Wednesday, January 27, 2016

shaan . 45 years . grizzly man . mr hulot's holiday

in spite of all the trappings for a great masala packed yarn, shaan does not work. it plods along through the plot- some thing about the pacing does not quite work, even though it does have that fabulous opening james bond tribute title sequence song, pyar karne wale, amitabh in fine form and kulbushan kharbanda as shakaal- a bond villain with swirling chairs with crocodiles underneath.

the highly lauded 45 years too for me was a conventional chamber drama about a couple going through a moment of crisis as their 45 year anniversary comes close. typically the drama involves another woman and a child that was never had. the actors give it all they have but the filmmaking is basic and rather boring.

herzog is back with his themes of man, civilisation and nature in grizzly man, almost entirely made out of footage shot by timothy treadwell as he spent every summer for 13 years in the company of grizzly bears in alaska. somehow ehrzog manages to make a film about not only his perennial obsessions about man and nature, but also about american self-obsession, environmentalism and how a camera is used as a device to escape into versions of the self, to make a new self, to look into one self.

Tati's light easy musicality is all over mr helot's holiday. a plotless dance set is a pristinely framed beach town that looks completely artificial. as the rest of the holidayers obsess about the economy, follow the rules of the 'proper' way to behave on holiday, hulot's noisy rattling car, his loud music, the dance with the girl at the party and the fireworks at night celebrate freedom. 

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