A Simple Plan

1998 by Sam Raimi

Two brothers - Hank and Jacob - and Jacob's friend Lou accidentally come across a downed plane. To their shock they find a bag with 4 million dollars inside. On the insistence of Lou, Hank didnt want this at all, they decide to take the money and wait to see if somebody come for it. If not, they will divide it between the three. Hank is the only univeristy graduate in the locality and has a peaceful life with his Expecting wife Sarah. Jacob is not a normal person, kind of dim witted, and Lou lives with his wife. It all looks quite simple but then surprises unfolds and the three end up killing a villager to protect their secret. And to make things even worse, Hank and Jacob kills Lou and his wife too. Finally, the local police officer too is killed. By this time Jacob gets quite fed up of all the made up stories he has to live with, upon Hank's insistence, and feels he have had enough and wants to kill himself if Hank doesnt do that. Hank escapes the law, but he is told by the FBI officers that they are waiting for somebody to start spending some of the marked bills from the 4 million. This shatters him and he burns the whole money and continues with his normal life, but without any peace of mind.

A very interesting plot for a movie and it has been developed into a good watch. The way money can change human nature, characters and relations is well brought out. But still one wonders about the lack of common sense among the characters, not always but at least a couple of times, especially for Hank, his wife and Lou. Since Jacob is portrayed as special, he can escape this though. And that, I thought, was the only major negative for this nice portrayal of human characters going mad, lured by the prospects of easy money.

If I had not watched 'Bowling for Columbine' , I would have also wondered about how easy it is for Americans to use guns. But that is how it is in America and this movie, I think, also points to the dangers that are just around, just because everybody can have a gun. Human beings can act terribly in split seconds and the availability of a gun makes them bloody killers, un intended. The scene where Lou and his wife are killed is very well shot and points to this aspect.

The performances are quite good, but I especially liked Billy Bob Thornton as Jacob. Excellent performance.

It is the setting and the photography which takes this movie to a different level from a normal good Hollywood experience. So many beautiful frames with the Whites. Excellent.

A Simple Plan is a very good dramatic thriller from Hollywood, quite different from the normal ones.

Nokas

2010 by Erik Skjoldbjaerg

On 5 April 2004, 11 men robbed the Nokas (a Nowegian Cash counting centre in Stavenger). They dressed themselves up like SWAT team and were armed. 7 men went inside the building collecting the cash in their bags and the rest guarded outside. They had blocked the police station entry with a burning trek, only a few minutes away from Nokas, delaying the arrival of the police. A real shoot out occured in the public square between the robbers and police in which a police chief was killed. The robbers manage to escape with 57.4 million Kroners.

This robbery was the largest in the history of Norway and this movie captures the incident just like it occured. Brilliant. The movie starts at 0310 hrs when the robbers are getting ready for the operation and ends at around 0830 hours when they manage to escape. In between it looks at the state of three groups of people, the robbers, the police and the bank staff. The robbers planning, nervousness and anticipation of the job is so nicely shot. The  situation with the police, who are short of staff and who really get caught because of the burning trek at their gate is even more well shot. Then there are the staff who manages to inform the police and sneak their way out of the bank.

I especially liked how the movie begins and carries forward until the shoot out. The robbers expected to break the glass wall on the back side of the bank with a sledge hammer and they thought the whole job will be done in 8 minutes. But the glass wall is so strong that it took more than 8 minutes just trying to break this wall. The scenes here itself take this movie to another level. Brilliant. However, this gives enough time for the staff to lock one of the locker rooms and escape. The disappointment of the robbers, unable to open a cash room, but just looking at the stacked cash across iron bars, was simply brilliant. So was the hapless situation of the police who were blocked by the clever idea to place a burning trek at their gate. But the final shoot out, I thought was rather unclear. Sure, the script is based on the real incidents and words from all those who were involved, but still I thought this was a very slight draw back. But may be that was how it worked on that day. Nobody seemed to know to whom or where they were shooting. And it is a miracle that only one got killed in this shoot out in a public place, where buses and public move between the robbers and police, amidst firing.

And almost all over the world the Police is not really equipped to meet a surprise situation.

All points to the script and director to make us feel for all three groups of people involved. That is excellent.

I really wonder how they managed to catch these robbers, later.

Nokas is a very different and excellent watch. 

Jusan nin no Shikaku - 13 Assassins

2010 by Takashi Miike

Year 1844. The Samurai era is coming to an end. The Shogun's younger brother Lord Naritsugu is an out of this world sadist who rapes and kills just for pleasure. A government official commits suicide in protest on the news of his latest drama and an influential Govt. official, Sir Doi feels it is time to act. He asks a former Samurai officer Shinzaemon to assassinate Lord Naritsugu for the social cause. Shinzaemon makes a team of excellent samurais which itself is not an easy procedure and finally settles for a team of 12 inlcuding himself. They decide to attack Naritsugu and his entourage enroute his journey to home land. A chief Samurai officer, who had earlier worked under Shinzaemon has doubts about the conspiracy and he strengthens the security for the Lord. Shinzaemon and his team is joined by another man in the forest who makes the total of 13. Naritsugu and his entourage is cleverly trapped in a village and in the following battle almost everybody is killed, inlcuding 12 samurais.

For people like me, who watch a Japaneese movie occassionally, initially it felt like this is another Seven Samurais , but actually this movie is a remake of a 60's movie, which was inspired by the Seven Samurais. I havent seen the 60's version, but this is a very good movie.

The movie starts with a low pace, detailing some of the cruelties of Naritsugu. The scene where a woman whose limbs and toungue were cut off by the Lord, is presented to motivate Shinzaemon to accept the job was brilliant and touching. Finally here is a villain in all sense of that word, if given a chance even the audience would jump up and kill. From there on the script and director really make us crave for a win for the Samurais and keep us anticipating till the battle scene. The final battle is excellent, if not brilliant, except for a couple of shots where the CG, may be the only time it was done for the whole battle, looked quite mediocre. Having said that this is one of the best battle scenes we have seen, beautifully captured. Other than the martial art powers of the Samurais we would also appreciate their intelligence.

The movie is beautifully shot and I have to specify the quality of the sound recording in this one. Brilliant.

All the actors did very well but a few did stand out. First of all the actor who played Lord Naritsagu. Then the chief Samurai officer to the Lord.  Quite a different role here as he himselves is convinced abou the cruelty of Nartisugu but as a true Samurai he has to protect his Lord though and would give his life for a man who is not worth living.

There is a Ronin in the group of 13 Samurais who is shown as a master of sword work and who is capable of killing a very very large number of people. In the final battle, there is one particular scene where he is beautifully picturised as doing what is expected of him. May be scenes or shots were edited out as I thought this character was not really used. His role in the battle was a kind of diminished one.

This is a work from a director who was famous for his horror kind of movies, but I am sure he must have impressed a lot of critics with this classic entertainer.  

