The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is everything you'd expect from a summer blockbuster and then some. In addition the film is unlike a 'regular' superhero film. In any case one look at films like Iron Man and The Dark Knight and you know that superhero films aren’t' what they used to be.

The Dark Knight continues the adventures of millionaire Bruce Wayne and his crime fighting vigilante alter ego The Batman. Gotham is safer by the night as every criminal fears the looming presence of Batman. The new DA Harvey Dent promises to be the perfect Ying to Batman’s Yang. While the ‘White’ Knight hauls up almost all the goons off the streets, The ‘Dark’ Knight contemplates weather the day when Gotham won’t need Batman is almost there. He starts looking forward to a life where he won't have to fight crime and be with the love of his Rachel Dawes. He doesn't know that its not just his job that Harvey Dent could take up but also his love.

Just when things seemed to settle down the Joker turns everything around. The perfect nemesis for Batman, the Joker is a psychopath extraordinaire who doesn’t know when to stop for he has no limits. The DA, Batman and Gordon all join forces to get rid of the Joker but it is nothing short of the fight of their lives. Through many tribulations the Dark Knight does save the day for Gotham but not before he corrupts the soul of Gotham in the form of DA Harvey Dent.

Batman Begins might have been the perfect vehicle to infuse life in a dying franchise and change things around for superhero films but The Dark Knight takes comic book films to an entirely different plane. Gone are the days of Batman and Robin, gone are the cool one-liners, this film does away with cardboard villains and depth less characters. The Dark Knight could arguably be the greatest superhero film ever made. What is surprising is the all around praises showered on the film and its crew. Christopher Nolan takes things up right from the word go; imagine a superhero film based on a comic book which is inspired by modern day classics such as Michael Mann’s Heat and William Friedkin’s The French Connection.

This would be always remembered for being the last completed assignment of the late Heath Ledger. The image of Jack Nicholson as the The Joker is ingrained beyond reproach in our subconscious. Heath Ledger has managed to do away with Nicholson and painted the Joker in his color. His Joker is sinister, cool and unstoppable who enjoys doing what he does- wreaking havoc. By the end of the film you realize that this film could have been called The Joker Cometh for Ledger dominates the proceedings beyond your wildest thoughts. Sadly a huge part of the praise for his work would naturally result from his untimely death looming large on the film but trust me the performance doesn’t need any parameters to evoke such reaction.

Perter Bart of Variety has argued that Christian Bale would be the only solo expression actor in the world to enjoy such success. Bale as The Batman was a welcome relief but there is something about him in this film that just doesn't click. Could it that we see more of the Batman and less of Bruce Wayne? The change in his voice that Bale incorporates for Batman is somewhat funny considering that everything else in the film tries to be uncomic book like. Or could it be that Batman is supposed to be wooden and with the death of Rachel Dawes even Bruce Wayne has lost all reason to go beyond the solo expression?

The film doesn't go into the origins of the Joker (like Batman) and never really explores Two Face (like Batman Forever) as much as his transformation, which I think was a very good idea. The great thing about the 'new' superhero films like Iron Man and The Dark Knight is that they don't idiot proof the film for the viewer. The safe haven of fantasy films is now over.

Image- Ninth Avenue

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Mission Istanbul

I’m tired of believing in things and then being taken for a royal ride. The promos and poster of Apoorva Lakhia’s debut feature Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost managed to rouse my curiosity. After watching the film I vowed never to see a Lakhia film. God save us for such a world where there is an Apoorva Lakhi film! Some promises were meant to be broken albeit unknowingly but some how I have ended up watching every film of his since his debut.

I tortured myself by enduring Mission Istanbul for no real reason. There is some hidden sadist in me who just wanted to see how bad the film could be. This is the same sadist who auto piloted me to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag just to find out how stupid could the flick be. Mission Istanbul is a non-stop ride on the stupid side of a serious global menace called terrorism. Here there is no research and everything is loud and fast. Will someone please tell Lakhia that loud, cheesy and jarring sampled background score doesn’t make a film pacy. Imagine a scene where a character is talking about his dead wife and one showing two guys running from terrorists having the same earsplitting music.

