THE KINGS OF SUMMER (2013)

“We do swear, under pain of friendship lost, to never speak of this enterprise to any adult, and to never betray its location or its participants, and from this day forthwith to boil our own water, kill our own food, build our own shelter and be our own men.”

Three boys ran away from their parental home and went to woods to explore their own freedom, their own rules and regulations about life. Nature is indifferent and so is human nature too, since betrayal and heart break plays unlikely game in the journey. It’s not so that we haven’t seen any coming of age story told with touch of youthful charm, innocence, joy, freedom and visual splendor of natural landscape. ‘The Kings of Summer’ has all that same American baggage of troubled domestic affair that runs between the rebel teen world and adult parents’ dominance and other emotional cliché of teen film.  The film has shades of ‘Into the Woods’ and yet it’s different one in its tone which is refreshingly youth centric, hilarious and heartwarming one than the contemplative former one inspired by Thoreau’s ‘Walden’. The film has cool soundtrack and yes, all three teens really played their age so well, especially the tiny, strange and yet contemplating boy who played Biaggio.

So far a fine and decent indie entertainer of this year.   

BEND OF THE RIVER (1952)

For the generation of western filmmakers, the films made by Anthony Mann in 1950s are stepping stones for introducing the psychological tension and unseen touch of overt violence. Ford is surely the father of this purely American genre but it’s Mann who acquainted us the different taste of dark, noirish, intense and gritty western and added a wide gamut of sensibilities, contradictory characters and conflict. Mann’s films probe the human psyche’s obsessions and latent desires in startlingly adventurous and even disturbing ways. Scorsese has singled out Mann as a primary influence on his cinematic world view and stylistics. Among those brilliant five westerns he made in 50s starring James Stewart.  ‘Bend of the River’ is the second film of that sparkling combination shot in Technicolor.

It was an ambitious western of Mann where a stagecoach of farmers with grub stock headed by a stranger cowboy named Glyn. Mann shot the film on real and tough locations and the whole journey part was shot so brilliantly. But what’s more arduous for the journey part of the stagecoach is not crossing the river or that hilly region but human vices. The wagons full of stock get more money than the imagination and there lurks the danger. Scarcity of food gave birth to greed for money and scheming. Vices such as envy, treachery runs in abundance. The earlier part seems more like Ford’s ideal world; it’s the later half that’s surprising one. Its here the film settles a gritty tone of Mann’s forte where human vice keeps shifting sides in dual faces of characters. Decided settlement or gold camp, greed or need, winning the sincere trust or aim for the big bounty…throughout the film the ambivalent stands keep shifting sides of men here.

The screen camaraderie between Arthur Kennedy and Stewart is a thing to watch especially their rivalry to save each others lives a number of times in entire film. Mann kept the ambivalent stand about hidden identity of both of these men. From their very first encounter we feel it. A few director managed to capture both beauty and thrill of hills like Mann in his westerns. Lovely Julie Adams is surely an added attraction in this genre of male bastion. The gripping climax at the bend of the river shows Mann’s commitment to his cinema where load full of horses and wagons crossing river and shooting rifles. Mann surely made better westerns throughout the decade but this is special since it began that spark.

Ratings-7/10 

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955)

Another outstanding western made by Anthony Mann and I wonder why this man so brilliant in his forte of westerns started making epic films like ‘El Cid’ & ‘The Fall of Roman Empire’. Jimmy Stewart and Mann’s combination is something as sparkling on screen as Ford and John Wayne and Leone and Clint Eastwood. On one hand Stewart kept playing those self doubting Hitchcock heroes and on the other hand he kept playing those angst ridden cowboys in Mann films. Stewart is undoubtedly Hollywood actor to watch in that golden period.

The plot here is bit noirish, setting tone for 70s Michael Caine starrer ‘Get Carter’, as Stewart trailing the man responsible for his brother’s death and while setting his feet on the town, embroiled in King Lear like family struggle of a aging and turning blind cattle baron. His blood son is sadist weakling and the other reliable one turns out as rebel by resentment and involves in dirty deal of selling guns to Apaches. The film is again taut, bit tragic, bit sentimental and memorable for shining performances of the cast. Surely all of them were Mann’s gifted talent including filming of those real landscape and mounting location as ambivalent and dangerous as extreme psychological states of the characters.

Classic western.

Ratings-8/10 

THE NAKED SPUR (1953)

Anthony Mann made some of the remarkable westerns starring James Stewart in 1950s and this one is truly classic masterpiece. An embittered bounty hunter with his hysterical and disturbing past hunting for a wanted man in territory. Along the trail he encountered two men and made them partners. He successfully caught his man with his dame. Troubles start lurking at every nook and corner with slightest miss and the journey is arduous with wilderness runs in men and nature.

What makes this an exceptional film is its taut script, superb pace and finely acted with brilliantly explored tension between all four male characters with vulnerable bait of a female. Stewart is once again a man to watch along with Robert Ryan as sardonic baddy Ben. Mann’s camera captured the fine mountain scenic beauty in color juxtaposing the nature with characters’ inner turmoil. Many parts of the film remind me another brilliant western of that era staring Bogart.

Ratings-8/10 

THUNDER ROAD (1958)

Not as dramatic as ‘Out of the Past’ and not as gritty as ‘Cape Fear’, this Robert Mitchum film has adventure, drama, thrill and romance on platter with the man to watch. It’s queer to know that Mitchum penned the screenplay based on one of real incident and the film was his home production. However Mitchum hired Arthur Ripley to direct and its interesting that his younger brother in the film played by his son James Mitchum was not original choice. Senior Mitchum wanted to have Elvis Priestly play the role but somehow things didn’t materialize due to Rock & Roll Master’s manager’s interruption for charging exorbitant sum.

The plot of the film revolves around the trade of hauling illegal non-tax paid whisky by men of Rillow valley. Luke Doolin is fast wheel transporter and smart supplier who manages to cut all hurdles. But sooner the trailing enforcement cops becomes a challenge with interruptive threat of an organized criminal named Kogan who gutted to mean business on his own terms. Luke is the one person who stands in the way and Kogan and  the ground becomes all too rough for Luke. We all await for final confrontation till the story takes different turn. Besides producing, writing the film, Mitchum has also played the lead part and the man had class of his own. His character here is hard headed & edgy on attitude who’s unstoppable by anybody. But it also shows emotional and concerning human side too, especially towards his young brother, parents and beloved. The car chase sequences seems too average from today’s standard but back then it was surely considered as edge n the seat.

Not the best of Mitchum but surely a worth watch for all his fans.

Ratings-6/10 

SAMURAI SPY (Japanese) (1965)

At the end of sixteenth century, the end of war gave birth to the cold war of espionage rivalry between two main clans named Tokugawa and Toyotomi. The ronins became spy agents of various clans’ spy network. A ronin named Sasuke belongs to neutral clan suddenly caught between political power espionage between two clans. He’s drawn into the espionage affair by another spy selling information on both sides to earn bounty and now he’s in trap followed by murders.

Betrayal, multiple double crosses, intrigue, unrest of power ans suspense keep baffling the screen till last frame in Masahiro Shinoda’s this samurai espionage. It’s hard to decide motives of anybody as a friend or enemy. Breaking traditional samurai plot and narration Shinoda brought to screen avant garde elements with stylistically cryptic framing and composition with props of lighting, fog, slow motion and innovative wide and high angles to watch in samurai cinema genre.   

Ratings-7/10 

KILL! (Japanese) (1968)

An intriguing and entertaining Samurai film to watch where bullets and swords, loyalty and betrayal run parallel to dynamic plot. Two wandering strangers arrive in a town seeking food and encounter a dispute between two clans. It’s odd pair of samurai, where one is disillusioned samurai with a past, the other is wannabe noble samurai. Their constant sweeping of sides between two rebel clans keeps the film in an interesting flow. The film has violent and brutal sword action but it’s not out and out samurai action. Along with edgy action, quirky humor go hand by hand throughout the film. And yes, it has interesting characters to watch further.

The film bears so much resemblance between Leone’s ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. The title score and background of Masuro Sato sounds so much like Morricone, its opening wide shot where a stranger ronin facing lonely town amid wild storm seeking food encounters another weird samurai also seems like a scene of Leone film. The film also bears so much resemblance to Kurosawa’s ‘Sanjuro’ and it mocks the status of Samurai by making him lurking between ridiculous idiot and smart ass. Like Mifune’s interesting queer characters in ‘Yojimbo’ and ‘Sanjuro’, Tatsuya Nakadai's Gento is a smart ass samurai to watch. Kihachi Okamoto playfully pulled the genre and source borrowed from elements of conventional samurai cinema and Italian Spaghetti westerns and it almost gave me combined pleasure of western meets samurai.

