/10 as per 164,552 votes. Moreover, I know a lot of people who love the movie. I loved the look and feel of 30 Days of Night but everything else frustrated me. Even though the Bollywood film Sunday is quite bad, it provided me with plenty of genuine laughs. Same goes with the Ali G movie -- bad but there were some very funny moments. I honestly have nothing good to say about Ghost Rider.
Although I have a funny story regarding My Name is Anthony Gonsalves. I tried watching this Bollywood movie but after 20 minutes or so, I had to turn it off. A few days later, I was at a party where my friend was asking for some new film recommendations. A fairly polite guy heard us and told my friend that he had to see My Name is Anthony Gonsalves. He turned to me and asked if I had seen it? I replied that I had not finished it as I found it a bit dull. The guy and his wife had such a shocked look on their face as both of them loved the movie and must have thought that I had poor taste in films. When I got back home, I tried to finish the movie. And the film only kept getting worse and worse, satisfying part of Queenan's final criteria. The biggest disappointment regarding this movie is that it is not made by a new director but by E. Niwas who at the tender age of 23 directed a masterful movie (Shool) back in 1999. Unfortunately, his subsequent efforts have been not as good and My Name is Anthony Gonsalves is the latest in a string of substandard fare.
Maybe once I am done all my regular film spotlights this year, I should try to put together a bad film festival where I try to see the worst of the worst. It will be painful but it should be worth a few laughs.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
To sum it all up...
How best to describe the two overall results of "Super Sunday" part II in the clash of the top 4 in the English Premier League?
Well the forces of evil prevailed once again. The storm troopers have marched on as Manchester United registered another win over their rivals Liverpool and Chelsea scored a 2-1 win against mis-firing Arsenal to jump into second place. Liverpool now have an awful record against Man Utd under Rafa Benitez: out of the 8 league games played between the two, Liverpool have 7 losses, one 0-0 draw and have managed only one goal in these 8 games (and that too an own goal from O'Shea, a Man Utd player) while letting in 11 goals (6 of those have been scored by Man Utd defenders thanks to bad defending by Liverpool).
Of course, the perception of good vs evil is entirely based on one's point of view. Where I see evil, others see good. The truth is that Arsenal have only picked up just one win in their last 6 league games, and are winless in the last 5 games. They are not good enough to win the title, even though injuries and a horrible tackle on Eduardo changed their season. The injuries are valid reasons but they are also excuses. Despite having some of the best technical players in Europe, the players have not shown the mental strength to cope with the pressures placed upon them. When the going got tough, all the top Arsenal players just folded.
On the other hand, no one is apparently good enough to win the title in Spain. Real Madrid have only 3 wins and 7 defeats in their last 10 games in all competitions, including two losses in the Champions League and 5 league defeats including today's 3-2 home loss to Valencia. Despite their poor form, they are still 4 points clear at the top because Barcelona aren't that sharp enough to win the league. The Spanish Liga can be defined by the overall poor quality this season with no team consistent enough to charge for the title. Real Madrid might still win the title even if they lost every game from now up to the end of the season because Barcelona and other teams always find a way to make life difficult for themselves.
Well the forces of evil prevailed once again. The storm troopers have marched on as Manchester United registered another win over their rivals Liverpool and Chelsea scored a 2-1 win against mis-firing Arsenal to jump into second place. Liverpool now have an awful record against Man Utd under Rafa Benitez: out of the 8 league games played between the two, Liverpool have 7 losses, one 0-0 draw and have managed only one goal in these 8 games (and that too an own goal from O'Shea, a Man Utd player) while letting in 11 goals (6 of those have been scored by Man Utd defenders thanks to bad defending by Liverpool).
Of course, the perception of good vs evil is entirely based on one's point of view. Where I see evil, others see good. The truth is that Arsenal have only picked up just one win in their last 6 league games, and are winless in the last 5 games. They are not good enough to win the title, even though injuries and a horrible tackle on Eduardo changed their season. The injuries are valid reasons but they are also excuses. Despite having some of the best technical players in Europe, the players have not shown the mental strength to cope with the pressures placed upon them. When the going got tough, all the top Arsenal players just folded.
