Films that I began 2009 with….
It’s been over a month since I saw what’s happening here. Moving from one place for good to another took quite quite a lot of my time. Still haven’t yet settled myself so to say. Closing some chapters, opening new ones, finding my groove….
Yet, time and again one thing that I had to do was watch some films. Somehow whatever the situation was then, beyond a point, just catching up on a movie made me come out that zone I was in. It was good but somehow always whatever I felt for those stories just kind of took off with the film as soon as it ended. I had to get back to sorting stuff and tying loose ends before leaving. Hence whatever films I saw then I’d have to be seeing them again sometime soon once I back into my accord. Hopefully.
Came December such. December end, moved on. Am here now. Mentally not yet. But then the Pune International Film Fest wasn’t going wait for my disposition. The fest began on the 8th of Jan. And I had to give in.
I’ll put down what I watched. May be why I watched these. And what happened then. (These are at random, just the way it happened.)
Entre les murs (The Class): My first film of the fest. Much has already been written and discussed about the story and the
Palm d’Or. I went into the hall with a little trepidation – resultant of reading a lot and wondering if my expectations were rightly placed.
2 hours later I wanted a replay.
The Class is not a film. A film has a story – a defined plot, twists and turns, a climax and an end. But here the content is derived purely from the interactions between a French teacher and his students. Just within the four walls of this particular class.
A session begins with a particular subject to be taken up. From then on, it’s an open field. An explanation leads to a question. The answer leads to another question. Or a meaning of a word. Or an idea. Or a debate. All this not necessarily directly related to the main topic at hand but nevertheless vital in understanding the psyche of each student. And of the teacher.
What drew me in completely was the manner in which the teacher (Francios Begaudeau playing himself, superb) tried to answer every question, every challenge and also how 15 year olds of diverse backgrounds can actually come up with those thoughts in class. Learning is not just limited to what is written on the blackboard or the text book. It is two way – for the students and for the teacher.
Most of the film is what happens in this class. From the dynamics here emerge the different characters of the ‘story’ (for the lack of a better word right now), each one’s behavioural characteristics and reasons for the same. The teacher’s too. Here what I loved was the role of the teacher. It’s not the conventional ‘forcing the lessons into your head’ but letting the student imbibe it in his / her own way but within the boundaries defined by him.
More than 100 minutes of the 128 minutes of the film is in this class. A few times on the playground, a few times in the staffroom. What the teachers’ challenges are and how they tackle these.
Usually the characters are defined, their stories. The dynamics usually is then expected. But ‘The Class’ creates the story from the dynamics. Just the way it should be. This is what I loved about the film. I’m pretty sure that I could have missed out on other facets. I’ll be definitely watching it again. Do watch it atleast once. It’s a very original take on, what else, but the classroom.
Uc Maymun (Three Monkeys): Its grey, its slow, its frustrating at times. It has hardly got any interactions among the
characters. The proverbial three monkeys are at play here. Not quite actually I felt. But then that’s what makes the story. The film.
Father. Mother. Teenage son. The 3 leads.
Father is the ever-dependable driver for a local politician. The remise – The politician accidentally kills one and prods the father to take the blame and jail term. Willingly he goes to jail with a promise of a lumpsum to his family at the end of the term.
What happens thereon makes the rest of the watch. Not much said and not much given to the viewer either. I had to fit in bits and pieces and then derive my conclusions about what’s happening. Short sentences for conversation, silences, trying to ask questions but unable to, want answers but will not give. It’s a bit by bit of getting away from the other that causes the family to slowly disintegrate without them actually realizing the brevity of their actions. A dead younger son / brother. Conveyed through dreams and remembrances. Was that the reason for them to move apart? Maybe. Maybe not. Its left to me to understand why, when and how the three isolate themselves from the other. That’s the beauty of this film. I wasn’t just a passive audience here.
Father is back. Lumpsum converted into a car beforehand. Mother requested the politician for the advance. That’s enough for seeds of doubt to be sown. Son finds out. Father does too. But there is just no confrontation. It’s like leaving the other tokill the problem. What it does is gnaws away at the three of them. It’s disturbingly shown.
But then the three monkeys do not have their hands completely covered. Mother at the fag end breaks down to the son. But its already too late. I just have to wait for the finality that had to come. This is one movie that I have to get back to again. Atleast once more. Its beyond the ordinary.
Fatih Akin was the ‘Director in Focus’ at the fest and four of his films were shown. I’ve seen ‘The Edge of Heaven’ before so caught up with the remaining two – Short Sharp Shock’ and ‘Head on’. Left out his documentary ‘Crossing the bridge’.
Head on: Fatih Akin’s film needs no introduction needed. Saw it at the fest because I never got around to seeing it completely ever before. A love story. Passionate, violent, intense, too much love, too much hate, foreseeable destruction of the self, of the other maybe, pure basic need of the other – to feel, to live. These jut come to me when I think of this film. The end isn’t the “oh, damn” sort, but to make a love story about two characters who live according to how they want to is. Two people – wild, free, into bad habits, immorality takes a new definition for them. Care a damn about the world. But love. What meaning does that hold then? For these such. Love then becomes such a strong compelling force then that the two have to, just have to give in. And yet control it. Defy it. Again and again.
I saw this once. Not again in a long time I think. But it’s a must watch. It is.
