not really very frightening- thankfully- or i wouldn’t be able to watch at all, but the cabinet of dr caligari lived up to its reputation of being all expressionistic set design. the streets twist and turn, the walls seem like they are falling. the only space relatively stable is the courtyard of the mental hospital where the madmen meet each other and tell stories.
in ghost in the shell where machines become men and men machines, the ghost is some longed for spirit in the films surprisingly very serious soul searching for spiritual/philosophical depth. not that i was completely taken in by it, but was stunned by the long languorous shots of the future city- the canal that runs through the glittering street that are somewhere in south east asia; or the action scene in the narrow alley that suddenly ends revealing a high wall of housing facing emptiness. gorgeous- and in many ways what this city is going to be like. alphaville was quirky film noir craziness- again repeating the trope about the machine against love. but this time the evil machine was represented by the modernism of 1960s paris- rcc towers, curtain walls and corridors that went on forever. the ordinary was transformed into the strange.
i have been recommending 'wanted' for all who have forgotten how much fun hindi films can be after being battered by the relentless nri punjabi films of the past few years. a shameless action film with no pretensions, especially not those who claim to indulge in childish fantasy because they are so above it. instead this plays the genre with relish but takes it to another level with the attention it plays to the detail- whether that it the movements and action/reaction of the bodies in elaborate and super violent action sequences; or in the small talk and silliness of the love scene. the clichés are the film and there really is not point complaining about things like the representation of women or the gratuitous violence. fabulous.
on the other hand my reaction to another great macula film was different. at the risk of being blasphemous i could not watch 'deewar' without getting slightly bored. some scenes were wonderfully iconic like the 'mere peas mama chain' or the action sequence on the docks, or even the marine drive shot; but everything seemed a little dated. still enjoyed i - but i think i expected more.
as far as short films go mani kaul’s ‘arrival’ an fd film was fantastic. a quotation from marx (i think) somewhere frames images of migration, consumption, production and death. the slaughterhouse in deonar and people gorging themselves with food.
the french film ‘the choir’ followed the clichés of good teachers in bad schools genre- that range from the icky (now that i think about it) ‘dead poets society’ to ‘the class’. here the teacher in question teaches the class to sing and wins over their hardened hearts. the principal as usual does not approve of these new fangled feel-good techniques.
miyazaki’s anime fantasy ‘howls moving castle’ allows different spaces to morph into one another through the doorway of the crumbling wheezing flying castle of the wizard ‘howl’ every door opens into different fantastic landscapes- from a ostentatious european town to a pasture from a dreamscape.
i was incredibly unmoved by pasolini’s cinema verite documentary exploring masculinities and sexuality in italy. the characters trade in stock answers for too long a time. and most repeat the clichés that have been superimposed on them.
todd haynes ‘poison’ tells three stories, independent of each other- each stylistically very different. the first is a noir serial killer mystery about a potion that spreads a disfiguring disease through the city, the second a pseudo documentary about a boy who flies away through a window; and the third a very sensual prison love story that derives much from jean genet’s ‘un chant amour’. sex might be the poison that joins all three stories. the scene where the boys spit in slow motion into the open mouth of another to humiliate him is oddly disgusting and sensual at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment