"It is only the dreamers who move mountains" fitzcarraldo is one the most ambitious film that i've ever been across. the film starts with the title character fitzcarraldo played graciously by klaus kinski and his wife travelling 1200 miles just to hear caruso sing. fitzcarraldo is the story of a dreamer who dreams of building an opera in the peruvian jungles. with one major failure already behind which nearly bankrupted him, fitzcarraldo remains unaltered. now, the fact that all this has truly happened and the dreamer fitzcarraldo has really existed in blood and flesh makes the experience of watching fitzcarraldo even more interesting. with the meager money left in his pocket this guy set's out on a journey and you secretly pray in your heart that he hit's the bull's eye. he travel's around trying to set up a proper business that would generate the money to fulfill his casino dream. once again our guy does the unexpected. he leases an inaccessible parcel of area that generates rubber from the peruvian government. purchases a 340 ton steam boat raises a crew and sets off up the pachitea, a river in peruvia.This river is known to be more dangerous the further one gets from the Amazon because of the unfriendly tribes that inhabit the area. Fitzcarraldo's plan is to reach the point where the two rivers nearly meet and then, with the manpower of enlisted natives, physically pull his three-story, 340-ton steamer over the muddy hillside across an isthmus, from one river to the next. Using the steamer, he will then collect rubber on the upper Ucayali and bring it down the Pachitea to market.
The most toughest scene ever shot by a man who call's himself a director is the ending scene where we spellboundedly watch a smiling fitzcarraldo and his crew pull over a 340 ton steam ship across a mountain. the director werner herzog didn't want special effects to ruin the most important scene of the movie. instead he wanted a real 340 ton boat moved over a hill and he got what he wanted. only a dreamer himself would have ever dreamed of making a film on fitzcarraldo and the dreamer happened to be werner herzog. " I live my life or end my life with this film" is the first statement made by him when he announced this film.
indeed " It is only the dreamers who move mountains"...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Coming Soon.
1. Legend Of The Guardians.
Snyder man is back in action. Zack snyder the visionary director who gave us 300 and watchmen is back with yet another action filled, blood spilling flick. this time around the only change being the action take's place in mid air and humans are substituted by owls. don't be dissapointed the man with the most stylish ultra slow motion sequences has retained his style for this epic on the battle between owl's. the ost by 30 second's to mars the us based band headed by jared leto ( remember, the harry goldfarb from requiem for a dream) is being regarded as their best so far since their formation in 2007. though snyder dissapointed a bit with his visual adaptation of watchmen. the man's back with vengeance and as mel gibson puts it in his recent edge of darkness " few can escape justice but none can escape vengeance ".
2. Robinhood.
Two old men who seem to be getting it all right in their prime are clint eastwood and ridley scott. both of them have delivered their best cinema well after their sixties now, that is why they store alcohol. the older the better. here comes the sad part east wood has been respected and showered with four oscars but the latter has only been respected. the oscar's been a bit harsh with him. but the 75 year old thespian is at it again. and this time it is robinhood. the title played by russel crowe. probably the only other highly successful pair after scorcese and de niro/ de caprio. the trailer looks promising. experience has taught me not to trust trailers. but, this surely is the most awaited summer release.
3. Kick ass.
I cant read your mind but i can kick your ass. mathew vaughan the money machine behind snatch and lock stock is back to his first love with kick ass. after kick ass was written off by studios for it's disturbing content vaughan decided to do it on his own. no amount of all our superheroes put together equals kick ass. because kick ass is nothing like any other super hero movie out there. this guy's sick, this guy's stupid and this guy's hell lot of fun. all of you out there shut up and kick ass...
Snyder man is back in action. Zack snyder the visionary director who gave us 300 and watchmen is back with yet another action filled, blood spilling flick. this time around the only change being the action take's place in mid air and humans are substituted by owls. don't be dissapointed the man with the most stylish ultra slow motion sequences has retained his style for this epic on the battle between owl's. the ost by 30 second's to mars the us based band headed by jared leto ( remember, the harry goldfarb from requiem for a dream) is being regarded as their best so far since their formation in 2007. though snyder dissapointed a bit with his visual adaptation of watchmen. the man's back with vengeance and as mel gibson puts it in his recent edge of darkness " few can escape justice but none can escape vengeance ".
2. Robinhood.
Two old men who seem to be getting it all right in their prime are clint eastwood and ridley scott. both of them have delivered their best cinema well after their sixties now, that is why they store alcohol. the older the better. here comes the sad part east wood has been respected and showered with four oscars but the latter has only been respected. the oscar's been a bit harsh with him. but the 75 year old thespian is at it again. and this time it is robinhood. the title played by russel crowe. probably the only other highly successful pair after scorcese and de niro/ de caprio. the trailer looks promising. experience has taught me not to trust trailers. but, this surely is the most awaited summer release.
