Monika’s Pensieve

I think this has been in my drafts since February when the last Academy Awards took place :] Now that the next ones are slowly coming up (we’ll probably have the nominees up by the end of January or so), I guess I may as well post a reminder of last year’s ceremony ;-P

Anyway, I thought the way A.R. Rahman won his two Oscars was kind of cool ;)

This is a totally ancient draft…

Siddiq Barmak, without exaggerating too much, basically is Afghan cinema nowadays. Almost any Afghan film project intended for cinema is somehow associated with him. In the interview he talks about his award-winning film Osama (which I reviewed in April), but he also says a lot of stuff about the Taliban. The international media outlets just don’t put across how much destruction the Taliban caused in Afghan culture:

One of the very worst things that happened to our people during the Taliban was that they were not able to make a decision for themselves. It broke up all the systems of human society in Afghanistan.

I was the head of the AFO ? a state institution with authority over the production of film, including censorship ? from 1992-96. When the Taliban came to power I escaped to Peshawar, and lived there for six years. In February 2002, I returned to Kabul.

When I came back, it was like being in another world. My friends had broken down, they had forgotten that they were filmmakers. It was terrible. From all that had happened to my country and my friends, I thought that it was very important to renew the things that had been left to waste. Not only physical things like equipment and buildings, but also the rehabilitation of the soul. But for this to happen, we have to make a very strong effort to create a new beginning for Afghan cinema.

The quote above is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s much more about this in the interview.

I’ve got all kinds of random links and stuff in my drafts and I’ve come to the conclusion that I should finally clear my drafts out, wish me luck ;) Lets hope this is the first post in a series…
This is something I should have posted in about November, which is when the DVD publicity for HBP started. Obviously, it’s no where near on the scale of what they do for the cinema release, but there were some clips I enjoyed nonetheless.

Even more scenes from the movie
While it seems moronic to be releasing even more scenes for publicity purposes (they’ve already released about half the movie this way probably), I actually thought they made a much better choice of scenes this time round. The comedy was amongst the better parts of the movie, so I’d say focusing on it for publicity was the right way to go.
This is one of my favourite scenes of the movie - Ron playing Quidditch. Whenever any of the other actors have done a broomstick scene, the broomstick seems to get in the way of their acting and they convey stuff through facial expressions and dialogue only. Rupert Grint really uses his whole body - I thought he was absolutely fab :)
This one, on the other hand, is probably the one sequence in which I found Daniel Radcliffe funny. It’s the sort of humour that comes a lot more naturally to him I think. The scene works much better in the film, where you can see the contrast between how Harry behaves normally and how cocky and rude he’s become because of the potion. And also, when I watched the film in the cinema, it sounded like Radcliffe slightly modified his voice to sound drunk (which I found hilarious in itself) and this totally doesn’t come through when the scene is out of context *sigh*
Finally, they also released this one. Not one of my favourites, but still much better chosen than some of the scenes they released the first time round IMO ;-P

The DVD Extras
They did this bit with the cast - sending them off to different departments and showing us how the Harry Potter set works. Quite a few clips from this were released for publicity (or at least quite a few have made it to youtube ;-P), so I’m linking to my favourite ones. I loved the hosting by Matt Lewis and Alfie Enoch *grin*
So here’s Radcliffe in the editing department. Some interesting comments from Mark Day there. I am of the opinion that he overcuts it even after he’s done with it ;-P Interesting to hear he’s aware he has that tendency though. The dialogue vs action scenes comment was food for thought. I mean personally I hate this tendency to just go for fast editing without looking for any “nuance” in action scenes, but I know I’m in the minority on that :]
This is Rupert Grint in the stunt department, training for the Quidditch scenes.
And here’s Emma Watson in the make-up department.
Another very good one was James Phelps showing us around in the Assistant Director department.

Haven’t done any short, random sort of posts for ages, should get back to that :]

Anyway, Bollywood is still changing very dynamically. The borders of what is accepted in terms of violence, sex and language are constantly being pushed and there’s more experimentation with genres that have been absent in Bollywood before now. One of the genres that has suddenly appeared (and unlike fantasy and science-fiction it’s actually done relatively well in the box office) is horror and there’s an upcoming film entitled Fired, which seems to be pushing the envelope in many ways *grin*
The poster which you can see in this article, is in itself quite a bit more daring than the Bollywood posters I’m used to. The article goes on to say that they’ve had to cut the nudity (it cracks me up that it was there *grin*), but might keep it in for international audiences. The film (and its promos) is still having problems with the Indian censor board, however. Also the director claims that:

