in ‘sunrise’; ‘come to the city’ she says- the conniving fashion plate vacationing in the village- as she convinces the poor peasant farmer to drown his wife and elope with her. during the seduction a city apparition sways above the marsh with dancing lights and trumpets. when the murder fails the wife runs into a tram that leads through the fields through criss crossing riveted bridges into a city street. here the city makes sure that the lovers have a great day of reconciliation with a fairground, restaurants and a peasant dance. it is incredibly made with fantastic sets- the vibrant city and the idyllic village shrouded in mist.
the city in l’haine are the projects outside paris- sterile apartment buildings with playfields between them that are used by young men to hang around and listen to music. the basements of the buildings around these playfields are labyrinths in which chase sequences between a bigoted police and the largely non-white underclass of young men are played out; while the terraces are places where a hot dog party is stopped because it may be dangerous. paris is far away. as the film progresses the three protagonists- one jewish, one black and the third an arab are slowly drawn into a spiral of escaliating violence. the film is all black and white cinema verite grit. one of the only scenes where a hard fought beauty is allowed to exist is when a dj console at an upper floor makes a party hall of the whole project.
soudhamini’s ‘pitru chhaya’ on the music of m d ramanathan stays still watching as the flow of life moves in and out of frame. these sudden shifts along with the beautiful music leave you breathless.
these still unpredictable frames are very unlike the long composed silences of ‘silent night’ which tries to capture the vast terrain of the rural mexican landscape and lives of the ultra religious memmonite community as a well settled man falls in love with another woman. the camera moves rarely and when it does it does in deloberate and careful slowness lie in the beginning where a starlit night transforms slowly into a gorgeous dawn through a dizzying spiral.
this sunday’s film was ‘death by hanging’. a korean man is tried for rape and murder- almost like a sequel to l’haine. a film that could be about frustration born out of bigotry leading to a life of crime. after the first hanging fails the cast of characters involved play acts the life of the murderer to revive his lost memory. thankfully the farcical helps the film stay above becoming sanctimonious though the end is a little stretched.
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