Ratings- 7.5/10 

GOYOKIN (Japanese) (1969)

Many times I find transferred reflections of two separate genres coalesce into one that made us wonder which genre influences which! ‘Western’ and ‘Samurai’ cinema is a case study in this regard. My first Hideo Gosha film so distinctly reflects this- the horses, the revenge, the return of hero, duel fight, Morricone kind of background score and a loner protagonist. And along with all this, as per its title (Goyokin: official silver and gold) it portrays the theme of greed for gold, quite a set-up for many of westerns. Infact, as per Wikipedia, in 1975, a western titled ‘The Master Gunfighter’ is influenced from this film.

It’s hypnotic and intriguing to watch crows in the opening ten minutes of the film that reminds you Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’. A young lady returns to her village home, a shack on lone island and witness severed head of his father. Tatsuya Nakadai is a reclusive ronin named Magobei Wakisaka who turned blind eyes three years ago to Sabai domain’s tyrannical kamikakushi event that murdered every last person in fishing village. Now he decides to return to finish Sabai domain but the men were ready to kill him as soon as steps his feet on land. It has emotional side too where Wakisaka’s wife’s brother is on opposite side along with a sub plot of a young girl whose family and fiancé murdered in the Kamikakushi three years ago. Along with existential and moral story between the way of samurai, it also has an interesting plot of gold greed that divert and sink the sheep full of gold bars in sea. It happens every fall during its course of journey route and it also adds thrilling adventure action in the later part of the film with grand climax.

Once again Nakadai is in brilliant form and he’s the spirit of the film. The film has well etched characters with fine support of antagonist Tatewaki (Tetsuro Tamba), Samon (Kinnosuke Nakamura), the queer helping hand of Wakisaka and beautiful Oriha (Rurika Asaoka). It has innovatively shot and brilliantly choreographed sword action and the snow clad hilly locales in color gives its chilly edge of mystery and atmospheric tension. Simultaneous action of masked devils beating drum beats and final duel between Nakadai and Tamba is surely highlight of the film.  

Absolutely love it…looking forward to more of Gosha.

Ratings-8/10 

CHITTAGONG (2012)

‘Saans andar saans bahar

Bandook andar goli bahar’

This is the history of unwavering courage and mutiny of a group of young rebels to free Chittagong from British rule in 1930s. Thanks to NDTV and AKFPL, this long awaited Bedabrata Pain’s film seen it’s release finally and it brought to screen the glorious episodic tale with as honesty and as conviction as possible. Imagine the spirit of just fifty or so young boys without any training and with just handful of arms made a blow to British rule. They made successful raid on Police Line, Telephone Exchange, Armoury & European Club house without a single fire of their gun. Their leader a school teacher Surya Sen aka Masterda who told them not to shed blood of innocents irrespective of their Indian or British identity. Their amateur guerrilla army successfully retreat the huge army. And amid all this. the film focuses on a personal story of a young teenage boy of mere fourteen years old who dreamed about Oxford education just like his father who's working as civil servant under Brtitish patronage. But Masterda’s revolutionary flame and mission pushed his soul and spirit to join voluntarily the movement. How he led the movement from there onwards to 1945’s peasant revolution is yet another history to share and Pain tried to represent both within one and half hours duration.  

The film once again brought three terrific actors together who also made their dent in Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’- Manoj Bajpayee, Nawajuddin Siddiqui & Jaideep Ahlawat (remember Shahid Khan!). Though nobody share much screen time as Pain treated the subject and characters with an equal justice and most actors performed their roles quite convincingly irrespective of short or long space. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy’s music is appropriate to the time and songs don’t create much hindrance as long they stays in narrative. But worthy to mention is the act of youngest actor Delnaz  Hiwale as Jhunku (Subodh Roy); he’s promising boy to look forward. The drama in the later half let loose the grip on narration and editing but not the spirit. After long time Indian screen get back to the glorious chapter of history and this one is surely worthy to watch.  

Ratings-7.5/10 

HUGO (2011)

First things first…This is something quite unexpected surprise from filmmaker like Martin Scorsese as far as plot, genre and story telling is concerned. Must say, the film undoubtedly one of the most embracing visual treat to watch on 3D big screen. It is almost splendid in all technical fronts- especially the spectacular production design and mesmerizing cinematography are worthy enough to win Oscar trophies without doubt. I don’t want to throw much light on plot and so repeat the end lines written by adventure loving Isabelle in her diary, “Once upon a time I met a boy named Hugo Cabret. He lived in a train station. Why did he live in a station? You might well ask. That’s really what this book is going to be about. It’s about how this singular young man searched so hard to find a secret message from his father and how that message lit his way…all the way home.”

