La battaglia di Algeri - The Battle of Algiers

1966 by Gillo Pontecarvo

As the name suggests its about Algeria's struggle for Independence from the French. FLN is an organisation, by a small minority of Algerians, fighting to gain independence through any means. The organisation has a strange hierarchy, wherein  any member might not be acquainted with more than 3 other members. They have the support of the people and kills French policeman in simple, but excellent, operations. When a police commissioner, who believes normal laws are not enough to deal with such fighters, plants a bomb in the Casbah, the locality dominated by Algerians, killing many locals, FLN also starts attacks with bombs killing French. It finally turns into a very violent battle and the French desperate to hold their foot, calls for their Army, who are just after an embaressing defeat in the Indo china war. Army soon manages to capture most of the FLN members, especially all their leaders and the battle of Algiers seems to be won by the French. But after a quiet of couple of years, without any organisational movements there is a strong popular movement and this time French has to withdraw themselves and Algeria wins its freedom.

This movie is beautifully captured in black and white has dialogues in French and Arab and is wonderfully directed by an Italian and seems to be produced by both Italian and Algerian firms. This could be an Italian or  Algerian movie.

This movie, which is based on a book, is wonderful as it could have ended as a documentary, but is so brilliantly directed that it ends up as a thrilling movie, with so many great moments of emotion, thrill, patriotism and everything except romance.  The scenes like ,a to be FLN leader witnessing the killing of a freedom fighter in the jail, the FLN operation to bomb three different locations in French Algiers by their 3 women cadets keeping the bomb in their hand bags, the deeds of the little boy who work as FLN messenger, the press meet of a captured FLN top leader, the press meet of French army colonel, the plight of a tortured Algerian to rat out his leader and the final revolt of the people, all are so brilliantly shot.

The background music is so different, but adds brilliantly to the mood of the movie.

It is impossible to think about all what is happening around us, while watching this movie. The current revolts in the middle east, the occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, the problems in our own Kashmir and Eastern states, all kept flashing in while and after watching this movie.

Just like America managed to ban a Turkish movie on Iraq occupation (I was told about this movie by a friend who said it was like a documentary) immediately after Iraq was occupied, this movie was banned by France for more than 3 years since its release.

This is a must watch movie for every human being, but not for the fascist and colonialist. 

Love and Other Drugs

2010 by Edward Zwick

Jamie is an incredibly smart sales man working at an electronic shop and is excellent in handling woman. When he lose this job, he starts working for a Pharma company, selling drugs. Now he meets Maggie in a hospital, who has been diagnosed with stage 1 Parkinson's disease at her young age. Maggie is a free spirit and doesnt want to enter into any kind of relationship and is interested only in sex. Jamie is getting lucky with his new job and have started selling Viagra. The movie is all about how they are in love and in spite of hesitations, finally end up in a relationship.

A typical hollywod romantic comedy, except that the heroine is having Parkinson's disease at a young age. There are some funny moments, especially in the first half. But as always, its all very predictable and the script or director hasnt done anything to make us feel that this movie is above the ordinary. Most importantly, in the climax when Jamie explains why he needs her, its pretty ordinary. Theres nothing moving even if the heroine seems to be affected.

The difference is about the charm of Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. Not exceptional performances, but the charm is there, in fact there is nothing special in the script for them to make exceptional performances.

And let me confess, I was surprised and happy to see Anne Hathaway nude, never before.

Also, there was a very beautiful song, starting , I lived in a place called ...

Un Coeur en Hiver - A Heart in Winter

1992 by Claude Sautet

Stephane is an introvert, but a master in repairing Violin, in a workshop run by Maxime, frequented by celebrity Violinists. They have been working together for so many years and seems to know each other very well. Maxime reveals to Stephane that he finally seems to have met a woman for his life, and is ready to leave his wife for her, Camille a violinist rising to fame. Camille's violin has a problem and Stephane repairs it for her. The extra ordinary coldness in Stephane is strange during the meetings, but Camille seems to be interested in this strange man. Stephane also has a friend, with whom he meets often and she does think Stephane has an interest in Camille. Stephane or this lady friend of his doesn't seem to have any other interests in their friendship. Camille is interested in knowing more about Stephane but he is not interested in talking about himself at all. The occassional absence of Maxime does offer more chances for Camille to get close to Stephane and she express her liking to him. But Stephane is very cold and rejects her completely. Camille reveals her mind to Maxime as well. In a restaurant, Camille, who still cannot believe she was rejected, desperately tries again to talk into Stephane and his rejection makes her go nearly violent. Maxime too is angry and slaps Stephane there. Stephane walks out  from the Violin workshop and sets up his own shop. After about 8 months Maxime visits Stephane again wanting to be friends again and Camille too seems friendly. Past is past.

