Dead Ringers

1988 by David Cronenberg - English movie

Some movies are successful as a cinema, but they might not be easy to watch.

The story of two twin doctors, who fall for the same woman and ultimately leading to..

Well, that is it. Within the first 15 minutes, I was sure what the end would be. But still this is quite a movie as one exploring a complex relationship, which lingers between brotherly love, sex, possession and fear of lose and what not.

But the movie turns out like a horror movie, a weird thriller, which is really dark and psychic. It was like as if we have watched a movie which glorifies the life of two bloody criminals. Yes, it is a ridiculously difficult watch which might even make the viewer sick by the end of it.

Having said that, the movie is still brilliant for its performances. And anyone with a sick or stone heart might even appreciate this as a classic.

Paris, Texas

1984 by Wim Wenders - English movie from America

I feel lucky to have seen this movie. I never heard about it before. But within a few minutes I knew I was watching one of the best American movies I have ever seen.

A man wandering in the desert is located and brought back to his brother's home. The brother and his wife are acting as parents for the wanderer's boy for the last 4 years, who is now past 7. The man painstakingly tries to bond with his child and slowly the past and the future comes clear.

This movie deserves to be among the best piece of art from American cinema. It is purely a piece of art in cinema. There is a kind of curiosity the movie holds, almost until the end, which makes it as engaging as a thriller. As we meet Travis and his brother, we are simply curious why Travis is so quite, why he doesn't speak and will he speak at all (for the first 20 - 30 minutes the central character doesnt utter a single word!!!). And then as he starts speaking we feel curious about what had happened to him and his wife and we are also worried will he manage to convince his boy as a father and finally we wish for him to find his wife and so on. Whatever, till the very final shot, this movie keeps our heart and mind engaged.

Brilliant scenes follow one after the other in this wonderful tale of a man who turned his back to everything dear to him, but wants to face life back after 4 years. And there are really heart touching scenes as well, but told in a sublime way without any tear jerkers.

Brilliant performance by Harry Dean Stanton as Travis and the child actor was also really brilliant.

The background score, which is almost made only of Guitar (it seems) is incredibly brilliant.

Finally, it is incredible to know that such a movie, which has a real American soul, is directed by a German.

A true master piece. 

Bella

2006 by Alejandro Monteverde - English movie

After watching certain movies, inspite of all its brilliance, beauty and warmth, one can remain a bit confused or dis connected. Bella did that for me.

A football player turned chef, tries to convince a girl against abortion.

There is a real good message in this movie. The man has a loving family behind him because of which he is very sensitive to family, children and all. The woman had a terrible family life and especially since she is not settled yet and have to find a good job, she doesnt have any option but to abort.

The background of how a millionaire football player had to become a chef is nice and touching. So are most of the scenes in this movie, which has a genuine feeling about it and is really warm. But honestly, it disappointed towards the end. May be because it was edited out, there is a blunt cut to the final scene. And we are left to believe that the lady finally did not abort, but the man simply adopted the child. Ah, this man is just a friend and he is not the person responsible for the lady's pregnancy. Owing to his family back ground and because of what happened to him in the past, he tries his best against abortion and might have decided to adopt.

All it was fine. Just that, that very sharp cut was too blunt. I am sure many people might have been confused about it. And to believe that inspite of all what happened, the lady left her baby  (only to come back, but after the infancy period) with an adopted father was not nice for a female character. That was too harsh.

Brilliant performances. Most of the actors in this movie seems to be from Mexico and there is lot of Spanish too in it. A good film, still.

Midnight in Paris

2011 by Woody Allen - English movie

Woody Allen is quite a different director from America. His Vicky Christina Barcelona is one of my favourites, though he does have some other nice movies. Midnight in Paris is his latest movie, and once again Woody Allen goes to Europe.

An American family is in Paris for business. The fiancee of the daughter is an established Hollywood writer, who would like to write a novel and feels Paris is the best place for doing this. He is in love with the city and its great past.

I would say this is quite a different attempt from Woody Allen. I never expected him to make a movie which is almost fantasical in its plot. His hero is able to travel to the 1920's meet great personalities of those period and travel back to the present. He even enters into a kind of relationship with a woman he met in that era. All this only to realise that he has the wrong person as his fiancee. At the same time through this movie, Woody Allen also mentions that people would always want to think about a different period in history, than the present, as the best.

At first, I didnt understand why there was a highly saturated and fluroscent yellowish tone for the frames. But as the 20's Paris scenes came in, it made sense. Many of the 1920's scenes are so lovely and brilliant.

Gil, Woody's  young writer, is a nice man with the heart of an artist. His fiancee and her family is anything but somebody who can appreciate such a genuine guy. It is perplexing how they got engaged though. Anyways, Gil's life in Paris is quite interesting and funny, moving between the 1920's and the present. One other thing I noticed is that how similar Owen Wilson and Woody Allen are. If this movie was made some years ago, Mr. Allen would have definitely played Gil. And when Owen Wilson plays this role, I almost felt like it was Woody Allen. There is a striking similarity between the mannerisms and dialogue delivery of the two. Owen Wilson, anyways, is really excellent. Marion Cotillard as Adriana, was brilliant and beautiful too. I really did not like Woody Allen using Gad Elmaleh in a small role, with nothing to do. What a waste of talent.

I would hesitate to call it a a romantic comedy, it begins and ends like one though. But it is quite a fantasical movie in between.
Nor is it a perfect blend of fantasy and present like in the El Laberinto del Fauno.
But still it is a good one, which requires a different mind set to watch, understand and appreciate.
For sure, it is a different movie from Woody Allen and I will be glad to watch it a few more time. Just like the hero in the movie, I am also in love with Paris, the most romantic city in the world for sure. And many scenes in this movie took me to the few days I spend there, and I felt nostalgic. Am sure Woody Allen loves Paris too.

Pathology

2008 by Marc Scholermann - English movie

Some movies are quite strange. I cannot fathom any reason for the making of this movie, which was presented as a thriller.

A brilliant young doctor joins for a new job in a Pathology lab, which already has few other brilliant and young doctors. They are enjoying a game, how best to kill somebody, making it difficult for others to find the cause of death.

The idea, though brilliant is quite disturbing and as the movie progress, it gets really too much. The movie is almost like a horror movie, within in a few minutes, and a very disturbing and gory one at that.

Cinematically, this movie might be a success. But it is one such movie which can create real unwanted scares and even thoughts into an ordinary mind. Some came up in my mind too, and even the thought of that is scary for me.

For many, even watching it through will be really difficult. Lots of dead bodies, blood and what not. Oh horrible.

It is only one in a blue moon, I will have to say this, I hope - Inspite of its cinematic brilliance, just ignore this movie.

Un Coupable Ideal - Murder on a Sunday Morning

2001 by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade - French Documentary in English

I dont think I have ever seen so many documentaries in such a short span of time. One brilliant docu is leading me to another and what an excellent watch this one has been.

An elderly tourist is shot dead at a Florida hotel and an unassuming 15 year old black kid is soon arrested by the Police. The documentary follows the kid's defense team and the whole trial in which finally he is found not guilty. 

This movie will be a real shock to many who considers that western democracies and their practices are the best. It, so easily, portrays how the police picked out a black kid, even without any basic investigations and charged him with murder, just because he happened to be a black kid. In fact the trials in the court are a revelation of how American Police can come up against their own people, if those unfortunate guys are black.

In one scene when the kid's mother is questioned in the court, the camera focuses on the kid himself. There isnt any kind of expression on his face, but soon you  can see tears flowing down and there isnt any expression on him still. What a moment it was. I doubt if any actor can recreate that scene.

The real trials in the court room are more than just eye opening or informative for a lay man like me. I wonder how the film makers got permission to shoot the whole trial and into many private areas of discussions in this movie. So at one point, even if the movie brings out the lazy approach of the police, it also brings out the positives of their justice system.