Tom Yum Goong

2005 by Prachya Pinkaew

Kham belongs to a warrior clan who used to protect the Kings elephants during war. His father now has an elephant Por Yai and its calf Khorn. Kham treats these elephants like family. These elephants are stolen during a festival and smuggled to Australia. Kham arrives in Sydney in search of them and has to find the elephants. He finds some help from a Thai origin police officer. His enemies are from a huge mafia, led by a Eunuch with some deadly, massive body guards.

Just like the Jackie chan movies of 80's, its not about the story here, its all about martial art, Muay Thai. This young man, Tony Jaa, is a genius, brave, powerful and what not. Brilliant is not a word to describe some of the fights in this movie. We know for sure that there is no computer graphics, or wires or dupes used in Tony Jaa's fights. In fact he has even co choreographed the fights. Forget about the weak story or the script or the characters or the loop holes or the director. This is all about fights.

There is one particular fight scene, which is shot in a single shot. I think it must be about 4-5 minutes, where Jaa walks up a many storeyed building and fights with many people. This is taken in a single shot and I dont remember seeing any thing like that in my whole experience with movies. How to think about the possibility, plan it, choreograph it and execute it and it has come out perfect, I will salute Jaa and his team for this scene alone. I remember the Russian movie where the whole movie was taken in a single shot, which I thought was superb choreography. But to have a whole scene of fight sequence where one man takes on so many (destroying many props) others in a single shot is 100 times more difficult than what we see in Russian Ark, with all respects to the makers of Russian Ark. I could not resist looking up in the net, and I found this - According to the director, on the special edition DVD, the continuous fight scene took five full takes for a variety of reasons, including stunt objects not breaking and the stunt mat not being in place in time. The five takes were filmed over a one-month period.


Again, there were few more other fights which were brilliant, especially one in a budhist temple. I must admit this was may be the best one on one fights I have ever seen in any movies. 


I have to also say a word about the co fighters in this movie. Tony Jaa's action look so fast and precise and powerful that I cannot imagine how the co fighters could bear it. Sure, many must have felt the heat and pain during the shoots.


Watch Tom Yum Goong, if you are really interested in action, un adulterered action.

Apart from the action scenes, there are also some beautiful shots of Kham with the elephants. Very nicely shot.

I salute Tony Jaa. I can imagine the kind of hard work he has put behind this role. Brilliant.

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.

Pedar - the father

1996 by Majid Majidi

Mehrollah's, a teenager, father gets killed while teaching him to ride a motor bike. To support his poor family, mother and 3 young sisters, Mehrollah goes to the nearby town to work. After long time, he is back to his village, with a bundle full of gifts for his mother and sisters. On arrival in his village, he is told by his friend Latif, that his mother had married a police man. Mehrollah is really affected by the news. He goes to the policeman's home, throws away his gift bundle and returns. Later he confronts his mother for the reason for this marriage. The mother confirms that there was no other way than to marry this gentle man, who also spend a lot of money when his sister got ill. Mehrollah however cannot accept the truth and he wants to teach the police man a lesson. When Mehrollah gets injured, the policeman takes him to his own home where the mother takes care of him. Back to normal health, Mehrollah steals the policeman's service revolver and elopes. His step father is mad and sets out in search of Mehrollah. He spots Mehrollah in the town, arrests him and proceeds back to the village, on his bike. Enroute, the bike doesnt work and they have to walk through the desert, a tedious journey which brings them closer.

I am not sure if any other country in the world makes so many simple, but beautiful, movies like Iran. Here is yet another simple story from Iran, told nicely.

Mehrollah's anger and madness at his step father and his love for his sisters are all so nicely told, but I am afraid it doesnt clarify the reason why he is so mad at the police man, inspite of being told that he is a nice man and he spend a lot of money for the treatment of his sister. The step father is also ready to accept Mehrollah as a son and even welcomes him to his home, but Mehrollah is really mad at this man. Is it because, he is not happy that his mother remarried without checking with him, or is it that he lost his place as the bread earner for his mother and sisters or is it simple jealousy, am afraid it is not clear.

There are more than a few very touching and funny scenes in this movie. Mehrollah's attempt to kidnap his sisters, his reunion with his sisters, his fight with his mother are all so well shot. So is his attempt to escape from his step father while they are on the bike. And their journey afterwards through the desert, till the end, is definitely brilliant. The way their feelings come out for each other, amidst games played by nature, I would say, is definitely the highlight of this movie. Mehrollah, in the beginning of the movie, had lost a photograph of him with his father in the stream. In the climax, just after he had pulled his step father to a stream, a family photo (his mother and sisters with the step father) falls out from the father and flows across to Mehrollah. This was quite poetic way of saying Mehrollah was accepting his new family.

Mehrollah is definitely the majore player here, but I was more impressed by the performance of the step father and the boy Latif. Latif acts like a stupid, hard working and suffering, boy who is like the mediator between Mehrollah and his mother and his innocence and naivity was quite nice to watch. The child actor did so well and they way he cried, when he is caught and put back in a bus by the polce man , was brilliant. So was his betrayal of Mehrollah during the kidnapping scene. Mohammed Kasebi as the policeman was also really good. The mother also had to do some really nice subtle expressions.

The movie also has some good bits of music and a simple, but excellent, cinematography.

This is still not as great as Children of Heaven or Song of Sparrows, but I liked Pedar very much. 

Bal - Honey

2010 by Semi Kaplanoglu

A young boy, Yousuf, is a stutter and is very very quite. He is open only towards his father, who keeps bees and sells honey for living. Father, hence, spend most of his time in the nearby forests. Yousuf is not even close to his mother. Even in school he is not smart enough to get any recognitions. One day, his father who had left for the forest, doesn't come back. Yousuf is really depressed by the absence of  his father. His mother is also getting really disturbed. Yousuf knows his father's route almost and goes to the forest by himself, in search of his father. He realises that his father is dead.

A story of daily livelihood from a child's perspective. And it is told as if a camera is following the child and his family that it is so realistic that it is so slow. To add more, there are not any kind of emotions or expressions in this working class 'nuclear family'. The result, Bal turns out as a great attempt, but it is a tedious watch. I think it is a good movie, but it is difficult to complete it without ever feeling asleep, especially if you are watching it in the late hours, like me.

The charm of the boy, Yousuf and the charm of the beautiful locales are the big pluses for this movie. But the movie concentrates really on the simple living of a child and his father, in an unbelievable sense of realism, that it gets too slow, painfully slow. Except for the death of the father, there is absolutely no drama at all, happening in this family, which makes this movie, a strange experience.

I cannot think about any other movie, I ever saw, being so calm for its whole length.

Absolutely calm and quite movie. A unique effort, though.  

Ong Bak

2003 by Prachya Pinkaew , second watch because of a dvd confusion

An ancient Budha statue, the priced possession of a village, is stolen. Villagers desperately want to find it and Ting, the best martial artist in the village, volunteers for the job. Ting is excellent in Muay Thai, a traditional martial art but vows to his teacher never to use it for personal gains. He goes to Bangkok and has to engage in a one man fight with the underworld to bring back Ong Bak to his village.

A simple story, but is an excellent watch, especially if one is interested by martial arts. Tony Jaa, the new star, trained Muay Boran, the ancient form of Muay Thai for 4 years, in preparing for the shoot. The results are there to be seen. All his fights are brilliant and so are his acrobatics. We see him doing something and we think oh thats brilliant, and then he does something even more dangerous and beautiful in the next scene. Brilliant.

Another highlight of the movie is its Cinematography. It is so good that often we would not notice the camera at all. Excellent work. 

Urumi

2011 by Santhosh Sivan

Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India and arrived in North Kerala in 1498. When he came back in 1502 he had more plans than trade. He massacres the pilgrims aboard a ship coming back from Mecca. Kothuvaal, a local hero fights him but is killed too. Kelu, the young boy of Kothuvaal saves his life and meets Vavvali and are bought up as brothers by his mother. Kelu makes a Urumi (a two edged, long flexible sword, a traditional weapon in South Indian martial art) plated with the gold that he collected from the dead bodies of the pilgrims. He awaits the coming back of Gama to take his revenge. Gama is coming back to Kerala after 22 years. Kelu and Vavvali saves Bala, the princess of Chirackal palace (a prominent local chieftain). Chirackal king is against the invading Europeans, plundering the wealth of his native land, but his minister and son, and so do many other chieftains, supports Gama. King ask Kelu to save the life of a prince from the Arackal palace, who will be hanged by Gama. During this mission, Kelu meets Ayesha, the princess of Arakkal who is also ready to fight Gama. The three make a daring team, weaving their plans amidst the local politics between chieftains, and fight Gama and his son. In the final battle, Kelu gets really close to killing Gama, seriourly injuring him, but is shot down right before. (Some of my friends think Gama is killed at the end, while I thought Kelu was shot even before he could make that final blow)

That makes an excellent story, a mix of reality and fantasy, for an excellent period movie. But Mr. Sivan thought differently and the movie is told from the present. Two friends, in need of money, have to sell their ancestral forest land to a multi national mining company, just for making huge profits. But a school for the tribals in the region run by an NGO and the tribals themselves oppose this project as that will harm their lives as well as the ecology. Some tribal activists kidnaps the friends and explain them the story behind the region. That is how the main story, ie the revenge of Kelu - a boy who wanted to kill Vasco da Gama, of the movie unfolds. Realising the need to preserve the nature and its aboriginals and how hard the ancestors had fought for the same, the young friends decides against selling their land.

Both these could have been two different movies. Mr. Sivan, I think , wanted to pass this all important message to the Indian affluents, who are turning more western than the west, forgetting our own past, heritage, our natural wealths, causing lot of harm for the aboriginals of India and our nature in the name of development. The message is quite clear and I hope many might take a note of the same. But for me, Urumi as a period movie would have been better without this story of the present. For sure, it would have reduced its length.

Having said that, I must confess that Mr. Sivan has joined both these stories in a nice way, two ways actually

- He have used the same faces in both the past and the present, giving freedom to the viewer to interpret these modern guys as reincarnations of the historical characters.
- He have also completed the unfinished love story between Kelu and Ayesha, in the present. This too is open to interpretation especially because the modern character of Ayesha is described as somebody with mental problems. It is impossible for a modern young guy to love her. But the final scene where the modern day Ayesha unfurls the Urumi, the same one used by Kelu in the 16th C, there is a spark in her eyes which could be interpreted as if .....

The main story, I would say, is brilliant in some scenes, very good in many scenes and mediocre in a few scenes. Some of the scenes with Chirakkal King, his minister, Kelu and Vavvali, some between Kelu and Ayesha and some between Vavvali and Bala are all excellent not just in the way they are shot but also because of the strength and beauty of the dialogues. Especially in the first half of the movie, the script has taken every care to ensure the scenes are sleek and to the point and are well shot too. But in the second half, may be this extra vigil is not always there and it felt like movie would do better with some editing. Even the dialogues tend to be ordinary. The settings and the ambience are all excellent. However the excellence is marred by some completely unwanted songs. No doubt, the songs are picturised beautifully, but they do break the pace of the movie and felt like intrusions in story telling. Except for the very first song and a small interlude when Vavvali dances his heart out, I thought Urumi would have been a more sleek period film without the songs. And finally the final war itself, as always in Indian cinema, is mediocre.

Tahaan was the last Santhosh Sivan movie I saw and hence my expectations were very high, may be. He of course have done a great job. Some song sequences, the first fight scene were Kelu and Vavvali saves Bala, the fight between Vavvali and Gama's son are all brilliant, I would say. Even during the final war, there are shots which are quite poetic. But Mr. Sivan, I am afraid, could not be consistent with this brilliance through out the movie, both as the director and the cinematographer. The song sequence between Kelu and Ayesha and some shots during the final war were all poetic camera work, may I say. But there are also scenes, were I doubted, if these are from Santosh Sivan at all, some indoor scenes to be more precise. There are more than a few shots where the white's are overtly over exposed. I dont know if this movie was shot on film. The theatre I watched, which was using Satellite projection, may be, was having some problems, may be.

There are also few other things that I would like to point out. The script make sure that there are no unwanted references to any religions in Kerala, which was a highlight of Keralan society in the medieval centuries. Caste played a big role, but not the religion. It is after decades that Indian cinema shows a hindu in love with a muslim girl and a muslim in love with a hindu girl, without any mention about their religious differences at all. It also depicts incidents of Hindu rulers raping Muslim women and young girls. For all, this I have to congratulate Mr. Sivan and Mr. Shankar Ramakrishnan. But still, Ayesha who was portrayed like a lioness, ends up like nothing in the movie. A kind of incompleteness was felt with her character there.  I also like to point out something, the use of the singing couple - Pulluvan paattu - in front of the Chirackal palace, as an excellent idea, well executed, to bring out that old world feeling.

The movie would do great for Jagathy Sreekumar (the minister), Prabhu Deva (Vavvali), Genelia (Ayesha), Prathviraj (Kelu) and Nithya Menon (Bala). Jagathy after long has got a role of substance and he was brilliant, the best actor from the whole movie. Prabhu Deva, I doubt, if he will ever get a role of same stature, but he has taken this opportunity with atmost sincerity and excelled as Vavvali. The only small song, which I thought fit into the mood of the movie, which falls in the second half, he dances his heart out and that scene is beautiful. I thought, it was quite appropriate that, only Vavvali dances (his character is of Tamil origin) and the Keralites (who dont believe in such expressions of joy, like dancing) sitting around just watching. Genelia has got a very different role and she has tried her best to excell and is really good. I would still say she is best fit for her roles like in Sachin or Bommarallu (Santhosh Subramaniam). There is a scene in which Kelu is trying to motivate the peasants to join him in the war. Ayesha is seen sitting in the background. Her posture, for a princess from the most prominent Muslim rulers of Kerala, was quite strange and even modern. This is not her fault, but that shot stood out as something un appropriate. Nithya surprised me as the Chirackal princess. Here is a role in which she doesnt have much to do but she has excelled in it. Her subtle expressions of anger and seduction were excellent. I really hope she will look into more serious roles in the future. And finally Prithviraj as Kelu is the major star attraction. There is no question about his charm and the effort he has taken for this role. His dialogue delivery, especially in the first half, was really good. But I really felt, he might have wasted an opportunity in taking this character to another level, like what Mammooty did with Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha. And it would be a sin to not mention about two small characters. Arya as Kelus father and the actor who played Chirackal king, who also were excellent.

