Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) has just finished his sentence. He murders Gilbert ,a receiver ,and steals the loot of a break-in. Later he plans for another robbery. His friend Silien (Belmondo) offers to help , and the film revolves around whether Silien is an informant or not. Through both of them's actions , the film explores just how deeply qualities such as friendship and loyality run. Belmondo displays his strength as an actor in playing the informer, Silen. Reggiani did good job as Maurice whose face says more than anything else. The stunning black-and-white cinematography exhibits the grim atmosphere .
The first scene itself is an expressionist masterpiece in the way light reveals Maurice's duality with only half of his face visible , an ambiguity illustrated by the swinging lamp's dizzying effect. Melville's direction is a glourious tribute to classic American crime films of the 1940s and early 50's but has also a strong touch of originality. It deals with small time gangsters whose beliefs in honour and loyality are pretty slim. Almost every character in the film is someone who can not be trusted and has a dual nature about them. This is cinema with style and class and a quintessential addition to the French gangster genre.
Kitano who directed it, also stars as Nishi, a man whose only two emotional states are anguish and enchantment. His wife suffers from some extremely lethal disease which has taken her speech,too. She is going to die soon and Nishi wants to make his wife's last weeks as enjoyable and nice as possible. His partner Horibe is shot and paralyzed for the rest of his life during one shoot out. In the meantime, Nishi is forced to deal with Yazuka in order to get some money for his wife's medical care . That leads ofcourse to troubles with the gangsters as he isn't able to pay back his loans. Meanwhile Horibe remains busy with his paintings. The shoot out flashback is one memorable sequence in this film, and it is in its slow motion one of the most beautiful, yet horrifying depictions of violence ever possible.
The film is almost unbearably sad and emotional , and its most tragic character is Horibe, the partner who is paralyzed and totally abandoned by his wife and children after the accident. Nishi spends time with his wife. They do childish things together , such as playing with the kite of a girl they meet on the beach. But when a stranger laughs at his wife , Nishi brutally beats him. He is a caring man. He is happy when the world leaves him alone and when it doesn't, he strikes back. It's a quiet film yet strong and deep, filled with human weaknesses and vulnerable situations. There are little mutual gestures between them -so much is expressed silently.
This film doesn't glorify violence or present it as an important tool ; it analyzes violence and shows many aspects of it. Kitano is excellent as Nishi. At times, he is tough and very unforgiving man while at other times he is a man totally lost in a world of sorrow and pity.
Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball is both a dazzling comedy and a provocative political satire. The volunteer fire department in a small Czechoslovak town decides to organize a ball in a townhall with lottery and a beauty contest. The unit's firemen plan a tribute to their 86 year old honorary chairman with an engraved miniature ax. During the ball,the committee is gathered to look for eight candidates for the beauty contest ,but they have difficulty to find enough of them. But things start going as wrong as they possibly could. The lottery prizes keep getting stolen at an increasing rate and the general chaos grows more and more out of control. The director creates a focused attack on the communist system and the effect of its policies on a working class community.
Here director is indirectly criticising not just a decadent society, but the communist regime whose lawlessness and twisted sense of values brought about the decay. It makes the point more clear when an actual fire breaks out in the town. Milos Forman was charged with sabotaging the socialist society. This film was banned “permanently and forever” by Communist censors at that time.
Wes Anderson's lively original comedy stars newcomer Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer, who may be one of the worst students at Rushmore Academy, but who has amazing self-confidence and ambitious plans to win the heart of a teacher (Olivia Williams). He spends his time mostly on extensive extracurricular activities ,caring litlle how it affects his grades. Murray plays a depressive tycoon Blume and Rushmore benefactor who makes friendship with Max. Max gets attracted towards Rushmore's new teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). He makes many attempts to impress her. While she initially tolerates Max, she becomes increasingly worried at his obsession with her. His friend Blume falls in love with Rosemary . They begin dating without Max's knowledge. When Max gets to know abt Blume's affair ,he ends relationship with him. Both of them try to harm each other. Max is the quintessential oddball kid. He lacks social skills yet is bold enough to say what's on his mind. Blume is a successful man who feels worthless. Miss Cross is a brilliant woman who feels only sorrow because of the loss of her husband. The flaws of their characters make them so wonderful.