As an Indian, I would never congratulate or complain against the American system. I cannot congratulate them because I am aware about what they have been doing to millions of innocents across the world. At the same time I cannot complain against their racial or police practices as I am very well aware that my own homeland is no better, in fact Indian system - on racial cases or police or judiciary or human rights, is pathetic. We have thousands of innocents in our jails, who might not have even visited a court room yet. So..

And will there ever be a documentary like this on an Indian trial. Impossible, it seems.

Amelia

2009 by Mira Nair - English

A director who gave two brilliant movies, Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding, joining Hilary Swank was enough to convince me for this movie. But, I am afraid, it does not look at all like a Mira Nair movie. It is more an average Hollywood effort on a biopic.

Amelia Earhart, first took to aviation at the age of 23 and then soon became the first woman to do a solo flight across the Atlantic. She then sets forth to fly around the world. 

The plot has everything to make it a really excellent biopic. But there is something seriously wrong with this movie, it ends up more like a pretty average attempt on a great subject. As we watch the movie there are many moments when we wonder if the script and director is serious at all about this project. The only plus could be the performance of Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo and was a major influence in American aviation history, who also inspired the rest of the world. But even with Hilary, there are moments when we wonder if all these people are serious at all. Still, I must say, she has put in a good effort, especially in perfecting the body language of Amelia, who represented a typical girl in the 30's.

I would say Mira Nair got a golden opportunity and she didn't take it seriously enough and just disappointed. We feel nil emotion all throughout the movie, passing through the most important moments of the world's first (brave) women pilot.

Lion of the Desert

1981 by Moustapha Akkad

Libyans are fighting Italian colonialists for about 20 years. Mussolini, in 1929, appoints General Graziani as the Governor of Libya, in a last attempt to crush the 20 years long war. Libyans are all behind Omar Mukhtar, a 73 year old teacher and geurrilla, who has committed himself to this dream project of liberating Libya, almost sure it cannot be won in his time. Finally Mukhtar is captured, not before Graziani had to bring in most of Libya under a guarded concentration camp and having a barbed wire along the Libya- Egypt border, and hanged.

One of the best movies on guerrilla war and resistence. The movie, as it claims, is built on real life incidents and characters. It even shows some black and white shots of the original scenario in between which only adds to the authenticity of the movie. And at the end it also shows the BW photographs of the real Omar Mukhtar in chains.
I was really impressed by Mukhtar. Any 73 year old fighting for his birth land, with primitive guns, riding horses that too on the desert, is above most heroes. Brilliant.

Movie well brings out the patriotic factors and also the savagery of Colonialism. At the same time, there are also couple of Italian characters who are depicted as those valuing humanity and respecting Mukhtar. There are also some Libyans who supports the Colonialists.

It is a gripping movie on resistance and looks so authentic that it could be so close to a documentary. The war scenes were really authentic, not looked choreographed at all. Anthony Quinn steals the show as Mukhtar. What an amazing actor he is.

This movie was a huge box office disaster, may be because it was funded by Libyan autocract, Gaddafi. But then, when have the west and the powerful nations, including my own India, ever accepted any criticism with dignity.

Nearly, a century later, these kind of occupations still happens in the world is such a pity. I am sure news media, then was more independent and non corporatist. 100 years after, if stories of present occupations and freedom fights are scripted, how much truth would be available for those attempts? 

