Tuesday, June 06, 2006

amores perros

kausik, rupali, mukul and me were discussing a film list for the coming years film club. films about the city is certainly quite a cliché as a category and it becomes really hard to avoid the already overanalyzed greatest hits of the genre- metropolis , bladerunner, playtime. its really hard to think beyond these when they stare at you in the face whenever the two words city and film come together. i tried suggesting love films as a possible replacement category but it was shot down – i guess for not being ‘serious’ enough. so i gave in.
but in amores perros set in mexico city with three intercut storylines with the jittery camerawork that seems unavoidable when representing the energy of urbanity perhaps a middle ground was found.
a transforming city is learning the new configurations of a new economy – the new class structure and the spaces of the homeless, of bourgeois homes and those of the homeless; and in it the pleasures and the traumas of love - of dogs and of people. a car accident binds the stories together- a random act that transforms the lives involved irrevocably- a story of savage brutality, violent brother on brother fights, sexual deception and love of people lost and longed for.

1 comment:

Mayur said...

i think it tends to become a cliche when the options are so abvious....what about a movie like 'city of god'?...i think its really interesting in understanding a city (rio in this case) through a not so apparent system like drug dealing. But thats the only one i can think of right now.