I also have to say that the background score was excellent for most parts. The particular bit played for scenes between Vavvali and Bala, was brilliant.

Whatever, I was very happy to see Urumi. I would consider it as the best period movie in Malayalam, after Vaishaali, Perumthachan, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and Parinayam, inspite of all its short comings. May be it would have been great if it was scripted by M. T. Vasudevannair, who scripted all those movies of the 80's.

I thank Santhosh Sivan and his team, for making a good movie in Malayalam.

When I saw the stills before the movie, I thought - ah.. three gorgeous women (Tabu, Vidya Balan and Nithya) and Genelia here. But it just turned out for Nithya and Genelia only. Tabu and Vidya doing only some cameos. 

Le Corniaud - The sucker

1965 by Gerard Oury

Antoine Marechal wants to take a holiday in Italy to escape the cold weather in Paris. Within a few minutes, his car is hit by another car, damaging it completely. Saroyan, as a compensation, offers him a chance to drive a Cadillac from Naples to Bordeaux, all expenses paid, which would make a wonderful trip. Antoine cannot even beleive his luck and sets out to Italy. He is unaware that Saroyan has been looking hard to find a naive and innocent looking man to smuggle something from Italy to France. The Cadillac is actually carrying Heroine, Gold, some pearls and a very famous diamond. All these are placed secretly in different parts of the car that all they wanted was an innocent man who could drive it through the customs on Italy/French border. Saroyan's plan is to follow Antoine through out to ensure the safety of the car. Well there are somebody else too, who has some idea of these plans, who would follow both these cars. This is a crazy journey of the sweet and naive guy Antoine, in a Cadillac, from Naples to Bordeaux. He is followed by Saroyan, with two idiotic assists, and another group of criminals. The whole journey ends in the small French town Carcassone.

Classic 'Fun on the road' movie. Two criminal groups following an innocent man itself makes a great plot for a comedy. The facts like the innocent is not aware about the real value of the car and that he is followed by the same guy who offered this free trip and the innocent is losing the valuable parts one by one enroute, adds to the plot. The scene, in which Antoine uses the Cadillac's phone to call Saroyan, just to enjoy that facility and to say how much he is enjoying his trip, when Saroyan picks up the call from another car just 2 meters away, alone conveys the comic plot. The movie is full of such scenes and most of them are hilarious, especially the ones in the hotel in Rome and the camp site. The bonus is definitely the naivety of Antoine. What an excellent character. Though we laugh out loud we still feel sorry for the guy. But towards the end when he realises that he is being fooled, he turns street smart and that is quite nice.

 Louis De Funes as Saroyan is excellent and is at his usual best, but Bourvil as Antoine is the show stealer. His face is so kind and innocent and he fits perfectly for the role and with his master performance makes it a brilliant show. Bourvil is so sweet and kind and I doubt if he plays any nasty characters, would it be so convincing. I am sure he will make it great too, but this man was really special. I especially likes his naive moments like when he offers more money to the work shop man, who stole the gold in the car, and his romantic overtures with the two women he meets in this journey are really really brilliant. That is classic French I must say, a lesson in wooing and being nice and sweet to woman.

I feel sorry that both these men have left this world. How would they have felt to know that their performances are still being watched and appreciated by people from a different century. 

Russkij Kovcheg - Russian Ark

2002 by Alexander Sokurov

The narrator, a ghost, is wandering through the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. He is able to talk to another 'European', who too is wandering around. They stroll through the different rooms and areas in the Palace, each region depicting different ages in Russian history, not in any chronological order. They are able to recognise some persons and interact with at some point, but often people do not notice them at all.

I did not really enjoy watching this movie for few reasons, its pace and my lack of knowledge in Russian history.

However, I would strongly say this is a unique idea for a movie. Here is a ghost, who can be the director himself with his camera man, being escorted by another ghost, who seems to have been to this region when he was alive, wandering through a great palace, describing the various artefacts and people they see enroute. They witness few scenes, which are actually recreated from the true history of Russia. I really enoyed some music during this stroll, and also the grand costumes of the people who came through from various eras. And finally there is a magnificient ball scene. There is a kind of grandness in many scenes, but finally without any knowledge of the history, I just couldnt enjoy it.

But I understand that the whole movie was taken on a single shot, yes a single shot, and I can only say, unbeleivable. That requires a great camera man and his lighting team, an out of the world choreographer and group of artists inlcuding actors, musicians and costume designers and finally a brilliant director. Even if I didnt understand the happenings, I do understand the idea behind, especially the effort required and I can only say , brilliant.

I salute the director, Sokurov and the whole team for this great effort. 

La Grande Vadrouille - The Great Stroll

1966 by Gerard Oury

In the Germany occupied Paris, in 1941, a British plane is shot down. The 3 crew members parachutes down to the city of Paris. Before jumping, they agree to meet at the Trukish Bath. All three of them land at different places and are helped by the local person they meet. Augustin a local painter and Lefort a rich and mean Operah conductor both receive one of the crew and helps them to meet their captain at the Bath. Now they have to help them further to find a way to the unoccupied south of France. There is a German Major and his team who has to find the three crew members who are after them. Movie proceeds through their dangerously interesting and funny journey to the South.

Lefort is played by Louis de Funes and Augustin by Bourvil and they make a great pair. Lefort is a mean rich upper class guy and Bourvil a kind and nice guy from the working class. Lefort has no way but to work together with this working class guy to escape the horrible job he is in, because of bad luck. Both are simply brilliant. The very fist scene of De Funes, when he is conducting a rehearsal in his opera speaks volumes about this amazing actor. He definitely is from a different world.

L G Vadrouille is very different from most classic comedies. There is a serious plot but the treatment and the characters make it a brilliantly funny movie. Till this movie, only ultra serious movies were produced in France with WWII as a theme. And Oury did make a huge jump to another stage with this one, I am sure, surprising the viewers. What better way to funnily look at some happenings during one of the most horrible periods in their history, than to create two contrasting characters like Lefort and Augustine and let them free. And it looks like giving freedom to De Funes is like warning yourself about the laugh riot that you have to follow. This is only my third movie of De Funes. But I am already finding it difficult to find words to praise this actor.

There are soooooo many beautiful and funny moments in this excellent comedy. Like some of the great Malayalam comedies of the 80's, I am sure, I will not be bored of repeatedly watching it.