3. Kick ass.
I cant read your mind but i can kick your ass. mathew vaughan the money machine behind snatch and lock stock is back to his first love with kick ass. after kick ass was written off by studios for it's disturbing content vaughan decided to do it on his own. no amount of all our superheroes put together equals kick ass. because kick ass is nothing like any other super hero movie out there. this guy's sick, this guy's stupid and this guy's hell lot of fun. all of you out there shut up and kick ass...
The other Ray
This guy is not to be mistaken with our own creative genius satyajit ray. now, who would that be? the answer my friend is nicholas ray. i would bet my freshly bought logitech speakers which made me poorer by 1600 buck's that none of you out there who would eventually find some time to read this would have heard of him. even, i wouldn't have got to know about this largely unknown brilliant film maker if ashok had died in a plane crash few days ago.
" in a lonely place " the film which got ray the cult status and placed him in the A league along with the likes of billy wilder and orson welles follows closely the life of a hollywood screen writer. what started as any other hollywood production began shaping up itself as a classic with the brilliance of ray oozing out through his pen. " I was born when she kissed me, died when she left me, and lived when she loved me".
In a lonely place was followed by films like johnny guitar, rebel without a cause and bigger than life. people back then found ray's cinema modernistic and this would later on be cited as one of the most prominent reason for the commercial failure and critical success of ray's cinema. with his modernistic approach and expressionistic use of colours ray has been an influential filmmakers and this was revealed in recent years by the likes of scorcese that his use of colours to present the shade of the character delights him to this day.
Celebrated german film maker wim wenders who claims " I am the biggest fan of nicholas ray" dead or alive, paid his homage to ray by naming his sci-fi thriller " until the end of the world " which are claimed to be the last words spoken by ray.
" There was poetry, theatre, dance, painting, music and henceforth there is cinema. and the cinema is nicholas ray"........
" in a lonely place " the film which got ray the cult status and placed him in the A league along with the likes of billy wilder and orson welles follows closely the life of a hollywood screen writer. what started as any other hollywood production began shaping up itself as a classic with the brilliance of ray oozing out through his pen. " I was born when she kissed me, died when she left me, and lived when she loved me".
In a lonely place was followed by films like johnny guitar, rebel without a cause and bigger than life. people back then found ray's cinema modernistic and this would later on be cited as one of the most prominent reason for the commercial failure and critical success of ray's cinema. with his modernistic approach and expressionistic use of colours ray has been an influential filmmakers and this was revealed in recent years by the likes of scorcese that his use of colours to present the shade of the character delights him to this day.
Celebrated german film maker wim wenders who claims " I am the biggest fan of nicholas ray" dead or alive, paid his homage to ray by naming his sci-fi thriller " until the end of the world " which are claimed to be the last words spoken by ray.
" There was poetry, theatre, dance, painting, music and henceforth there is cinema. and the cinema is nicholas ray"........
Madiba.
People say there was a jesus between 5 bc- 30 ad, there was a krishna, there was a rama. some beleive they exist and some dont. i say there was and there is a nelson rolihlahla mandela a physical equivalent of all the three entities mentioned earlier. i was taught in my sixth standard by my then social studies madam ragha latha that mandela served 27 summers in a prison. that was my first brush with mandela and i reproduced the same in the unit test bit paper, and it ended there. until yesterday evening when i was taught a complete new lesson by clint eastwood through " invictus".
the film starts with the footage of mandela walking out of prison in robben island and we listen to a news reporter announcing " there comes mandela a free man now". the film follows closely not mandela as a person but mandela as a president. there's this scene in the movie where one of the security personnel of mandela objects his decision to recruit white people as his bodygaurds only to hear mandela say " when people outside see me they also see my bodyguards and when they see people of my own clan protecting me they might develop this false notion that i may do the same and i don't want that to happen". this brilliant scene roots the character of mandela and all through the film you just cant stop admiring him. very few people stand their ground and fight when the need arises and a very few of them like mandela succeed.
A day before the crunch final between south africa and the all blacks kiwis in the 1995 rugby world cup. the south african captain visits the prison which imprisoned mandela for better part of his life. minutes before the match we see him gazing blankly through his window. he turns towards his wife and tells her " i was thinking about how you spend thirty years in a tiny cell and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there". i've been waiting for a scene like this. the kind of scene which makes you celebrate your very existence.
