Tuesday 25 December 2012

Elles - "Introspection should start from us"


Elles as a film explores the state of familial relations in the west. It is set in France where Anne an investigative journalist who ventures into the University Prostitution for Elle Magazine. From scene by scene, the strains in her relation with her husband and sons especially the elder one is shown characteristically. 

When left alone she browses thru the computers and laptops of husband and her son and finds that they watch porn sites. Meanwhile she gets in two college students who ended up in prostitution due to different reasons.

One is Alicja, a girl from Poland who when arrived for education finds tough to get accommodation and left to struggle. A migrant Moroccan student gives shelter for her in his apartment which eventually leads her to sleep with him. Then she asks him whether he is giving this because he wants to sleep with her, he replies yes. She moves out and finds an apartment again leading to sexual compromise, the first thing does when moved to her apartment is shouting out from the terrace.

Alicja shares with Anne about her clients and how they behave. When encountered with these answers Anne finds the impacts emotionally in her personal life, especially her sexual relations.
The other one is Charlotte ended in prostitution as her studies affected because of doing part time work. She adds that her mother and boy friend have still questions on the source of money. Charlotte mentions about her client who talks to her, some cook for her and confides about their jobs and then comes sex. 

These seem to revelation for Anne as she thought Prostitution as Nonstop sex. Her personal life turns worse as she involves her too much into her work. Anne imagines the clients of these girls in her dinner table. The film ends by Charlotte saying good bye to Anne and leaving happily in the green covered road.
The importance of this work is the way the screenplay is done and editing where it is non linear story telling with jump cuts between the stories from the girl students and Anne life. It is done to deconstruct the imaginations of prostitution and prostitutes, also the strains in any unhappy family.

A must watch.



Saturday 15 December 2012

Pieta - Spectacular Revenge of a Mother

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” – Mathew 5:44, Holy Bible, The New King James Version

An average of around 40 people a day took their own lives in 2009, an increase of nearly 19% on 2008. It seems odd that a country that can take so much pride in its economic and social progress in the past 50 years could have so many troubled citizens. But, as Park Yong-ha reportedly said: “This life is so hard.” Article in The Economist dated July 8th 2010

Pieta is the third movie I am watching in IFFK which was by Kim Ki-Duk. Dream (in 2008), Beautiful (2010, Kim Ki-Duk was the writer of the movie) and Pieta now in 2012. The main reason for the following of Kim’s movies is that he changes the perceptions on South Korean. That could the reason for him almost being hated in his home country.


Kim Ki-Duk after winning the Golden Lion for Pieta in Venice
 Pieta (Italian word for Pity) starts with a physically challenged guy hanging himself singing a Korean folk song. Lee kang-do sleeps in his apartment with things spread all around, camera moves all around to show that. He gets up in the morning goes straight to a small workshop where he threatens owner for the money back. The wife of the workshop owner wanting the husband not go cripple asks Lee to do whatever he wants to her. He beats her and gets out of the workshop pulls the owner in and inserts his hand into a machine and proceeds to say that the insurance money will be enough for you to give him back the loan.

The same happens in another workshop as well. Lee Kang-do is a hit man hired for collecting unpaid loans. While returning to his apartment he happens to see an old lady following her, he beats her to go back. She insists that it is because of her mistake that he ended up like this. She comes to his room and waits there. Slowly she gets into the house and becomes a part of it. From a loner getting the care makes him addicted to her, not before he puts her through strenuous tests which has the signature of Kim Ki-Duk.

She asks Lee to plant a tree in the vicinity of an old building where Lee had thrown a guy for not paying the loan back. And insist that she be put to rest in this place after death. One day she just disappears and pretends that she has been abducted and in danger. This makes him almost a neurotic and moves him to desperation. Assuming that this could be by someone he harassed in the past, he goes to doors of his past victims. He gets himself into tangles and was sacked by his boss. The sprout of humanity and empathy surfaces in him this is shown as authentic one gets in the movie. She assumes that the time has ripened for the final act of the drama. She goes to an old workshop where she sits in the same chair which had the physically challenged guy in the first scene.

She commits suicide by jumping from the old building which used to be the spot of punishment in front of him. When he dig to put her in Lee founds a half decayed corpse a young man.

He visits one of the families ravaged by his rude and inhumane behaviours. The wife in that household angrily says to him that if she had the power she will shred him to pieces with her car.

He ties himself to her car and she drives her way past the road. In long shot we’re shown the blood being spilled in the run. This is a normal tit for tat movie but said in a different perspetive. It becomes important in Indian context for two reasons: 1. We could compare and discuss on similar emotional blackmailing in the name of love in Indian society. 2. Revenge by women for injustice in Indian society could be read closely with this.


Friday 14 December 2012

War, Violence, Victims

 
"Celebration of violence in the movies is the most pathetic situation in filmmaking" - Paul Cox: In Conversation session in IFFK 2012

"For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst" - Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet

How many movies one recalls on Second World War and Holocaust? Is there anything new to show in movies? How long we’re going to antagonize Germans? Don’t they have any positive side at all? The Polish movie "Rose" (Roza) gives answer to all these questions.

