Which Western Movie you watched / watching recently.

[crajkumar_be]

Adhula paarunga, Memento > Phone Booth, kandippa.
Idhu ellam thorayama oru raga padangal nu solla vandhen, avvalavu dhaan

PR,
One kostin. You have expressed your indifference towards "musings" etc in films and you would take a story to be told anyday. Aana, ungalukku migavum piditha sila padangala paatha andha kodu blur aagara madhiri theriyidhe. I mean let's take Adaptation.... (padam thulyama nyabagam illa)

I haven't really seen 'Phone Booth', but bracketing 'Memento' with it sounds just wrong (parkkAmalEyE)!

Very good. Ippidi thaan irukkaNum.
Phone Booth is about Colin Farrel being stuck in a phone booth for an hour and a half as a hidden sharpshooter (who is on the phone) threatens to kill him if he steps out. How his life is shaken and dirty linen is washed in public is what the 'psychological thriller' is all about.

Ippo sollunga, CR-ai enna paNNalaam.

And actually, I think 'The Prestige' is a strong work and wouldn't hesitate to talk about it in the same breath as 'Memento.'

I felt it was 'inefficient' in that it was laborious and didn't get as much effect for being so. Thoroughly enjoyable movie neverhtheless. I somehow managed to guess the twists (I am usually not very good at this) early and that made it a little less interesting. Plus Scarlett Johansson.

The taut pace of Memento puts it in a different league in my books.
Parts of Prestiege reminded me of Insomnia - the movie whose title is an inside joke.

There's a great moment (and there's not much else in the film that gets close) early in the film where a Polaroid photograph fades instead of developing because the film is playing literally backwards. I think this is the psychological register of the film. Where you see memory fading. But this experience is at odds with the knowledge that it is so only because the film is actually playing backwards. Figuratively speaking, this is precisely the dilemma one faces watching the film.

I am not sure I got that. Why is it at odds ?

I particularly love the v-o in the scene where Guy Pearce talks being stuck without a sense of time. He is romantically obsessed simply because the events have made him freeze in a timeless space. So his character is defined not by his will as much as the events that have put him in that condition. He is not so much in love with his wife as much as that loving his wife is the only thing he can remember to do. Time would have perhaps eroded his personality and caused change. Does it perhaps make a difference whether he is being manipulated by the Joe Pantoliano character. He is not in a position to judge. Only we are. And perhaps we ought not to be outraged at the manipulation.

Another reason why I like it so much is I remember seeing it back to back with Adaptation. So the aftertaste encouraging drawing out tangents.

John Laroche: You know why I like plants?
Susan Orlean: Nuh uh.
John Laroche: Because they're so mutable. Adaptation is a profound process. Means you figure out how to thrive in the world.
Susan Orlean: [pause] Yeah but it's easier for plants. I mean they have no memory. They just move on to whatever's next. With a person though, adapting almost shameful. It's like running away.

[P_R]

You have expressed your indifference towards "musings" etc in films and you would take a story to be told anyday. Aana, ungalukku migavum piditha sila padangala paatha andha kodu blur aagara madhiri theriyidhe. I mean let's take Adaptation.... (padam thulyama nyabagam illa)

Well the makers need to consciously try to engross the viewer. That is all I ask. And Kamal is one helluva writer precisely for this reason.

You can watch any Kamalwritten film in, say, a post-party state without actively summoning every fibre of your conscioussness and still enjoy it. Then upon cafreful viewing and reflection further rewards await. But never ever are you disappointed and made to feel bad like: "had I watched it carefully then perhaps...etc."

Films that expect audience's attention without trying to earn it annoy me. reNdu maNi nEram paakkurOm kadaisila "life is like that"-nu sonnA thitta dhaan seyvEn.

Adaptation is one film where I am able to relate to almost every single scene/line. There may be many I enjoy and remember with distance enough to applaud. This one is too personal. Namma MADDY sila nEram "that-is-me" 'mbAr-la adhu maadhiri.

So I won't lay claims to objectivity here. But it is engrossing first and that is what encourages one to delve into the ..ahem.. depths.

In one scene Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is having dinner with friends and they are all laughing about John Laroche (Chris Cooper). She joins in the laugh too. She does not actually agree with them. But it is not that she has strong disagreement and is keeping up appearances. She just finds it comfortable to laugh along than take pains to explain how he is 'bigger' than the laughing stock they are making him out to be in that dinner table. Even if she tried she wouldn't be able to explain, she had just met him and is impressed but still figuring out what.

That reluctance, how easily we join in with bashing sometimes though our opinions are slightly different but still feel bad and can't do anything because we don't have a strong enough opposite opinion. And even if we had we wouldn't explain to the crowd. And not that we 'hate' the crowd, you just feel distant.

The challenge of writing is capturing a multidimensional reality into the black ink on white. 'To whittle the world down to a more manageable size'. And that is exactly the challenge is felt in that scene. It is not a challenge in writing but in living itself.

Fantastic conceptualization, writing, acting.