" I thank whatever gods maybe for my unconquerable soul, i am the master of my fate, i am the captain of my soul ".....
the film starts with the footage of mandela walking out of prison in robben island and we listen to a news reporter announcing " there comes mandela a free man now". the film follows closely not mandela as a person but mandela as a president. there's this scene in the movie where one of the security personnel of mandela objects his decision to recruit white people as his bodygaurds only to hear mandela say " when people outside see me they also see my bodyguards and when they see people of my own clan protecting me they might develop this false notion that i may do the same and i don't want that to happen". this brilliant scene roots the character of mandela and all through the film you just cant stop admiring him. very few people stand their ground and fight when the need arises and a very few of them like mandela succeed.
A day before the crunch final between south africa and the all blacks kiwis in the 1995 rugby world cup. the south african captain visits the prison which imprisoned mandela for better part of his life. minutes before the match we see him gazing blankly through his window. he turns towards his wife and tells her " i was thinking about how you spend thirty years in a tiny cell and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there". i've been waiting for a scene like this. the kind of scene which makes you celebrate your very existence.
" I thank whatever gods maybe for my unconquerable soul, i am the master of my fate, i am the captain of my soul ".....
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Ray
I sit down to write this after watching pather panchali on my pc in the cozy interiors of my room.
when i first saw satyagit rays "pather panchali" the indian equivalent of orson welles american " citize kane" and akira kurasowas japanese masterpiece " seven samurai" i found it to be a unattractive and boring piece of cinema. this was 6 years ago when cinema to me was just another way of living through time. but, now six years down the lane i find it beautiful, enchanting and not to be forgotten engrossing.
after having read this book " the life and work of ray" a book which changed my very perspective and view on cinema i had the apu trilogy delivered to me of the net. being a cinephile i feel it's my responsibility to enlighten my fellow cinephiles about this work of art called " the apu trilogy". being an artist himself ray drew every single scene on a scribbling pad before actually shooting it and in the process giving rise to this new technique which would later on be followed by the likes of martin scorcese. it took ray more than one indian summer to finalise the casting. pather panchali broke every written and unwritten rule of conventional film making. the character indir played by an eighty three year old and a former theatre artist turned prostitute chunibala devi has been interpreted by gilbert adair in his book on ray as a performance which deserved an oscar had it not been an indian film. the thing which puzzles most of the critics and followers of ray is ray has actually stopped the shooting for a year because the narration in the film advances by a year and to show the slight changes in their age and habits he has done this. some say it's "over obsession" and some "pure genius" and i call it " passion".
it may not be a worty enough piece to describe ray. but this is my small token of gratitude to the first indian to have grabbed the oscar.
when i first saw satyagit rays "pather panchali" the indian equivalent of orson welles american " citize kane" and akira kurasowas japanese masterpiece " seven samurai" i found it to be a unattractive and boring piece of cinema. this was 6 years ago when cinema to me was just another way of living through time. but, now six years down the lane i find it beautiful, enchanting and not to be forgotten engrossing.
after having read this book " the life and work of ray" a book which changed my very perspective and view on cinema i had the apu trilogy delivered to me of the net. being a cinephile i feel it's my responsibility to enlighten my fellow cinephiles about this work of art called " the apu trilogy". being an artist himself ray drew every single scene on a scribbling pad before actually shooting it and in the process giving rise to this new technique which would later on be followed by the likes of martin scorcese. it took ray more than one indian summer to finalise the casting. pather panchali broke every written and unwritten rule of conventional film making. the character indir played by an eighty three year old and a former theatre artist turned prostitute chunibala devi has been interpreted by gilbert adair in his book on ray as a performance which deserved an oscar had it not been an indian film. the thing which puzzles most of the critics and followers of ray is ray has actually stopped the shooting for a year because the narration in the film advances by a year and to show the slight changes in their age and habits he has done this. some say it's "over obsession" and some "pure genius" and i call it " passion".
it may not be a worty enough piece to describe ray. but this is my small token of gratitude to the first indian to have grabbed the oscar.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
A day in the life.
my life's driven by hope. hope that the day i am living in would be a bit less harsh than the previous one. today has been no less different. i stepped out after a forced bowel movement in my bathroom ( only smokers living with their parents would understand this) listening to a new track of god is an astronaut by the end of which i find my self hanging on the side of a seven seater which would take me to jntu. the place i live in is the last place on planet earth that a 20 year old would like to imagine himself living in. sometimes this place reminds me of m.night shyamalans village. 5 minutes in a seven seater and you are transported to an entire new world bubbling with people and energy unlike the place where i live. i get down at jntu and without my knowledge my feet start advancing towards the nearest place that sell cigarettes. as i sit there fixing myself a smoke thoughts invade my brain just then i chance upon a poster of gautham menon's latest offering " ye maaya chesava " and this lightens me up. saw the movie twice and believe me i am game for an other viewing. scenes from the movie overshadow the thoughts previously invading my brain and the very first one being post interval scene in kerala where the protagonist meets his lady love in her house. suddenly energised by the thought that this could happen to me in near future. i look around and find this ape beside me talking over a phone. the ape caught me staring and to justify my stare i ask him the time only to find myself half an hour past my regular routine. i thank the ape and rush to my stop.