There is one road scene, on the hills, where German army bikes chase a trek which carries De Funes and others. Brilliant, may I say. I wonder how they managed it in those days. 

Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob

1973 by Gerard Oouri

Mr. Pivert, a racist, rich and mean industrialist, who is deserted after a car accident, witnesses some men trying to kill a rebel Arab leader, Slimane. Pivert really causes some trouble there and is being chased by the Arab killers. Slimane too joins him and soon takes Pivert as a hostage trying to escape. The Police too wants Pivert as they think he might have killed somebody during the hiccup with the killers. Slimane leads Pivert to the airport. Pivert's wife suspects he is trying to run away with another woman, because he is not in home as expected, also makes her way to airport to stop him, inspite of this being the wedding day of their daughter. A popular Rabbi, Jacob is coming back to France from USA, after 30 years. To evade the killers and the police, Slimane disguises himself and Pivert as the Rabbi and assistant and is soon welcomed by the Jewish family and taken to their locality where Pivert has to act as Rabbi Jacob and Slimane his assistant.

All ingredients for a classic comedy and a classic comedy it is. The movie losses its pace, slightly, towards the end though. But still this is a classic comedy. Mixed identities, mis understandings, innocent man being chased and brilliant match up of plot with slap stick, but what makes this comedy to stand out is the performance of Louis de Funes.  What an actor. His timing, his expressions and his elegance are a level above most of the best comedians I have been acuqainted with so far. I even feel sorry that this actor is not known at all in my country. I wish my fellow country men, especially the young, who are blindly mad after Hollywood, watch Louis de Funes and realise the benchmark for classic comedy may not have been set by the Hollywood.

When I saw Fawlty Towers, I was introduced into Classic British humour and ever since I always thought about John Cleese, playing Basil, as a master of elegant comedy. Louis de Funes could be his French counterpart.

Even after more than 3 decades, L A de Rabbi Jacob can embarass the best of the modern comedies. 

August 15

2011 by Shaji Kailas

The Chief Minister of Kerala had a heart attack and is slowly getting back to normalcy. A pathologist in the hospital finds that the heart attack was not normal, but it was caused by some foreign body - a poison. The news shocks the Police and decides to ask a reputed senior officer, Perumal to investigate. Perumal wants this to be a top secret only known to few top police officers. Perumal starts his investigation and feels that the killer is still around and there is real threat to the life of CM. The killer, an international professional, is paid for by few friends who leads different Mafia's of the state, who are having a real bad time because of the interference caused by the hard core Communist CM. They would not mind even any other Communusit, but not this CM. Since the first attempt is a failure, the killer is ready to give back his advance and leave but the Mafia wants him to continue and he makes new plans. Perumal continues his investigation and how he finally saves the CM from the second attempt completes this movie.

This supposed to be Thriller, the second part of August 1, there is a script which lacks any intensity or cohesion, but have more than enough loop holes, is very badly directed by the Political thriller specialist Shaji Kailas. If only the serious scenes were kept and the rest ignored, the movie would have been more better with a duration of only around 60 or 70 minutes. Some of the scenes are absolutely lacking any common sense or logic, not to mention some of the characters.
I simply dont understand why there is always, in Malayalam movies, some absolutely stupid and comic figure amongst a Superior Police officer. The scenes of confidential meetings by investigation officers done in the presence of Doctors are a real shame. And even the group of villains, who can even plan to commit to a professional killer to assassinate a chief minister, can they consist of such foolish and loose talking guys. Would any such villains offer huge sum to a killer, even without knowing his name at least. And will there be any professional killer who will go back and give his advance money, just because the first attempt failed between the cup and the lips. There will be many more questions, while we watch the movie. Finally, it was quite unnecessary to take the scene from 'Inglorious Bastards'.

On the plus side, there isnt any heroine, so there is no love angle anywhere and luckily no songs too. Also only one fight scene. Mammootty, as Perumal, keeps his charm but his character who seem to keep his sun glasses for all the scenes, is quite strange for a Keralan officer. Mammootty seems to have changed his walking style a little bit, but overall he doesnt have anything great to do. He is quite glamorous, even at above 55 years, but his lower body is getting weak and that shows. Whatever, his charm is there and his is a great presence.

Only Nedumudi Venu as the CM and SaiKumar as the Communist party secretary, has something to act and they have been very good.

The makers of this movie definitely wanted to give a different kind of thriller, but falls far short of it.

L'aile ou la cuisse - The wing and the thigh

1976 by Calude Zidi

Duchemin runs a universally acclaimed guide book on French cuisine. The ratings he gives for the restaurants are so crucial that it can even make or break a business. He has a son, who is more interested by playing a clown in a circus troupe, run by his friends. Duchemin runs exclusive inspections before he rates any restaurant and he considers himself a saviour of the grandeur of French classic food. Restaurateurs are quite scared about this unexpected inspections by his team. Duchemin is informed about a plan by Tri-Cartel, a fast food chain, to buy all restaurants in a French town. Jacques Tri Cartel in fact would like to buy only those restaurants which are highly rated by Duchemin's guide book that, he even tries to steal the proof of the unpublished guide book. Duchemin then plans to challenge Tri Cartel through a very popular television show and succeeds, not easy though.

This is a classic French satire+slap stick of the 70's. Just that it is an excellent comedy even now in 2011. Satire in a way how the French has always looked down at the American Fast food system, which with its junk food is going places all around the world, offering unhealthy and tasteless food for cheap prices that too as 'take away'. French are always proud about their Food and they ought to be. Fast food chains have invaded France as well and the young and the poor line up for them. I am sure this movie had an intention in this line, especially since it was released in the 70's. Even now this is a valid point and traditional food is always healthy and tasty than the fast food junky. A classic satire for sure, for both children and adults.

Many restaurant inspections of Duchemin brings out the slap stick humour, which are brilliant. Most of these scenes, (to point out one - the check-in scene of Duchamin, his son and the secretary), offer excellent laugh.

Louis de Funes who plays Duchemin definitely steals the show. What a performance. Simply brilliant. I am going to look for more movies from this brilliant actor. Even when he tries out slap stick, he is elegant. Coluche as his son is also very good. But his character is supposed to be only next to De Funes and so it is.

Watch this movie if you would like to see a simple and hilarious comedy.  The message behind is still relevant in the modern world of fast foods.

Todo El Poder

2000 by Fernando Sarinana

Gabriel lives in Mexico city, which is infamous for its crime rate. Kidnappings can happen any time and you might find a gun behind your head anytime. Gabriel is obsessed with this insecurity and tries to shoot everything he sees related to, with his small handi cam. His wife has left him and take care of his adolescent girl too. When he is fed up of kidnappings and robbery around him and on him as well, the car he borrowed from his wife is robbed, he starts following some suspects. He meets an insurance agent Sofia who, had lost her brother to the crime, is glad to assist him. Their investigation takes them directly to the corridors of power. When one of their close friend is kidnapped and when they realise that the same was ordered by a Police chief himself, they go all out to save him and finally brings a major gang to the light.

