18 Comments

1. taxydriver says:

   December 25, 2006 at 6:11 pm

   wait a min.
   is it :
   heroin + weed?? (snake bite and sleepy)
   only weed?? (then u r a fucking kid)

   drugs + movies != masterpieces.

   watched children of the corn on drugs and went into depression because of the boredom it caused. It made me question my love for
   movies.

   take mushrooms and watch 2001 and then listen to doors ‘the end’ and then tell me if you are not reborn again.

   slightly edited version of my rant here while coming down:

   kubrick..you r a genius..
   polanski i love you…

   whoever made mac..know what the fuck they are doing..

   What is the relationship between a mother and child.
   is mothers love overated? What about the CNN?? abcnews?? story the day about this woman who smothered her 2 yr old child and then went back to sleep.
   how can a mother kill her child just for disturbing sleep? is it that simple?
   They cant just throw a sensationalist news at us and then hide like ostrich. I am sure it is much complex than that..but readers dont like complexity.
   They do like the graphic details..but those details ironically entertains them.voyerism is the biggest selling feature of the news outlets in america.and my dear friends, thats where michael haneke comes.He makes us watch all we want…that at some point we start hating the director for making us do that.

   Funny games.(5/5). directed by michael haneke.

   You want to see how funny life can be sometimes? and how life is soo un-fucking-fair.

   u c…the hall marks of a great director is being relentness in provoking the audiences…even if it goes against their will. and sometimes people dont understand that kind of emotion ..ie being provoked … and in a desperate attempt to escape from the hell of facing their reality…they try to criticize the director in such an illogical way that they just want to bury him or just plain
   ignore him. Escapist facists! dont get me wrong ..i am a great escapist myself.I escape in to movies..but ..somehow i escape in to such kind of movies..
   where i can see some reality sometimes my own reality. Fuck reality..I just want to see some pure passion..you know what pisses me off?..saying that common indian audience (world audience for that matter) just want to escape from their reality. and it became the single most reason for not experimenting with quality cinema.
   then…what about me? I can escape in to pather panchali more easily than to any crap bollywood or my own andhra/tamil cinema or mainstream hollywood produces.PEOPLE WILL WATCH QUALITY CINEMA! ..wait a min..wtf i am talking abt…I HOPE PEOPLE WATCH QUALITY CINEMA.(btw..i dint tell you: excuse my french and grammar).

   I hate to use the word “foreign”,but, god bless foreign cinema.
   nazi-jew is a person who calls himself moviebuff but hates subtitles.
   pasolini,melville,fellini,truffaut,godard,renoir, bresson, de sica,wong kar wai,
   miang ling, jafar panahi, majidi majidi,kiarostami, pedro,meirelles,kurasawa,ozu,
   kenji, cuaron, suzuki,rosellini,ray,ulrich,bergman, tarkovsky,zertov, menzel,
   milos forman, frizlang,padilha,hsiao-hsien, gillo pontecorvo,pen-ek ratanaruang,chan wook park,kielowski,fassbinder,herzog…..

   I am extermely jealous of any person who is about to discover these great
   directors and at the same time i will be extremly grateful to anyone who can show me some obscure but great cinema.
   I cant even imagine myself if these people didnt make such great movies..
   what makes them great? subject matter? technique??reality??..NO.
   I guess its the passion. somehow you can see the passion with which the director made the movie.just like any other art..and that is exactly why sometimes you cant even explain why u liked the movie.

   That is exactly the reason why (other than my lack of command in any written or spoken languages) i am at loss of words to explain why 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.(advice: Never watch 2001 on a small screen TV with crappy sound.)

   The only way to express the greatness of 2001 is by making another movie.
   but, first, let me try to explain it in words.

   For me, artist is a person who tries to express some kind of emotion through his work.
   anger : do the right thing,battle of algiers,salaam bombay,city of god,weekend, arth satya.
   hopelessness : dr.strangelove
   love,loss,revenge etc : virgin spring,seventh seal, sacrifice,oldboy

   …..so on..

   but..some times when we are alone..thinking kind of metaphysically…we
   experience a kind of fleeting thought ..an emotion..a doubt..question..about our existence,future,past,birth,death etc.

   if a director takes that 5 sec emotion and expands it into a 3 hr experience then ..believe me..its a fucking miracle..how does it feel to have an orgasm for hours long?

