The Edge of Heaven - Dir by Fatih Akin

This movie was nominated for Golden Palmes in 2007 Cannes Festival and have won the best screen play award.

The movie is done in 2 parts. Yeter, a turkish prostitute in Germany is the new live-in partner for ALi Aksu , a widower and lives on pension. Nejat , his son , a professor in German University is not in approval of this , until he finds out from her that she uses this money for the education of her daughter. Yeter, dies in an accident, after a quarrel with Ali . Nejat is now in Turkey with the coffin, in search of her daughter.

In the meanwhile, the poilitical unrest and the related events makes Yeter's daughter Ayten escape the Turkish Police and moves to Germany. The daugher is in search of her mother and be-friends Lotte, a university student , who invites Ayten to stay with her. The fondness and love between them flourishes , but Ayten is caught in Germany and her plea for asylum is rejected. She is deported to Turkey and is arrested and jailed in her country. Lotte, come to Turkey to save her friend, but ends up murdered by a bullet shot by the street childer, while trying to save her bag and belongings from snatchers.

Her mother Susanne , is now in Turkey to understand her daughter and help her cause in saving Ayten and befriends Nejat. Movie ends with the release of Ayten from police.

One of the good movie I watched recently and have some good performances. It has one of the best last scenes ( Nejat waiting for his father to return from his fishing by the sea) and a noteworthy screenplay and dialogue.

More info can be found here

Farewell my concubine - Directed by Kaige Chen

I have been waiting to see this film ever since it was honoured with Golden Palms at Cannes in 1993. I heard, this was the first movie from China to win at Cannes ( by the way, have we won any ? ).

I managed to get the book written by Lilian Lee ( on the same name) in 1995 and was truly impressed with that ( I referred the notes I have written 12 yrs back ,today before posting this) book.

A movie set in the begininning of 20th century, through the turmoil of Chinese history, is about two stage-brothers of the famous Beijing Opera and a woman comes between them. It gives you the glimpses of their early ages of training under the master, with its tough and torturouse way of inculcating the skills. The duo become the most sought after pairs in the Opera scenes, and the opera "Farewell my Concubine" become a master piece. Deiyi, who acts as the concubine in the opera and Xialou the fallen king. As the China goes through the political turmoil with the attack by Japan, the triumph of the Nationalist Party and later the Communist Army taking control of the city. The patronising of the Opera House thus goes through different regime. The actors and the team are often subjected to questioning for their alleged performance for the enemy. Xialou, who falls in love with a prostitute, later marries her, causing the drift among the friends. Situation turns worse after the new Commuist Soldiers arrest them for their involment in pre-revelution rulers and the chain of blame and betrayal set them apart.

Every aspect of Film making is superb. From story and screenplay ( by the author himself) , the performance, the direction , the visuals..

I found this little piece in the book, not sure if I noticed this in the film.
"Our Soldiers and Comrades", she replied sarcastically. "I thought they also served the people. They can't be the people".
"Well, who are the people ?"
"We singers aren't the people. Women aren't the people. Workers and soldiers aren't the people. Nobody is the peolpe, but everybody seems to be serving the people. Who are the people ? Who's left ?"
"Chairman Mao ?"

Curse of the Golden Flower - Yimou Zhang

I watched this movie by the Chinese Director Zhang Yimou yesterday , called "Curse of the Golden Flower". Very impressive. Little too colorful and extravagant for a movie, but the story undertone and the performances were very good.

This is about the 10 century Tang Dynasty emperor, and the in-house power struggle. Well crafted screen play and editing.

The over use of the set, colours, stunt choreography and costumes does take away some of the cinematic values, though.

for details on the story and other credits , check this

Once ( Irish ) by John Carney

On the insistence of Sri, I watched this lovely movie by the Irish Director John Carney. This movie had already won many awards and nominations. This is also nominated for "Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song" in 2008 Oscars. You can read all that and more here

A story about 2 musicians; he, a street singer and a hoover repairman and she, a czech immigrant and flower seller who plays piano, trying to help each other and themselves in their pursuit of music and personal life. Yes, it is he and she , there are no names. There is no pretence of an 'art movie' no visible effort to please the serious movie critics, no flamboyant dialogue , no superficies love and the so on.