Short Sharp Shock: A good film. A simple story about three childhood friends and how one incident and its aftermath can change the lives of all of them and the loved ones. Petty break-in thieves, one of them ends up in jail serving a few years there. Once out, he wants to change his life for the better and also his friends’ who still are the partners in crime. Does he succeed in doing so and at what cost? It’s a FA stamp – the manner in which he focuses on the Turkish identity and way of life of his characters. Its present in all of his work but in this film it is blatant. Not a heavy movie but one that can get the viewer in a grey mood after its over. I guess that’s what the film aims for; at one level.
The Yellow House: I wanted to see this film based on the brief that I had read about the story. Based in Algeria, a farmer sets out to get the body of his dead teenage son. What happens en route and how the family deals with this grief is what ‘The Yellow House’ is about. Iranian films are pros narrating beautiful stories in a very minimalist and simple manner. For me, this too falls in that category. It made me want to believe that in times of unfathomable grief, people do help; making one feel that he/she isn’t alone there then. Every one of the strangers the farmer meets en route to getting the body helps him in getting to that place; small gestures that just make the journey so much more easier to bear. He comes back,the family buries the son / brother and the wife buries herself in anguish and sorrow. How the farmer and his eldest daughter then get the mother back from the brink is what follows. The actors who portray the farmer and the daughter are exceptional. So natural. Father with his dignity and humility intact even in his darkest hours. Daughter understanding that she now has to be the support her family needs. Throughout the film, she wears only two outfits and the ones that have some torn patches. It didn’t look deliberately added on but still I found her so beautiful. As a person. As a kid, daughter, sister. The last part is far too simplified but I didn’t care. Because there had to be a way out. Nothing else mattered.
I thought the title doesn’t quite capture what the film was about but now I feel otherwise. It’s a gesture, but one that insinuates the character of the poor farmer and his family and to what length he will go to make his family come together again after losing a boy.
Sanxia haoren (Still Life): Interesting plotline but somehow I got bored. The pace of this Chinese film is slow. Two people, a man and a woman, come to a town near the Yangtze river to look for their respective spouses. She a nurse who hasn’t got a word since two years from her husband who works at a dam at that river. He a menial labourer come in search of his wife years after she abandoned him taking the newly born with her. Both are two different plotlines not connected at all. There is just one strand of connection but even of the viewer doesn’t find it is doesn’t matter at all. What the story does is just plods along with the two leads in their search.
I did get bored with the pace as even though both were making headway still I felt as though it was jut one small step. But what more should I expect I asked myself. Years after waiting, the two have undertaken this journey. Weary to the bone yet wanting to put a full stop to that period of their respective still lives, it had to be a dreary and yet somewhat hopeful passage to the future.
Acting is good, especially the old mid forties construction labourer. A touching film but its not for the regular movie-goer.It takes it time to unravel and needs some patience from the viewer to go along that trip with the leads.
La beuna vida (The good life): No great shakes about the story but still an engaging watch for me. Actually, the one film I wanted to see, Lake Tahoe, got cancelled at the nth moment a few times and I ended up watching this Spanish film. Four plotlines focusing on lost love, loneliness, familial dilemmas, the protagonist of each realize the value of what they’ve got only when they get a taste of what worse could happen. I liked this aspect the most. Usually its either a happy ending or a sad one but one that takes you to the brink of getting you further down and the pulling you back to continue albeit with some gratitude and renewed zest to achieve, that’s a different take.
The divorced doc mom who still has a soft spot for the philandering, good-for-nothing ex hubby and a brittle relation with the prgnant teenage daughter; the cellist who almost makes it to the philharmonic and his frustrations; the dying single mother with a baby, living in penury; and the somewhat deviant fortyish hairdresser still living with his mother all are quite understated in narration.
No heavy doses of melodrama here but still the pain, anger and helplessness come across poignantly. Good one time watch. But I guess that’s because I didn’t go with any expectations.
There are some other films that I saw, many that I missed but this write-up itself is become pretty long to read. I guess I’ll write about the others in the next. I hope this isn’t too tedious.
My first post this year. And I guess I’m the last to wish all a great 2009. And beyond. Its still January so no harm I guess. Happy watching more and more films people. As that’s why we are here.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Saw Three Monkeys yesterday, that too from the front row! So you can imagine the impact. :-)
Have seen all of Akin. Reviewed SSS some time back.
Yet to see the rest. Have read Entres les murs script in parts. Good fun.
i have to watch 3 monkeys
I couldn’t really read ur write up in full, Arthi, as i’d like to watch these films at some point without knowing too much.
I am a bit baffled about ‘Head On’ though.
So many people speak so highly of it and I ordered it some time back.
I haven’t watched it yet, but the film must have a namesake out there, as I doubt I have the same ‘Head On’ that ur refering to.
I’m told about the beauty of relationships in the film, but my ‘Head On’ is a drug fuelled, hedonistic film!
I’ll do a check later.
Not sure which one are you taking about Steve but this is definitely does not portray the beauty of relationships. Its about two, if I may say, really off-the-regular-track people and what love is to them. Its is a roller-coaster ride but a different take than the usual love story…One may not, in all probability, relate to the characters at all but for them its real. Its their truth. That works for the film. Hence so..do give it a try…