On the other hand, no one is apparently good enough to win the title in Spain. Real Madrid have only 3 wins and 7 defeats in their last 10 games in all competitions, including two losses in the Champions League and 5 league defeats including today's 3-2 home loss to Valencia. Despite their poor form, they are still 4 points clear at the top because Barcelona aren't that sharp enough to win the league. The Spanish Liga can be defined by the overall poor quality this season with no team consistent enough to charge for the title. Real Madrid might still win the title even if they lost every game from now up to the end of the season because Barcelona and other teams always find a way to make life difficult for themselves.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Danger, with or without the sun
Let there be light
"When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did" Max, Pi
What does staring too much at the sun do? In the film Sunshine, it convinces one character to conclude that he had a conversation with God. And that God instructed him to stop the human space mission to save the dying sun. If the space crew did not accomplish their mission and blast the sun into a new life, it would ultimately result in mankind perishing in complete frozen cold weather.
No light
In the vampire film, 30 Days of Night, the light is only shown at the film's start and end. Shortly after the film's start, darkness slowly descends. And with that, evil takes over. The vampires in the film do not speak English but there is one instance that the leader of the pack speaks a few words in English. In that scene, a young girl is pleading for her life and utters, "Please, God". To which the vampire leader replies "God? No God".
Science vs Religion
Even though both Sunshine and 30 Days of Night belong to different genres, it is interesting that the mention of God is made in both films. On the surface, it is tempting to assume the excessive light in Sunshine means the presence of God and that the darkness in 30 Days of Night signifies the absence of God. But the mention of God is more tied to the two film's core.
The story in Sunshine is about using scientific principles to alter the fate of mankind which brings up the debate between science and religion. If science can save mankind, then where does religion stand? And the debate about how religion fits in with the crew's mission is uttered by more than one character in Sunshine. So the character in the film wants to follow the natural order of things and believes that life should end as God intended it. Mankind should not interfere.
I only paid attention to the concept of God in vampire films while watching the brilliant Abel Ferrara film Addiction. In Addiction we meet an existentialist vampire who quotes Nietzsche and does not believe in God. In a sense, the vampire's disbelief in God makes sense. A vampire by nature is a walking dead person. If someone cannot die, then why would they believe in religion, whose foundation is centered around the concept of birth, death and life after death. So if a person cannot die, then their existence is validated more by existentialism than by conventional religious beliefs. Appropriately, in Addiction the main character who gets bitten by a vampire only finds salvation when she gives herself over to religion; her belief in God saves her from a lifetime of disbelief. The vampires in 30 Days of Night are more sinister than the ones in Addiction but they still subscribe to the same existentialist belief. They have no need to believe in God as they move from town to town, feeding on the weak religion believing humans.
"When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did" Max, Pi
What does staring too much at the sun do? In the film Sunshine, it convinces one character to conclude that he had a conversation with God. And that God instructed him to stop the human space mission to save the dying sun. If the space crew did not accomplish their mission and blast the sun into a new life, it would ultimately result in mankind perishing in complete frozen cold weather.
No light
In the vampire film, 30 Days of Night, the light is only shown at the film's start and end. Shortly after the film's start, darkness slowly descends. And with that, evil takes over. The vampires in the film do not speak English but there is one instance that the leader of the pack speaks a few words in English. In that scene, a young girl is pleading for her life and utters, "Please, God". To which the vampire leader replies "God? No God".
Science vs Religion
Even though both Sunshine and 30 Days of Night belong to different genres, it is interesting that the mention of God is made in both films. On the surface, it is tempting to assume the excessive light in Sunshine means the presence of God and that the darkness in 30 Days of Night signifies the absence of God. But the mention of God is more tied to the two film's core.
The story in Sunshine is about using scientific principles to alter the fate of mankind which brings up the debate between science and religion. If science can save mankind, then where does religion stand? And the debate about how religion fits in with the crew's mission is uttered by more than one character in Sunshine. So the character in the film wants to follow the natural order of things and believes that life should end as God intended it. Mankind should not interfere.
I only paid attention to the concept of God in vampire films while watching the brilliant Abel Ferrara film Addiction. In Addiction we meet an existentialist vampire who quotes Nietzsche and does not believe in God. In a sense, the vampire's disbelief in God makes sense. A vampire by nature is a walking dead person. If someone cannot die, then why would they believe in religion, whose foundation is centered around the concept of birth, death and life after death. So if a person cannot die, then their existence is validated more by existentialism than by conventional religious beliefs. Appropriately, in Addiction the main character who gets bitten by a vampire only finds salvation when she gives herself over to religion; her belief in God saves her from a lifetime of disbelief. The vampires in 30 Days of Night are more sinister than the ones in Addiction but they still subscribe to the same existentialist belief. They have no need to believe in God as they move from town to town, feeding on the weak religion believing humans.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Euro 2008 Films & Results
Film Festival Rules & Guidelines
Final Standings of all the 4 Groups with the following format:
Country, Film: Rating out of 10
Group A:
Portugal, Bad Blood: 8
Switzerland, The Boat is Full: 8
Czech Republic, Zelary:7.5
Turkey, Harem Suare:7
Both Portugal and Switzerland earned 8 points and as per the tie breaker, Portugal takes first place by a margin of 4 (acting, direction, cinematography and production values) - 3 (acting, direction, story).