We have seen so many love triangles. This one is a master piece of a Love triangle story. Typical of French movies, a lot of story is left for the viewer to interpret. How come Camille is interested in Stephane, why is he rejecting her and so on. It is when we watch such a beautiful movie we miss the original language, many subtleties are missed by the subtitles.

From recollecting some moments of the movie, I guess this :- Stephane is gay and he holds a special admiration for Maxime. He is unhappy that Maxime would leave his wife for a new woman and is quite jealous of Camille. Stephane uses the moments he have with Camille to cast a spell on her, in his own ways, and intentionally rejects her love to make her upset and to let Maxime know that Camille is fallen for his friend. May be he was hoping by this, Maxime would let her and he would have his friend back. Maxime also seems to be hurt that Camille is interested in Stephane, but because of his love for her, he is more disturbed that Stephane hurt Camille by rejecting her. Camille realises that Stephane is never going to love her and falls back to the comfort of Maxime's love. With time, the past has been accepted and normal friendship seems to be back, though there is a particular shot which says Camille still thinks about Stephane. I might be wrong in my assumptions, but I have to say this is an exceptionally great movie.

There are many many beautiful moments and some of these scenes explain how so much things can be told without saying anything at all. For eg: there is a scene were Camille visits the book shop where the lady friend of Stephane works. They dont speak anything about Stephane here, but the Camera follows their faces and their looks say everything. So is the scene in the restaurant where Camille tries to talk and finally cant control her rage, she simply cannot understand how a man can reject her.

I have seen only very few actresses, who have a very beautiful face and a perfectly beautiful body plus excellent talent to act. Emmanuelle Beart is definitely one of them. An important point in the movie is how can a single man reject the love of a beauty like Camille and I think there cannot be any better person than Ms. Beart for this role. Her eyes speaks more than a thousand words. I was charmed by her physical beauty in 'La Belle de Nouiseuse', here she proves she is more than that.

As the title reads, this movie is about a cold heart which is difficult to understand and who better than Daniel Auteuil to enact it. This role is made for him.

Cinematography in this movie is so beautiful and it can be a lesson to how to capture human beings and their emotions. There are also beautiful excerpts of  Violin.

For me this movie is a real master piece.
How much I wish to write more about this movie, better.

Atame - Tie me up, tie me down

1990 by Pedro Almodovar

Ricky is a prominent inmate in a Psychiatry hospital. He have eloped many times and have been back always promptly. In one of his such escape attempts, he had an adventure with a porn actress Marina. Ricky is now released from the Hospital and his dream is to work and have a family and he can only think about Marina as his wife. Marina is trying to change her career by leaving Pornography for a real movie. Ricky has no other way, so kidnaps Marina to her own home hoping she will fall in love with her. Marina manages to escape, but goes back to Ricky.

Quite disappointed with this Almodovar movie. Antonio Banderas looks so young and his charm is the major plus for this movie. It looks more like a Spanish movie on popular hollywood lines. The background music is really terrible in many parts. There were some interesting moments, but overall disappointed. 

Avaze Gonjeshk-ha - The song of Sparrows

2008 by Majid Majidi

This is not a real comedy. But there are so many innocent & funny moments in this movie. A man who has just lost his job tries to earn in anyways he can for his family. He also has to buy a new hearing aid for his daughter before her exams. Even without any pre meditated plans he starts his own motor bike taxi, illegal, in the city. His travails are beautifully told, you cant help laughing and at the same time feel his pain. A heart touching tale of a father and his family.

For me this is a simple, but brilliant movie.  Exactly like Jaffer Panahi's 'Offside' this is another gem from Iran.

Sanctum

2011  by Alister Grierson

A typical Hollywood masala, may I say, filled with its routine cliches and turns, and falls below average even by Hollywood masala standards.

