Wrapping it Up: July

Month with quite a few firsts - I wrote about my very first Russian movie experience and inadvertently I saw one more this month, then my very first Bollywood Essentials post - hopefully there will be more to come soon and then finally, I got down to write about Audrey Hepburn which I have been meaning to do for little while now. But that's mostly what's been going around here, on site. Let's get into what I saw in July.

JULY

My Cousin Vinny(1992)(Rewatch): I was actually watching an Indian remake of this and it reminded me that I haven't seen it in a long time. I just love this movie. Joe Pesci is at his snappy brilliant self in it and don't even get me started on Marisa Tomei, just flawless - the way she talks, she walks, her body-language, her face expressions and most notably, her in witness box.

The Children's Hour(1961): This film is criminally overlooked whenever someone talks about Audrey Hepburn's career and just to do my part for it, I wrote a full review of it here. Combined with Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn gives a fine performance in this one. William Wyler certainly saw an actress behind that pretty face. 

Funny Face(1957): Anyone who complains that Bollywood movies break out into random dance and music sequences should see this. This is so Bollywood and so 60's and I certainly do not mean it as a compliment. It was all rather stupid and cartoonish, and worst part was it felt like it is done in all seriousness. However, I think Audrey Hepburn might have looked most beautiful I have seen her in this.

Airplanes II: The Sequel(1982): I usually avoid any of these spoof movies because of very few I have seen, I pretty much hate every one of them Except Hot Shots!(1991) and Hot Shots: Part Deux(1993). Generally in an attempt to make them funny, I feel like they are utterly unfunny, boring and just plain ridiculous. In first few minutes, this felt like another movie in line. However, as I caught some of the references to Star Wars and 2001 etc., it caught my attention. Mind you, I am not giving it any favorable opinion, I just didn't hate it as I thought I would.

The Amazing Spider-Man(2012): I probably won't call it amazing but it still was pretty good. First of all, I really like Andrew Garfield in this role and I loved how they set up the everything. Emma Stone has a very small part but off course she is good as well. Chemistry between their characters is probably the best part of the movie. However, It isn't without its flaws. One thing that I will mention is I distinctly remember couple of dialogues between Stone and Garfield from the trailer that aren't in movie and that is just stupid. Others can be considered spoilers. So, I will not get into it here. But still pretty good.

A Room with A View(1985): Helena Bonham Carter looked super adorable in her very first role on screen in it. Otherwise very conventional English Rom-Com, even a little too English if you know what I mean. I had a foolish grin on my face almost throughout though and Daniel Day-Lewis, very early in his career was interesting as well.

Wait Until Dark(1967): Meet World's Champion Blind Lady - Audrey Hepburn as recently blinded Lady as 3 thugs try to take advantage of her blindness and steal a doll full of drugs from her house. This has to be one of the best performances of Audrey Hepburn's career. Even Alan Arkin was brilliant and almost unrecognizable with hair on his head in this. 

The Birds(1963): Right from the word go, this film took a grip on me. Even those titles left an impression on me. Hitchcock masterfully develops a lot of tension in first hour or so with that lingering feeling that something is just about to happen and once those bird attacks start, it just goes to another level. I usually don't get scared easily, even when watching a horror movie but this movie just scared me shitless.

The Raid: Redemption(2012): For first half hour or so, I was really underwhelmed by what I was seeing. I have seen quite a few Asian action or slasher movies and hence didn't think I was watching anything extraordinary. However, in the next one and half hour The Raid: Redemption more than redeemed itself, especially because it goes to a completely another level after hand-to-hand combats started. It really is one of the best action movies I have seen, even more so because it pretty much never goes over the top. 

L'eclisse(1962): Monica Vitti and Alain Delon make a really handsome couple. For the first time in Antonini's trilogy, it's a woman that is facing alienation and aloofness though Vittoria here is much more likable character than his previous two leads. My only problem with it really was last seven minutes, apparently filled with references and allegories which I have no idea of, that ending confused me a little. 

Enter The Void(2009): I was kinda dreading to sit down and watch it especially since Alex included it this list. Though I agree that I will probably not watch it again as well, at least not for quite a while, it isn't because I can't watch it again. It will be because I don't think the pain is worth gain as I am not really impressed by it and surprisingly I wasn't even overly depressed either. It took me little while to understand few things which made it 'Mehh' for me while watching e.g. I realised that he was trying to show that Oscar follows the same path discussed in 'Book of the Dead' that he is reading, while making dinner that night.

