(Movie) This revolution will not be televised directed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain

 

In an age of 24 hours television, when we have the whole world beamed to us by an almost inexhaustible array of channels, "This revolution will not be televised" poses some very uncomfortable questions about what we are fed everyday from the newsrooms of the world

A paranoid's favourite statement is - "We are being lied to". This being an affront to our superior intelligence, we choose to deny, even though we realize the kernel of truth in it. Or as Kurt Cobain put it succinctly - "Just Because You're Paranoid, Don't Mean They're Not After You"

When you see something like "This Revolution will not be televised", you realize that the paranoid is probably much saner than we thought. And you wonder what else is here that you think you knew, but probably don't know s**t

The setting of the documentary is the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela in which western influenced and financed groups and army elements tried to oust Hugo Chavez, the charismatic rebel president who had come to power on the back of a popular upsurge. Chavez was intended to become another bloody statistic in the long history of popular presidents in Latin America removed by force, the United States always being the alleged culprit. Look at what happened to Allende

Filmed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O Briain, what was originally intended as a biographical sketch of the Hugo Chavez, turned into a fascinating look into the coup events as situations changed rapidly and drastically around them.

Labels: alternate history, america, conspiracy, documentary, media, movies, revolution, venezuela

posted by Protik Basu @ 9:34 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) The American directed by Anton Corbijn

If you just happen to read the promotional summary of this movie which reads “An assassin hides out in Italy for one last assignment.”, and look at the poster, you would be forgiven for thinking that this is a Jason Bourne or a Neeson “Taken” type of swashbuckling movie…

If you sit down to watch this with an intent to lose your blues in an orgy of fast moving punches and adrenaline pumping chases, you would be sorely disappointed. And that is only because this is a case of bad marketing…

Because this is probably one of the best movies that I have ever seen. And it becomes one not due to any breakthrough theme or espousing some philosophy that multiple views to get the aha moment.

It does this by having a screenplay that almost makes it a visual O Henry short story - a taut storyline that leaves more questions than answers, by a character sketch that is as profound as it is multi- dimensional and yes having a background score that almost gives a dark poetic feel…It had the same feel as Uzak (Distant) does in most part…

At the centre of this extraordinary movie is perhaps one of the most (till yet) under-rated actor of our generation – George Clooney. Watch this movie, Up in the Air, Syriana, Michael Clayton, Oceans series, One fine day and the sheer extraordinary range of Clooney comes through. And this movie is given its quality by his sheer presence.

Labels: adaptation, book adaptation, Crime, drama, movies, psychological, thriller

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:16 AM 3 Comments

(Movie) Silent Night directed by Rodney Gibbons

  This movie, for me, is like “Dogpound shuffle”, a gem almost completely unknown generally. A movie that I saw on TV on a delightful channel called Hallmark (which stopped being aired long time back) way back in middle school and a movie that I craved seeing ever since. Internet finally came to my rescue and I was finally able to get it on my hard drive…

There is a certain appeal about movies that play out in a room or a house and dont use outside locales (the best case in point being “The Man from Earth”). That is because you have to rely on intelligent and taut scripting and need to have completely fleshed out characters to hold attention. You more or less rely completely on conversation to make the story.

Right from the first frame, you realize that this is going to be a dramatic movie. The scene of  Elisabeth Vincken (Linda Hamilton) trudging on the snowy wastes of a forest tugging along her son Fritz Vincken (the narrator), the landscape littered with wrecked tanks and dead soldiers, makes you take notice…

Labels: drama, movies, true story, war, World War

posted by Protik Basu @ 2:39 AM 2 Comments

(Movie) Shoeshine directed by Vittorio De Sica

This is one movie that I have been wanting to see for a long time. I had seen “Bicycle Thieves” before by Sica, which is one of the rare movies that haunt you even by the mere mention of the name…And one thing that I realized after seeing these two movies by Sica is that he gives the killer blow right at the end – the silent walk by the father and the son in “Bicycle Thieves” and in this case Pasquale’s shattered cries as the horse, the hope, trots away, almost in despair…

Sica has a special touch with children and this movie really brings it out…

The heart of this story is, I believe, about innocence and how fragile it is. Its post-war Italy, a society trying to find new meaning. Children, as is always the case, become the hidden victims. Giuseppe and Pasquale, are two gamins in our story, who are shoeshiners and fast friends. Their only ambition in life is to own a horse that they love, for which they saved for some time. They get involved in a crime without realizing it, but which enables them to buy the horse. Their dream is short-lived though, as they are soon caught and thrown into juvenile prison.

