The Composer

Life is going through a super fast mode right now with many new things happening daily to my otherwise mundane life. I am liking the changes but sometimes it scares me too.

Anyways, not going too much in my private life, I thought it is high time for a post. I realized recently looking at my last posts that I put up too many serious and boring stuff on my blog which not many people like to read. So, I thought of a more light post.

I have been living in Germany for more than 8 years now. Yes, I am also surprised on myself. But there are many new things I discovered after coming here and I feel good about them. Maybe, living in India with my IT job and stuck in a traffic jam mornings and evenings might not had given me enough time to explore the world, the way I like it. I might have made some money in India like my peers and then booked a Europe trip visiting all the touristy places, clicking cliched pictures at Eiffel Tower or Jungfrau and then posting them on Facebook. I might have never really absorbed the essence of those places, their cultures and their real lifestyle. Anyways, who am I to judge people.

Moving on to the post. Of many new things I explored after coming to Germany, one was the music of Beethoven. Honestly speaking, I had never knew about him living in India though there had been many incidences when I heard his music without knowing the composer and truly liked it. I had been brought up watching cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Popeye, Looney Tunes, Roadrunner etc. Many of these classic cartoons use classical music. Then, there are also many movies which have used classical movies over the years, specially Beethoven. I only got to know about the man behind those compositions after coming to Germany and staying close to Beethoven's birthplace in Bonn. I saw his museum, read about his history, experience his official music with the distinct symphonies he created. I got the opportunity to go and experience an Orchestra playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Opera House in Bonn. It was a mind blowing experience for me.

What is so exceptional about Beethoven or what amazes me about him is that most of his famous work came out when his hearing capabilities were close to none. I mean how can you write music when you cannot hear it. I think this is an achievement in itself and what makes Beethoven so distinct. A movie which comes to my mind instantly when I talk about Beethoven is "Copying Beethoven". Though it is more closer to fiction than the real deal still I found the moving fascinating. I would definitely recommend it.

All this introduction was laid out to share a short video I made last time I attended the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. It was pretty cool to see light, sound and water synchronized to Beethoven's Symphonies being played in the night. It was an open air presentation bang right in the city center at Münsterplatz in front of Beethoven's statue. Here is the video:

P.S: I know the video snippet is more like a teaser but unfortunately I lost the bigger video.        

Movie Confessions contd....

Reading back my last post leaves me disappointed. What a mess ! There were so many things going on in my head that it did not came out as they were supposed to in the post. It was like firing randomly in air or trying to join dots but making a mess of it. Maybe I was high on ice cream. Anyways, I hope the two or three people who read this blog occasionally will ignore it.

Moving on to the current post. Finally, after a long wait, I got the chance this week to see the movie I had been eager to see. I had read about it at many places and even saw the trailer and was dying to see it, maybe because I could relate to it. So, here is a review of the movie. Some of my previous reviews are here, here, here and here.

The Intouchables (Intouchables - France)

The movie is based on a real life story and portrays the relationship between a super rich aristocratic white french man who is completely paralyzed from neck to toe and a poor uneducated unemployed black immigrant from Senegal brought up in France (In real life, the latter was an Algerian). The character of the rich guy, Phillipe is played by Francois Cluzet and that of the black guy, Driss is played by Omar Sy. I must confess that I have seen Francois Cluzet in a couple of other French movies like Little White Lies etc and found him really funny.

The movie starts with Phillipe interviewing for a helper/assistant for his daily activities and Driss is sitting as one of the interviewees sent by the state job department, not particularly looking for a job but just for a signature and a rejection so that he can get state unemployment money. Phillipe hires him for his careless, funny, non pity and don't-give-a-shit kind of attitude. The two characters are completely in contrast to each other but still the way they build a relationship between them is shown magnificently by the directors. Phillipe on one hand is a rich educated businessman with fine taste for art and music and Driss on the other hand is a marijuana smoking, fun loving, easy going and chilled out man who even likes getting massages from Chinese prostitutes. It is beautiful to see how the two characters grow on each other and gain from each others characteristics. It is a very simple and feel good movie with just the perfect dose of comedy which is sometimes slapstick and sometimes ironic. I don't remember when was the last time I laughed so much watching a movie which ended with filling so much warmth in my heart that I was speechless. I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

A similar comedy I remember I saw last time was this Turkish-German movie called Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland which is based on an immigrant Turkish family settled in Germany after the war and the dynamics between the three or four generations within the same family.

I must confess that I have always had good experiences with people from African descent, something which my US settled aunt find tough to believe. I find them particularly witty, full of life and energy, very carefree attitude, quite religious, with a positive zeal for life. I remember a few years back when I as searching an apartment to share in Stuttgart for my internship, I could not find any. With the limited budget, no one was willing to share an apartment with a strange looking guy from India. I searched and searched and searched but without success. Finally, just one day before the joining date, I met a guy from Cameroon offering to share his apartment. I took it without thinking. His name was Valentine. How can you not like a person with that name :) Each evening when he was not working, we used to have dinner together. It was always a laugh riot listening to his stories and way he used to express them. I had a good 6 months stay in Stuttgart at his place. Maybe this was another reason why I could relate more with this film. 

Movie Confessions contd....

It had been quite long since I last wrote a movie review. So, after watching an Italian movie lately, I thought of writing a review for it. Some of my previous reviews are here, here and here.

Facing Windows (La finestra di fronte - Italy)

Don't be content to merely survive.
You must demand ....
.... to live in a better world
.... not just dream about it.

Wise words coming from a wise man! A dialogue from almost the end of the movie. I think it was kind of a punchline for me of the entire movie. I don't really know how to explain my feelings for this movie but I can give an example. Sometimes, when somebody offers you a new kind of sweet to taste, you are not completely able to guess its ingredients. While that sweet melts in your mouth, you feel that you have almost guessed it correctly before actually loosing it again and then it comes back and go again. You are so lost in enjoying the sweet, that the moment you actually try to concentrate on the ingredients you start loosing the taste. So, you come back to the taste and go back again. This movie was such kind of a sweet for me and left me with a similar feeling.

The movie is about a couple (Giovanna, Fillipo) married for nine years with two kids and are living a monotonous life. Giovanna is not happy with her life, where she is making compromises like working as an accountant in a chicken factory to make ends meet. Fillipo works in night shifts at a gas station. Giovanna fantasizes about this guy, Lorenzo, who is a banker living across the street and she occasionally peeps into his apartment through her kitchen window which faces his window. Emine is Giovanna's neighbor and colleague at work who always has pretty amusing comments. One fine day, Giovanna and Fillipo encounter a strange old man on the streets who addresses himself as Simone and seems to have forgotten his memory. They have pity on him and take him home to later hand him over to the police. But the man has a history of his own. He turns out to be a holocaust survivor and has his own love story to tell. While trying to find Simone his home, Giovanna is helped by Lorenzo. Over time, Giovanna develops a strong bonding with Simone and apparently, Simone has some life changing effects on Giovanna. What becomes of Giovanna and Lorenzo? What effect does Simone have on Giovanna? I won't give out much so that this review doesn't becomes a spoiler. But the chemistry between all the characters of the movie is pretty amazing. The background score in the movie was outstanding! I simply loved it :)

The story is simple and straight forward but has its twists and turns which keeps the audience fixed. The human instincts of voyeurism, the goodness in one's self, and taking decisions to make life good for one's self are portrayed quite well in the movie.   

I find the lead actress of the movie, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, really really pretty. I had seen her before in the movie, Love in the time of Cholera. Her closeups are pretty well done in this movie. She looks beautiful with her smile but not so good when she laughs.

Movie Confessions contd....