I label it as Hollywood, not English though. 

Juana La Loca - Juana the Mad

2001 by Vicente Aranda

When a true story or historical movie is very impressive I do try to find out more about it and Wikipedia says so about Juana the Mad

Joanna or Joan (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), nicknamed Joanna the Mad (Spanish: Juana la Loca), was the first Queen regnant of both the Crown of Castile(1504–55) and the Crown of Aragon (1516–55), a union which evolved into modern Spain.^[1] Besides the kingdoms of Spain, she also ruled the kingdoms of Sardinia,Sicily, and Naples in Italy; a vast colonial empire in the Americas; and was Countess of Burgundy and the consort of the Burgundian Netherlands, thus initiating Spanish interests there. She was the last monarch of the House of Trastámara and her marriage to Philip the Handsome initiated the rule of the Habsburgs in Spain. Throughout most of her long reign she was under the regency of either her husband, father or son, and she was long confined to a nunnery under the pretense of mental illness.


Beautiful and young Juana is married off by her parents to prince Philip in what is clearly explained by her mother as a political marriage. Juana falls in love with Philip, madly. They have children and her love for Philip is only growing, so is her sexual passion for Philip. But on a bad day when the news of her mother's death arrives, she also finds out that Philip is unfaithful to her. She is shocked and behaves unlikely of a queen, more like an ordinary woman crying and screaming. From here spreads a talk that she is mad. Normally, Juana is the new Queen of her parents kingdom. Out of her passionate love for Philip, Juana is more interested in the other life of Philip than her kingdom. In fact she behaves less like a queen and more like an ordinary loving wife who cannot bear the fact that her husband is a cheat. At the same time there are men behind Philip who like to make use of this madness of Juana and declare her mad and unfit to be a queen, so that Philip will reign as the King of Castille, the monarch. There are some noble men who think Juana is not mad and they try to help her, in an attempt to stop Philip crowned as the sole monarch, but Juana is more interested in finding out who amongst her ladies is the mistress of her husband. She is declared a mad queen and has to live the rest of her life in a Castle in seclusion, with permission to visit the tomb of her beloved husband.  


Let me say this is a unique love story. We read, hear and saw stories and many movies about royal love, but for the first time I can see a queen who is really in love. When did we see a queen worried about the King chasing women, I cant remember any. Queens always behaved as if Kings can have many women.


Juana is from royal blood and she knows very well how to behave, but out of love she doesn't care for royal pretentions and behaves ordinarily. 


I am watching Pinar Lopez de Ayala, who plays Juana, for the first time and I am so impressed. She is beautiful and she can act, she acts very well in fact. There is a scene where the noble men are trying to talk to her about all the political drama around her, but she is desperately checking the hand writing of her ladies to find who amongst them have written to her husband. She was brilliant here, of course through out the movie she is, but this scene stood out for me. 


This movie also have excellent photography, costumes and music. 


We have seen so many royal movies, with all the drama around the battles to kingdom and what not. But Juana la loca, for me, is very special. I would place Juana la loca even above other royal movies - The Other Obelyn girl, Young Victoria etc, where the story is around the queen. 

Novecento - 1900 Twentieth century

1976 by Bernardo Bertolucci

Olma and Alfredo are born on the same day at the beginning of 20th century, former as an illegal son of a peasant in an Estate owned by Alfredo's father. Despite being from two ends of the society, they become friends and this movie is the story about how their friendship is carried forward till their old ages in spite of all the different political scenarios which affect Italy during their life time. Alfredo of course is the bourgeois master through out and Olma the socialist peasant. As a teenager Olma leaves for military service and Alfredo assists and learns the trade with his father. His father has also appointed Attila as his Estate supervisor, who turns out to be a real nightmare for the peasants, a fascist watchdog. By then Olma is back from military service, end of world war I, Italy has turned out a real Fascist country.