A prologue in the starting of the movie tells us about Masuria. Masuria inhabitants are German speaking Polish descendants who had existential crisis during the WWII to which way to go as both Germans and Poles were equidistant from them in different terms. The movie is set in 1945 with Russian Army already arrived and great deal of hate being spewed on the Germans. Tadeusz, a war veteran arrives in war ravaged Masuria discreetly and Pastor in church helps him find an accommodation which is in Roza Kwiatskowa who stays alone in there. She gives him a cold welcome and openly asks him to leave once the landmine is removed from her farm.

He engages himself there when doing that a gang of 4 guys arrive in her home and she starts to scream. Tadeusz rushes there to find that Russian soldiers try to rape her; they run off after a brief duel. Rose slowly gets affection for Tadeusz which grows on with their daily chores. He takes the potatoes to the market for sale and arrives back to see, Rose in silence with torn cloths.

When she walks, blood spills over from her dress. She is raped again and now Tadeusz arranges for guns and grenades from the abandoned Army vehicle. He finds it difficult to get a doctor but at last one comes and helps her with the first aid. Tadeusz tries to do the same in the evening but she asks him to go to the cellar and call for her daughter who hides to avoid raping. Radiwga is her daughter.

Russian Army’s violence and negligence of the Poles towards the Masurians aggravate the problem largely which’re showed in various scenes. A family comes to stay with Rose both engage in farming. Health of Rose deteriorates because of an abortion went wrong as the Doctor finds a part of the baby left inside her. He also mentions to Tadeusz that she is dying.

Violence against women seems to be order of the day and they are confirmed by Rose as Russians arrives their main preoccupation is with the women. What happens to Rose, Tadeusz and Radiwga? See the movie once.

The color and tone of the cinematography helps in moving the audience to a War zone feel. Excellent editing makes it very sensible when dealing with the trespasses of soldiers. You have to give credit to the actors who enacted the role to perfection even the Pastor who comes for 2 or 3 scenes stays in the mind of all. Rose during a conversation with Tadeusz mentions that Germans only treated them as human beings. Poles argues repeatedly that Masuria had always been a strong hold of Hitler hence they should be a part of Poland. In another scene Pastor goes to say Masurians are not Poles and they were not Germans either 80 years ago. Hence it is the identity and existential crisis for the people of Masuria which is portrayed in the movie.

Now read the quotes again which one you agree?  

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Color of Justice

“A harmful truth is better than a useful lie” – Thomas Mann

The famous quote of Thomas Mann sometimes applied inversely in the judicial system all over the world. We have the case of Julian Assange prosecution which seems to be a vengeful case for leaking the World Leader’s Secrets, Binayak Sen case etc. Most of the time the arrest, prosecution and punishment will be made unquestionable in name of race, religion, and ethnicity and above all nation’s security.  “Omar killed me” is a movie which deals with such a case in France. 

Omar Rabbad

On Feb 2, 1994 Marseille Court gives a verdict of 18 years imprisonment for Omar Raddad in the killing of Marchal. Omar Raddad is a second generation Moroccan migrant in France who works as a gardener with a widow Marchal. 
24 June 1991, Omar gambles and losses his money and comes back home while he is spending time there, Police arrive and arrest him for the Murder. In the Police Station he was being asked the reason for killing and they go reiterating that he killed Marchal as he lost money in gambling, entered into a verbal altercation with her which resulted in the Murder. “Omar has kill me” written with blood in the door was shown as the evidence and proof for his involvement. 

Most part of the movie is confined between these two days in the life of Omar Raddad. While getting arrested he doesn’t know French well and he is an illiterate, He has the problem in understanding what has been said to him by the Police Officials. 

The jail days seem very hard for Omar to pass and out of desperation he tries to commit suicide with his clothes. This result in him left naked in the cold, cry for protection ends in no avail. After the judgment pronounced, Journalist Pierre Emmanuel Vaugrenard seeing the absurdity of the trail and prosecution enters into investigating the case. He founds it contradictory for a woman (Marchal) who named her house after Carl Sagan and wrote something which had a grammatical error.

These efforts were aided by his publisher who sees an opportunity in selling the book in the name of protecting a Muslim. The case reopened for further investigation but proceed nowhere. All the while Omar pronounces himself innocent and calls Marchal as his mother.

In 1998, after the agreement between Jacques Chirac and Moroccan King Hassan II Omar gets freedom but not acquitted of the crime. Till now Omar fights for his acquittal, picture of real Omar Raddad flashes on the screen and movie ends.

This movie also symbolizes the co-functioning of all the pillars of a democracy under the influence of populist notions. In one of the scene Omar’s friend will read out a report from a Newspaper which mentions that confession of is he killed Marchal for money as he used to visit prostitutes frequently. 

