Profile of a Director

Mr. Reliable: Christopher Nolan
I studied English Literature. I wasn't a very good student, but one thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well. - Christopher Nolan

I have seen kind of polarized opinions about the director in question here - Christopher Nolan. I know a lot of people who consider him Greatest Director Ever and on the other hand I have seen or read many people calling him most over-rated director of all time as well. Even though I can see why haters hate him, hypothetically if ever a war breaks out between his devotees and his opposition, I will side up with his devotees as I still consider him as one of my favorite directors. Out of 10 movies he directed, 2 are shorts and 1 is still in production. So, out of remaining seven, his lowest rated movie is at 7.2, he has 5 movies in first half of IMDb 250, 1 in top 10, 2 in top 20, 3 in top 50 and 4 in top 100 - numbers don't lie. Do they? He is probably the only director I have seen whole work body of and one of the directors I have learned to trust blindly even though I still have my reservations going as far as naming him the Greatest director ever.

When it comes to English movie world, I have been a kind of late bloomer. English being my Third Language, I started learning English at the age of 10. Till I was 16, it was just a subject in school I had to get through. After I was introduced to Harry Potter, I started reading English books at the age of 16. Conversational English came a little later at around 20 and was soon followed by the movies. So to tell you the truth, I have been a serious movie enthusiast for just about 5 years now. So, it probably will come as a surprise, but first time I heard of anyone called Christopher Nolan was when The Dark Knight(2008) released in 2008 and it swept me off my feet. Watching The Dark Knight was an experience like I never had. Two and half hours of continuous high-octane action was too much for me. Walking out of the theater, after watching it for the first time, I could not remember half of the things I saw but I knew I just saw something great, something I will not be able to describe in words. For a novice like me who didn't know much about Batman, It took me around 2 more viewings to get around to know Batman's world completely. Till today, I still haven't seen any other version of Batman, but to tell you the truth, I never felt like it as well. I have been content with Nolan and his version.

 

As the years passed by, I became more and more avid movie-goer and Nolan became a household name for me. I got around to all the other movies on his resume as well. Probably The Prestige(2006) was the first one to go down. Again, I found it hard to follow all the twists and turns in the end. Similar experience like The Dark Knight. It demanded multiple viewings but has never failed to amaze me even when I knew what to expect next. And so did Memento(1999). Just an idea of starting the movie at the end and then coming towards the start is simply phenomenal and then to do it when you are virtually unknown will need insurmountable courage and confidence. But, Boy! did it pay off? He again kept me busy throughout the movie, putting all the pieces together. Then there is first installment of Batman Trilogy, Batman Begins(2004). Here, Nolan shows us how a great franchise should start. It might be a little slower in comparison to some of his other films, but by no means it is any inferior to any of them. And then thanks to Netflix, I also got around to Insomnia(2003) and his debut feature Following(1997). However, for me highlight of his career or rather my whole film-watching experience has been Inception(2010). For the better part of 2010, I was following every news, every picture, every trailer. So by the time it released I had sky loads of expectations and it is always great to see something you love go beyond your expectations.

 

With his usual crew of cinematographer Wally Pfister, Composer Hans Zimmer, Editor Lee Smith, Wife-Producer Emma Thomas and writer-brother Jonathan Nolan along with the cast of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Cilian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Nolan has created movies which are not just entertaining or commercially successful but are real masterpieces. Strong characters, catchy dialogues, amazing action scenes, great pace and to add it to all extremely well thought musical scores have always been some of the highlights of his movies. But, like any notable director, he never loses the sight of what his movie needs to accomplish and like a master craftsman when he reaches their, we can only stand and adore what lies before us. All the factors above make a movie stand out from the crowd but they are mere embellishments. At its core, any movie worth remembering needs to have a Story and in my opinion, that is where Nolan's actual achievement lies. Standout factors in his movies all his career so far have been his Screenplays and the way he brings them forward for all us viewers in his direction. Academy can snub him as much as they want but this will be what Nolan will be remembered and respected for by all his fans. 

But still, I am uncomfortable comparing him with the likes of Hitchcock and Scorsese and Spielberg and Wilder. Why? Because he is just 41 yet. Because he has made only 10 films. He sure is one of the most exciting, young directors to watch for and I am sure he still has many more tricks up his sleeve to dazzle us. He still has a lot of years left in him to take his career whichever way he wants. So, let us not pass any judgement yet. Just wait and enjoy the show while we can. He is a kind of director I will watch anything of just because him name is associated with it. I am even taking Zack Snyder's Man of Steel(2013) seriously because Nolan is given the credit of it's story. All the buzz behind The Dark Knight Rises(2012) should bare testimony for it as well. Even though I am being cautious comparing him with the likes of Scorsese and Spielberg,  I firmly believe that he does the have a potential to be up there. He has proven it time and again and these coming years will also be witness to that.    