The kisses in ‘Fired’ for that matter will terrify audiences

So what does that mean? Is the girl going to be kissing the guy passionately and cutting his head off as she does so? lol I’d probably run the other way if I heard a Hollywood horror film had “terrifying kisses”, but in a Bollywood one that might be… er… very interesting ;) I love Bollywood kisses - they really make a meal of them, which is how I think kisses should be. If you’re going to do them then they should be intense scenes ;-P
Off topic, but I forgot to moan about the kissing in my New Moon review. I thought it sucked that they inserted the kissing all over the place - it works much better if you make people wait for it and tease them etc. But maybe I’m just spoilt by Bollywood in this respect :]

Yay, I’m finally up to date with my film diary! *grin*

{FILM DIARY}

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005, USA)

Seen: Wednesday, 6th January 2010 (DVD)
Runtime: 93′
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Taylor Lautner, Taylor Dooley, Cayden Boyd, George Lopez, David Arquette, Kristin Davis
Production House: Dimension Films, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Troublemaker Studios
Plot: (from imdb)

A boy dreams up shark-boy and lava-girl and the horror that lies within their planet.

Trailer

But also don’t miss the clip of Taylor Lautner singing if you haven’t seen it yet ;)

Impressions In Short
The film is nothing special (obviously I’m not really its primary audience - it’s meant for kids), but I had quite a few giggles ;) A lot of the lines and scenes are pretty cheesy, but both of the Taylors (aka Sharkboy and Lavagirl) are genuinely funny.

More About the Film
Both Sharkboy and Lavagirl are a little absurd. Sharkboy has a temper that drives him to solve most problems with violence and Lavagirl keeps pondering why she is made of lava and how she fits into Max’s dream world exactly (is she evil? is she good? what is her point?). Both of them use this really well in the comedic scenes, I thought this scene, whilst very cheesy, was pretty amusing for example.
It’s a pretty good film for Taylor Lautner fans - at least I had fun watching him ;-P And I’m even more convinced now that he’s a natural performer - I think he’s got a much wider range than people give him credit for. A shame that so far the projects he’s choosing are probably not going to give him much opportunity to show off that range… Latest news on his upcoming projects is this - sounds like action + romance, but I suppose that might be deceiving.

Recommended?
For Taylor Lautner fans definitely, for others probably not… Though as far as CGI movies for kids go, this one isn’t all that bad.

{FILM DIARY}

Saathiya (2002, India)

Seen: Tuesday, 5th January 2010 (DVD)
Runtime: 138′
Director: Shaad Ali
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukherjee, Shahrukh Khan, Tabu
Production House: Kaleidoscope Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Plot: (from imdb)

The tale of a young couple in love who elope and marry, but soon find that that marriage is not the bed of roses it is made out to be.

Trailer

Impressions In Short
This was absolutely awful! As I was watching it, I figured I’d be disposing of the DVD cause I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to see it again… and then the last 15min. changed everything!

More About the Film
The most annoying thing about New Moon is that I think it’s absolutely horrible, but I know I will be rewatching it again and again because Taylor Lautner really pulled off something special. Well, exchange the name Taylor Lautner for Shahrukh Khan and Saathiya is a much much worse case of this *grin*
I’m surprised I hated this so much cause it had a lot going for it. Rani Mukherji is one of my favourite actresses. Vivek Oberoi I find interesting - he’s a very capable actor and he tends to choose good projects. Shaad Ali directed two other films which I enjoyed. Mani Ratnam, who wrote the story for this, is my favourite Bollywood director (and he usually writes the stories for his own scripts). And finally, A.R. Rahman did the music. If all this isn’t enough, Shahrukh Khan and Tabu (who is one of Bollywood’s finest actresses) have cameos.
Somehow, despite it all, the film is an absolutely awful and generic Bollywood romance. The one thing out of the ordinary is that once they elope, it’s not all marital bliss. But as the moral of the story is that you can’t have a happy marriage if it means breaking off with the rest of your family, even that becomes generic :]
I felt both of the lead characters were idiots and could not empathize with them at all. Rani Mukherji put in probably the worst performance I’ve seen her do (I normally love her, I don’t think there’s another actor or actress who has made me cry as many times as she has - in fact when SRK and Rani are in a film together, I usually feel she outplays him, it’s the first time when I feel it was the other way round :]) and Vivek was pretty bad also. The production values and general style of the film was sloppy too.
So what on Earth happened in the last 15min. that drastically changed my feelings? Shahrukh finally appeared to do his cameo ;) And the problem is, he was great (as was Tabu, who appeared with him *grin*). He only has about 4 scenes, but this was just vintage Shahrukh. Everything I most love about him as an actor was there at its best.