Sometimes when searching for a good movie to watch over the weekend, one gets lucky to pick the right one from the movie library. It is possible that the world might not have liked those movies but you feel satisfied after watching them. I would like to share two of such movies which I happened to watch just by chance. After writing some review here and here, I thought of writing two more reviews. Incidentally, both are French movies. It might be possible that these movies are not of everyone's taste.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon - France)

Consider yourself seeing the world only with your left eye. More so, consider yourself completely paralyzed from head to toe except your left eye but at the same time your brain is still working fine. I personally feel that this is the epitome of imprisonment. What could be more frustrating than this situation? I am not talking about a hypothetical situation but this is the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of french fashion magazine ELLE. A man leading a flamboyant, self centered lifestyle suffers an attack while driving leaving his complete body paralyzed except his left eye.With not many options left to communicate, he starts communicating by blinking his left eye. The speech therapist sits besides him reciting the french alphabets by order of their frequency in the language and stopping when he blinks. This is how he had written his complete book by the same name and the movie is based on it. The director has done an incredible and impressive task of depicting the whole thing on screen. What captured me the most was the patience of the speech therapist to first teach the guy how and when to blink and then constantly repeating the alphabets again and again and then writing a complete book one alphabet at a time. The movie is beautifully made and a definite recommend from my side.

Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs - France)

If you like life and want to see a slice of it on screen then this is the movie for you. A group of friends and family go on a holiday away from the daily grind even though one of their group member is lying in the hospital battling his life after a severe motorcycle accident. This is not a real life story but the way it is made, I would say that life cannot be more close to it. The acting is very natural to me and the way the story goes on shedding light on different shades of human characteristics made me watch this relatively long movie with complete interest. The story never seemed to slag and always kept up the momentum. It might not be the best of the movies I have seen but it was worth watching it once. If you like watching human behavior very closely and always get amazed how human beings can be so selfish and forgiving at the same time then I am sure you would like this movie. I know another french movie with the same theme but somehow I am not able to recollect its name.

I don't know if anyone even read these reviews. In case there are any readers, do share some good ones which you would like to recommend.

Movie Confessions contd....

In continuation of the foreign film recommendations which I started last time here, I would like to share two more films very close to me.

Let the Right One In (Lat den rätte comma in - Sweden)

I have always been a big fan of vampires or I would say vampire movies since I was a kid. I must have seen too many of them. The recent Twilight series did not really impressed me since it was too mushy and over dramatic for me. I don’t know how did it managed to build up such a fan following. Anyways, I am not here to discuss that but another vampire movie which just blew me off with its simplicity. I like things simple and straight and not beating around the bush to prove your point thus this movie impressed me beyond expectations. It does not have too many characters and is set in the backdrop of Nordic winters, dark and snowy. The two main characters of the movie are the two teenagers, a boy named Oskar and a girl named Eli. The boy is more of a friendless loner living with his mother in a multi apartment building and if often bullied in the school. The girl is a new neighbour who just moved in. The movie beautifully portrays the feelings and emotions of both these characters. They form a bond between them, a strange one though as the girl turns out to have lived as a blood drinker. She eventually even becomes the guy’s saviour from the bullies. Oskar slowly realises who Eli eventually is but never overreacts. His feelings and emotions do not change for Eli and I think this creates a lot of attraction for Eli towards Oskar. The movie does not have a lot of gore but depicts the emotions of both the characters and even go on proving that they can also exist together in harmony. It is the chemistry between both these characters and the events which unfold with them which make me recommend this movie.       

Incendies (Incendies - Canadian, French)

If you like strong and bold movies, movies which leave a mark on you, movies with a substance, then I would highly recommend you this movie. As the movie ended, I went a little numb in my head. I was overwhelmed by emotions of sorrow and grief but quickly that turned into joy and happiness, that this is called a movie. This is how storytelling should actually be, gripping. I felt very content after finishing the movie. So, the movie is about twins, Jeanne and Simon who are asked to go to Middle East as per the will of their dead mother, Nawal Marwan to find their roots and more importantly their father. Simon gets upset listening to the unconventional points mentioned by their mother in the will and refuses to follow all of them. But Jeanne for some reasons leaves alone to find the truth. The movie then starts moving back and forth between the flash back story of Nawal and the journey of Jeanne. Slowly, things start to unfold and there comes one surprise after the other leaving the audience in awe. The director does a great job of always keeping the characters in his control through all the twists and turns, never letting the story out of context. The movie begins as a journey ends up leaving both the characters and its audience a bit shaken. A must see for movie lovers.  