Previous Profiles:
Sidney Lumet
Martin Scorsese

Woody Allen

Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy

I never studied Shakespeare. I was never an English student or an art student to study it in school or college. Until I started College, I wasn't even conversant enough with the language that I could go ahead and read it on my own and when I did start reading it, that old English was a big turn off for me since I would never understand a line without dictionary by my side. So, until recently, my only Introduction to the world of bard was some interpretations of his works in Indian movies such as Omkara(2006) based on Othello, Maqbool(2003) based on Macbeth and Angoor(1982) based on Comedy of Errors. However, since I did not know the original works, I still do not know if they stay true to it or they deviate and if they do falter, in what capacity they do ? So, until very recently when I found it out that my college library has a lot of versions of Shakespeare's work, I was never properly introduced to the works of this master. I started with Laurence Olivier's Hamlet(1948) which has won numerous Oscars. However, after that I stumbled upon something which I had not planned. After watching Hamlet, one of my co-workers referred me to Rosencrantz are Guildernstern are Dead(1990) and Brad, may you get the best Girlfriend in the world for that (He will probably ask for a beer though or maybe a book).

Rosencrantz are Guildernstern are Dead(1990) (from here on I am going to call it RAGAD because their names not only ridiculously long, it is little complex and I am sure that if I write it 4 times, I will spell them in 4 different ways) tells the Hamlet's Story from the point if view of Rosencrantz And Guildernstern. Those of you who know Hamlet better than me will know that these are the characters King Claudius sends to spy on Hamlet after he starts acting crazy, because they are his childhood friends. Movie follows original Hamlet, picking up the scenes whenever our protagonists are part of in original play until their eventual end where Hamlet changes the letter on the ship to England to give name to this film RAGAD(you got it right?). Whole movie however takes more of a comic path making them Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy. Rosencrantz plays a clumsy,childlike Laurel who will stumble on to the great idea without realizing the importance of it where as Guildernstern is like Hardy, self-proclaimed leader of the pack who will more often than not get in trouble because of his partner's clumsiness.

Except for the fact that I was directly told to see it, there were couple of more things that got me interested into RAGAD. First was Cast. Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz and Tim Roth as Guildenstern play the two titular roles. They both play their parts to perfection, confused by all the event happening around them and completely unaware of their role in the big picture - Oldman tad better for providing multiple laughing out loud moments. Richard Dreyfuss is The Player, master of the company called Tragedians which plays 'Murder of Gonzago' in front of King and Queen upon Hamlet's request. Central characters in actual Hamlet, all take back seat to these three here. And the second thing that got me to watch it was the opening scene where our protagonists find a coin on the ground and start tossing it to get almost 160 consecutive heads. It was enough to lure me into watching it. Tom Stoppard is the writer-director at the helm. Though I wasn't conversant with any of his works, quick check revealed him to be Oscar winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love(1999), Brazil(1985) and Empire of the Sun(1987). RAGAD seems to be his only directorial effort.

Based on Stoppard's own play, RAGAD relies heavily on the brilliant eloquence of both the leads. Throughout the movie, there is a lot of brilliant word play. Game of questions R and G play with each other and their various encounters with the player are just brilliant and many of them result in lot of laugh out loud moments like

Rosencrantz: Another Curious phenomenon. Finger-nails can grow after your death and so does the beard.

Guildernstern: But you are not dead ?

Rosencrantz: I didn't say they start only after you are dead. Fingernails also grow before the birth, though not the beard. Toenails, on the other hand, never grow at all.

Guildernstern: FOOT. Toenails on the other FOOT never grow at all. (LOL!!)

and whole movie is filled with many such hilarious scenes. On many occasions their nonsensical rambling turn to deeper thoughts like when they are talking about Genearal Relativity and death. Rosencrantz is shown to be inventing Hamburger, Gravity and volume displacement but it never occurs to him mainly because he fails miserably trying to recur the phenomenon for Guildernstern. Once he also makes a biplane rather than normal paper plane only to be crushed by Guildenstern.