The bit where I pretend I’m being all analytical about acting, while what I’m really doing is gushing over Shahrukh ;)
My problem with Shahrukh has always been that he’s so uneven. He’s my favourite actor because there are moments when he excites me like no other performer - sometimes I’m literally holding my breath during a scene. The trouble is that just because he has a moment or scene that amazes me doesn’t mean I won’t be cringing at how awful he is a couple of seconds later ;) I’ve sort of resigned myself to this. He has this weird style of acting where he really, really goes for it. Sometimes it gets too much and it becomes fake and hammy - that’s when I cringe ;) It’s a bit like he’s not quite in control of what he’s doing, which is probably part of the thrill for me. I find it difficult to explain my feelings coherently, but it’s sort of like he doesn’t have a border line where other actors would have one.
The exciting thing about this part is that he’s spot on all the time! I’m willing to bet that the size of the part has something to do with this ;) Maybe if it was longer I would have found myself cringing at some point. Nonetheless, as it is, it’s my favourite ever Shahrukh Khan role by far *grin* And it’s not because of his sex appeal or whatever (there are many other parts I’d choose over this on that factor), this is just really exciting acting :)
It’s hard to explain what’s so great about him and Tabu in the film without spoiling the end, but I’m going to try *grin*
They were working with a really terrible script and very corny dialogue. The way it was written, both of their parts had no context at all. Naturally, actors can only do so much to save bad writing, but occasionally it happens that when good actors do bad scripts they end up playing something that just wasn’t there on paper. Kind of like Johnny Depp did with Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie - most of Jack Sparrow was completely his own invention (he totally freaked out the producers at Disney, who didn’t know how to react to his performance ;)). SRK and Tabu do something very similar here. They created a context that was not in the script at all. The tense conversation that introduces the characters to the story is played as if Tabu is not quite sane. As if she’s done stupid things like this before. She doesn’t go into some sort of exaggerated Bollywood idea of insanity, but there’s just this weird vibe in how they relate to each other. There’s also a strange intimacy about it - you know she’s his wife even though they never say it in that scene, nor are they in any way romantic with each other. For all the script tells us at that point, she could have been his sister. And yet, the way they play it you cannot mistake them for anything other than husband and wife. Every time they’re together on screen you can feel there’s loads of history between them.
As the plot (or the semblance of it ;-P) unravels, all of SRK’s strongest tools get utilized.
He’s always been awesome with subtext and double meanings and here he really plays into that. Everything has a double edge - until the very end I wasn’t sure whether he intended to save a life or kill someone. What was clear was that he was scared shitless and you didn’t know which way that would swing him and what exactly he was planning. I also loved the way he delivered this one line, which was disgustingly corny and sentimental… Instead of meaning it literally, it’s said as if to manipulate somebody into feeling sorry for him and his wife. As he says it, you can see him looking up to check what kind of reaction his listener has to the line, making sure it brought the desired effect.
Another of my favourite aspects of SRK as an actor is how he avoids concentrating on just one feeling or thought. That’s something he believes in quite strongly (I’ve even heard him speak of it) and in this case he was really going whole hog with that. While the most intense emotion of his character was fear, there were so many feelings and thoughts running parallel to that. In fact that’s probably one of the reasons why I was holding my breath about what he was going to do - depending which thoughts or feelings would win and in what way, the character could have made a very different decision (the script, on the other hand, was pretty straightforward about it - no suspense :]).
Then there’s the screen presence… I’ve always loved his intensity. The trouble is, it usually comes at the price of being on that border line where he inevitably crosses into “too much”. In quiet parts like Swades and Chak De! India, which I generally enjoy (less hamming = less cringing ;)), I often feel he loses some of his intensity. Here he’s definitely doing something more on the understated side of things, but his screen presence is in full force *grin*
I also have an odd belief about Shahrukh, which I think few people share - IMO he’s a naturalistic actor at heart. I know that sounds like nonsense considering he’s more popularly known as the king of hamming, but bare with me ;) He has these bizarre instincts, where he’ll do something that I don’t even register consciously sometimes, but it’s such a real, human way to react in. Something that he does in this performance is a sort of hyper-awareness. When you’re in a moment of huge tension, you’re often more aware of what’s going on around you. He’s like that in this - you can see him taking in every person that passes, every person that looks at him, every word that’s said. It’s not a common way to play tension, but it’s very real.
But I suppose what impresses me the most is that the script was mercilessly tempting SRK to ham all the time and yet he was containing himself ;) It was the kind of script that would normally push SRK into being over-sentimental and generally over the top and yet there wasn’t a hint of it here *grin*