And so starts their slow dehumanization. They valiantly attempt to keep up their humour and their strands of friendship together but a system which bothers only with incarceration and not with justice just does not allow that.

In an almost Dickensian atmosphere, children are treated as adult criminals, which then makes them into one and in an ironical self-serving judgement, the authorities turn around and say - “I told you so”

It has its own elements of dark humour and there is a faint underlying theme of absurdity in the cinematography as if the story is telling you how absurd the world is that makes children end up in prison and how absurd it is that we are able to rationalize it somehow.

The end of this story is both visceral and darkly poetic at the same time and as I said, is a hallmark of Sica’s movies. And it is an end that would haunt the viewer for a long time.

You become so close to the two boys and to some other inmates of the prison especially Raffaele that in the end you almost feel like crying at the utter waste of it all…

This is one classic that you miss at your own peril. This is a movie to cherish and pass on. No review is enough until you actually see it…

I cant wait to see the rest of Sica’s movies – “Umberto D” and “Children are watching us”, next on list…

del.icio.us Tags: Shoeshine,vittorio De sica,neo-realism,Italy

Labels: classics, Italy, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 11:50 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Dogpound Shuffle directed by Jeffrey Bloom

Before writing a review of the movie, a little note on how damn difficult it is to find it!!!

I first saw this movie when I was somewhere around class IX or even earlier. Like so many gems, it was coming at an odd time – late afternoon or so and I just chanced to see it after it had already begun. I remember being mesmerized by the simple yet touching story about a man and his quest to free his dog. I found out the name later (from one of those TV guides that I used to pore over). I think I saw it once more but I am not sure…

The movie stayed with me for all these years as one of those childhood movies that you saw but which you want to see again. The internet age came and the download speed slowly increased so now we are now able to download videos effortlessly where we could download images painfully ten years ago.

This movie however remained elusive even after extensive searching. There were other hard to find movies that I eventually pounced upon – like “Silent Night”, “The Scarlet and the Black” etc but this one was tough. Real tough…

So I get into these fits of energy when a notion seizes me and I keep searching for whatever catches my fancy like a maniac. The “Dogpound Shuffle” mania kept hitting me every second year. And this time I was ready to buy from Amazon if necessary.

But wonder of wonders!!! Amazon has only a VHS tape of the movie (obviously used!!). I mean, VHS? After having reeled a bit from this sort of a letdown from the god of online shopping, I searched like a maniac for any torrent that might even give me 1Kbps speed!!!

And just when I had almost given up, I found it!!! Where? In a DVD lending website based in India – 70mm!!! I had to kick myself more than a dozen times before I could actually believe that a movie that the awesome power of Internet and Amazon combined was not able to deliver was lying nonchalantly in a DVD lending library that is just a phone call away!! Irony of modern technology, no less!!! Anyway, so  thats how I got this movie…Phew!!!

So about the movie. I watched it after almost 12 years and it still  retained the magic that I had felt then. The story of an old tap dancer who teams up with a failed prizefighter who plays harmonica to raise money to free his dog from the Dogpound is a story that O Henry could have been proud of.

It has all the qualities of an excellent short story – You get fleeting glimpses into the lives of the characters but all the story is told in action, in the dialogues and the story is one which is lived in present. And like the best of stories, this is about relationships between people – in this case between people who start off being together to survive, in order to gain something from the other and end up forming a kinship that is difficult to put a name to.

It has a old literature feel that gives it a certain feeling of old romance – of two drifters finding friendship and purpose in and from each other, in a story that is beautiful and touching in its message of friendship. This is a movie that gives off a warm snug feeling and leaves you wet-eyed and laughing at the same time…

Its quite a wonder to me how this movie is not at all popular as it should be – a sentiment echoed, as I found, on Amazon and Imdb.com. This is a movie for all ages and for the whole family…

Well, I dont really care about others but I do know this – this is one movie I am making multiple copies of. This is a movie that is rare in every sense of the world…

I wish I could tell you to go and see it…Unless you get it from 70mm, good luck to you in the whole wide world!!!

del.icio.us Tags: Dogpound shuffle,dog,harmonica,tap dance,drifter,classics

Labels: animals, classics, England, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:18 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Watchmen directed by Zack Snyder

The problem with some books (more specifically graphic novel, in this case) is that they are literally untranslatable into movie form. Especially when the story is highly complex and interwoven with multiple characters with a storyline that needs to go back and forth in time to make sense.

The problem doubles when the storyline contains “Superheroes”. Then the movie has to take form of the typical action superhero format (Batman, Spiderman etc) or become watered down in its effort to appeal both to the graphic novel fan and to the mass audience. An example of the latter is V for Vendetta, which was a highly sanitized teenager version of the original novel, which more or less killed its appeal for those who cherish the original.

The plot, simply put (very simply!!) is this. Watchmen is about an alternate/parallel world similar to ours but different in many others. In this world, US has won the Vietnam war but only because they had the help of the Watchmen (their predecessors, the Minutemen helped win WWII), a group of vigilantes who don't have special powers like typical superheroes (except one) but they still dress up as ones and help out with ‘saving the world’. They become unpopular however and are  disbanded. The story starts with one of them getting murdered by an unknown assailant. One of the Watchmen (Rorschach), who has refused to leave the ‘field’ decides to investigate…so the story and the movie begins…

Watchmen is as much a complex novel as V for Vendetta, if not more. The film-maker chose a simpler route to avoid the fate of V. They simply copied the frames of the movie from the original. When I say copied, I literally mean a xerox. While watching the movie, I had a weird feeling that I was seeing the novel move in fast motion. Even the dialogues were the same. Which in a way killed it for me – I loved the original and seeing the same thing in front of me without any adaptation or original thought of any sort made the movie feel like a sham, made it feel like a rip-off. What made it worse that they still had to water it down significantly in order to make it comprehensible in the 3 odd hours it played (it was a long movie) – for example, the pirate  sub-story was gone…

Then I stepped back a bit. I realized that the novel cannot be made into a movie and be pleasing to someone who loves the original. But for those who are not so close to the original or have not read it, it was more than above average. It has a great storyline, has fascinating characters, great camera and animation work and yes, superb music. I mean, when they played “Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel during the funeral of the Comedian, the movie took on a surreal air. And the opening song by Dylan as the movie is introduced fits the mood perfectly.

And yet, no matter what, you cannot relate to the characters, like you did in the original. Everyone remains just about distant…

So, if watchmen is something you haven't read, this movie is worth a watch, if only as a primer for the read. And if you have read the original, give this one a skip…

Labels: action, fantasy, graphic novel, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:05 PM 1 Comments

(Movie) Rajneeti directed by Prakash Jha

Ok, this is a review that I had been wanting to write ever since I saw it three weeks back. In that time, I saw, much to my surprise, that it was becoming a grosser…I wonder why…

But first of all my impression. It is plainly apparent that Jha is a big fan of the Godfather series and that he has borrowed heavily from the movie (he admitted as such – he used the word ‘inspired’ not borrowed though). In the mixture, he also put in themes from Mahabharata.

For someone who has literally grown up on the cult classics like the Godfather (both the movie and the book – both masterpieces in their own right), ‘Rajneeti’ proved to be a sort of a farcical déjà vu.