A well shot movie, which has lot of dark comedy, some peeks into the life of seperated couples with a child and majorly the part of Police in the crime. We feel the fear of the citizens who have accepted the fact that they can be on gun point any time, and we do get some light laughs and finally some thrills too. But all is told in a quite simple and interesting way that I found very nice.

I have to say that, if this film is taken in any language and shown in any corner of the world, it might look relevant. Ordinary people, every where in the world, get least help from the system and shockingly the protectors always have some links with the perpetrators.

Todo El Poder is a very good watch. I especially liked the cinematography and the performance by almost all the actors. Cecilia Suarez, who played Sofia, is very charming and beautiful.  

Se, Jie - Lust, Caution

2007 by Ang Lee

1938, Shanghai is occupied by Japan. A group of University students in Hong Kong wants to contribute to the war for their mother land and stages a drama, which is successful. Then Kuang, the leader decide to take their support to another level, by killing Mr. Yee, a special agent for the Japan government. As per their plan, young and beautiful Wong Chia Chi will play Mrs. Mak. Mrs. Mak gets into the social circle of Mr. Yee's wife and earns their company. Very gently she does lure Mr. Yee as well. Chia Chi is successful in luring him, but is sure that Mr. Yee cant be fooled that easily. She tells her group, who are all staying in the supposed residence of Mrs. Mak, that it has reached a stage where she will have to show her bed for Mr. Yee to clear any doubts. Chia Chi, a virgin, has to reluctantly agree to share the bed with a boy in the group, who has been to a whore house,  to know something about sex. This she has to do in front of Kuang, both of them sharing some mutual likeness for each other. But all of a sudden Mr. Yee leaves to Shanghai and the plan has to be dropped. When they are ready to clear out their apartment, a subordinate of Mr. Yee turns up and the group, have no other option, but to kill him.

After three years, Chia Chi meets Kuang again in Shanghai. Kuang is now an active member of an organisation working against the Japaneese and Chia Chi too wants to do something for China. Just that, now she will not be working for a group of University students, but for a prominent organisation who are more ruthless. She reintroduces herself as Mrs. Mak and cheks in as a guest in Mr. Yee's home. Soon Mr. Yee organise to meet her in a hotel room. But here he brutally rapes her to her utter shock. She is still compelled to continue their sexual relationship. She breaks down in front of Kuang and her superior, that each and every time she has sex with Mr. Yee, she hopes for her friends to arrive and kill him, that she cannot take it anymore. Mr. Yee sends her to an Indian jeweller to select a special diamond for a ring for her. Chia Chi informs her friends about this place as a possible place to kill Mr. Yee, if she manages to take him there as he wont have much security. She takes him there and can see many of her group members, strategically located around. But, when she finally sees the exquisite diamond ring, which is ready, and when Mr. Yee insists her to wear it, she is torn between her duty and her love and in a tender moment whispers him to leave immediately. Mr. Yee understands this clue and rushes towards his car and saves himself. Soon all the group members inlcuding Chia Chi are arrested and Mr. Yee, who by now is the head of Secret Police, signs their execution order. All of them are executed in a quarry. Mr. Yee is emotionally affected, and is looking at the vacant bed in his guest room.

This movie is an Espionage thriller, but for me it is more of a love story between a man and a woman. The man have doubts on the woman , about her identity and her intentions, but is still drawn to her. The woman is in a plan to kill the man, but is reluctantly drawn to him because of their long sexual affair. In fact, it is a triangular love story, because we know that Kuang and Chia Chi liked each other during the first part of their plan, in '38 but they never did anything about it, as they were busy with their plans. When she breaks down in front of her superior about the difficulty of having sex with Mr. Yee and later Kuang tries to kiss her, she clearly tells him, he should have tried this 3 years earlier. If so, they would have been in love and may be Kuang might not have pushed her to the second part of their plan, ie in '42. Or if they were in love Chia Chi, would have still continued her physical relations in wooing Mr. Yee, but she might not have lost her mind and heart in doing so. Chia Chi falls into the University drama project quite accidentally, but she turns out to be the best actress even in the drama outside the stage. She is so successful in luring a strong and shrewd guy like Mr. Yee, quite easily. Inspite of him brutally raping her in their first meet, she still manages to seduce him and act out as if she likes him very much. Just that the repeated sexual meetings slowly draws her mind closer to Mr. Yee and she even sings a song for him, in private, in the Whore house. That scene I thought was really beautiful. This was also only the first scene where we felt the humaneness of Mr. Yee. It is here, I first felt that Mr. Yee is in love with Chia Chi and he is not seeing her as just another woman for sex. And then when he offers the diamond ring, Chia Chi might have strongly felt the same that she deceives her duty.

The character of Mr. Yee looks so one diamensional for most of the movie, but by the restaurant scene it changes and he grows further. I also felt a lot of pity for Kuang who has to see his love, at this point he is definitely thinking about Chia chi as his future love, taking another group member to her bed, and later has to listen to the painful description of Chia Chi about serving her body for Mr. Yee.

The movie has a pace which is slightly slow, I am afraid. The script takes its own time in getting into the characters and the plot, but boldy, it sticks to this pace until the end. And this has helped in going into a lot of detailing which is of course nice. But this would deter at least a few from appreciating this movie (length and pace). And this detailing nature goes even into the relationship between Mr. Yee and Chia Chi. May it be their conversations or their sex. In fact, the first rape scene was a shock and horrifying. I simply didnt understand why Mr. Yee was so sadistic in their first meet, especially since he is not the same thereafter. In the later sex scenes, which are detailed too, he is just a normal man. There were scenes in this movie which I thought could have been shortened, but I must say, I didnt think so about the sex scenes and it was important as it was lust which slowly paved way for their love. Good sex will always strengthen a relation. To see that Chia Chi was pushed into a kind of learning about sex, to have sex with Mr. Yee is the strange but shocking point. And I am sure there was strong love between Mr. Yee and Chia Chi, by the time she tries the new diamond ring.

Great performances by Tony Leung, Mr. Yee, and Tang Wei as Chia Chi. I especially liked the way she subtly lured and seduced Mr. Yee with a very light smile, but with a bigger invitation in the eyes. Some people might consider Mr. Yee has the same expression through out, but I think there is much more in his eyes. And at that final moment, when she ask her to leave now immediately, his face was brilliant.

Three major factors, for this movie being what it is, are music, Cinematography and of course the director. I would rate this even better than Crouching Tiger.. from Ang Lee.

A Brilliant movie but hard, must watch may I say. 

Christian Brothers

2011 by Joshi

Here is yet another Super star Masala from Malayalam, but it is a multi star masala too.

Since the story and script is filled not with loop holes, but with caves and ponds, I don't want to brief on that.  Each and every ingredient for a Multi star Malayalam Masala movie is there.

A great actor turned Super star plus two more super stars plus a super star from Tamil , all in very relaxed mood that they know they really dont have anything to worry about their acting.