Following

1998 by Christopher Nolan

An unemployed youth, aspiring to be a writer, start following strangers on the street. He has set forth his own rules for following, which he starts breaking too. He is confronted by a man, who understood he was being followed, who introduces as Cobb. Cobb is a different kind of burglar, who just breaks into others apartments or flats, not really to steal anything valuable, but just to intrude into the private life's of the house owner. He would drink their wine, misplace objects and may be take with him private objects, invaluable for others or even the owner, even womens under clothes etc. He wants to make the owner realise what they had, when they lose it. Our aspiring writer is some what thrilled by this and he is nearly like an apprentice for Cobb. He even attempts his own Cobb style house breaking. He meets a woman in a bar, who seems to be obliged to be the girl friend of a local gangster. He realises that they have broken to her apartment earlier. Cobb gives him a credit card with the name Daniel Loyd for his use. The woman wants him to steal some photographs from the Gangster, as she is being black mailed, which he promptly does. But he ends up attacking a man who arrives, just when he is ready to leave the place. He also finds that the photographs he has stolen are nothing special to be worried about. When he confronts her, he realises that she and Cobb have set him up. Cobb had to kill somebody during one of his burglar attempts and wanted to share the doubts upon him with somebody else. When our writer recognises that he has been cheated by the woman and Cobb he goes to the police and confesses everything. Cobb kills the woman, as she was a witness to one murder committed by the gangster. After the confession to the police, the young man is perplexed by the truth that the whole thing was a drama , scripted by Cobb, as he is now responsible also for the death of the woman, another murder by Cobb.

This is a brilliant movie. Simply brilliant. I actually wanted to watch the 3rd El Classico - the semi final of Champions league - between Barcelona and Real Madrid and wanted to see the pre match discussions as always. So had thought, ok no movie today, but just played the file to check if it was allright and from the very first shots - in black and white - I got hooked. Luckily for me, the movie is only a little more than one hour, it finished a few minutes before the kick off. But I have to confess, I got involved so much that I completely forgot about my match, this is a big credit for this movie.

The movie is told through the confession of the young man to the police and its brilliant. Only towards the end do we realise this but then the final surprise is still not completed. The surprise, that Cobb had set him up to be responsible for the murders, comes out through the final talks between the young man and the police officer, talks which are very brief and precise, is an intelligent master stroke. It is so brilliant that it is a revelation not just for the young man but for the viewers too. There might be some viewers, who might have guessed this, but not me. I was so involved with the writer that I forgot to think about anything else. It is very seldom that you feel yourselves in the shoes of the character. I felt admiring Cobb, I felt falling for the woman and wanted to emulate Cobb and so and so, and the last revelation was stunning. Brilliant.

A brilliant script supported by a brilliant director. Kudos also to the camera work, which is classic in black and white. We never think about the camera actually. But this is not a simple work, I would say.

I dont know if anybody considers this movie as a master piece of Mr. Nolan. But I surely will.

I remember seeing Nolan's Memento some time back. I want to see it once again. Just like that. 

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

1969 by Stanley Kramer

Its second world war time. Mussolini is just been deposed and Germans are occupying most of Italy. Santa Vittoria is a small village/town where Wine is the back bone of the society. Bombolini is considered a drunken clown, as he is always drunk and his wife Rosa treats him like a worker or dog. She has utter contempt for the man who is just drunk all the time, a useless husband and father. Bombolini climbs up the huge water tank to earse the words praising Mussolini, but he is too drunk that he is just weak to do anything. Villagers think he is going to kill himself and Fabio, the only university student in the village, climbs up the tank to bring him down. Villagers chant the name of Bombolini, just to motivate him, while he is climbing down the tank. The fascist members of the council, who are in the town hall, afraid to go out, hear these chants and thinks the villagers have selected Bombolini as the next mayor. To save themselves from the mob (fascists have treated the peasants really bad during Mussolini's reign) they come out of the hall and announces Bombolini will be the new Mayor. Bombolini is shocked, but accepts this chance without a second thought. He reads Machiavilli's Prince and earms some weird idea about administration and manipulation. To appease the villagers, he select the most prominent people in the village as his council of ministers. He hope all this will find him some credit in his home, but Rosa is a strong woman and treats him even harder than earlier.