As far as the acting is concerned Zayed Khan's longest role ever and he makes a hash out of it. I don't mind Vivek Oberoi for he tries hard. He was called great in Shootout but according to me he hammed his way through Lokhandwala. Here he tries to be restrained in the first few minutes and that could have been a yardstick for the character but watch him take off as a cocksure college senior leading Zayed. Shreya is Zayed's wife in the film and has precisely six scenes in the film and a song. She looks miscast and behaves like one. The other woman, the one called Liza Lobo, well let's just leave it there. Suneil Shetty is Suneil Shetty and the villian is someone who can play Hulk without the special effects!

If you think this is all then there is more. After a mind numbing chase sequence the character opens her car’s boot and takes out Mountain Dew. The goons finally catch up with out Dew sipping dudes; Vivek Oberoi looks at Zayed Khan and says, Darr Lag Raha Hain (Are you afraid?)…and Zayed offers the Mountain Dew answer, Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai…(Victory after fear).

That’s not all.

The awesome threesome with the woman strutting her stuff in a tighter than tight jeans beat the crap out of the goons, who by the way are henchmen of a terrorist and come with baseball bats! There is the customary special appearance by good friend Abhishek Bachchan in an item number, which needless to say has no connection with the film. There is no hope in hell to survive this mission for whatever is left of your brain dies thanks to Amar Mohile's third-rate background music. Imagine a film set in Istanbul and there not a single trace of some local music. So much so that be it Srinagar, a love scene, a chase, a disco, a news office any place, any scene Mohile's music sounds the same.

Then there is a scene of a George Bush look alike inside Air Force One telling his people to leave India alone for they can’t attack everyone! The main villain is introduced as the head of a TV channel who wears a tuxedo to work!!!

Need I say more?

(As a matter of fact I have said more about this film at twitch film.)

Image: www.chakpak.com

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One More Kiss

I remember watching Kiss of the Spider Woman in college almost 20 years ago. Even then I was mesmerized by the images although I never understood many of the sub plots or contexts for the film. The funny thing was that unlike other films this one was never available on DVD, so I could not revisit it. Therefore all that remained were the images in a distant memory.

Watching the film again last week two things were reinforced. One is still impressed how the project was completed given its unique, non mainstream narrative and the second is the coming together of the various talents who made the story believable.

Almost 70 percent of the film is set in a jail and by the time one of the protagonists steps out, you are almost relieved that the ordeal is over. Over a discussion post the film screening, the producer of the film mentioned that the film took almost a year to edit. Whatever the explanation, this feeling of isolation is beautifully captured and you feel what the characters feel trapped in a prison cell.

There is also the film within a film where one of the characters is either telling stories that he remembers from films he has seen or is making them up. This is very similar to stories that inmates tell each other to pass time. However here the "films" have another significance. In these "films" the characters are more black and white - the vulnerable woman, the strong man - something that apparently the writer of the novel (on which the book is based) uses to explain homosexuality.

While the film offers a critique of the dictatorial regimes it does not go overboard with its argument or resort to propaganda. Instead it looks at the nuances of being forced to live in a situation that may be beyond your control. The homosexual is an outsider both in the dictatorship or the socialist regime that the rebels are trying to set up. In fact most of us would be a misfit in any system that takes ideologies to the extreme. The film is in sharp contrast to something like Persepolis which simply assumes that everything that happens in Iran post the Islamic Revolution is bad. In this sense the film does not glorify a personal story of suffering and use it to criticize the society.

What places the film above many others on such subjects (persecution, repression, homosexuality) is the use of the film medium combining them with dreams and reality. Very few films use cinema as a part of their narrative. A character may refer to a film or a character from a film but images from a film are only shown when the characters are in a hall. The Kiss of the Spider Woman leaves us with many questions. What is reality? What is a dream? And what is a film? A projection of reality? Or our fantasies?

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Samira's Garden

At the core of it Samira's Garden is a very basic idea and thankfully the execution is minimalist as well. Samira is coerced into marrying a middle aged widower. Her mother convinces her that perhaps some times in life one just has to do what has been planned out for them. This couldn't be truer for a girl coming of age in Morocco. Samira has no qualms about what she has walked into for she has no major expectations. All she wants of her husband is to love her and understand her. Things couldn't be further away from the truth for her.

Samira's husband choses to ignore her and utilize her as a maid. He makes it very clear to her that she would be responsible for the health of his ailing father. Samira dutifully plays the role of a loving daughter to her father in law, the dutiful wife to her husband as well as a friend to Farouk, her husbands nephew who stays with them.