Bill Murray gives a great performance here by blending his sly humour with subtle feeling and surprising gravity. Olivia Williams isn't given that much to do in this role ; she mostly has to react to Max and Herman which she does reasonably well. Jason Schwartzman more than holds his own with Murray or Olivia Williams. Rushmore was directed by Wes Anderson and written by Anderson and his college friend Owen Wilson. Anderson's Rushmore is full of everything that many films lack ; dry humour, unique writing, music that makes a scene unforgettable and real heart. The music is good, especially for the heartbreaking scene at the end when Miss Cross and Max are dancing to the faces "Ooh la la."
Richard Linklater blends semi-documentary style with dark comedy and tragic real-life events in an exceptional way. Based on the murder of a wealthy widow in Carthage Texas in 1996 ,this film gives viewers an interesting insight into small town life and how the people there dealt with this situation.
Local assistant mortician Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) ,a beloved member of the community ,becomes the only friend of the wealthy,widowed Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine),who is widely hated by the other townsfalk. Bernie and Mrs Nugent start going everywhere and doing everything together. It isn't long before he grows weary of Mrs Nugent's insulting comments and shoots her four times in the back. He continues to manage her affairs while lying to the townsfalk and deceiving into thinking she is still alive. Finally he gets caught by the police. The local district attorney , Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) charges Bernie with premeditated murder. The strange thing is when he's found out ,no one is outraged and wanting to see him stand trial. Bernie is portrayed as a nice man in this film. Even though he kills an old woman,it's hard to have a harsh feelings for this guy.
Jack Black is a revelation in the lead role of a chubby, likable man whose noble spirit and inner goodness are capable enough to make his community forgive his sins. Matthew McConaughey is terrific as the ruthless district attorney who prosecutes Bernie despite the overwhelming public sentiment to leave the poor guy alone. Maclaine delivers a great performance as Marjorie, an irritating old woman whome everybody hates in town. Linklater here uses real townsfolk to help narrate the story through their own recollections of the events. It is one of the most enthusiastically quirky pictures of the last year.
Imamura was deeply concerned with the nature of what it means to be Japanese and he went about exploring that question by digging beneath the surface of Japanese Society to disclose a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath.
It tells the difficult life of Tome Matsuki (Sachiko Hidari) ,someone who doesn't know her real father, whose struggle for survival is compared to an ant. It begins in 1918 and covers 45 years of Tome's life, a time both she and the country undergo profound changes. Tome is molested from childhood by her stepfather Chuji. Her mom mocks the morally ignorant Tome for sleeping with her stepfather. As a young woman, she moves from her rural village to find work in a factory ,where she engages in an affair with her boss. She works later as a maid and then as a prostitute.
She survives decades of Japanese social upheaval, as well as abuse and subjugation at the hands of various men. Yet the director , refuses to make a victim of her ,instead observing Tome as a fascinating , pragmatic creature of post-war Japan. The title refers to the way an insect's behavior is determined simply by the need for survival, acting by instinct alone and unaffected by love or moral . The personal problems of her are related to Japan's problems in the modern world and of the shame of losing the war and becoming dependent on America to get back on it's feet. At the end of the film, her grandchild is about to be born to the same circumstances as she was, thus the cycle continues itself to another generation.
The film captures the ascent of the protagonist (Bharath Gopi) from a carefree individual to a matured adult. Shankaran lives a childish life even at his mid-ages. The opening sequences, canned by the director himself , shows Shankaran attending a temple festival. He spends most of his time playing around with children, joining political processions and helping the villagers when he isn't attending temple festivals. He is provided for by his younger sister who works as a house maid in the city. His sister arranges a marriage for him . Even after marriage, Shankaran continues his same life style often staying away from home for weeks. His pregnant wife soon leaves him and Shankaran does not try to have her back at home. His life takes a turn from there on. He begins to come to terms with real human relationships through an encounter with a truck driver.