It is not a musical like Moulin rouge or Chicago , but a movie about music. And dear, it has some very lovely tracks.

Added on 25/Feb : This movie won the oscar for the best song from a movie. Here are the details.

The complete oscar winners list can be found here

Nalu Pennungal - Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Adoor Gopalakrishnan's new movie is a collection of 4 small movies about women. As the name suggests, the movie is about women from different facts of life. Adapted from different short stories by the famous Malayalam writer, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, set in the '20s , this films looks at the life and the incidents of four women dispassionately.

"Vesya" ( the prostitute ) is arrested by the police for adultery and is being questioned in the court. She and her new husband could not prove to the court that they are married, as there is no evidence. They have no house , sleep in the veranda of the shops, they have no family , they do not know who their parents are.. The only thing they can tell the authorities that they are married and are husband and wife.

"Kanyaka" ( the virgin ) is the story of a girl married to the neighbouring village, only to be left back in her house by the broom after the initial phases of the marriage and the "welcome feast" by the relatives.

"Chinnuamma" ( the housewife) is about a middle aged lady without any children and the attempt by her erstwhile friend or classmate to lure her into a relationship with him. It ends with a definitive stand by her asking him to leave.

"Nityakanyaka" ( the spinster ) is about the elder sister of the house, unable to get married and her coming to terms with that. All the people who come home to see her, are demanding her sisters and she remain a spinster despite the effort of her family.

While this movie is not a full length feature film ( a collection of 4 independent movies) , all the movies are connected by a single theme. They are all talk about the women in the social structure and their effort to come out of the domination by taking a definite stand on issues pertaining to them. Very strong and subtle in emotions , but very convincing in the end. Apart from a few places ( where I find it too mechanical ) all the actors have performed brilliantly , to the scope of the movie , against their commercial stardom.

Though this is not his best movie so far, Sri Adoor Gopalakrishnan maintained his high standards of film making by some good visuals and background score.

An Inconvenient Truth & the Nobel Prize

"Another couple of Tsunamis and Bangalore will have a coast line" was the comment made by one of my friend after the devastating Tsunami hit South East Asia in Dec 2005. Though we made fun of it, I fear ( yes, I do ) that it is a distant possibility.

Watching "An inconvenient Truth" make you think , if not worried about the future of this planet. While there are many discussions and debates over growth versus nature, some of the statistics and facts ( he uses the pictorial representation of the damage between 60s and now) is sure enough to make an impact to the viewers.

The damage is multi-fold. One on the natural resources, on the in habitants and fellow living beings on the planet, the rising temperature and depleting ice-cover... to make it faster, an uncontrolled population growth.

Al Gore has done a commentable job with presentation and relentless effort to propagate the alarming state of affairs.

I wonder, if nature has a way to make some amends... There is a way to bring equilibrium within the nature, and some of the calamities we see could be a ersult of the same.

It is important that as many people as possible watch this movie. Whatever small impact it can create positively, worth the effort.

By awarding Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with the Nobel Prize for peace, the requierd international attention on this fact would be improved.

'Don't Tell' - Directed by Cristina Comencini ( Italian)

Nominated for best foreign language movie at Oscars and winner of some festival awards.

Surfacing of hidden unpleasent memories form the childhood comes back as nightmares for young Sabina. These nightmares torments her regularly on her sleep. Unable to discuss this with her boyfriend who is living with her and her close friend Maria, she decides to speak to her brother who is a professor in the University of Virginia living with his wife and two kids. She travels to the US to meet her brother and the real story of childhood abuse by their father on the young kids comes out of the troubled brother.

This movie is about a brother and sister coming to terms with their painful childhood. Her brother narrates the incidents of his torture(!) and explains the reasons of her nightmares as she too was a victim of the so called abuse. He admits, that he is having trouble hugging his own children because of the events in the past.