Alfredo marries immediately after the death of his father and his wife very soon turns unhappy as Alfredo doesnt seem to act against Attila  and Regena who are despised by the peasants. Attila also have a relationship with Regena who always wanted to marry Alfredo. Together Attila and Regina make a dangerous sadistic couple. Olma's wife dies during the delivery and Alfredo's wife likes his daughter very much. Alfredo also has doubts about the relationship between his wife and Olma. The political scenario changes with the end of war in 1945 and Alfredo is captured by a teenager boy. Alfredo is bought before the peasants court headed by Olma. Olma is keen to save his friend and explains to the peasants that Alfredo the master is already dead and its only Alfredo the man who lives.

This is an epic movie, taking us through Italy in 1900 to 1970's. Beautiful cinematography, some good music and excellent performances complete this film. I have never seen Gerard Depardieux (Olma) in such a young role. He looks so beautiful and is quite a pair with Robert De Nero (Alfredo).

The first half of the movie, I must say is quite slow. However this is made up by the second half which is so well shot. There are so many beautiful moments in this movie and you cant help applaud Bertolucci for that.

The movie is quite long (almost 5 hrs) and I am not sure if I have seen the full version as there are many versions available for this movie.

There was this other Italian epic - Le Meglio Gioventu - which is actually even longer and which I have seen three times. Once I saw it, 6 hours long movie, in a single stretch. I dont think I could do that with Novecento though. 

Novecento - still watching

Watching Novecento by Bernardo Bertolucci

The total length is about 300 minutes only finished the first part. 

Black Cat White Cat

1998 by Emir Kusturica

A small time smuggler seeks the help of an established one for a heist. He gets cheated by the established, without even knowing he is cheated, and ends up owing a lot of money. The only way out is to agree for his son to marry the sister of the established one. The son is in love with another girl and the sister is dreaming about an ideal love marriage though. There are also two old time smugglers, one of whom happens to be the father of the small time smuggler.

The latter half of the movie is all about the marriage. It is a very different comedy which has so many hilarious moments. In fact there are only a few moments where I was not smiling at all. It is the performance of the actors, which takes this movie to another level. There are few things that are difficult to understand, obviously because of the cultural differences.

This movie is not at all like Underground or When father is away on business, which are my Kusturica favourites. Black Cat White Cat is still a great comedy which has Kusturica stamp on it. 

Bandits

1997 by Katja von Garnier

Four women make a music band in the prison. They get an opportunity to perform in a public gathering, but they use this chance to escape and are on the run. They manage to keep the police at bay, but at the same time they also manage to make money by publishing their songs. The Bandits are quite popular now, but still eloping and they have problems too, within them.

This movie is different from run of the mill escape movies as all the four wanted culprits are women. And how many times have we felt bad watching popular actors, though good at acting, playing musical instruments so badly, in movies. Here all these four women are themselves musicians and they have written the music too for the film.

An interesting film, with good performances from all actors. 

Khaddama - house maid

2011 by Kamal

There are thousands of women in the Middle east who work as housemaids. They work hard, bearing all the tortures from their owners, only because they have a family to feed back at home. A widowed woman from Kerala arrives into a family in Saudi Arabia as a maid and she tries to escape, unable to bear all the mental and physical torture. Movie is all about how she finally make it out and also about some human beings who plays part roles in her escape.

This could have been a heart touching movie, but falls far short of it. It is not a bad movie either. For many reasons I thought it is only just a watchable movie, with a difference, considering the present state of Malayalam movies. It could have been an incredibly touching movie. The script doesnt offer much challenges to its lead actress to bring out a life time role. But some of the male roles, though short, do get few moments to excell. Casting goes wrong, especially for the two major roles. Kamal should have taken a cue from Tamil cinema and casted out of the box acters for such a movie, which is taken from the life of ordinary people.

May be its because I always thought about Kamal's Perumazhakkaalam as one of the best Malayalam movies of modern times, I am not able to accept anything sub standard from him.  

Arjunan Saakshi

2011 by Ranjith Shankar

About an affluent Malayaalee who decides and set out to find the truth behind the muder of a good Bureaucrat. Supposed to be a thriller. Ranjith Shankar gave lot of promise with his debut movie, Passenger. But he has taken many steps backwards with this movie. Nothing much to say.