   All the directors whom I consider great, always made the same movie.
   They subconciously selected subjects which expressed same kind of feeling or same kind of emotions. ..even quentin tarantino,scorsese,altman,arnovksy,christopher nolan,bergman,kurasawa,shekar kammula,spike lee..they all made the same movie..different stories…but same goal…more or less.
   May be that is called the STAMP of the director.

   Now comes the art of direction.Many people believe that direction is a combination of different arts and in the absence of those arts direction would be meaningless.No. I dont think it is true.Give some respect to direction.
   give me minimalistic acting,music, camera movement and i can still show you a great movie.You want proof?Watch robert bresson ,pasolini,miang ling,hitchcock,tod browing,mike leigh
   I believe direction is not only abt telling a story ..but its like describing your beautiful/horrible dream to someone.You just want to tell others abt how horrified or how peaceful you felt during the dream.but u cant just state your
   emotions ..because the audience cannot feel the same way you felt…so either you
   invent a story or explain your dream in a dramatic way…so that the audience feel the same way as yourself….will the audience get it or dont is a different question.
   so, whats a successful movie? i dont know.whats a failure? when the director has nothing to say.

   Sometimes directors do have something to say..they do have passion..but in the process of making the audience like their child (ie movie) ..they tend to entertain the audience by adding content which dilute or outright hijack the emotions he/she was trying to express….examples : lagaan, black and devdas.
   These filmmakers are like mothers (hypothetical) who are ready with makeup boxes for the child right at the delivery table.they cut the body parts of their own kid ..so that they conform to the standards of society.They make me puke.

   watched babel at union square. a masterpiece.5/5.
   warrior. good one. 3/5
   chicago: 2 excellently choreographed songs.remaining movie ok..3/5.
   ninth gate : i love polanski.Loved the movie except the last 15 min.4/5

   Now coming to criticism.My biggest problem is that..critics make a living out of it. They have to self censor.Roger ebert tiptoes along
   the border line by not disappointing mainstream audience,but still entertaining the indie and foreign film crowd. I learned so many things
   from his reviews.My only gripe is that he wastes his time watching some really stupid movies.My theory is that if you waste time watching a bad movie..you may forever lose that time to watch a really good movie..becoz there is never enough time in ones life to watch all the great movies.may be on the other hand watching a bad movie will make us appreicate good movies much better.

   People stick with non-confrontational reviews and they are fixed on only
   particular critics. A real movie lover can never do that because hes gonna miss masterpieces like this http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/100best.html

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2. meghpant says:

   December 25, 2006 at 9:46 pm

   did not understand anything .. hehehe

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3. Honhaar Goonda says:

   December 26, 2006 at 1:48 am

   finally you have written..! to be honest, i would have thought you would have taken a different angle and a sick angle like you mentioned on the… but yeah, i get the jist. :D

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4. sangeeta says:

   December 26, 2006 at 4:14 am

   too much bad langiage .. actually the post comes across as a rap song :p

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5. Muzzy says:

   December 26, 2006 at 11:15 am

   taxydriver, your is more of post than comment.

   But a different wild and whacky posts.

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6. OM says:

   December 26, 2006 at 12:42 pm

   @ TaxyDriver…… I guess we both are competing here to be the vaguest of all human beings..you beat me here…kudos….

   “only weed?? (then u r a fucking kid)” Can you tone it down brother….

   @Meghpant….It had something to do with the mixed emotions, thoughts that go thru a person’s mind while on drugs…One feels the same way like you were feeling after the article..when one wakes up next morning…

   @ Honhaar….I know man…my original thought was far better than this…but, i was messing it up in my brians…had to write something…what with Oz giving me an ultimatum…lol..kidding

   @ sangeeta….Ewwww rap song….satyanaash ho mera….well tell you what ” I AM A BAD BOY”….

   @ Muzzy…talking to me or taxydriver?…Well i will assume its me…Thank You…lol

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7. striker says:

   December 26, 2006 at 12:52 pm

   OM, just say no brotha.. “just say no”

   both to drugs and bad cinema :D

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8. sangeeta says:

   December 26, 2006 at 1:09 pm

   @ OM – kaisa naam or kaisa kaam >-

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9. OM says:

   December 26, 2006 at 6:53 pm

   @ Striker…Bhai…I dont have to experience death to write about death…i dont have to deliver a baby to write about the pain while delivering a baby….But, yeah got your point bro…Give up on bad cinema….OMG!!! that is a tough ask..lol

   @Sangeeta….OM is an acronym for O…M… damn it…cant reveal…lol

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10. striker says:

    December 26, 2006 at 7:43 pm

    OM is his ‘modus operandi’.. rather.. reverse modus operandi if you will.. Operandi Modus.. OM :D

    ok.. thinking way too much into this.. need a beer

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11. OM says:

    December 26, 2006 at 7:51 pm

    @Striker…Keep Guessing..You have lost your first chance..two more to go…You Have time till IFFLA…the bet is for a Keg….< :-p

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12. oz says:

    December 26, 2006 at 8:27 pm

    - Om, how many beers did you have when you wrote this one? :d

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13. tushar says:

    December 27, 2006 at 6:04 am

    my fav muvyss/stuff on pot:
    orson welles- f for fake
    all tarantino
    clockwork orange
    south park
    iruvar
    taxi driver, no all scorsese
    most of kubrick, guy ritchie, godard, wenders

    shit! did i leave any!!

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14. ricky says:

    December 29, 2006 at 5:27 am

    guys if you ever wanna get “high” on a “movie trip” watch “FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS”, “BLOW”, “REQUIM FOR A DREAM” and “GO”…all four are awesome!!

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15. t! says:

    December 29, 2006 at 7:36 am

    Or, if you ever want to go on a “movie trip” while “high”, try Labrynth, Liquid Sky, Dogs in Space, or The Wizard of Oz. Yeah, they are all old movies, but so is my frame of reference ;)

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16. taxydriver says:

    December 29, 2006 at 8:01 am

    I dont think ‘perfume : the story of a murderer’ is about murder( i guess its a marketing ploy)…because, the story is not only about muder, its about obsession ..a strange obsession that too.

    The kind of obsession which made fizzcaraldo transport a ship over the hill and aguire take his army to amazon jungle and the obsession of werner herzog who made those two impossible movies. the hero in this movie is obsessed with smell.

    Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s mother gives birth to him under a table in a fish market. she cuts the umbelical cord with a dirty knife.He grows up to be one thin ugly motherfucker. His presence make others squirm.he has nothing.but, he has one of the greatest gift in the world..he can smell anything.everything.he can smell money on the other side of the wall.he can smell grass,wood,frogs and its eggs under the water.He lives in the world of smell.but, he cannot smell himself.he has no odour.he sets out to make the perfect perfume so that he can use that to be loved.in that process he makes the god’s perfume..but it cannot be made from non-human substances..???????

    tom tykwer is the director who made franke potente run like a mad woman.it was the only movie i watched 2 times back to back. That movie dosent ask for viewers emotional energy..it is all style and no substance.it is a 80 min music vide and i loved it.
    when i heard that he was making a movie based on the german novel ‘perfume’(translated) by
    patrick suskind, i bought the novel. liked it.

    The problems for adapting the novel are obvious.There is no character to root for.
    The journey seems obvious and there is no suspense.its a quagmire and tragedy.but, i can see why tykwer did this movie..because he saw one scene in his mind…the scene, if done right, would transform the story. The scene which makes us understand grenouille’s obsession and closure to his life.Tykwer did good..provided the audacity and resources the scene require.The climatic scene before the inevitable conclusion..the heart of the movie.

    Ben Wishaw (never heard of him) as grenouille was perfect.its his film all the way.
    dustin hoffman did okay.

    i drew the following truth other than the obvious:
    people are superficial.period. The handkerchief in the air was all that the people want. they would kill to get it.it sums up a lot abt this disgusting society.

    other things:
    obvious references to barry lyndon,shining and clockwork orange.
    tykwer-stamp helicopter shot used.
    would have been perfect if the viewers were given some perfumed postcards for every scene.no kidding.

    verdict : watch it.not a masterpiece but a good one.

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17. tushar says:

    December 29, 2006 at 9:08 am

    ricky, i missed those ones!
    fully agree with you

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18. mAINAK says:

    March 28, 2007 at 9:25 pm

    Taxi Driver….
    It is one of the most interesting comments i have read so far.
    Guess what I found a record (Vinyl) of the soundtrack of 2001 in a thrift store in Silver Lake 2 days back.:)

    I’m really impressed right now!
    But brother BABEL is a masterpiece in pieces…only the JAPAN part is great.
    The scene where the morrocon brothers remember their bond is a very typical filmy thing. Babel should be above such tactics.
    The mexican part is full of shit!

    the whole film seems very contrived. Its too much connection for me…& i’m a huge huge fan of connecting stuff in films…

    Why has ACID dissapeared from California?(LA more specifically)

    BTW our god KUbrik also wanted to make PERFUME & decided not to. It was too much he thought.

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