Average group rating: 7.6
Group B:
Poland, Edi: 9
Germany, Good bye Lenin: 8.5
Austria, Antares: 8
Croatia, Sorry for Kung Fu: 7
Average group rating: 8.1
Group C:
Romania, 12:08 East of Bucharest: 9
France, Angel-A: 7.5
Holland, Interview: 7
Italy, Summer Night: 5.5
Average group rating: 7.3
Group D:
Spain, Torremolinos 73: 9
Greece, Rouleman: 7
Russia, DayWatch: 6
Sweden, Thriller a Cruel Picture: 6
Both Russia and Sweden earned 6 points. As per the tie-breaker, Russia takes 3rd place over Sweden by a margin of 5-0.
Average group rating: 7
Second Round -- Quarter Finals, Semi's and Final:
As per the Euro 2008 draw, the Quarter-Finals would line up as such:
Quarter Final 1: Winner Group A vs Runner-up Group B
Quarter Final 2: Winner Group B vs Runner-up Group A
Quarter Final 3: Winner Group C vs Runner-up Group D
Quarter Final 4: Winner Group D vs Runner-up Group C
As per the group standings, the following are the film match-ups.
QF 1: Portugal (Bad Blood) vs Germany (Good bye Lenin)
QF 2: Switzerland (The Boat is Full) vs Poland (Edi)
QF 3: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest) vs Greece (Rouleman)
QF 4: Spain (Torremolinos 73) vs France (Angel-A)
Results:
QF 1: Portugal 2 (Direction, Cinematography) - 4 Germany (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
QF 2: Switzerland 1 (Acting) - 4 Poland (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
QF 3: Romania 4 (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography) - 0 Greece
QF 4: Spain 4 (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography) - 3 France (Story, Cinematography, Production Values)
Semi-Finals:
Winner of QF 1 vs Winner of QF 2: Germany vs Poland
Winner of QF 3 vs Winner of QF4: Romania vs Spain
Results:
SF 1: Germany 2 (Acting, Story) - 4 Poland (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
SF 2: Romania 3 (Acting, Story, Direction) - 2 Spain (Story, Cinematography)
Final: Poland vs Romania
Score: Poland 3 (Acting, Story, Cinematography) - 3 Romania (Acting, Story, Direction)
This one was a tough choice. The Polish film Edi got me hooked emotionally, whereas 12:08 East of Bucharest made me laugh. In the end by a slight slight margin, I have to give the nod to the Romanian film.
Winner: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest)
Film Selections & Comments:
With the exception of Portugal and Turkey, I got all my first picks for the films. For Portugal, I really wanted to get a Pedro Costa movie. But Pedro Costa films are hard to come by and I am not sure how much more luck I would have had in the next 2-3 months, so I went for my second pick of Bad Blood. My original Turkish pick was Climates by Nuri Bilge Ceylan but for some bizarre reason that movie is still not available for rent in Canada although it can be bought via the internet. Since I had already seen 15 of the 16 films, I decided to go with my second pick of Harem suare to complete the film festival line-up.
The average rating of all 16 films comes to 7.5/10. That is not bad considering the random nature of the film selections. I don't want to read too much into some of the low ratings as in most cases, I tried to choose unknown films. For example, the Greek film Rouleman still does not have any entry on imdb.com although the film's director Panos Karkanevatos has a few films listed on the website. As a result of the unknown picks, there were a few pleasant surprises. The Polish film Edi and the Spanish entry Torremolinos 73 were real treats. Although, I knew about about 12:08 East of Bucharest, I was still surprized at how funny it was. It was a simple and delightful film.
Also, I was pleasantly surprized by the quality of the two co-host nations films -- Austria and Switzerland. The Swiss film The Boat is Full was an interesting film and showed the Swiss might not have been 100% neutral during World War II. The Austrian film Antares is best described as a cross between the works of Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days and Import/Export) and Dekalog. In reality, I was hoping to get a film with a more upbeat vision of Austrian life than that shown in Seidl's works but as it turned out Götz Spielmann's Antares is carved from the same block as Seidl's films.
Initially, I had hoped to have completed watching all the movies closer to the start of the soccer tournament, but now I will have a better chance to focus on the games themselves and compare the soccer results with the films performances.