Natrang

2010 , by Ravi Jadhav

Guna a poor villager, loves theatre. When he and his friends lose their job their only option is to start a theatre of their own, to finally live doing their passion. Guna is a strong man, a body builder who is called a King, by his friends. He dreams about his royal role in his own drama, but realises that it is important to have a panzy character (an effeminate/ eunuch) which can draw more crowds for the show. After a lot of hesitation, he accepts the challenge. His theatre is a success, but he is treated as a Eunuch by everybody and his family and social life is affected. He gains recognition with his passion, but he lost a lot too.

For an Indian movie, this is a unique theme. And debutant director Ravi Jadhav has created an excellent script based on a novel and Natrang has turned out as an exceptional movie. Just thought director could have made it even better, but still. Some of the scenes where Guna is trained to be an Eunuch and the shot where he first walks, from the right side of the frame, like an Eunuch are all so beautiful.

Ever since I saw Chandni Bar, I have considered Atul Kulkarni as one of the best actors in India. He has got a life time roll here and he has excelled in it. His change from a strong body builder to a lean Eunuch is incredible, so are his varied emotions. This kind of transformation, like that of Robert De Nero in Raging Bull, is very new to Indian cinema. It is unpardonable that he was not credited with the National award.

This is an excellent Indian cinema from India.

Cache - Hidden

2005 by Michael Haneke

A brilliant film about a family being haunted by video tapes (send to them), which are simply surveillance tapes of their own life, and weird drawings.  Interestingly, it leaves the question open - who did that - for us to decide.This is a cent percent directors movie.

Juliet Binoche, ever since I saw her Chocolate is a favourite actress of mine, effortlessly plays the house wife Anne. Daniel Auteuil is his quite self, like in Le Placard. I wonder if he has ever played any different kind of roles. 

Harishchandrachi Factory

2009 by Paresh Mokashi

Story about how Dada Saheb Phalke made India's first cinema, Raja Harishchandra in 1913. The Adventure filled story about how a man (with a wife and 2 kids) , who has just lost his printing business come across motion picture, falls in love with it and sets out to make the first motion picture in India. Enroute, he is even taken to a mental hospital by his friends, on the day of outdoor shoot police arrest the whole crew and what not. But all this is told in simple and funny way, projecting the innocence of the man through out. His two boys and wife especially, is more than a support. I just wish the movie was rather named Phalke family or something like that. Actually I felt proud about this simple movie. Such a pity regional Indian movies are all terribly sidelined by Bollywood.

It is the cinematography which took me by surprise. Often in Indian movies we dont get to see such beautiful, but subtle work. The lighting is so soft and helps the mood of the film in big way. An off beat movie like this can produce such excellent camera work, is very surprising for me. Even most of the commercial movies who play with huge money haven't tried this kind of lighting.

Winter's Bone

2010 by Debra Granik

A 17 year old girl has to take care of her 2 younger siblings and a sick mother. Her father, was part of the local drug mafia, disappeared on Parole and has to show up in court, failing which she will lose her home too. Movie is about her search for her father putting herself in danger. Pace is slow, but one cant help feeling the pain and anger of this girl, which is why I think it is worth a good watch.

This movie is all about good performances, especially from Jennifer Lawrence. She could give us more.
An off beat movie from Hollywood. 

Der Tunnel - The Tunnel

2001 by Roland Suso Richter

Based on a true story of the escape of 29 people from East to West Germany, immediately after the Berlin Wall came in, this is a good watch. It is so well directed and nicely photographed. 

Aadukalam

2011 by Vetri maaran

What an improvement from a director, Pollaadhavan to Aadukalam, in a word is unbeleivable. Pollaathavan was a good entertainer, but Aadukalam is even more than a typical box office hit, with few cuts here and there it can be pure reality. A novel subject conceived around Rooster fights, characters which are ordinary humans, excellent script, editing and cinematography - may be among the best low light camera works I have seen in Indian movies - which could be a trend setter even and a brilliant director who has taken the movie out of its entertainment box and placed it so close to anything of what a movie should be. Surely the career high for Dhanush.

Anyone interested in real Indian cinema, this is a must watch.

Tamil movie industry should be proud, after Mynaa, within 2 months they have got another excellent film.

127 Hours

2010 by Danny Boyle

A good movie , which is based on a true story. The real life Aron Ramston thinks the movie is like a documentary of what happened. All credits to Danny Boyle for making this one a good watch. Trainspotting would remain my Boyle favourite.

For more - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542344/