Porco Rosso(1992): This hardly ever happens. Very rarely you will see me complain about Miyazaki film but I was a little underwhelmed by this especially because of the ending felt a little loose to me. There still was usual Ghibli warmth in it but there movies do little more than just entertain viewer. Sadly, I did not see that spark here.

Cache(2005): It seems that Mr. Haneke really isn't interested in giving us any answers. Just like Code Unkonwn(2000) we only get questions but no answers. I will love to know who was doing it and why ? How did Georges make that connection ? But it was a fascinating story, it didn't leave me frustrated like Code Unkonwn(2000) and at one point I really gasped out loud, I am sure anyone who has seen this movie knows what I am talking about.

Casino Royale(2006)(Re-Watch): An attempt to school my room-mates. In my opinion, it is best Bond movie made yet, certainly best of what I have seen. Maybe, it isn't what you would expect from a Bond movie, but that is precisely what I like about it. For the first time, James Bond is vulnerable, much more human and Bond Girl has presence and much more to do than look pretty and sexy.

The Double Hour(2009): It might be my own fault that I was expecting more from this. After the twist in the middle that took me off-guard, I kept waiting for it to pick up and explode at some point and it never did, it just kept going at its own pace till the very end. It is not a completely bad thing either as whatever does happen on screen is still quite a story but I was expecting something different or at least something more.

City Lights(1931): With this, the honor of Highest Ranked movie in IMDb Top 250 that I haven't seen goes to M. It was such a heart-warming movie, I instantly loved it. What worked most for me was it is a perfect combination of story, emotions, drama and Tramp's usual shenanigans. His boxing match had me in splits whereas that last scene almost made me cry. Such a beautiful and timeless treasure !! 

The Dark Knight Rises(2012): History is my witness that I never understood Christopher Nolan movies completely on their first watch. I probably shouldn't admit it but this one isn't any different. Having said that, this was everything I expected it to be - it is grand, dark, epic, perfect conclusion to what now is most certainly Best Superhero story of all time. However, what makes me most happy is Anne Hathaway did a great job. I do have few problem which I am sure subsequent viewings will make clear. For now, I firmly stand in Camp Nolan !! My Full Review here.  

Dogtooth(2009): I am little uncertain as to how do I say this properly. For some reason, I didn't feel like it was very difficult to watch but it was truly disturbing experience. Much like Festen(1998). I do not think that I will ever get that image of their brother 'checking his own sisters out' image out of my head. But, I felt kinda cheated by the end.

Contempt(1963): May be it is just me but more Godard I see, more I feel like he is trying to hard for us to take him seriously. After Breathless(1960) last month, even this is actually very good movie but it feels like he is purposely trying to be more obscure. Whatever he was trying to say, I am sure could have been said equally effectively but with much more accessibility. At least I don't think purposely making a movie inaccessible can be considered a good thing.

Dersu Uzala(1975): If I didn't know, I wouldn't have guessed that it's an Akira Kurosawa movie. It is nothing like any other Kurosawa movie I have seen. First of all, of dozen or so of his movies, I have never seen a word spoken in language other than Japanese and here, this whole movie is in Russian. Even look and feel of it is much more like Doctor Zhivago(1965) or Lawrence of Arabia(1962). But, that doesn't mean it is an inferior piece of art by any definition possible. It's a devastatingly beautiful portrayal of a purest of a soul which touches your heart somewhere deep down.

Cleopatra(1963): I am pretty much sucker for History and then with Elizabeth Taylor, I would have been down for anything. But more than anything I wanted to see this because I am not really sure if Cleopatra should be considered a heroin or a vamp. I really do not know the historical accuracy of this. However real problem is 243 minutes and glorious Liz Taylor performance after, I am still not. 

Take This Waltz(2012): I have been meaning to see it for couple of months now and I finally got a chance to see it this month. I will have a full review soon but to give you a glimpse of it, even though I have few reservations I really liked it especially because of the 2 ladies for whom I wanted to watch this movie - Sarah Polley and Michelle Williams. Both have done a great job in their respective departments.

Dirty Harry(1971): For a serial killer movie, it actually felt much straight forward. Even the killer wasn't really formidable and Clint Eastwood was, well, Clint Eastwood. But even then it somehow works because I think for some reason it isn't trying to be intelligent, it is just being cool and suave and it is just that. Even without getting into now cult status of character, actor or movie, I can still say I loved it for just that. I just want to watch it once and count how many bullets he shot from his .44 Magnum.