Only 83 days until the tournament kicks off on June 7 with the Swiss taking on Czech Republic and Portugal vs Turkey.
Final Standings of all the 4 Groups with the following format:
Country, Film: Rating out of 10
Group A:
Portugal, Bad Blood: 8
Switzerland, The Boat is Full: 8
Czech Republic, Zelary:7.5
Turkey, Harem Suare:7
Both Portugal and Switzerland earned 8 points and as per the tie breaker, Portugal takes first place by a margin of 4 (acting, direction, cinematography and production values) - 3 (acting, direction, story).
Average group rating: 7.6
Group B:
Poland, Edi: 9
Germany, Good bye Lenin: 8.5
Austria, Antares: 8
Croatia, Sorry for Kung Fu: 7
Average group rating: 8.1
Group C:
Romania, 12:08 East of Bucharest: 9
France, Angel-A: 7.5
Holland, Interview: 7
Italy, Summer Night: 5.5
Average group rating: 7.3
Group D:
Spain, Torremolinos 73: 9
Greece, Rouleman: 7
Russia, DayWatch: 6
Sweden, Thriller a Cruel Picture: 6
Both Russia and Sweden earned 6 points. As per the tie-breaker, Russia takes 3rd place over Sweden by a margin of 5-0.
Average group rating: 7
Second Round -- Quarter Finals, Semi's and Final:
As per the Euro 2008 draw, the Quarter-Finals would line up as such:
Quarter Final 1: Winner Group A vs Runner-up Group B
Quarter Final 2: Winner Group B vs Runner-up Group A
Quarter Final 3: Winner Group C vs Runner-up Group D
Quarter Final 4: Winner Group D vs Runner-up Group C
As per the group standings, the following are the film match-ups.
QF 1: Portugal (Bad Blood) vs Germany (Good bye Lenin)
QF 2: Switzerland (The Boat is Full) vs Poland (Edi)
QF 3: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest) vs Greece (Rouleman)
QF 4: Spain (Torremolinos 73) vs France (Angel-A)
Results:
QF 1: Portugal 2 (Direction, Cinematography) - 4 Germany (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
QF 2: Switzerland 1 (Acting) - 4 Poland (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
QF 3: Romania 4 (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography) - 0 Greece
QF 4: Spain 4 (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography) - 3 France (Story, Cinematography, Production Values)
Semi-Finals:
Winner of QF 1 vs Winner of QF 2: Germany vs Poland
Winner of QF 3 vs Winner of QF4: Romania vs Spain
Results:
SF 1: Germany 2 (Acting, Story) - 4 Poland (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography)
SF 2: Romania 3 (Acting, Story, Direction) - 2 Spain (Story, Cinematography)
Final: Poland vs Romania
Score: Poland 3 (Acting, Story, Cinematography) - 3 Romania (Acting, Story, Direction)
This one was a tough choice. The Polish film Edi got me hooked emotionally, whereas 12:08 East of Bucharest made me laugh. In the end by a slight slight margin, I have to give the nod to the Romanian film.
Winner: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest)
Film Selections & Comments:
With the exception of Portugal and Turkey, I got all my first picks for the films. For Portugal, I really wanted to get a Pedro Costa movie. But Pedro Costa films are hard to come by and I am not sure how much more luck I would have had in the next 2-3 months, so I went for my second pick of Bad Blood. My original Turkish pick was Climates by Nuri Bilge Ceylan but for some bizarre reason that movie is still not available for rent in Canada although it can be bought via the internet. Since I had already seen 15 of the 16 films, I decided to go with my second pick of Harem suare to complete the film festival line-up.
The average rating of all 16 films comes to 7.5/10. That is not bad considering the random nature of the film selections. I don't want to read too much into some of the low ratings as in most cases, I tried to choose unknown films. For example, the Greek film Rouleman still does not have any entry on imdb.com although the film's director Panos Karkanevatos has a few films listed on the website. As a result of the unknown picks, there were a few pleasant surprises. The Polish film Edi and the Spanish entry Torremolinos 73 were real treats. Although, I knew about about 12:08 East of Bucharest, I was still surprized at how funny it was. It was a simple and delightful film.
Also, I was pleasantly surprized by the quality of the two co-host nations films -- Austria and Switzerland. The Swiss film The Boat is Full was an interesting film and showed the Swiss might not have been 100% neutral during World War II. The Austrian film Antares is best described as a cross between the works of Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days and Import/Export) and Dekalog. In reality, I was hoping to get a film with a more upbeat vision of Austrian life than that shown in Seidl's works but as it turned out Götz Spielmann's Antares is carved from the same block as Seidl's films.