Tom Sheppard has given us a hilarious spin-off on Hamlet without destroying the sanctity of an original classic in any way and some memorable performances by Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss make it a quite a remarkable movie. Even though it did not add much to my Shakespearean knowledge, or lack of it, I sure had a hell of a time and plenty of laughs.

Rating(out of 5):

Peepli[Live]

I Came to US in August 2009 for my Masters. After coming here, for whatever reasons, I have seen very few Indian movies released after that. Some of the very important factors are there are not many theaters that play Indian movies in US, for that matter I have seen only 1 in almost 100 mile radius and other being I was here for getting my Master's degree, not to watch movies. However, that should have stopped me from watching movies altogether but it didn't. And besides these two obvious reasons, I think there is one more reason which I think is much more Valid. And that reason is I think overall standard has dropped dramatically in Hindi Film Industry, in last couple of years. One common example I site to my friends when we discuss this is - Like every other film industry, in India, we have awards at the end of the year to celebrate the excellence in cinema. In year 2011, out of the 5 movies nominated for 'Movie of the Year' award, 4 were My Name is Khan(2010), Guzaarish(2010), Tees Maar Khan(2010) and Dabaang(2010). Out of it, Dabaang(2010) and Tees Maar Khan(2010) are so bad, so bad that by the end you start laughing, not because it is actually funny but because you have had enough. And the other two, My Name is Khan(2010) and Guzaarish(2010) are just plain bad. I sometimes even go out of my way to call them '4 worst movies made ever in the history of Indian Cinema' and they were competing for 'Movie of the Year' award. Now you tell me.

However, even then, that is not by biggest rant about the state of Bollywood. Even bigger problem, at least in my opinion is, there is so much crap being produced now a days, that some times a real gem gets lost in it very easily. That's what happened to Udaan(2010) and that is what happened to Peepli[Live](2010) as well. I actually as much blame myself for not checking it out earlier because I kept on procrastinating it on every possible account. Until now, I have kept this blog pretty much exclusive for English movies. But since I think I need to voice my opinion to promote this, I am going to make an exception here and probably will continue to do it if I think any film deserves my attention - after all it is MY blog. Also, another reason to write about it is, Peepli[Live] is actually available on Netflix Streaming. So, if someone who is reading this feels influenced enough, they can go and check it out easily and legally - at least in US, UK and Canada. So, let me influence you then !!

Peepli[Live] is a story of two brothers, two relinquished farmers Nathadas and Budhia Manikpuri who are running family farm to make the ends meet. They are neck deep into the loans taken from bank and since there has not been any rain, they have not been able to pay any part of their loan back yet. So, while they are waiting for the default judgement, they go to their local land-lord as a last resort because even he has a grudge on them since they snubbed him by going to the bank instead of taking loan from him. But off course, instead of giving them money that they desperately need, he suggests another way out - suicide since Government has announced a new policy that it will give Rs. 100,000 to the family of the deceased farmer. Natha and Budhia, who have turned every knob they can turn, knocked every door they can knock and do not have a single ray of hope, start thinking seriously about a comment just made to discard them because unfortunately that is there best chance to sustain their family.

Somehow, a local news reporter who is covering the imminent state elections, overhears a conversation and prints this strange news in the local newspaper. Since whole state is in election mode, this seemingly small news picks up national momentum and within few days, every damn news channel and newspaper is camped outside Natha's house to cover his suicide and hilarity ensues. Every Tom, Dick and Harry starts weighing in on what Natha should do to feed the whole media frenzy out there, if nothing else it makes Natha wonder if suicide really is the last resort to help his family. While media frenzy is giving him national focus, remarkable part is NO ONE, absolutely no one is actually trying to Help him. Local politician doesn't really care, he thinks that it is all a farce and is waiting for party orders, State government thinks it is central government issue, Central Government says Suicide is illegal and hence they have to wait for a court order and court is not taking any action because there is no case in court. On couple of occasions, he does get help but in an incredibly and ingeniously useless fashion - state government assigns him a Hand Pump('Lal Bahadur') to keep from killing himself and one of rival politician declares him a martyr and gifts him Television. REALLY!! Like that is going to help him any way. At one point of time, they even bring the legality of Natha's actions into picture, but no one tries to help him out of grave he is thinking of digging for himself. Hundreds of reporters gathered out ask every possible question except is there any way to prevent him from doing this?