Scenes have been lifted unapologetically from the movies – the hospital scene, the horse head scene , the killing of the traitor in the car, the shooting of the don, the car bomb scene which effectively combined the Sonny shooting scene and the death of Pacino’s pregnant wife, the transformation of the reluctant youngest son to the ruthless don…though none of them came close to the drama of the original

It was really too much. He should have just labelled the movie – ‘Rajneeti – Godfather scenes included’ or something. I don't quite fathom how someone like Jha could stoop so low to become akin to Anu Malik of direction. Either he thinks that the Indian audience wont care that the movie that they are seeing is a rip off (in which he seems to be dead right) or that the majority have  not seen the original or both…unfortunately, he seems to be right…

Labels: Hindi, movies, Political

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:51 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) ‘The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming’ directed by Norman Jewison

This is a movie that you will not hear of easily and after watching it, you would wonder why…

This is about as good a political comic satire as you would get. True, the acting is woody and over the top at times but the storyline is funny and the over the top action seems appropriate for the mood of the movie.

A Russian sub runs aground off the coast of America, on a small New England island town, when the commander of the sub tries to get a closer look of his ‘enemy land’. Not wanting to create an international incident, a nine man contingent is sent to the island in order to secure a motorboat to help draw out the sub.

And that is when the fun starts…in spite of the best efforts (may I say comical) of the Russians to make themselves blend in, suddenly the island is in the throes of an irrepressible rumour – The Russians have invaded!!!

The movie panders to stereotypes, both of Russian and American, in order to bring out the humour but it works quite well. As is quite obvious, the story is about how rumour feeds off itself and how panic spreads by the mere repetition of the rumour. The sight of the hapless and bewildered Russians trying to make sense of it all in face of them being branded as the steamrolling invading force is incredibly funny. The American gung-ho style of meeting the invader head on becomes funny when they actually start to search all over the island for the enemy who were supposedly all over the place…

There is obviously a message in the movie, if you care to look for it – as to how stereotyping and propaganda creates caricatures of people whom who we consider as enemy. But the message is so obvious that you sit back and enjoy the comical satire and you wonder how the poor Russian are ever going to get out of this one!!!

Alan Arkin is the best character in the movie – the over-confident second in command who feels his English is top notch (the scene where he teaches emergency words to his colleagues is simply hilarious). He is the translator and the coolest brain in the sub.

I think that the thing to be considered is that when the movie was released, in 1966, the cold war was at its absolute peak, the time when Dylan was singing “Let me die in my footsteps” (about the government generated scare of Russian annihilation). This movie is about how senseless all the propaganda is and that, to me, is a brave statement to make. And the best way to make a statement like that is by humour.

That, this movie does brilliantly…

Labels: comedy, humour, movies, satire, war

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:02 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) Raat Gayi Baat Gayi directed by Saurabh Shukla

Well, this is another from the stable of the team that gave us movies like “Dasvidaniya” and “Mityha”. And you like this one for the same reasons you liked the others – its quirky, has a story told differently and it has actors that look good together. It has a very urban setting and deals with people who look and act real. The songs are different and blend in nicely with the movie unlike other commercial movies where the songs are a movie in themselves. And yes Neha Dhupia looks hot, with or without the backless dress!!!

The story is about a party and how Rajat Kapoor just cant seem to remember whether he did it with Neha Dhupia, a girl whose name is fake and whose phone number he might just be able to remember. He wakes up in the morning with a terrible hangover to find his wife behaving very strangely. So starts the day in which the mystery is unravelled. Of course that is not the only thing that seems to have happened at the party. And Rajat Kapoor’s relationship is not the only one to become somehow rocky after the party.

What I liked about the story is how the story seems so utterly real. The  problems, the reactions, the fears of the people involved all seem like things that you would mimic in a similar situation. The three couples are different but yet have something very similar. The movie does well to bring the nuances of the relationships out…

The characterization is not very deep but is not necessary for the movie. You get to know enough about everyone to bring out the flesh and blood in the characters and to make you relate to them.