Initially, I had hoped to have completed watching all the movies closer to the start of the soccer tournament, but now I will have a better chance to focus on the games themselves and compare the soccer results with the films performances.
Only 83 days until the tournament kicks off on June 7 with the Swiss taking on Czech Republic and Portugal vs Turkey.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group A, Turkey
Film Festival Rules & Guidelines
Film selected (Year, Director): Harem suaré (1999, Ferzan Ozpetek)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: I have seen a previous film by Ferzan Ozpetek, so the selection is not compliant with picking something from a new director.
Relevance to Soccer: Collecting and hoarding people
Through most of the 1980's, European soccer clubs had a foreign player quota and could only feature two players from an international nation. In the late 80's, that rule was loosened slightly and teams could field upto 3 foreign players. AC Milan led the way by fielding the three Dutchmen (Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard) who led them to domestic and European glory. Then in the early 1990's, the rules were changed once again and any European team could have upto 6 foreign players on their books but could only play 3 for a given game (that included the starting 11 players + 5 substitutes). Once again, Milan signed a bunch of talented players such as Boban, Dejan Savićević, Marcel Desailly and Jean Pierre Papin (at that time he was one of Europe's leading goal scorers) . Since Milan could only play 3 of their superstars, the remaining 3 sat in the stands unused. Other teams complained that Milan were hoarding the best players in the world and preventing them from displaying their talents week in and week out.
By the mid 1990's, European soccer changed once again in that teams could sign as many players from within the European Union nations without any quotas(thanks to the Bosman court ruling). The only quota applied to players from outside Europe. As a result, teams from most European leagues started buying the best young talent other European nations. And when the European Cup was modified into the Champions League, the top European teams were playing atleast 2 games a week (one league game on the weekend and a European game in mid-week). These extra games required these teams to buy atleast 2 quality players for each position. Teams such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan started attracting some of the biggest names in the game, only for half of their star players to sit on the bench, waiting for their chance. As it stands in the current game, the top teams from England, Spain, France, Italy and Germany have a galaxy of star players, most of whom only get a game when the regular first team players are injured or suspended. But given that these teams play more than 50 games a season, they need to have a big squad, because injuries could hamper the first team. However, there are plenty of other teams which could benefit from just a few of these star players. Sometimes, the big teams loan out their players to other teams so that they can get regular match practice. But in most cases, the talented players keep waiting for their chance.
One of the definitions of a harem is when a king has multiple wives or lovers. However, the king won't require all the women at any given time. When the king gets tired of his regular lover, he picks another younger woman, until he gets tired of her. Still, the king maintains a collection of women around just in case.
The Turkish film Harem suaré is about such a situation where the Sultan maintains a harem of women. However, only a few lucky women get the honor of becoming the Sultan's regular lover or even spending a night with him. Naturally, the competition among the women is fierce to get into the Sultan's chambers. I found this situation similar to modern soccer teams where multiple talented players are eager to make the first team. Most of these young players train every day, hoping to one day impress the first team boss. Some players only get one chance but fail to impress and find themselves shut out of the club. In Harem suaré, we meet a young woman Safiye (Marie Gillain) who has been patiently waiting her turn to become the Sultan's chosen one. However, as chance would have it, a younger woman arrives threatening her position. Safiye's situation is made difficult due to the changing political climate in the Ottoman Empire, as a young Turkish revolution threatens to break the Sultan's hold on power.
So what can all the young women do while waiting for the Sultan to notice them? Some of them take on side lovers, like Safiye. This is akin to soccer players getting loaned out to other teams, who can appreciate their talents. And as it often happens in soccer, the loaned out player finds himself much happier in his new team and prefers to leave the top European team because he can get a regular game at this new team. Safiye also finds more happiness in the arms of another man, as opposed to waiting for the Sultan to make up his mind.
Final shots:
Harem suaré is structured in terms of two flashback stories. In the inner story when the narrator finishes her tale, she mentions that as per the rules of story telling & God's instructions, one should distribute three apples upon the story's conclusion -- one for the narrator, one for the listener and the final apple for the heroes of the story.
In the film's final shots, the camera zooms in on a table where the narrator and listener sat at the film's start for the principle flashback tale. Both of them have left the table but only 3 apples are left to signify the rules of the story telling. As the camera gets closer to this beautiful shot of the apples, I realized that this final shot of the film is also the final shot of my 16 film Euro 2008 Film Festival.
I can't think of a more beautiful way for this film and also for my film festival to end. The stories have been told. Everyone has gone. Cinematic food for thought! Fade to Black!!!!
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