Recommended?
Nope, stay away ;-P
It is sort of worth it for SRK and Tabu… although I suppose not everyone will feel the way I do about it. I suppose many people would say SRK is just “playing himself” (whatever that means) as usual. It’s not ground-breaking in that sense, but then characterization has never been what I most appreciate SRK for (although I do feel people exaggerate - he’s certainly done parts where he has gone for some characterization ;-P).

{FILM DIARY}

An Education (2009, UK)

Seen: Thursday, 31st December 2009
Runtime: 95′
Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson, Sally Hawkins
Production House: BBC Films, Endgame Entertainment, Finola Dwyer Productions, Wildgaze Films
Plot: (from imdb)

A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.

Trailer

Impressions In Short
It’s a pretty sweet, British film with a hard punch at the end. Enjoyed it :)

More About the Film
You know how there are so many coming of age films about boys? And yet I only came up with the already reviewed Balley Shoes when I tried to think of one about girls. Well, at least now I can add An Education to the list ;) It was definitely nice to see a quality coming of age film about a girl for once!
One of the best things about the film are the performances. Even the small parts were very impressive. My personal favourite is Sally Hawkins. She only has one scene in the movie, but it’s an important one. Without spoiling too much, she’s the one who delivers the big punch and it so hurts!
I was surprised to find I even enjoyed Dominic Cooper - that’s a first for me. I always found him a bit fake before, but here he was spot on.
It’s generally a very well crafted movie - a very nice piece of writing as well.

Recommended?
Yes, definitely :) I think most people would like it at least somewhat. It’s pretty sweet and I think one of those films, which can be enjoyed regardless of whether you’re more into mainstream or art house films.

{FILM DIARY}

Billu (2009, India)

Seen: Thursday, 31st December 2009
Runtime: 137′
Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Lara Dutta, Om Puri, Kareena Kapoor (cameo), Deepika Padukone (cameo), Priyanka Chopra (cameo)
Production House: Eros Entertainment, Red Chillies Entertainment
Plot: Billu is a barber living below the poverty line. When a film crew comes to shoot in his village, gossip starts that Billu is an old friend of Sahir Khan - the superstar starring in the movie. Billu’s life changes dramatically. But does Sahir Khan remember Billu? And did Billu even know Sahir Khan in the first place?

Trailer

Impressions In Short
I’m surprised this was a flop actually… I really enjoyed it. I thought this was much better than Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (a big hit that I totally slammed).

More About the Film
Something that struck me about this film is that it went against all the stereotypes of what superstars are supposed to be like. The standard way to portray a superstar is as a stuck up, spoilt brat. In Billu the characters make all kinds of assumptions about what Sahir Khan is like (both good and bad). But in fact the little that we see of Sahir, as he tries to navigate the whole hysteria around him, is that he’s just a regular guy. For the most part he is good-natured and tries not to give people trouble. On occasion he lets off steam by making sarcastic remarks behind people’s backs.
Billu is a great lead character - I loved his wit, so much irony *grin* Irrfan Khan was really good at it. And it was very nice to have a Bollywood hero, who is in many ways so ordinary. Usually, you’d have a flashy character like the superstar as the leading man and Billu would be the supporting character. But in this film Shahrukh was very clearly playing second fiddle and I have to say - I liked that ;) It was nice to have his superstar screen presence in all its glory and yet not have him take over the film.
The chemistry between Irrfan Khan and Shahrukh Khan was awesome *grin* They don’t have much screen time together, but when they do - it’s fireworks ;) I thought that was the best part of the movie - they both really raised their game when they were together. I’d love to see them sharing the screen again sometime.
Lara Dutta was really good as Billu’s wife. It’s a very different (much less glamourous) part compared to what I’ve seen of her before and she worked really well like this.
The disappointing part of the film is that when it comes to its visual design and the general look of it, it seemed to be stuck in the 90s. If it had had the modern “exteriors” of some of the current Bollywood films I think it would have been a much more impressive film. It’s still a very sweet one though.

Recommended?
Definitely yes for fans of any of the cast - they all do pretty well :) Probably yes for fans of Bollywood in general. Otherwise maybe not, I’m not sure really. It’s a very sweet film and if you don’t need the “exterior” parts of it to be really polished then I guess you might enjoy it.