A rich family, of course with contacts with big big people in religion and systems. Home minister, Home secretaries and other superior police officers, for sure the most stupid Personal assistant and a cook a minister can keep. And the brave Police officer who would not mind questioning his own minister.

Super star has two excellent assistants plus have another star as his friend in need

And of course some beautiful actresses, one each for three stars and as always an actress who looks less than half the age of the super hero

Songs, of course, shot in London, and in family home. Just enough walking scenes, getting in and out of car scenes, all in slow motion

Fights, long dialogues, twists and turns and the eternal big brother ready to sacrifice his life for the younger ones et all.

Plus the Group photo line up, but surprisingly there is no court scene at all. New development.

Also the two super stars who havent got any beatings in their movies, in the recent past, since they are fighting each other manages to receive few blows from the other.

And an important point, The villain family is from a Hindu back ground.

It is a pity to watch a veteran director like Joshy, who gave some excellent movies in the 80's, stoop this low. And the all literate, boastingly intelligent Malayaalee crowd is more than happy with this kind of an entertainer. It is not just the Malayalam industry, but even our viewers are still in the 90's, I am afraid.

La Pianiste

2001 by Michael Haneke

Erika is Piano Professor, living with her dominating mother. Erika is in her forties, but she looks frustrated and disinterested, and seems to have never had any sex. She is very cold and does not date anybody and lies to her mother, who doesnt like her relationships, about a non existant boy friend, but visits Sex stores and watch porn in private cabins. She is indifferent even to her students. She and her mother considers herself to be the best, when it comes to the music of Schubert and Schumann. When she tells her mother that one of her student, Anna, is good in Schubert, even her mother seems to be jealous. Erika meets, Walter Kremmel, a young Engineering student during a private concert at his family residence. Walter is so impressed by her performance, but he is kept at a distance by Erika who acts very cold with all his attempts to get close to her. Walter did play a short item on Piano and Erika tries her best to pretend that she is not moved. Walter then tries to get enrolled for her music lesson and inspite of his excellent performance, which impresses all the other faculty, she does try to not pass him. He does eventually and even in the class Erika keeps the coldness and distance with him.

Anna has an important rehearsal which makes her very nervous, that even the singer gets nervous looking at her. Walter talks to her and seems to have relaxed her and she starts playing rather well. Erika, while Anna is playing, moves out of the auditorium and puts some glass sharpnels in her Jacket pocket. Anna injures her right hand, all important, fingers badly. Erika leaves the scene saying she cant stand blood. Walter, seeing this, realises that Erika is after all human and follows her into the Toilet. Here he opens out his love for her and kiss her. Erika, surprisingly, acts cool and even touches him and help him to get sexually aroused. And then she denies to continue, shocking Walter. She arouses him completely using her hand and even does some oral work, but would not let him continue/finish it off, either himself or by herself. She acts so weird and finally tells him that if he wants to have a relation with her, she will write to him or talk to him later about some conditions and only then will they proceed. Poor Walter can only agree. Later Walter follows her to her flat and wants to make love with her but Erika insists on him reading her letter. He doesnt understand this at all, but is forced to read the letter, a heavy one in fact. He is shocked by the contents of it though. It is all about how Erika wants their sex life to be, which is sadistic fetish or voyeuristic and perverted. He is shocked and leaves the room. Erika is disappointed to have been let alone by the only man who has shown some interest in her so approaches him again and confesses she will do it the way he wants. But in between, she pukes which is so disgusting for Walter. We then see Walter coming back to her flat, locks her mother in the room, and attacks Erika in the way she had described in the letter. He slaps her and kiss her, like she wrote, and shouts loud this is how you wanted. Erika by then realises the pain and want to stop but Walter rapes her while she lies down like a dead body.

Since Anna cannot perform, Erika has agreed to play the Piano. She is carrying a knife in her hand bag and is at the reception of the music hall. Everybody greets her, before going into the auditorium, telling how eager and excited they are to watch her perform. Erika is obviously waiting for Walter and when he arrives, he just pass over like anybody with a hypocritic indifference. Erica stabs herself on the chest and walks out of the hall. A terrific revenge.

This movie is based on a novel by the Nobel laureate, Elfriede Jellineke.

An out of the world charecterisation, that is the first thing that come to my mind. Erika is an intelligent woman, but she is cold, indifferent, angry, jealous, naive, proud, irritating, cruel and sadist and holds an expression less face in general. It is quite clear that she is like that because of her mother, herself being a strange character. I dont think I will be able to find a mother in Europe who will not want her daughter to have a relationship, even at 40 years. Erika is clearly attracted by sex and has to lie to her mother to even spend her time at porn stores. But it is quite normal that no man is attracted to her. And when finally there is one, she at first is shockingly negative. There are even scenes in the first half of this movie where I thought, oh what a woman she is. And I didnt see it coming at all. Her fantasy for a kind of sadistic and masochistic fetishes might be the reason behind her initial coldness to Walter. May be she just wanted to be sure that Walter is so drawn to her and will be ready to do anything to her before she can reveal her sexual fantasies. May be this is the reason for her behaviour in the Toilet scene. She does everything to a man, that she must not, when she knows that she will not complete the sexual action. She really takes him to the verge of being mad for sexual completion and then leaves him and tells on his face he must fulfill her conditions to have sex in future. And when Walter accepts it, she is sure that she has her man. But what Erica doesnt realise is that, whatever fantasies a man might have, of course normally a man can have more sadistic fantasies than women, when there is an initial attraction or love and especially if its the first union of a man and woman, it is impossible for any man, or even woman normally, to go for fantasies than for the first experience of 'making love' with his partner. When she makes Walter, who is out there perfectly ready to make love with her, read her letter and insists their union has to be on that ways, Walter normally feels she is sick and needs treatment. Poor Erika, here shows her utter ignorance about men. This is one point which assured my thought that Erika could be a virgin. I could be wrong though. The scene, where she uses the blade and mirror in the bath tub, first suggested this thought. After Walter leaves, we see a disappointed and crying Erika and it is sure that Erika was perfectly ready for sex while Walter was reading the letter. May be she hoped, Walter would read the letter and help her achieve one of her fantasies right away. Poor Erika, I repeat poor Erika, by then we feel sympathy for her. She even goes straight to her mother's bed and tries to kiss her, shocking the old woman. May be she realises by then that her only friend could be her mother. In spite of all her strange nature we start feeling for Erika. So when she pukes out after, while trying to please Walter, our sympathy for her is growing. By the time Walter is back to complete her wishes, Erika is really into us that I think any women watching might cry in that rape scene. And her revenge is brilliant. We do not know how hard she stabbed on herself, and if she bleeds to death or if she walked straight to a hospital. But what we know for sure is that there are hundreds of people waiting for her performance in that auditorium, Walter being one of them. And for sure Walter simply loves her performance.