Movie Confessions

I would like to confess that I am a big movie fan, specially b/w Bollywood classics. I watch a lot of movies and not just Hollywood or Bollywood but from a vast variety of foreign films, more like world cinema. Sometimes, I even take the risk of watching movies which are 5 or 6 on the IMDB ratings. My friends tell me that I have too much time on my hands. Actually, I believe that movies can sometimes tell a lot about the time in which it is made, the place, the people, the culture and most importantly the mindset of people. And that intrigues me the most. So, I thought maybe I put up some foreign films of my choice from recent times. I make it a point to watch foreign movies in original version with English subtitles. I believe that the true emotions and feeling of the actor is lost after dubbing a movie. Something like lost in translation. The ones which I can recommend undoubtedly to anyone are:

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen - German)

Many people might have seen and appreciated the movie, Schindler’s List. It narrates the horrors of the Nazi rule and the rescue of many Jews by Oscar Schindler. But what many people might not know about the German history after the Second World War is the creation of a secret police and intelligence agency (state sponsored) commonly called Stasi in the communist East Germany. It was notorious for finding and arresting people who tried to go against the State or even tried to belittle it. The movie is set in those times. A police investigator (superbly played by Ulrich Muhe) is asked to monitor few people, mostly artists and writers who are suspected of plotting and speaking against the State and its apparent abuse of power. The highlight of the movie is this investigator. He looks pretty unemotional and expressionless from the outside throughout the movie but there is a lot going on in his head. Disclosing anything more about the movie might not be a good idea. There should be a surprise factor for the audience which should leave the audience contemplating at the end about the events which unfolded in complete story. The movie left me thinking about the contrasts that exist in humans and there is a constant fight between the right and the wrong.

The Secret in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos - Argentina)

Amongst all languages I have experienced so far listening, I find Spanish one of the most expressive and Italian comes close second. By expressive, I mean that just with the pronunciation and the tone of words, a person who doesnt  know the language can pretty much make out the mood of the conversation. Unlike french, where I feel that it is so polite and mushy that a listener can mistake a guy cursing her girlfriend like he is actually proposing to her. Therefore, I enjoy watching Spanish language movies and I might be even biased for them. More-so because of the bold themes sometimes which they portray where the actors and directors are not afraid trying something new. Coming back to the movie which is also in Spanish language is a suspense thriller in a broad perspective. But ideally, it has a dash of many human emotions like obsession, friendship, unfulfilled love, revenge etc. I find it pretty challenging to write a review of a suspense film without giving out too much but still I would try. I want the reader to actually enjoy the movie and get absorbed in it rather than remembering the things and matching it with the scenes while watching it. So, the movie is about a retired prosecutor, Benjamin who is trying to write a novel about an unsolved case he took in the past which almost blew up his career and life since he developed an obsession around it. It was a case of the rape and murder of a girl. The movie keeps jumping to flashback now and then to give the details of the case he was trying to solve. It beautifully portrays his undisclosed love for Irene to whom he is never able to present his love in words. The audience can clearly see their attraction for each other in their eyes but not communicated otherwise. It also show the unconditional friendship he has with Pablo, who is an alcoholic but a true partner. Ricardo who was the husband of the dead girl is desperate to find the culprit and makes Benjamin promise him that he will catch the murderer. Under some tragic circumstances, Benjamin has to give up on the case and town. But, while writing his novel, he has an urge to meet the widower of the murdered girl who now lives in some village. The movie already goes through a lot of twists and turns but the quite easily predicted end turns into something else. One should see it to feel it. Truly speaking, it left me in shock and for some reasons my heart turned cold and hard and my brain got numbed. Such was the power of the climax. I would give full marks to all the actors who did complete justice to all the characters and would highly recommend this movie. It is definitely a roller coaster ride. I would also confess that I secretly developed a crush on Soledad Villamil who played Irene in the movie :)

I have a couple of more recommendations. Maybe, I will write about them in the next post!