This is Adoor Gopalakrishnan's second feature film after his first hugely acclaimed Swayamvaram . It's a very good character study , as Shankaran is faced with crumbling relationships-not just his own and experiences growth. Bharath Gopi (arguably the best actor of India) gave an outstanding performance in this film. This film garnered him a lot of awards and attention , kicking off a long and fruitful career. The main character's transformation to adulthood draws parallels to the social and historical changes in Kerala.
Director John Huston once made an interesting comment about this film - "Allison is seldom referred to. But I think it was one of the best things I ever made". This film has faded into obscurity as the years have passed. It is a story of love and war on a South Pacific island crowded with Japanese troops in the second world war.
Marine captain Allison (Robert Mitchum) is washed ashore on a Pacific Island during second world war. Nobody lives there except for a nun (Deborah Kerr) who has been on the island for only four days. With only each other as company, the two became close. Sister hasn't taken her final vows yet and Allison is wondering if he should admit his true feelings for her. Beside fighting their growing love for each other , both of them must defend themselves against the Japanese ,who may find their secret hiding place at anytime.
One day he confesses that he loves her and that he considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless since they might have to stuck on the island forever.The story is simple but absorbing. Robert Mitchum does a good job as a crude ,simple man and Deborah Kerr did fine as a nun who is committed to her vows more than anything. The two characters are extremely endearing and when the film is over, it seems we have always known both of them. The cinematography is splendid, with a superb use of cinemascope . Overall, this is a film shouldn't be missed.
Padatik is the final film in Mrinal Sen's Calcutta trilogy , Interview and Calcutta '71 being the other two, films which are deeply rooted in the social, cultural and political atmosphere of the city of Calcutta , which the film's beginning describes as "an intimidating and infernal city, unredeemed and probably doomed", during the period .
Sumit (Dhritiman Chatterjee ) , a member of an extremist left-wing party ,escapes from police custody. He gets refuge in the high-rise apartment of Shilpi Mitra (Simi Garewal), a divorcee, who is an executive in an advertising agency . Isolated in his own comfortable refuge, he begins to question the actions of his party and it's consequences and also develops a friendship with Shilpi. Padatik is Sen's cinematic critique of the excesses of the extreme left. It was made in the time when the violent left-wing movement (naxalism) was losing it's steam under the tremendous attack of the Indian state and ideological conflicts among the various sections. The isolation of the extreme left is nicely portrayed in Padatik when a scene consisting of a montage of a political rally is juxtaposed with a scene showing Nikhilda ( Jocchon Dostidar ) , the chief leader of the extremist party ,working alone in an underground press writing solid prose about the demerits of the bourgeois educational system. Even here Nikhilda behaves like a petty
autocrat with the workers of the press , thus betraying his failure to unite with the working class despite his self-proclaimed "identification with the proletariat".
Sen was heavily influenced by Jean-Luc-Godard. The influence of Godard in Padatik extends not only in the overall narrative framework but also in the long use of hand-held camera , on location shooting and freeze frames , all of which prevent the build-up of melodrama and force the audience to get involved not with the characters but with the contention of the film. Most of the characters of the film are deliberately made devoid of any subjectivity , including the protagonist, with all his memories of family and his conflicts with his freedom fighter father , remains a typical example of the Bengali middle class youth . The only exception is Shilpi Mitra. The film exposes her psychological and emotional vulnerabilities that hide beneath her cool appearance. The film generated a lot of flak from both the rightist forces and the Marxist ideologues of all shades after its release. Sen, in a later
interview, would defend himself from the attack of the Marxists by
quoting the Italian Marxist Elio Vittorini who once said, "The problem with orthodox Marxists is that they always feel
they have pocketed the truth; the point is not to pocket the truth, but
to chase it, to run after it." Though this is far from being a milestone but no denying that it's an important film.