The Screenplay juggles between the past and the present life of Omar. This non-linear narration of the story gives the tempo to carry the audience with it.

After the ending, we have to answer the questions: Is everyone equal in front of the law? Is Judiciary free of prejudices? 


Monday 10 December 2012

Filmistaan – A first step towards untying prejudicial chords


It is a coincidence that Filmistaan was screened in International Film Festival of Kerala just a few days after the remark by Press council Chairman Markandey Katju that India, Pakistan merger could only be the solution to Kashmir Problem. Filmistaan neither deals with Kashmir issue nor providing a solution. This movie is a hilarious one focusing on the feelings of common men's perception in both the countries. The similar style of film making which came to my mind is “Machan“ directed by Uberto Pasolini. Machan deals with the serious issue of Srilankan population migrating illegally to the European countries but in a hilarious manner.
If there could be a common denominator for Indians and Pakistanis then it would be Bollywood. This makes us understand the title;Hindustan, Pakistan their common denominator would be Filmistaan. Before going into the details, the plot of the movie is this: Sunny the main character in the movie is a budding actor who has the talent to mimic Bollywood characters wherever necessary. His friend advises him that good acting could only be learnt behind the camera and asks him to take up an Associate Director role. Sunny takes up that and gets a chance to travel with America film troupe which goes to Rajasthan to make a documentary on infiltration. While returning after a day’s shooting he was kidnapped by group of militants to Pakistan. The Militant leader gets disgusted on seeing Sunny as he expects the American group. From there on Sunny would be taken to a village where the Militants threaten them to hold them for 7 days. The elder son of the house keeper is a pirated Hindi movie seller and has a mad following for Cinema. From here the story unfolds in a stereotypical way and whether Sunny escaped to India or not is the one liner from here. Let me list out the positives of the movie:
  1. The treatment of the screenplay is very hilarious and engages the audience well. Initially Sunny pleads with them that they have mistakenly taken him and in the conversation he understands that he is Pakistan, he replies “Arre in Pakistan, I don’t have my passport also, now how I can go back?” Similarly Sunny mentions to the militants that “We also shoot and you also shoot. We have shot gun, you have Machine gun”.
  2. The scenes wherein the shooting of a video to be sent to the Indian Government or giving voice over for the dialogues in Bollywood movies the character Sunny showed the imaginative thinking involved in every characterization not only the protagonist. 
  3. The dialogue delivery and body language of Sunny played by Sharib Hashmi. It is wonderful and refreshing to have dialogues which are delivered at the native dialect. 
  4. Good Editing and shot selections. Excellent characters were chosen and the Bollywood movies chosen as part of the film are also reason for making the movie a engaging.
There are a couple of areas which could have worked upon if some attention being provided. Initially they come to stay for 7 days but the day’s role on without any intervention from the house keeper. Sunny hit by the bullet and treated for it suddenly comes out without the trace of it. Similar minor errors there as well but what is the major point is Filmistaan provides you ample diversion on the screen to forget all these.A child in the movie exclaims to”It is impossible to believe that you’re an Indian” Sunny retorts saying he too feel about the kid being a Pakistani. Both admit that “Now they have understood that not all the Indians/Pakistanis are bad".  
I had been to Pakistan very recently and I can confidently support the voice of the Sunny and I would be happy if that is message passed on to the huge crowd. 
Like Machan in 2009, I feel from the response for Filmistaan it will win the Audience Choice Award this year in IFFK.







Friday 30 November 2012

Role reversal among Political parties



Lord Leveson’s report is out and it focused on the crumbling of Journalistic Ethics in the want for sensationalism in British Press two days back. All the media houses in England unanimously voiced their support for the well intentioned report from Leveson. The crux of his report could be made out from the quote "The answer to the question who guards the guardian should not be no-one". Now debates will start for and against Media regulation, we’re not going into that at all as it would be humanly impossible to read the 2000+ page report and it would be too boring as well. But haven’t caught the attention was how the political parties in England reacted to it.

 Prime Minister David Cameron, belonging to Conservatives mentioned in the House of Commons "We should be wary of any legislation that has the potential to infringe free speech and the free press". Last year, when the London was burning with rioters looting the streets that same man famously quoted that "free flow of information" can sometimes be a problem and gone one step further in proposing social media ban the rioters. Labour and Liberal Democrats two other major parties in England welcomed legislation for regulating the Media. We know that Conservatives are leaned towards stricter laws and regulations which were replicated in the immigration laws when they came to power whereas the other two liberal parties are favoring stronger laws for regulation. Is this not interesting? How double standards in policy makings?


 
India too have faced such hypocritical stands of late, the most striking of that was the stand of BJP, a right wing political party opposing FDI in retail. Ruling Congress which claims to stand with the Aam Admi took an executive decision on the same, without consulting coalition partners or doing thorough analysis on the apprehensions raised by various sections. 

Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life is the autobiography of eminent historian Eric Hobsbawn, this century no less interesting as well.