Movie Review: Delly Belly

Last week I saw an interview of Ram Gopal Verma for the promotion of one of his latest movies. He said something which I believe was very true for the current state of Indian Cinema. He said that times are changing. There was a time when movies celebrated their 100 days, then it came down to 50 days, then weeks and now it has come down to a weekend. Now, movies make their major collection on its release date and the following weekend. And to pull the crowd to the cinema one needs to promote an intense shock and awe effect before the release.

This is precisely what I believe Aamir Khan did with Delly Belly. The promos were filled with expletives and even the lyrics of all the songs were not like they would make anyone proud but were enough to create that ripple effect. They say that to actually experience the difference between good and bad you actually need to see and experience the bad. This was more a reason for me to see the movie. I actually like Aamir Khan movies but frankly speaking this one was not for me and it left me in bad taste.

Of course this movie belongs to a genre where the story is not important. But still, the first part of the movie did not even made me laugh. There was hardly anything funny. The movie took a long time to build its base. There were some funny situations in the second part but still it was not really up to the mark. If someone claims the humor in the movie to be slapstick then I would say that even that was not done efficiently to create a laugh.Vijay Raaz did create some comic sequences and I think was the only funny guy in the movie. But otherwise, the movie was a damp squib.

I already see a big fan following for the film but I am not surprised to see most of its fans from a pool of youngsters who use the F word more like an exclamation mark in a sentence than anything else. And if only hearing people swearing words in every sentence gives a kick to such youngsters then why to spend money to watch a movie? They can simply go and stand outside any desi theka or wine shop and hear and watch much more amusing stuff than the movie !

Cannes 2011

Cannes Film Festival, arguably one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. All the big shots of world cinema attend it with much fanfare. The jury list each year consists of the most sought after people. From the most bizarre to the most entertaining films from around the globe are premiered. The tabloids overflow with photos from the red carpet to the award ceremonies to the after-parties.

Over the years, admirable film makers and actors from the Indian film industry like Shekhar Kapur, Nandita Das, Mira Nair, Mrinal Sen etc have been selected in the Jury list of this film festival. I have always wondered why there are almost zero Indian movies at this festival taking into account the record breaking numbers of films rolling out from the Indian film industry each year.

Of course Freida Pinto was seen there since she is the latest Indian muse in Hollywood. As a side note, personally it was shocking for me to see her as the face of Loreal since I always had her memories from Slumdog Millionaire, where she appeared not too good looking (at least to me). Maybe this was the target of Loreal to show the world how their makeup can make a below average looking girl into a diva. I can also understand for Aishwarya Rai to appear at Cannes since she had been a Jury once (long time back) but I really wonder under what makes Sonam Kapoor and Minissha Lamba appear there (given the films both have done so far). Now, it was still tolerable to see photos of FP, AR, SK, ML in the tabloids. But a Tsunami came and broke all my tolerance barriers when I saw that horse teeth Mallika Sherawat. And to my utter disbelief, when I saw her photos with Rober De Niro, Sean Penn, Jodie Foster etc, my brain stopped working and prompted me to write a post. I mean what in the world out of all the talented Indian actresses is "she" doing there ??? Here photos with these actors were like a 5th grader's art work kept next to Michelangelo's work at Louvre. Or even like a "bhoond/Maruta" (country-made vehicle to carry people in villages, particularly in Punjab/Haryana region) along side a BMW 7 series. I mean what are her credentials relating to cinema ??  A kitty full of flops ?? If breaking the records of on screen kisses in an Indian movie count as a credential then yes, sure she has surely made her mark there. Otherwise, the only other memory of her for me was that she was in news for a movie with Jackie Chan and some snake movie lately. I would agree to see Nagin/Nagina (starring Sridevi) again any day but there is hardly anything one can bribe me with, to watch Hisss. After seeing the promos, trust me, I have seen better computer graphics from a new computer science engineering graduate in India than what I saw in the promos. And I think, I must refrain myself from talking anything about her acting skills. It will be an insult to the actors of my town’s local Ramlila performed each year. So my question still remains still unanswered that what was MS doing at Cannes ?? Is there anyone who can give a valid answer ??