Otherwise a regular movie and there is nothing extra ordinary to mention. All the actors have put in very good performance.

2046 - Wong Kar Wai

"All memories are traces of tears," the most recognised line from the film is the underlying message of the Wong Kar Wai film "2046".

2046 considered as a sequel to the more recognised "In the Mood for Love". Moving between fantacy ( moving in a train to year 2046 and meeting with androids) and the real life story surrounding a mysterious room 2046 in a hongkong hotel , this movie is around a writer, during the late 60s.

The movie as narrated by the lead charecter, moves around multiple women in his life during his stay at Hongkong and Singapore as a writer. The settings, generally indoors and dim lighted with some soul stirring slow music with subtle style of acting by all charecters was able to get the sense of loss and sadness to me.

Though this movie was in contention for GOLDEN PALM at Cannes, it had not won any notable awards and is generally week and confusing in plot.

There is a detailed review with the storyline is available here from wiki and , critic review from bright lights film journal is here.

The Road to Guantanamo : Movie

Just finished watching this movie about 3 British citizen's true story about being detained at the (in)famous Guantanamo bay.

This movie caught my attention after it was adjudged as the best film in last years Berlin International film festival. Directed by Michael Witherbottom and Mat White cross, this movie follows the three young Muslim Britishers from Tipton , Birmingham to Pakistan to attend the wedding of one of their friend and their entry into Afghan for more of a curiosity factor ( to help people is too hard to believe). This was at the time when US started their campaign in Afghan after the 9/11. Story, partially told as documentary , partially as the drama in the cinema faction and partially as commentary ( by the real victims in discussion, I presume) does get one's attention to the happening and branding of innocent people as the members of Taliban or Al-Qaida by the captors. After holding them prisoners without any charges for more than 2 years , they were released from detention.

There are sufficient scenes of tortures and abuses by the soldiers , as it is already known to the world. These days Guantanamo bay is used similar to Auschwitz or Buchenwald.

From a cinematic view , this movie disappointed me. Lie Fahrenheit 9/11 , I would put this as another political movie and it shows the sufferings from the hands of the Allied Army ( than the Internal struggle or any personal side of the story) and nothing more.

Cannes festival

After days of speculation, the results are out. Surprisingly , ( and I'm happy about it) most of the prestigeous awards are gone to the lesser known movies, directors and actors.

Of late, Cannes festival has also been hijacked by the hollywood bigwigs and those movies get the majority of the media coverage leaving the upcoming movies and directors far behind. In the process, some of the best movies are forgotten and not recognised appropriately.

Now, I need to get hold of these movies....

The results can be viewed here...


By the way, what are these Indian movie folks doing over there ?

Fateless - Movie ( Hungary )

I had my post on the novel by the same name, only few weeks back. It was a pleasent surprise to see the movie being featured in one of the channel.

An adaptation of the novel by Nobel Laureate Imre Kertesz, this movie was released in Hungarian in 2005. From what ever I could see ( I missed the starting) , I would say the director and the cast has done justification to the original.

Another haunting experience of the holocaust terror through the eyes of a 14 yr old boy.

Like every autobiagraphical stories, this movie to gets into narration to take the story forward. I'm not a great fan of this technique.

Directed by Lajos Koltai
Lead actor Marcell Nagy

Three Movies

There is nothing you do while sitting in a plane on a long journey, but to sleep or watch movies. Here is a snapshot of the 3 movies I watched.

1.Blood Diamond
This is a movie I wanted to watch for a long time but could not. Already a controversial film, winning some critics acclaim, multiple nominations at the Oscar with a couple of wins, and objected by certain business interests. May be that is the only attraction about this film.
Africa is a continent marred with civil wars and ethnic struggles. And may be it was retained so, by the vested interests for their business purpose. Movie set in the Sierra Leone during the civil war in 1999, it portrays the fighting between the government forces with the RUF ( revelutionary United Front) with all its brutality and atrocities.