It not only addresses the issue of farmers committing suicide but also throws punches on the mentality of media and politicians through a satirical drama. Imagine Ace in the Hole(1951) sans all the vile and plus whole lot of humor. Humor plays a very important part in it because even though you are laughing the whole time, you will find yourself asking 'Should I really be laughing?' and kudos to writer/director Anusha Rizvi for that. There are very few female directors out there and tackling such a risk of portraying serious social subject in very first endeavor, she deserves a special mention for that too. It is difficult to find a movie based on a social issue worth your time. Believe me when I say each and every minute of these 106 minutes is worth it.

Rating(out of 5):

In the Mood for Love AKA movie that saved my weekend

Friday, 27th Januray 2012. I am done with my masters, big burden off my shoulders. I am already planning my weekend ahead. I have seen only 2 movies in the whole 2 weeks before that, so I already have few DVDs checked out from my library. I come home, relieved and high in anticipation to make up for my last 2 weeks. First up is Witness for the Prosecution(1957), something which I wanted to see for a long time but let me just say it wasn't up to the Billy Wilder standards. I am starting to think that Agatha Christie books are damn good books but somehow they don't transfer into great screenplays. Next up is highly anticipated Akira(2001). It turns out to be Scarface(1983) of Anime, if that makes any sense to you. Does everything had to be that over the top ? Little disappointed but still hopeful because next one is Michael Heneke's Code Unknown(2000). It will be way to premature to say anything about it because I am almost sure that I haven't understood it. So, it remains more like 'Work in Progress'. So, by Sunday afternoon, I am pretty desperate, almost begging on my knees: 'Please let me like the next movie I watch'. So, I keep Dr.Strangelove(1965) aside because I am not a Kubrick fan traditionally, dig into my Netflix queue, go up and down few times and decide to go with In the Mood for Love(2000) and Thank God for that !! It made my weekend.

Set in Shanghaiese enclave of Hong Kong in 1962, In the Mood for Love(2000) tells us the story centered on two couples or rather two halves of young couples leaving as tenants, across the hall from each other. We have Mrs. Chan, who works as a secretary in the export company and her husband works for a multinational company which keeps on sending him on frequent trips to Japan and Mr. Chow, who is a newspaper editor and his wife also does a job which keeps on sending her out a lot. After they move in as neighbors on the same day, they get introduced to each other as anyone of us would to our neighbors - occasional hi-hello, a casual smile and eventually warm up to each other with more interaction and their common liking of martial arts stories. Mr. Chow is having a little problem in his marriage since he found out that his wife lied to him about something. One of his colleagues plants a seed of doubt in his mind when he tells him that he saw his wife with another man. Initially, he discards the seemingly outrageous thought but then he notices that Mrs. Chan has exact same handbag as his wife. He decides to talk to her and see if he can make any sense out of it. When they meet over dinner, they realize that both their spouses are cheating on them with each other and they both suspected it all along.

Now that they know the truth, they are drawn together being passengers on the same train. They wonder how did their spouse's affair start ? Help each other confronting their spouses by role playing and if nothing else helps, be there for each other when they both are lonely. Even though their intentions are admirable to start with, as they keep on spending more time together, borders start to faze out. Director Kar Wai Wong takes a simple story, the restraint and growing passion between these two people and then go on playing endless blue notes to get us hooked. Without actually showing anything on screen, he uses rain and eye gestures to do the work of creating the right mood to the great effect. One more thing he uses really well is their role playing game , which starts as to help each other understand what exactly happened. However, when they both are not sure of how many borders they are ready to cross, unsuspectingly they cross the borders of their roles and what we get is an extremely vivid collage of their feelings. One more fun fact, apparently Wong never uses any script. Most of his work is improvisation, deciding which direction to head next on the spur, crafting the story and mood as he went along.

It bagged Actor's Award and technical prize which includes editing, cinematography and production design. If you have seen few Chinese movies, you might recognize Tony Leung who did Leo DiCaprio's role from The Departed(2006) in original Infernal Affairs(2002) or General Zhou Yu in Red Cliff (2008-09) double and amazing Maggie Cheung. She looks so stunning in it that I am sure her husband was blind to cheat on her. There is no way, a man can cheat on her with his eyes open, there just isn't. Apparently, lot of effort was put in to make her look pretty. According to IMDb, she has worn 46 different cheung-won dresses in the movie, different one for each scene and it used to take 5 hours to do her hair and make-up. Apart from being visually brilliant with exceptional use of slow motion to set mood for viewers, one more very striking thing about it is, this Soundtrack called "Yumeji's Theme" is probably one of the best I have heard ever. It is not only sensual but is used to the ultimate effect to set the tone throughout the movie. If all this doesn't put you in mood, probably nothing will.

Rating(out of 5):