A more than brilliant performance by Isabelle Huppert as Erika. If I was into giving points or stars, I would say its a five star plus performance. I am sure she have gone through great pains to complete this movie. This is no ordinary role to do.There were some subtle expressions on her face, for eg: when she listens to Walters performance, she make us understand that she is impressed with slight shiver on her face, which surprised me. I wonder how she must have felt after finishing the shooting of the toilet scene or the puking scene or even the letter reading scene or the rape scene. As a woman, she must have been affected horribly. I really feel proud and lucky that I was able to watch this performance by Isabelle Huppert. I salute you Maam.

Benoit Magimel as the young Walter does a brilliant job as well. He is charming and it is quite shocking for single, 40 plus, European woman to be negative to the advances from this boy. Excellent casting. He more than impresses us in the toilet scene, the letter reading scene and during the final rape scene. His eccentrics to cool down his arousal, in the toilet scene, is really good and funny.

And a big thumbs up to Annie Girardot as Erika's mother. She has much less scenes but she is present through out in the whole movie. The scene where she is surprised to receive a man with her daughter, who walks cool to her room and locks it from inside, and is eager to know what is happening inside, that was brilliant. Even when she is locked up, for the rape scene, her voice alone is enough to give us her presence in a big way, and to take that scene to a different level. Brilliant performer.

And finally full credits to Heneke for beautifully creating this movie. Especially since, he doesnt show any skin at all. Sex is there as a major factor in this movie but he doesnt let the camera go below waste level even in the toilet scene. He wants his actors to show everything with their face. A great challenge and he has been more than successfull. This is beautiful work let me say. There are no words to praise, I must confess.

And there is lot of beautiful music too.

I wish, I could write. For this is a kind of movie, a kind of aberration of sorts even amongst art house movies, about which I want to talk and talk. But I am unable to.

I feel lucky to have watched this classic. If there is anything called a "poetry of cinema, but on your face", La Pianiste is one.  If you havent watched this yet, please do. You will not regret it. May be you might not like it, but you will realise that you have seen something very different.

Let me just quote Haneke " My films are polemical statements against the American 'taking -by-surprise-before-one-can-think' cinema and its disempowerment of the spectator. It is an appeal for a cinema of insistent questioning in place of 'false-because-too-quick-answers', for clarifying distance in place of violating nearness. I want the spectator to think". 

El Laberinto del Fauna - The Labyrinth of the Faun

2006 by Guillermo del Toro

1944. Spain is ruled by the fascit monarch Franco and there are guerilla groups fighting him in different parts. Ofelia, a 10 year old girl, is moving to the country side with her pregnant mother Carmen, to meet her new step father, Captain Vidal who is fighting the gueriall forces in the hills. Captain Vidal is the ideal follower for Franco that he cares not for Carmen or Ofelia. All he wants is a son. Apart from that he is a monster and will go to any extent to fight the guerrillas. He has a house keeper, Mercedes, who is actually supporting the guerriala's and have her own brother and lover in the group. A doctor at the camp also is supporting Mercedes.

Enroute their journey, Ofelia sees an old stone carving and a dragon fly which comes out of the stone is following her. Ofelia is a girl who is immersed in fairy tale stories and she believes the fly is a fairy. On arrival at Vidal's quarters, Ofelia is lead to a labyrinth by the fly. Here she meets a faun, an ancient strange looking creature, who informs her she was a princess who has lost herself in the human world. Her parents, the King and Queen, have ever since been looking for her and this labyrinth is the last portal they had built in search of her. The faun is sure Ofelia is the princess but wants her to complete a test before she can be taken to her parents, in the fairy world. There are three tests, she has to complete before the full moon, as detailed in a book which he gives her and this has to be a secret too.

Ofelia completes the first two tasks, then she finds that her mother is in a dangerous situation. Faun is angry with her but offers her some magic help to cure her mother. Vidal's doctor is surprised by the rate of recovery, but Vidal is only concerned about the safety of his son. Even the doctor wonders how he can be so sure that it is a boy.

Mercedes, who is friendly with Ofelia, in the mean time continues her assistance for the Guerrilas. Vidal does have some doubts on her. There is an encounter between the army and the Guerrilas and one of them is taken prisoner and Vidal tortures him. The doctor injects poison to this prisoner and when Vidal realises this, he kills the doctor too. Carmen gives birth to a boy and then dies. Mercedes and Ofelia tries to escape but falls directly into the trap of Vidal. He tortures Mercedes well, but she attacks him back and escapes to the guerriala's who arrive at the right time.

The third task of Ofelia is to bring her baby brother to the labyrinth. She manages to bring the child, Vidal does follow her, but when she realise that the Faun wants some blood from an innocent to make her back into a princess, she refuses to give the baby. Vidal, who cannot see the Faun, takes the baby from Ofelia and shoots Ofelia, who falls dead. Her own blood has filled the pit where the Faun wanted the innocent blood to be spilled.

Vidal gets out of the labyrinth, with the baby, and finds the guerrilas and Mercedes waiting for him. He is sure of his death and gives the baby to Mercedes and asks her to inform the baby about his time of death. Mercedes replies never, and the moment when he realise that his son will be bought up as a guerrilla, he is shot dead. Mercedes fast approach Ofelia, but she is dead.

But we can see Ofelia, dressed as a princess in the fairy world, where the Faun tells her she passed the third test by giving her own blood and her mother asks her to be seated near her father.

Normally I dont like movies in which Computer or visual effects, however brilliant it may be by itself, plays a major part. In El Laberinto.. there are these effects, but still I have to say it is a very good movie. The movie has two streams, one of brutal reality in which we are horrified by the cruelty of Captain Vidal and will wish for his end and the other which is the fanatsy world of Ofelia. The success of the movie is in bringing together both these world together so nicely. Two contrasting worlds, the innocent fairy world as dreamt by a 10 year old girl and the  brutal world of a Captain who is a staunch follower of a monarch, but we tend to forget about the other world when we are in one of these worlds. Mercedes and the Captain are two strong characters that we are immersed into their battle. Ofelia is so innocent that we want her to succeed. I am not sure what the director really meant at the end, if the fairy world was for real or if it was just her own dreamy world. But the narrator does end the story saying Ofelia lived her rest as a princess, seen by only those who look for her.

The performance of Sergi Lopez as Captain Vidal is definitely a major plus in this movie. He has put more than cent percent into this role, that even his subtle body movements are brilliant. An excellent villain. Ofelia and Mercedes too have been really good.

There are special effects and animatronics, just enough for the fairy world only, and they do not go over board any time. In a big way, this is a director's movie, I would say. He has been brilliant, if not, this movie would have ended as quite ordinary. Some of the scenes like the one where Mercedes attacks Vidal and later when she is saved by the guerrilla's, the torture scenes, Ofelia's first meeting with the Faun, all these are brilliantly shot.

Del Toro, when asked about his idea on the climax said - "The tyrant's reign ends with his death, but the martyr's reign starts with his death. I think that is the essence of the movie, its about living forever by choosing how you die".