Fabio brings in the news that Germans will come to Santo Vittario to take their wine. The village is shocked. Tufa, a fascist soldier, who left the army, advise Bombolini to keep all the wine in the tunnels in the ancient Roman cave and cover up the tunnels. More than a million bottle of wine are transfered by hand, by the Santa Vittorians, to the tunnels in the Roman cave and are covered with double brick walls. They leave about 300000 bottles in the cooperative cellar, to deceive the Germans. They now wait for the Germans and a small team of Germans led by Captain Von Prum arrives in Santa Vittoria. Bombolini have decided to butter the German noses so that no harm is done to any villagers. When Von prum asks for the wine, Bombolini negotiates with him desperately for some percentage of the wine, in the cooperative cellar, to be left for the villagers, if not that would be a disaster for the village. Von Prum beleives him. However, from the records of the company, who used to buy the wine from Santa Vittoria, German special services understand that there were more than a million bottles of wine in Santa Vittoria and the villagers are cheating. Von Prum asks for 36 hours, before the special services can torture some villagers to find out the truth about the wine. His troups search the whole village but they cannot find the wine. At the end of 36 hours, Bombolini, intelligently, presents two ex fascists as the villagers to the special services to torture. Finally the special services are sure that there is no more wine in the village and agrees with the Captain that its time to leave the village. Von Prum, by now, is sure that Bombolini is cheating him and as a last ditch effort, announces Tufa would be shot at 06 am, the day when the Germans have to leave the village, if the secret is not revealed. In the morning, he points a gun at Tufa and screams for the whereabouts of the wine, but Tufa, Bombolini and the whole village keep on saying there is no wine. Von prum sets Tufa free and just before he leaves, pleads to Bombolini to reveal the secret, only the secret he doesnt need the wine, but to no avail. Bombolini then presents a bottle of wine to Von Prum and as the Germans leave he dances out his joy with the whole village. Even Rosa appreciates him now and joins him.

What a beautiful movie. Here is a movie where within few minutes we know that we are watching a great movie and as time pass our appreciation for the movie only grows. Brilliant scenes follow one after another that by the end, we would like to join the dancing Santa Vittorians. The scene where Fabio saves Bombolini is well taken and I thought excellent. But the scenes that follow are even more excellent. This movie can be treated as a comedy or even an adventure, it offers everything. Most scenes inlcuding Bombolini, and he is there in almost all the scenes, are so funny but towards the end when Bombolini acts more like a responsible Mayor the movie is kind of a thriller and there is enough drama too through the characters of Tufa, Catarina and Von Prum. The love between Tufa and Catarina and the forceful intrusion by Von Prum is an excellent sub plot which makes the final scenes more dramatic in this comic thriller. This sub plot is still not permitted to take away the attention from the major plot. Excellent script and direction I must say. The scene and dialogues between Bombolini and his daughter and with Rosa and the daughter are brilliantly hilarious. No words to describe. So is the final scene with Bombolini and the captain.
Bombolini presents the wine bottle to the captain and says 'its not a great wine, but its not bad'.
The captain replies 'are you sure you can spare it?' and
Bombolini 'oh theres one million more where this came from'.

It has to be seen to realise the magnificence of the expressions on the face of Bombolini and Van Prom at this stage.

This movie is all about the character of Bombolini, more than brilliantly played by Anthony Quinn. Bombolini is present in all most all the scenes of this movie and he grows as a character scene by scene and Quinn seems to instill more and more life and blood into it as he grows. He keeps on surprising us with his performance that  by the end I was wondering, if there is anything that is impossible for this man to perform. Here is a magician of an actor. If I must list, I will have to list almost all the scenes where he is brilliant, but some of them were hypnotic. The scene when he reacts to the announcement that he is the Mayor, when he listens to his daughter, who proclaims her love for Fabio and his looks at her breasts, when he pleads to Rosa to not beat him on his head, when he announces the council of ministers, when Tauf tells him how to hide the wine, his welcome of Germans, his reaction and bargaining when the captain ask for wine, when he pleads his idea to torture only the two fascists and his reactions when they are tortured and so on and finally the scenes at the square. I would rate this performance from Anthony Quinn as one of the very best performances by any actor I have ever seen.