Stuck in a farm cut off from the rest of the civilization and her husband's impotency in addition to his complete apathy towards her adds to Samira's alienation. She can't help but recall instances from her personal life before marriage and cry herself to sleep. Samira finds herself drawn to the boyish charms of Farouk and before she knows they end up having an affair. Farouk's companionship brings some kind of relief to her life. Just when she convinces herself that she could end up living her entire life the way destiny planed for her, Samira's husband gets a whiff of her fling with Farouk. The husband forces Farouk to leave. The parting image of the film is what sums up the entire story in a single shot; a lonely Samira sitting in her garden all by herself as the camera reveals how lonely she really ends up.

Directed by Latif Lahlou, Samira's Garden resembles Satyajit Ray's Charulata at places. Lahlou uses the setting of a farm away from city to convey most of the thought rather than rely on lines that run the risk of sounding stupid in such films. The screenplay puts Farouk and Samira in situations where sparks are bound to fly such as both of them bathing the old father in law. The sparse use of dialogue, the engrossing setting and the ponderous pacing of the film make it more than just a film about repressed sexual passion which it starts out to be.

Samira is portrayed by Sanaa Mouziane who manages to get the nuances of the girl-woman just correct for majority of the film. The sumptuous actress has a good sense of comic timing and adorns a free and easy habitation for the role but at times tends to go a little overboard. Sanaa Mouziane displays with aplomb a character who pays the price of personal freedom in the name of tradition in a Muslim society.

Image: www.tangierstehranfilm.org

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Two Paul Schraders

Paul Schrader's two lectures at Cinefan Film Festival were clubbed with the screening of two of most well known works- Mishima and Taxi Driver. After attending the two lectures I realized that they were perhaps given by two different people.

The lecture that followed Mishima was about the New Media and The Death of Cinema. Schrader joked about how the organizers very nattily omitted mentioning the Death of Cinema part on the program! The lecture was supposed to be an insight on the new emerging media trends where in anyone could make a film. I gathered that perhaps Schrader had just used the new technology to color correct a few scenes for Mishima’s DVD release and he might have been mega-impressed with the whole deal.

The lecture turned out to be an anti-climax. By the end of it I realized that Schrader was only to pissed off at the big players losing millions of bucks thanks to new media aka piracy. He was impressed by the reach of the Internet but rather than talking how someone like him could adapt this new technology, ended up sounding rather morose at the prospect of people downloading movies and not paying for them. It was a bit of a let down because one expected an old hand like Paul Schrader to talk more about the threat that new media poses to creativity rather than the business angle of it.

Isn’t Schrader worried about the fact that now directors could add ‘emotions’ like a tear on a character’s face in post-production (Blood Diamond) or use dead people’s unfinished work (John Lenon and the goodies hidden in his closet) by making computers do the needful and bring them back to life. Or the thing done in Beowulf where muscles were added in post on the main character! If one looks at the other end of the argument, then someone like Robert Altman would have really used the 'new media' and done some wonderful work with it. Mr. Schrader sounded like a big studio emissary who came to the East to show how worried they were about the threat of a free uncontrolled Internet.

The other lecture was on screenwriting and it was much better. A few minutes into this one I was convinced that the first lecture wasn’t half as interesting because it was delivered by someone who didn’t really understand the subject. In stark contrast if there was someone who knew a thing or two about screenwriting then it would sure as hell be Paul Schrader.

The Master Class was a quick run through of what Mr. Schrader teaches at UCLA. It gave a rare insight into the mind and the style of a screenwriter whose credits are nothing short of case studies. Schrader had some very interesting take on writing for screen and one wonders why the hell did he have to deliver the first lecture? He made no qualms about making writing a very personal journey, nothing short of therapy. he came across as a someone who knew his contribution to the world of cinema but didn’t make too much of a deal about it. When asked how different would Taxi Driver be had he directed it? He replied that he was glad he never directed it for he would have made a mess of it. He revealed that his script was tampered around with too much save a few omissions here and there, and was happy when Martin Scorsese decided to cut some bits about Travis talking about loneliness. He said that this convinced him that the metaphor he came up with for loneliness, a big yellow metallic box of a taxicab, worked for the film.

Schrader talked briefly about his new script- a meeting between a CIA agent, who has lost faith in his work and is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and his former interrogator, who, surprise surprise, had lost his will to carry on as a terrorist! He calls this his old man film and is looking forward to starting work on it soon.

Image: www.observer.com

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