comfortably in the bus i look around and see people. some of them i recognise. every time i get on a bus i tell myself a stupid line written by me " life's a bus journey new people get in and the old ones get down at every stage" stupid line though it has some sense. once in secunderabad i got down and made my way to the stop. pavan has already got there and offered me his cigarette when he saw me. smokers share this special something. i use the word something because relationship would sound a bit heavy and i cant get myself to think of any other word that would define a relation. got it affinity would have sounded good but it's up to you fill that something with a word of your choice. coming back to the smokers thing it feels good when someone offers you a cigarette it instills a sense of brotherhood in the person offering and the one receiving. just when i was about to take the first puff the bus with a board titled snist arrives i take a deep drag and was preparing myself to take an other. but the bastard snatches it away takes a deeper drag and crushes it under his feet.
with the apron on i look at myself in the mirror. a friend of mine walks in and tells me i look like an astronaut. god is an astronaut i tell him. i stepped inside the lab and i can see worried faces all around some sad, some puzzled. vikas comes over to me going by the look on his face i knew he was going to shock me even before he opened his mouth. as expected he told me the news phani girish and pavan kumar died in an accident 5 minutes away from our college.
the stupid line of mine makes sense now " life's a bus journey new people get in and the old one's get down at every stage".......
comfortably in the bus i look around and see people. some of them i recognise. every time i get on a bus i tell myself a stupid line written by me " life's a bus journey new people get in and the old ones get down at every stage" stupid line though it has some sense. once in secunderabad i got down and made my way to the stop. pavan has already got there and offered me his cigarette when he saw me. smokers share this special something. i use the word something because relationship would sound a bit heavy and i cant get myself to think of any other word that would define a relation. got it affinity would have sounded good but it's up to you fill that something with a word of your choice. coming back to the smokers thing it feels good when someone offers you a cigarette it instills a sense of brotherhood in the person offering and the one receiving. just when i was about to take the first puff the bus with a board titled snist arrives i take a deep drag and was preparing myself to take an other. but the bastard snatches it away takes a deeper drag and crushes it under his feet.
with the apron on i look at myself in the mirror. a friend of mine walks in and tells me i look like an astronaut. god is an astronaut i tell him. i stepped inside the lab and i can see worried faces all around some sad, some puzzled. vikas comes over to me going by the look on his face i knew he was going to shock me even before he opened his mouth. as expected he told me the news phani girish and pavan kumar died in an accident 5 minutes away from our college.
the stupid line of mine makes sense now " life's a bus journey new people get in and the old one's get down at every stage".......
Sunday, February 28, 2010
YOU COMPLETE ME
i was all drunk and waited impatiently for the railway gate near my college to open. buses on both the sides and i could smell the stink of royal stag running out of my mouth as i gushed out air with a hand held against my mouth. it was breezy and what would have been a really pleasant evening if not for the 500 odd ml of whisky burning the insides of my body. with a cigarette in my hand to give me company i started looking around and there she was looking straight into my tiny eyes with a dimple on either side of her mouth. i threw the cigarette away and matched her gaze with mine and this continued for a while untill the stupid gates opened and her bus raced past me she looked back from the window and this last look freezed me and the whisky suddenly lost all its power.
she had it all. you name it and she's got it. its been two weeks and every day the scene repeats itself. i never had a girl all for myself and am really inexperienced at doing things like these. by the grace of allah if this staring turns into a relationship which i would bet a million bucks it wouldn't. i've got a wish i would take her out prefarably a rainy evening spend sometime at one of those umpteen places where young couples trip in the company of each other and then when it all boils down to the phrase " dad's calling me and i've got to be at my door step in less than quarter of a hour" i would get down on my knees and utter these words.
YOU COMPLETE ME.......
she had it all. you name it and she's got it. its been two weeks and every day the scene repeats itself. i never had a girl all for myself and am really inexperienced at doing things like these. by the grace of allah if this staring turns into a relationship which i would bet a million bucks it wouldn't. i've got a wish i would take her out prefarably a rainy evening spend sometime at one of those umpteen places where young couples trip in the company of each other and then when it all boils down to the phrase " dad's calling me and i've got to be at my door step in less than quarter of a hour" i would get down on my knees and utter these words.
YOU COMPLETE ME.......
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