A special mention about the humour. Its understated and very natural, like a normal conversation you would have with your friends…

By the time you end with the movie, I realized how much I enjoyed it. Its not in the parts of the movie or any particular scene that makes it but the whole sum of it, together…

Hoping that this team brings out more and more movies. They are such a welcome break from the normal Bollywood costly junk…

Labels: Hindi, humour, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 7:06 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Gran Torino directed by Clint Eastwood

You really have to wonder where these movies come from. Who would have thought that the cult western hero, the ‘Dirty Harry’, would turn out to be one of the most exciting directors who could churn out one masterpiece after another…

Gran Torino is supposed to be the last film that he would star in himself. So while you are watching it, take a good eyeful of the legend as he delivers a flawless performance…

Like his other movies, this movie too has its share of unlikely heroes. Heroes who are not heroes because they can shoot from the hip, but heroes because they rise a notch above the normal humdrum when needed…

Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a widowed Korean war veteran who is  bitter about almost everything – especially his family, clergy, his neighbours…and is also a cynical racist…

But life, as in all Eastwood’s movies, makes sure that nothing remains the same and no one remains how they seem to be…

Pretty soon, his life changes as the next-door girl befriends him, whose brother had previously tried to steal Walt’s ‘Gran Torino’ as part of a gang initiation. He also slowly develops a fond relationship with the brother…

But life is never perfect, especially when everything seems to be going so well…The gang which had tried to initiate the brother, with its ego bruised now, begins to wreck the lives of Walt’s new found friends…

And how does Walt, the erstwhile legend of the wild west, counter this gang? You would be surprised. And that is where you are witness to the genius that is Eastwood…

In time, the climax would probably become of the most memorable scenes in the history of cinema…you realize that you have been holding your breath as Walt stands before the gang till the climax…

One thing about the movie that would not strike the viewer before seeing it and having heard the story is the humour. Walter has the dry cynical humour that you can absolutely associate with him. His grrr is absolutely outstanding. There is humour in so many of the scenes but they never jar with the theme or the core of the movie. This humour is surely one of the things that makes this movie stand-out. It brings flesh and character to Walt. In fact, without the humour, the character would seem phoney…

And a review of this movie cannot finish without reviewing the way Eastwood looks in the movie. The wizened, cynical, gritty, tough guy who can take on street gangs but has private demons – this character was tailor made for Eastwood. He is a man whom you would turn for advice and surprisingly for his age, for brute strength. He has the look of a guy who has been toughened by what he has experienced in life and who battles his memories in private…and this look and his guttural voice is what carries the whole movie on its shoulder…the movie is made with one man in mind…

Watch this movie for well, everything…from the dialogues, the plot, the characters, the ending and yes, especially Eastwood…

A movie that would stay with you for a long time…and so will the song at the end of the movie…

And you would wonder…Slumdog won the Oscar over this???

Labels: america, Crime, drama, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 11:51 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Dear Wendy directed by Thomas Vinterberg

 Well, this is one of the quirkiest movie I have seen in a long time…Even after watching it, you are still now sure what to make of it. So much so, you cant even decide whether it was a damn bad movie or it was a damn brilliant movie!!!

You are drawn into the world of the Dandies, a teenager group in a a small town that seems to consist of a single block (in a mock replica of a old western towns) who create a secret society in which the romance of the guns blossom. They are self-proclaimed losers who find secret strength from carrying guns (most of which are old-fashioned including a 19th century gun and a gun used in Al Alamein). They create a code where the guns are supposed to carried but not used (except in their hideout). And they all dress up in old fashioned clothes like flowing coats and top hats (hence the name Dandies)…

And Wendy – that's the name of the gun that started it all. The group names every gun in either masculine or feminine. And Wendy is the gun that the group leader owns and to which he devotes the narrative…

The plot seems silly but look a little longer, it seems intriguing…Sometimes it seems like some graphic novel turned movie. There is a sense of timelessness. There is also a sense of lack of purpose and yet a sense of urgency and importance.

When the killing starts, it almost seems surreal…and the part was the best of all…how it all turns macabre and unreal at the same time. You seem unnaturally glued to the scenes as they unfold…

This is a movie that everyone wont like…You got to stay with it without being ‘wierded’ out by it and then even after persistence, it wont make too much sense…don't worry…just soak in the story and you would feel that you have seen something quite different!!!