The Iron Giant(1999): With every traditionally animated movie I see, I become more and more pro-2D animation than 3D animation. These traditionally animated characters feel much more human to me even though they do not have that finesse of 3D characters. As for the movie, I would have liked it much more if not for the last 15-20 minutes which went bit too far in my opinion but until then, it was nice.

Earrings(2012)(short): I have been hearing, talking, reading about this film since I started following Alex's blog probably around a year ago. Believe it or not, I was pretty stocked to see it and I KNOW for a fact that I wasn't the only one. It isn't often that a guy you actually know has a film coming, Right? Those who follow him, we all knew how much time, energy and effort he put into it, we knew what this movie meant to him and to tell you the truth, it is everything we expected. If you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to see it here. DO NOT leave without leaving comment on his post - We need more like this from him.

L'illusioniste(2010): Rather sad, almost silent but brilliant and heartfelt animated movie that was nominated for Oscar in 2010 for Best Animated Feature Film. Our magician who wouldn't get big shows and doesn't want to do odd jobs because he doesn't think that is dignified, as well as his side story with the girl was told really beautifully.

Drugstore Cowboy(1989): To tell you the truth, this is pretty good movie. I never thought I will say this but Matt Dillon has done a great job in this and even his whole arc in story was well designed. But for some reason, I was left cold by the end and I have no idea why? As I said, I don't think it is a bad movie but I don't have anything more to say on it. Maybe next time I see it, I might have something more to say.

Viridiana(1961): Have you ever hated every single character of a movie and still think that particular movie is brilliant. I just did !! I can certainly understand Spanish government's prompt ban on it, because even I was fuming by the end, as it comments very harshly on poverty, misery and religion in post-civil war Spain under General Franco's reign and still think it was more than worthy of winning Palme d'Or because brilliance of Bunuel lies in highlighting that stark contrast between start and end.

Total Count:28. 26 First Time Watches and 2 Re-watches.

2012 YTD Count

Total Count:182. 172 First Time Watches and 10 Re-watches.

So I reached double figure in re-watches this year. That's good. 28 movies this month that is even better. Usual division comes up to 13 Classics, 15 new and 11 Foreign, 17 English movies. That is good too. But you know, my favorite part this month was catching up 4 movies from this year, 2012. That is as many 2012 movies as I have seen in first 6 months and on top of that 3 of them were in theater. So, that's one thing accomplished from last month. I also went on little binge of few serials I wanted to see. After finishing up The Wire in June, I started with The Sopranos and I have gone through 4 seasons now, 5th to start soon. I also gave in to Twin Peaks this month but I am largely regretting that decision as it went from weird - intriguing - strange - laughing with it - laughing AT it - are you serious!! - shoot me, already!! stages and I still have around 10 more episodes to go(So, remember to pray for me !!). 

As for the next month, I don't think I am going to try anything different this month, just take every day as it comes. I have few things to write in mind and my movie watching this month mostly will be so as to make it possible.

So, how was your month ? Did you see anything interesting ? What do you think of the movies I saw ? Any favorites ?

Breathless

During moth of June, I took it upon myself to watch as many foreign movies from 60's from '1001 movies' as I can. There were multiple reasons behind it. Firstly, I watched very few foreign movies in the month of May, so I wanted to make up for it. Secondly, I had seen very few 60's movies from 1001 list, even fewer than 50s and I thought I can rectify that before putting up that list on the blog. So, I started looking around on all possible sources - Netflix, YouTube. Fortunately Ruth@Flixchatter also wrote this article at around the same time which also helped - actually I saw the concerned movie from the same link. Even though I am still working on it, I saw around 10 movies that can fall in the category above. One of them was Jean-Luc Godard's first directorial effort Breathless(1960) which is also considered as one of the first and most influential movies from French New Wave period. Most importantly known for innovative techniques used and its style, it is easy to see the impact it might have had at the time of its release.