But it is not completely a one man show. Anna Magnani as Rosa Bombolini is brilliant. She has taken Rosa to a different diamension I think, with the few scenes she got. The other major players like Van Prom, Catarina, Tauf, Fabio and Bombolini's daughter all are excellent.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria was an American production, but it is more like an Italian movie, except for the language of English. All these Italian characters speaking in English was the only serious draw back for me. They do talk with Italian accents and with perfect Italian mannerisms, but that was a sour point. I would really love to see this in Italian.

It is surprising that this movie is highly under rated. The Secret of Santa Vittoria would be an all time favourite for me.

Love in the time of Cholera

2007 by Mike Newell based on the novel by Gabrile Garcia Marquez

In 19th century Colombia, young Florentino Ariza easily falls in love with Fermina Daza. Her father is against this love and shifts her to a family home. When she meets him again after a long gap, for some reason she doesnt like him anymore. She later marries Dr. Urbino and have a normal family life. Florentino however is really affected but carries his love for Fermina with him. He does have adventures with other woman, as he finds sex to be a good medicine for his pain, of which he keeps a list on, and he is considered quite brilliant in winning women. After 52 years, when Dr. Urbino dies, Florentino comes back to Fermina and declares his love for Fermina. It takes some time to convince her, but he eventually wins her love and makes love with her, at the very old age though. Before this, he managed to sleep with 622 women.

I am told this was a very touching and successful novel, but as a movie it did not really affect me. May be Spanish characters speaking English sounded weird or the director has failed in making this an eternal love story.

Watch this movie for the excellent performance from the Spanish actor Javier Bardem. I loved him in Vicky Christina Barcelona and here he is excellent again. 

1492 - Conquest of Paradise

1992 by Ridley Scott

Christopher Colombus thinks differently from the rest and is sure that he can find a new route to Asia. It takes lot of hard work for him to convince his queen to set out on this expedition and finally reach the West Indies and is glad to meet the new tribes and the abundant nature in the islands. He returns back to Spain and goes back to the Indies, but with more men and power. But this time he also has to manage some noble men who follows the powerful men in the Kingdom. These noble men have different ways to deal the native tribals which soon make the new paradise land a chaotic land. Columbus is replaced by another Viceroy and is jailed in Spain. By this time another Italian have already discovered the continent of Americas. Columbus still feels he has only been proved right, even if somebody else reached the continent first.

All the drama behind these expeditions has been nicely shot. So are the friction between the aboriginals and the invaders. The movie will definitely make us feel bad about all the terror which was done by Christianity in the historic days, may it be upon people who thought differently or upon the aboriginals of the invading islands or countries.

This movie, I would say has one of the best cinematography I have seen. Its not about landscapes or panoramic shots. The lighting is brilliant, subdued for a good majority of shots and the camera is brilliantly placed and absorbs the emotions and moods wonderfully. It is a pity that this movie never got its due attention. May be because of its slow pace through out. But I cannot imagine this one in any different way.

An excellent performance from Gerrard Depardieux as Columbus. So does Sigourney Weaver as the Queen of Spain, who only have few scenes, but she is all out there as the queen in those scenes.

I am still wondering why this movie is never mentioned when people discuss about the best historic movies. May be the west do not want to look at nearly realistic portrayals of how badly they have treated indigenous people.

Also it would have been better had this been taken in Spanish language. Mr. Scott wisely cast Depardieux for the role of Columbus as he wanted somebody from Europe, but had the language too been Spanish may be the movie would have been different. 

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. 

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/

Black Swan

2010 by Darren Aronofsky

I am not sure if I can call this a master piece, but this movie can be interpreted in many ways and thats why I think it is brilliantly done by Aronofsky. What a theme for a movie. Inspite of all the questions you may have, the pace of the movie is in tact through out. And what an actress Natalie Portman is. She can be proud about this once in a life time role as a dedicated , often hallucinated, Ballerina. I couldnt help thinking about my dear wife, who too is a dedicated dancer. Will watch this again, with her.

For More - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/