Barely into the storyline it's cinematic candy but thin on plot & equally weak script, characters & acting beyond stereotypes. I'll continue to watch it unfold, but mainly for the scenic panoramas, sets, costumes & memories of a more modern India bereft of its faded charm.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Max Havelaar
(1976)
brilliant expose of dutch colonial-religious hypocrisy
16 August 2009
in making this film, rademaker opened up old dutch colonial wounds, dormant except for the novel, helped promote a good NGO cause, & exposed native corruption that continues into present indonesia. the max havelaar foundation was ahead of its time in promoting fair trade & continues to take a leadership role today. in the film, havelaar represents the idealist side of both dutch colonial rule & protestant ethos in the face of corruption & hypocrisy toward that global enterprise. aside from a brilliant film, powerful scenery & location, excellent acting, rademaker wove the narration close to the well-known novel. appropriate for its time,this film fits well with European self-examination of its colonial past, resonates with pontecorvo's burn/queimada, a masteropiece of duplicity & brando at his prime!
Babel
(I) (2006)
pulled in - pushed: out how tragic can a film be?
16 July 2009
OK, brilliant, but confusing, not only the non-linear shifts from one story to another - no need to repeat descriptions of the stories - but babel implies multiple voices all speaking at once, or does it? how well did we, audience, retain one story as we shifted to the next & again, was there a rhythm to the shifts, were we to view or think of one flowing into the other, or did the Jumpcuts move independently, albeit each moving towards a conclusion, each seemingly a foregone tragedy? how many ambiguities or contradictions wove together within each segment & among segments? did any one of the secondary segments - Tokyo flashing light & sounds of deafness; Mexican weddings & border crossing calamities all too common while driving "brown" or on foot, "papers!" demand armed uniformed men. Was the Moroccan segment the main event, or not, as it ended with rescue for the American amidst devastation & death for the "natives". was this entire film a contrast between power of developed economies & underdevelopment? babel concluded by tying together all segments into one story unfolding over time & space & in the end the winner was who? white Americans & Japanese, the losers: Mexican & Moroccan. the lonely figure of the Japanese detective in a bar, a TV flash of the stories resolution, existential, very much early Kurosawa, Pitt's phone call recycled from babel's opening scenes, a circle, conclusion? what was meant by revealing the American government paranoia, bumbling global reach & media hype? do Brad Pitt & Kate Blanchet share the director-writer's political view of global injustice enough to do a film that will not win them Hollywood box office kudos? all-in-all a film forcing more than inviting the audience to ponder deep questions, but powerful enough for us to turn our lenses on ourselves, meaning & emptiness in our own lives, lingering doubts, responses to fate that might fill such hollowness — sparks of light in our lives to illuminate the wasteland & despair — analogies with T.S. Elliot's well known poem " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men " — despite the darkness, a film to review at least one more time, if not for enjoyment, then for uncovering deeper layers of meaning in all our lives.
Great Expectations
(1998)
richly set & well acted, surprise twists on a well known novel
10 July 2009
i was surprised throughout as i did not read anything about the film beforehand, nor made the connection with dickens as the french title was the "de grandes esperances" more like great hopes than expectations .. was first lulled into wondering if the film was all about a little boy & his life on the coast, but de niro's shock entrance woke me up to an unusual film, or perhaps a horror & child abuse ... so tense, i waited for it to unfold ... jump cut & we're amidst "tobacco road" fishermen, then again, jump to the decadent elegance of bancroft, but first the shock of this most beautiful girl ... like a ghost or forest nymph ... as things unfolded, the bizarre cut short with the boy & girl grown up to teems & beyond, her playing him, by this time paltrow was ... sensual, as beautiful & spoiled as when a little girs & we all knew with or without bancroft's line that she would break finn's heart ... the rest unfolded as a mystery, especially the camp world of new york art, which I detest in its bloated extravaganza ... having been a NY artist in the 60's & found it even then deeply flawed except for the impoverished Lower East Side avant garde - like me - where small struggling galleries sold works for still affordable prices & we could trade art for art & other things ... jazz, poetry, art & good parties ... including occasional splurges by wealthy patrons either slumming or just there to host parties, or occasionally really interested in art & artists, & supporting emerging artists ... something I learned from them & practiced later in life -- even thought :collecting on a shoestring" understanding the importance of supporting emerging artists at critical points in their careers -- touch & go whether to go ahead as an artist or give it up for safer professions.
... but as the film played out Finn's hopeless romantic fixation & Stella's addiction to playing out her desires but obeying her class interests to marry rich ... the nude scenes were breathtaking, not so much sexy as sensuous & arousing the artist in me to have my own model & back to life drawing ... the power of the line, which can make a drawing as great or greater than a painting ... de niro's return was by this time expected but not exactly as the invisible hand of support, but once reentered, it all worked, the theatrical entrance, unfolding story & murder along with Finn's expected kindness, but once again showing the character, his confusion, his loss of love & as importantly his shock to learn of how addicted he had become to the lifestyle when uncle joe showed up to embarrass him at the big moment, which he did not know was a setup all along, then the revelation of his benefactor, etc. all seemed to fall into place, although the return to the gulf & old environment, reconnection with Stella & appearance of her daughter was almost expected, it was still done well & without over dramatization. in all, i enjoyed the film as such, most of its pieces connecting well into the whole experience. only afterward reading the liner notes let it all fall into place, and revealed what I had missed, except, I still did not make more than superficial connections to dickens.
... but as the film played out Finn's hopeless romantic fixation & Stella's addiction to playing out her desires but obeying her class interests to marry rich ... the nude scenes were breathtaking, not so much sexy as sensuous & arousing the artist in me to have my own model & back to life drawing ... the power of the line, which can make a drawing as great or greater than a painting ... de niro's return was by this time expected but not exactly as the invisible hand of support, but once reentered, it all worked, the theatrical entrance, unfolding story & murder along with Finn's expected kindness, but once again showing the character, his confusion, his loss of love & as importantly his shock to learn of how addicted he had become to the lifestyle when uncle joe showed up to embarrass him at the big moment, which he did not know was a setup all along, then the revelation of his benefactor, etc. all seemed to fall into place, although the return to the gulf & old environment, reconnection with Stella & appearance of her daughter was almost expected, it was still done well & without over dramatization. in all, i enjoyed the film as such, most of its pieces connecting well into the whole experience. only afterward reading the liner notes let it all fall into place, and revealed what I had missed, except, I still did not make more than superficial connections to dickens.
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