Well, some of the hard core Scorsese fans wondered while watching it that why on earth Scorsese attempted something so routine fantasy from Hollywood high on CGI and technical divisions. But Scorsese made his point quite clear in the second half of the film where under the direct tribute to cinema’s almost forgotten pioneer of fantasy and illusion creator Georges Melies, he celebrated the innocence and magic of early silent cinema. It’s perhaps his tribute to the world of hours in the dark where magic and illusion corresponds something so unique experience to our senses. But above all it’s also film about saving the decaying inherited treasure of cinema and bringing them back to life. The gold that we lost, destroyed and ruined almost as dust L    

The constant highlight of the film is to fix things. Either it’s fixing that toy mouse, automaton man, broken memories and above all fixing that golden treasure of cinema against old odds. And perhaps Hollywood has produced a few filmmakers who’re really concerned about the film preservation and film restoration process immaterial of any language and any country. He’s the man who helped and funded to restore Ritwik Ghatak’s ‘Titash Ekti Nadir Naam’ to show it in Cannes few years back. As this film is clear reference to cinema’s almost forgotten French pioneer Georges Melies who introduced the fantasy, illusion to cinema in the initial stepping years. His creative ideas on editing, cutting and special tick effects brought a new vision for the filmmakers of next generation and they carry forward it with invention of new technology. His most of works destroyed and lost in First World War. It’s so shocking to know that army of his own country confiscated 400 of his short films and burned them to use the raw material to make the boot heel of the shoes! Thanks to the active film archives and technological advancements of the day that brought back to life some 200 or so films of this gifted artist of his time. One can watch many of original on youtube anyplace anytime. Thanks Marty for bringing our attention to this forgotten genius and pointing to the world the concern for this cinema’s historical archives in such a sugarcoated and visually sumptuous food for any ages.

Ratings-8/10

DELICATESSEN (French) (1991)

‘Cinema since the New Wave always seems to be about a couple fighting in a kitchen. I prefer to write positive stories.’ – Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Everybody has heard and read and seen magic realism, this is what I would call magic surrealism! Rarely do we see such a cocktail fantasy blending many genres of sci-fi, black humor and romance served to stimulate your senses. This is a unique film aesthetically rich with mind-blowing visuals, weird-sweet characters and above all extraordinary use of sound mixing to suck the audience into an unusual eccentric experience.  

It brilliantly opens with a restaurant named Delicatessen occupied by a weird tenants and a menacing butcher who slashes human flesh. Enters ex clown of circus in search of a job; maybe a next victim of the cannibal butcher! But the man surprisingly started romancing with a bespectacled sweet young daughter of the butcher who can communicate with underworld rebel syndicate of human rats planning to steal corn and adding more hilarious chaos of fun to screen. The clown is sheer treat and so is watching that butcher…and those multiple failed suicide attempts are things to watch again and again along with edge on the seat chaotic climax in the bathroom.

The film was the debut full length film co-directed by the man who made absolutely wonderful ‘Amelie’. Worth to mention the extraordinary camerawork by Darius Khondji’s with awesome use of mise en scene and montage.

An absolute feast to your eyes and ears and mind…watch it ASAP.

Ratings-9/10  

KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (2004)

Rarely do we see the combination of unusual thrilling adventure journey based on true story set in arresting and captivating natural landscape. This chinese/tibetan film is absolutely visual treat to senses and at the same time striking journey of heroic Tibetan men of indomitable spirit. On 4700 meters high wilderness mountain plain of a snow-clad Kekexili, the machinegun clad poachers every year hunt nearly thousands of antelopes to trade their wool skins in international market. To protect the remaining extinct species and to combat the poachers a voluntary civil Tibetan patrol was formed in 1995 helmed by a retired Tibetan army man named Retai.  To cover the story of killing between poachers and patrol men, a news reporter from Beijing becomes part of the patrol men’s journey.

The film is absolutely stimulating and struggling journey to senses where situational ups and down of patrolmen are dominated by indifferent fate and inscrutable nature where human decisions are favorable or unfavorable at times with their paid price. Throughout the film we don’t find action of any unnecessary bloodshed or violence and at the same time it maintained the spirit of Tibetan culture intact. Director Chuan Lu deserves praise for bringing this riveting, impressive and yet detached real human drama and the cinematography is something which can challenge any well shot westerns.

Highly recommended.

Ratings-8/10