Monday 31 December 2007

Movies I saw during the weekend after Christmas

Apocalypto

Highly Recommended! I had to watch this film twice in a span of 12 hours. It was that good. Watch it. Sure it contains loads of typical Hollywood cliches, but it's still great.


La Haine

A black and white movie that shows us a day in the life of three young ‘estate’ residents (poor people who live on the city outskirts) in France. Many of these are immigrants who form gangs and riot. They and their families live in tenements with nothing to look forward to except police brutality, making a quick buck, and each other.

The movie is just about O.K – a watchable movie that never really gets boring.

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Movies I saw during the weekend before Christmas

The Barbarian Invasions

Another Denys Arcand movie. This is the second I’ve seen after Jesus of Montreal. This guy loves the realistic style. His movies portray real life, with all their complexities. His characters are never good or bad. They are simple people, confused, making mistakes, etc. I did not enjoy this film as much as ‘Jesus…’, probably because ‘Jesus…’ had a lot more humour and metaphorical content. But yes, this certainly is an interesting story.

The movie is about a group of people who rally around a dying man. A man who cheated on his wife, and chose a life of pleasure, an intellectual who lived life to the fullest (according to him), who followed many a new philosophy that changed the world when he was young, etc, is now dying. His son is perfect – materialist and rich - but cannot relate to him. But he has to get closure. He has his father’s friends come down during his fathers’ last days. He even pays his father’s ex-students to come visit him in the hospital. He gets drugs for his father and, in the end, helps him kill himself. An interesting story, even if you do not agree with the morality of the characters.

How I killed my father

A very intense film, deliberately slow. The movie is about a very successful married man who’s father comes back after years abroad. He is unsure how to deal with his father’s presence; he starts to get paranoid of it, even getting jealous of the time his wife spends with him, eventually exploding. An interesting movie to watch.

The Soul Keeper

Good story. Incomplete execution. The true story of one of the world’s first female psychoanalysts. But an incomplete story that leaves you wanting more. I did enjoy the continuous flashbacks but was not sure why such large gaps existed in the storytelling. The main character’s story seems to fast forward too quickly at two particular points in the movie. The first is when she gets cured and is released. The second is when she starts a family and moves to Moscow. This movie could have been deeper…Most of the movie simply consists of the character’s relationship with Jung. It would have made a great movie but is only an average product as it is. O.K for viewing if curious about the real-life Sabina Spielrein.

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Friday 28 September 2007

Thoughts

Sunday Sept 23rd - was thinking about something - letting my mind flow -

One - analysing why we don't help strangers - why do we feel icky when helping strangers/ volunteering - we don't mind giving money - that's easy - but lifting a hand is too hard. What if a friend of mine had a problem - say AIDS - I wouldn't hesitate to help him/her out - so why don't we do the same for strangers, be it a simple task, forget AIDS - strange - what separates our friends from strangers - the people in mumbai who ignore others crying out for help and don't help them - they have firends whom they help out regularly - so why not strangers? - interesting - is there a part of our brain that controls this - is it psychological rather than neurological? - nature vs. nurture?

Two - Orkut - some people have a close network of friends whom they talk to regularly - others have a large network of acquaintances whom they know just casually - what works out best? - do I really need to send an invite out to someone who I might or might not have greeted and who might or might not have greeted me while we passed each other in a corridor when working at a job I hated 4 years ago and who might not even remember my name and hardly care one way or another? - need to analyse this further...

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Saturday 22 September 2007

Book Review - The Picture of Dorian Gray

A young man, beautiful and charming beyond measure, innocent and unconscious of his own beauty and the effect it has on people. He meets a man, Lord Henry, who makes him aware of his physicality and especially - its short shelf live. This opens up a new world to him. He fears aging. He fears losing his 'good looks'. He wishes that he could stay young forever while his painting ages in his place.

His wish is granted.

With the gift of youth, he embarks on a life of hedonism, and selfish pleasure. He knows that people get hurt because of him. He doesn't care; even if he does, he tries to drown out these memories, and the parts he played in them, with even more pleasure seeking. All this while, his painting not only bears the brunt of age but the brunt of his sins as well. It becomes, in effect, the conscience, the soul, that he lost a long time ago.

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