Solomon Vandy , a fisherman, is captured by the RUF rebels and forced to work in the diamond fields after being seperated from his family. While working there Solomon finds a rare large diamond and hide the treasure as the government forces attack the RUF camps. He too get arrested with the RUF leader. A white mercenary ( Leonardo DiCaprio) from Rhodesia trades arms with the RUF for diamonds.

The movie is the struggle of Solomon to re-unite with his family, to get the diamond by Archer and to write the sensational story by an American journalist played by Jennifer Conelly. It goes through the predictable routine and ending. Overall, a good movie with some brilliant individual performances.


2. Je Vais Bien Ne T'En Fais Pas ( Dont Worry, I'm Fine) - French
What I like about these movies are that they are from real life. There is no influence of make belief hollywood movies and they stick to the basic of movie making.

A story about a typical midle class family trying to cope with the trauma of their missing son. Lili Tellier comes to know that her twin brother has left home over a fight with their father on her return from holidays in Barcelona. She goes through depression and psychiatric treatment, before she receives a letter from her brother telling her that he is travelling around and will not want to stay with their father anymore. Her attempts to find him is in vain and like her brother she too leaves home and decides to stay seperate. Letter continues to arrive from different cities each time and the life gets back to the normal until one day she finds out that it was her father who was posting all these letters from different places. As the truth unfolds, the family relationship becomes more and more complex.

A wonderfully crafted movie with top class performances from every actor.

Directed by Philippe Lioret based on a novel by Olivier Adam.

3. The Days of Abandonment (I Giorni Dell'abbandono ) - Italy
An ordinary movie about seperation and the struggle for survival by the wife. Usual story of husband leaving for another woman and the subsequent despair and sense of loss by the wife. The usual neglect of the house and kids and the blame game, helpful neighbour and all. As expected , after a mishap, the lady re-group herself and get back to her new life.

Nothing worthwhile to mention here except for the fine performance by the lead lady ( Margarita Buy).

Directed by Roberto Faenza based on a novel by Elena Ferrante.

Volver - Pedro Almodavor

It has been a while since I watched a movie worth a mention. I am happy that my 2 hrs on my last weekend did not go waste on some trash. 'Volver' is already a much talked about movie and won a nomination for Penelope Cruz for best actress. It had also won many distinctions at the Cannes Film Festival, which I consider one of the best film award, despite occasional HOLLYWOOD take over.

Predominantly a female cast, the movie is is a story of women of three generation. Raimunda ( Cruz )'s life changes after an accidental murder of her husband by the hand of her daughter. Trying to cover up this and her attempt to dispose the body , and the parallel story about her parents death and the rumour of her mother's ghost appearing , the new Russian worker in her sisters house etc are all adds up to the melodrama.

Very personal and intense story and very well knit by Pedro Almodavor. Penelope Cruz stole the show with her very matured and controlled acting. A crisp and well written screen play added with the directorial brilliance of Pedro Almodavor makes this a truly enjoyable movie.

World Trade Center - The Movie

Any disaster, be it natural like the tsunami , earthquake etc, or man made ( negligence , or planned ) causes so much damage the the materials and to humans. The indirect damage, in terms of personal losses to the family and friends is even more saddening and this part of the story never appears in the press or in discussion. Everything is forgotten by the people so soon as they are back from the shock , into their own struggle in life. Media discusses this in detail until another news takes over from this.

Watching the movie " World Trade Center" of Oliver Stone, brought back these memories to me. Behind every disaster news , you find enormous amount of pain , losses and sacrifices by many people. Among the 3000 odd lives ended on the dreadful day , includes more than 300 ( I guess 343 ) of New york Firemen, Police men and others who were involved in rescue mission. Only 20 people were saved from the rubbles and John McLoughlin and William Jimeno of the Port Authority Police Dept were the 18th and 19th of them.

There are no admirable moments of brilliance in any of the departments be it acting or in the direction. Also the films drags a bit in the mid-time. What is important is that this movie is focused on the courage and survival of the trapped men and their family and friends. There was no focus on the heroism or on the visual effects.

It made me think about all those people who are at the receiving end, which ever geography they belong.