Michel Poiccard is a small time criminal who is on the run from Police. On his way to meet a girl he is in love with, he steals a car in Marseille and is on his way to Paris with Police are on his tail. In an attempt to get rid of them, he panics and has to kill an officer. After coming to Paris, he gets hold of a girl he has come to meet in Paris - Patricia Franchini, an American journalism student selling New York Herald Tribune on streets of Paris. He wants to go to Rome and he wants her to come with him. However, she isn't convinced that she loves him as yet and hence is reluctant to go with him. This pretty much is all the plot there is to it and most of the film is about him trying to convince her to go with him and her rejecting him. As the movie goes forward, it becomes very clear that all this plot is not really much important to the movie. We don't learn much about pasts of either lead and even story doesn't seem to be in hurry of going anywhere. As we go forward, Michael keeps on getting himself in more and more trouble with Police tightening their grip around his neck as with a murder of police officer, he is in much serious trouble. At one point, even Patricia learns about all his escapades which should make the final consequences intriguing. However, there is much more emphasis on their multiple conversations between the two leads walking around, driving in various stolen cars or in Patricia's tiny apartment and let me say it right here that I found that to be the most fascinating aspect of the story. Both the actors, especially Jean Seberg, carry out their duties poignantly. Their conversations touch upon a lot of obscure topics but what takes center stage here is not their dialogues but sexual tension that keeps on building between them. Personally, first 10-15 minutes of the movie felt like too much of randomness, we are being thrown into middle of something without any knowledge of what's happening. However, soon enough with entry of Jean Seberg, it settles down pretty nicely.

French New Wave basically was a bunch of film critics, who found the traditional way of movie-making rather formulaic and instead of lamenting about the state, they decided to make movies themselves to break these shackles and set the example in front of everyone as to how to do it. Since this is one of the pioneer and most influential movies of new wave, these aspects are certainly very much visible throughout the movie. Micheal seems to reflect Humphrey Bogart in his classic noir characters, being slick and detached from everything around him and also his physical appearances with tilted hat and cigarette on lips. And so is Patricia who keeps on denying Michael pretty much just because she can and because she doesn't feel as much emotionally attached as him, two predominantly male characteristics.  Fellow New Wane director Francois Trauffaut who wrote the script for it does a masterful job here to keep this rope taut throughout the long takes of conversations. Trauffaut incorporated whole bunch of cultural references in his script - one I was happy to catch was reference to Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob Le Flembeur(1956). I am not exactly sure if that was intentional or not but since Melville was still in good books of both Godard and Trauffaut then, maybe it was as he even played a small part in it as well. However, this New Wave was not only limited to breaking the norms of story-telling. This also introduced lot of different norms in movie-making as well. Use of hand-held camera almost throughout the movie, use of crowded streets to shoot with horde of people around, minimal use of artificial lights, improvisation of scenes and dialogues while filming is just to name a few. Most of these techniques may not be very revolutionary now, however what counts here is thinking outside the box to achieve significantly different and even better result.

BUT...Yes there is a but even here. I bet you did not see this coming. But there are few things that did bother me and worst part of it is they are enough for me to prevent it from being one of my personal favorites. Firstly, I do not understand what is the big deal with so called breaking up the fourth wall ? I am little biased here because I have been brought up on constant fodder of Indian movies since I was a kid and there it was always done very cheaply. With that as a background, I always associate this 'breaking up fourth wall' stuff with being incredibly cheesy. I agree that either here or even in most of Bergman movies, it is done to much better and serious effect but I still don't see what's the big deal. Next and little more importantly, Jump Cuts. There is an interesting story behind this. Godard wanted to reduce the run time as he thought it to be too long for distribution and instead of cutting down whole scenes, he decided to cut little bits from the scenes itself, giving it jerky and sudden feel. He did one more really important thing to highlight this, that is background music track is continuous even though scene looks like jumping forward a bit. I am sure that this is really smart, especially from technical aspect. However, it bothered me a little while watching it, especially during the car conversation of two leads. I read all this after watching the movie and even though I do realize the importance and influence of this, I can not shake off the fact how much it bothered me while watching it.

Third and certainly the most important thing actually has to do with French New Wave as a whole than just this particular movie and probably was also highlighted by the fact that, as I stated before, I was watching other foreign movies from 60s as well, particularly Antonini's L'Avventura(1960) and La Notte(1961). I can not shake off the feeling that all these French directors(I saw Jules and Jim(1962) and Last Year at Marienbad(1961) right around at the same time) are trying little too hard to be taken seriously, to be considered intellectuals. Maybe it's just me but it felt like they try to make their movies purposely obscure to the verge of being pretentious and as a result end up isolating, disconnecting them from their viewer. Reason I bring Antonini's trilogy in discussion is because even he handles lot of esoteric subjects in his trilogy but I did not feel disconnected from either of the movie. So, unfortunately, Breathless turns out to be another movie in what I call myself to be 2001: A Space Odyssey category. I know the importance of it in the grand scheme, I even understand and appreciate it. I really know that what it's most important achievement is it created a path for many more movies to follow and is instrumental in where movie industry is right now, just like 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, despite all that Breathless has to be the movie that I respect and appreciate the importance of, but personally do not get the appeal of.

Rating(out of 5):