Labels: america, movies, weapons

posted by Protik Basu @ 8:43 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Igby Goes Down directed by Burr Steers

If ever you wanted to see Holden Caufield on the screen, this movie is it…

Some purists feel horrified at the fact that someone has taken the classic and turned into a modern story. I, however, feel that art must renew itself periodically, otherwise it atrophies. Especially when the portrayal is as beautiful and sensitive as this one…

Igby (Keiran Culkin) inhabits a world where he sees hypocrisy and duplicity everywhere. He is close to his father who now lives in a mental asylum and he hates everything else…Its a world that is coming of age but is already repelled by what he sees is the result of coming of age…

The story follows Igby as he stumbles from one relation to another, all the while keeping his humour and sarcasm up while he is getting scarred…and his sarcasm really makes you go splits most of the times!!!

The movie is populated by memorable characters, from his elder  brother Ollie (Ryan Phillippe), a manipulative smooth talker, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), their mother who is a complex book all by herself, Rachel (Amanda Peet), the vulnerable mistress of his godfather D.H. Banes (Jeff Goldblum), who in turn is the classical alpha-male and Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), the hippie love interest, who in a fit of conformity betrays Igby.

The acting by Culkin, however, to me, is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is his character and his acting that holds the fibre of the story together. He is someone who is sensitive and highly vulnerable but who hides it all behind a mask of sarcasm and callousness. The times when his vulnerability comes forth makes for some of the most memorable moments in the movie. His leave-taking was one of the most poignant parts of the movie, especially the scene with his father…

A quirky, sensitive movie about people who are branded outsiders, by themselves and by others. As I said, Holden Caulfield in modern day New York…

Watch this and you would take away memorable characters, great acting and a wonderful bittersweet feeling…

Labels: america, book adaptation, comedy, movies, rebel, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:09 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Seven Pounds directed by Gabriel Muccino

This movie had come highly recommended from a friend, who told me that this was a movie that would affect me for days…

Sadly, by the middle of the movie, I was stifling yawns.

Its one of the movies that aims only for the heart while trying its hardest to bypass the mind. It puts forward scenes which would try to make you feel bittersweet and make you realize the pain and the anguish and the sacrifice of the characters.

I found it all pretty phoney…

A man looking for redemption becomes a self-styled messiah and a judge of ‘good vs. bad people’, searching for people whom he can help by either giving up his house or giving his organs. Specious and self-serving charity, if you ask me.

Not only do I have a problem with the character deciding to commit suicide and upping the melodrama instead of trying to redeem himself by living his rest of his life in doing what he wants to do, I also have a problem of him acting God – in deciding whom should be saved and who should be not. Will Smith as Moses…

I mean why should he get involved with someone whom he can help only by dying himself is beyond me. She falls in love with him and he does too. And then he dies so she may live. Why? So that he is remembered? Selfish wont you say? Phoney script and completely opposite to the character portrayal that is sought to be brought out.

If he really wanted to help, why cant he do so anonymously? What is it except selfishness and a vague sense of megalomania?

The only reason you can see this movie is due to acting of Smith, which is muted and introverted while still powerful. Its not his fault really that the script itself is faulty. Rosario Dawson also packs a powerhouse role. The rest are fringe characters anyway. Woody Harrelson is wasted…

In the end, its only a weepy tearjerker aiming for those who want an empty headed cry on a gloomy Sunday. Bah!

Labels: love, movies, romance, sacrifice, sentimental

posted by Protik Basu @ 9:36 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) The Illusionist directed by Neil Burger

Take the acting genius of Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and the beauty of Jessica Biel and a villain played by Rufus Sewell, put it in turn of the century Vienna, throw in some great cinematography and make it a story of mystery, intrigue and love and yes lots  and lots of magic and what do you have?

A sublime watching experience, that's what you get…

Eisenheim (Norton), son of a cabinetmaker leaves home to go around the world after his budding romance with Duchess Teschen (Biel) is thwarted, but not after he meets a travelling magician with whom he is fascinated.

He comes back many years later and he performs magic which seems almost paranormal in nature. He performs magic that no-one has ever seen before and rapidly becomes the talk of the town, attracting the attention of the crown prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) who is at this time engaged to Teschen (planned marriage for political reasons).