{FILM DIARY}

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009, UK/Canada/France)

Seen: Thursday, 31st December 2009
Runtime: 122′
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Verne Troyer, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell
Production House: Infinity Features Entertainment, Poo Poo Pictures, Davis-Films, Grosvenor Park Productions, Parnassus Productions
Plot: Doctor Parnassus has made a pact with the devil. The soul of his daughter will belong to the devil once she turns 16. He goes into further bargains with the devil to try to save her from this fate.

Trailer

Impressions In Short
Weird… And very Terry Gilliamish.

More About the Film
The biggest interest factor of the film for many people is Heath Ledger and I suppose the same is true for me. I was quite curious to see how they dealt with him not having completed the shoot. They did a better job on it than I thought they would… In fact, my mum, who hadn’t known the backstory of the film beforehand, didn’t feel there was anything strange about Heath Ledger suddenly turning into Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
The opening shot of Heath Ledger is quite a shocker. They start with him hanging, a seemingly dead man, from a bridge. You could almost hear the whole cinema holding their breath for a moment. It was slightly unsettling, how this theme of death was so constant with his character.
Watching Johnny Depp and Jude Law in the part was amusing - they were playing Heath Ledger playing Tony rather than merely playing Tony. Colin Farrell took a different route - he did Tony in his own way. And for me that was the one bit of the film that jarred. Not just because his performance was inconsistent with the other Tonys, but because his bit came in the culmination part of the film. To me it felt like that should have been Heath Ledger - that’s when we finally learn of Tony’s true nature and where the whole “hangman” theme is explained.
As for a verdict on the film as a whole, it’s probably the first time I agree with bhuvan *grin* Part of the reason I keep going back to his blog is that we watch a relatively similar selection of films (we even both have a thing for Bollywood) and yet we seem to come to very different conclusions ;) This is the first time that our feelings are very similar. I too feel that Terry Gilliam’s world is somehow very attractive and yet I can never quite enter it. I like his films and yet I’m always a little disappointed with them.

Recommended?
I think so :) Anyone who likes films with a beautiful design and visuals will be happy with this. And it is a good tribute to Heath Ledger. On the other hand, it is rather weird - if you’re not into weirdo stuff this might not be your cup of tea.

{FILM DIARY}

Avatar (2009, USA/UK)

Seen: Tuesday, 29th December 2009 (cinema)
Runtime: 162′
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez
Production House: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Giant Studios, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment
Plot: (from imdb)

In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.

Trailer

Impressions In Short
The film is almost 3h and yet I didn’t get bored - that’s a big compliment for a special effect kind of movie ;) Seriously, I thought this would be a pretty bad film, but it was actually a very pleasant viewing.

More About the Film
It’s the first time I’ve seen a film in 3D and it’s quite a weird experience. I didn’t enjoy it much - my nose hurt from the glasses, they were very uncomfortable. Had a huge headache afterwards.
Some of the time the 3D felt as if someone or something was obscuring the screen. And sometimes it felt a bit like watching holograms in a museum. It took me a while to get used to it enough to start treating it like a movie.
The animation technology they used was indeed very effective. It was particularly impressive in scenes which had real footage mixed with animation. For me those are the scenes that usually jar - like you can see the animated creature and the human aren’t really looking at each other etc. Here, this looked much more real.
As for the plot, the film was much more interesting than I expected. If they’d had a slightly more warped sense of humour then the film would have become a comedy about Americans in a foreign culture. There were a few scenes which could have gone that way - I loved them *grin*
In terms of how it talks about the USA’s reasons to go to war, it’s a very bold film - almost political. The film was totally siding with the Na’vi (whose culture seemed to have a lot in common with Native Americans) and we were meant to cheer them on in kicking American buts because ethically it was the Americans who were in the wrong. It was interesting how Jake developed as a character. At the beginning he’s not easy to sympathize with. We see him making alliances with all the wrong people in the base etc. He becomes more endearing as he works his ass off to understand the Na’vi and falls in love with their culture.
In a way this film marks a certain change in people’s mentality I think. District 9 was a first taster of this - the idea that it might be us abusing the aliens rather than the other way round. This film is again a reminder that it’s us Western people who might be the “barbarians”.

Recommended?
Yes, I think… I mean it is very much a mainstream Hollywood movie, so if you’re not into those you’re probably not going to like it. But as far as mainstream films go, this one is a very pleasant viewing IMO.