Perhaps this sort of thing would have come in some Abbas Kiarostami film. And I would have missed it because I nodded off. It is only Adaptation that leads me to reflect on this deeply enough.

[crajkumar_be]

Miga thelivana vilakkathukku nandri PR

[kannannn]

There's a great moment (and there's not much else in the film that gets close) early in the film where a Polaroid photograph fades instead of developing because the film is playing literally backwards. I think this is the psychological register of the film. Where you see memory fading. But this experience is at odds with the knowledge that it is so only because the film is actually playing backwards. Figuratively speaking, this is precisely the dilemma one faces watching the film.

I don't remember much of Memento, but I thought the themes and motifs in Memento very much reflected what Gaspar Noe tried in Irreversible - that any story is a happy one (or sad) when played in a particular chronological order. The particular scene perhaps just mirrors the overall impact of the film on the viewer - not that of triumphant exhilaration over the revenge, but a sad reminder of how it all started!!

kid-glove - welcome back

I loved Scarface by the way, as a movie than entirely for Pacino. I didn't expect a complex character study, but a less empathetic look at a scummy Cuban Immigrant's shot at "American dream". Above all, I loved the stylistic devices to fixate 80's Miami.

Watching Scarface was an underwhelming experience, mainly because the story was not well told. It didn't add anything new to the genre of gangster movies and the psychoanalysis of the lead character was half-baked (the sister character felt like being thrust into the story as an afterthought). BTW, I must admit that I had an irresistable urge to revisit Scarface on watching Mr. Garrison introduce Cartman in the school talent show: 'Eric Cartman presenting selected readings from the movie 'Scarface'' - you can imagine how that would have ended.

Latest movie: Hangover - Not many LoL moments though it does manage to extract a few chuckles. The only scene I genuinely liked was the one where one of the bridegroom's friends tries to placate the maniacal Chinese man: "I hate Godzilla too man.. Destroying cities is not cool.."

[P_R]

ungaLai thaan edhirpaaththuttu irundhEn
Innum Hangover paakkalai. Was awaiting a comparitive assessment wrt Dude Where's my car

[kannannn]

Comparison'e illai PR. DWiMC is way, way funnier. There is something deeply unsettling about a group of almost middle-aged men attempting to be stupid, which is what Hangover is. DWiMC is no-holds barred, nonsensical anarchy and it seemed to me that the writers of Hangover have tried too hard to tone down the events leading to the next day morning, trying to appeal to a wider audience. As a result, the movie is never the all-out-fun it should have been. And more importantly, the actors here lack the exuberance of Kutcher and Scott that gives movies of this kind their appeal.

[kid-glove]

I don't remember much of Memento, but I thought the themes and motifs in Memento very much reflected what Gaspar Noe tried in Irreversible - that any story is a happy one (or sad) when played in a particular chronological order. The particular scene perhaps just mirrors the overall impact of the film on the viewer - not that of triumphant exhilaration over the revenge, but a sad reminder of how it all started!!

Interesting parallel there, Kannannn.

the psychoanalysis of the lead character was half-baked (the sister character felt like being thrust into the story as an afterthought).

I didn't read too much into psychoanalysis (as I said, it is never a complex character study). Given the lead character's caricatured demeanor, It felt DePalma 'showcases' the moments without pondering over vacuousness of Tony's life. The relaxed times (with Tony Montana?), and the layers of relationships wouldn't add more sense. In so many respects, it's an utterly simplistic look at a despicable misfit. What more sense could one make of his 'distrust'? Thus it'd be bit wise to present a parable of rage, and destruction. I liked the film.

I must admit that I had an irresistable urge to revisit Scarface on watching Mr. Garrison introduce Cartman in the school talent show: 'Eric Cartman presenting selected readings from the movie 'Scarface'' - you can imagine how that would have ended.

I don't remember the exact episode, but I could make out how it would have ended, yes. It is also quite evident Trey P and Matt Stone understood the cultural importance of Tony Montana, a recurring figure in SP.

[crajkumar_be]

The background music is a favorite, too

Yeah, the score was super!

[kid-glove]

The short little montage clip they used in DVD menu is a classic

I uploaded to youtube.

[P_R]

Thank You kannan.
The overarching silliness of Dude..

Girls we have just three words for you. Anger manage ment

I owe it a revisit.

Chanced upon an old Kaufman interview. Some of you folks may have read it.

When talking about Adaptation

Uniformity of emotions shown in most films is too unreal and we feel jealous because it looks perfect. My idea of what a film should be and how a script should be is what i put in there. Some of that still exists in me, some has moved on.

Q.-Adaptation was a lot like Fellini’s 8 1/2 but much more deeper and modern.
A.-I have not seen 8 1/2. A lot of people told me that, so I decided I will not and never see that film and I haven’t. So I don’t know what you are talking about.

He has a cruel comment about the popularity of Eternal Sunshine :P

kadaisiyA oru alpa sandhOsham same pinch

Monsters Inc is my favourite animation movie. I did not like Wall.E.