Eisenheim and Teschen meet on a show and embark on an affair but this time they plan to disappear properly. They weave a plan that has magic and mystery in huge dollops. The crown prince is the way though…

The acting is superb all around. Giamatti is superb in his role as the chief inspector in the pay of the crown prince and yet someone who has a conscience and a thirst for knowledge of magic. He is also the narrator of the movie and the person who finally unravels the whole mystery. Norton is simply sublime in his role as the enigmatic and the intense magician. The variety of roles he can do is simply breathtaking…

The cinematography and the music score deserve a special mention.  Since the movie is a period piece, the ambience both visual and  auditory is vital. This movie has a wonderful synthesis of both.

Its a complete immersive experience – both from the visual point of view and from the story point of view. The performances at the show are very gripping and very intense, especially the ones at the latter part, which border on necromancy.

This is a movie that can be seen again and again and which will be enjoyed everytime…

By the way, you will see some similarity with the movie “Prestige”, since both are period pieces and have elements of mystery…but both are different and both classics in their own right…

Labels: book adaptation, magical, movies, mystery, period peice, thriller

posted by Protik Basu @ 7:44 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Fateless (Sorstalanság) directed by Lajos Koltai

A Holocaust movie based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by the Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertész, who wrote the screenplay…

Before I started this, I felt that I have had enough of Holocaust movies . For anyone who has been fed on Hollywood fare for a long time, a natural impulse is to compare any concentration camp movie to Schlinder’s List, which, as I have realized in time to be melodramatic and a one-sided portrayal (Hollywood would make us feel that only Jews died in the camps). The overdoing of the topic has unfortunately given license to Israelites to claim the mantle of victims – so that they can do to Palestinians what Hitler did to them.

But a few minutes into the movie, you realize that it is different. It has a quietness to it, almost an indifference to it, as if you are watching it from a distance. There are no gunshots, hectic action or any bravado. It populated by people who don't really know what's going to happen next, who feel that nothing terrible can really happen, believing in their own luck and following the herd – something that is all too human and completely real. The father is called for labour camp and is given a farewell dinner. No one can really fathom where he is going, beyond a vague notion of dread.

This is a movie that is almost a quiet reflection of how people behave during times of unimaginable horror – survival by any means for those who are caught in hell and denial by those on the outside.

For me, the most beautiful part of the movie is the last quarter, when our protagonist comes back to his homeland, a home that has changed and not only due to the bombed out buildings. The movie before this is about how different people try to survive – some by ruthlessly practical, some by having a dream (like walking on the streets he has left behind), some by turning to religion and some by compromising. Morality and ethics, construct of a peaceful society ceases to exist in the face of extermination at any moment. In the midst, flashes of humanity sometimes sparks, if only for a few moments…

The last part brings to mind the last part of “All quiet on the western front”. A person who has suffered something that is beyond understanding, realizes that outsiders can be curious, be in denial or be sympathetic, all without ever understanding. The outsider expects explanations in normal day-to-day terms, which the insider is incapable and ultimately unwilling to provide.

György realizes that he has to come to terms with it himself and has to try to find a ‘future’, as he is advised by all those who keep saying that its ‘all over now’. Everyone wants him (and by reflection themselves) to forget what has happened and look ahead. The fate of the victims and survivors…

What you take away from this movie is the feeling that there is no point in pointing fingers at those who ran the camps. We are betrayed as much by our own people (the camp overseers, the policemen who rounded up the Jews were all compatriots) as much by the invader. The greatest criminal is the art of forgetting that is perfected once the crisis is over.

The film is shot in beautiful chrome and has some stunning camera-work. There are not as much words spoken as emotions generated by the lights and shadows. You realize that sometimes words are truly insufficient to make the  mind grasp – we are left with only visuals that can penetrate.

A narrative that is a commentary on how we grapple with something we don't understand and which we are then unwilling to remember, unless we mythologize and glorify.

The drowned and the saved sometimes share similar fates…

Labels: biography, book adaptation, historical, Hungary, movies, war, World War

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:11 PM 0 Comments