I watched John Ford’s “Young Mr. Lincoln” starring Henry Fonda. The movie carries that distinctive stamp of John Ford’s genius. Young Mr. Lincoln is the story of Abraham Lincoln in his young years practicing as an advocate in a Country Court. Ford achieves the aura and the mood of those days when life was more…
A few years ago while trying to get to know more about international cinema,I got interested in French cinema. The only French movie of international fame that I had watched until then was Joan Renoir’ s Rules of the Game. As I went through the list of Directors that had several names of repute, I…
Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarna Rekha: Ghatak’s style is different from Ray’s. It is raw and edgy, replete with repressed energy. The film has a hopeful ending but Ghatak’s depiction of the social reality hits you hard. Caste prejudice, unemployment, poverty and migration are some of the themes. These forces were very strong in independent India as…
Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book. Intertextuality of the novel made it difficult for me initially. It is also largely about an extraordinary range of reading, and in-depth intensive reading of a particular subject: in this case history, theology and philosophy. Pamuk’s way of looking at the situation is what the novel is about; what are…
Watched the movie Crucified Lovers by Kenzu Mizoguchi. Ugetsu Mongotrai, Sansho the Bailiff, Life of Oharu are all films by Mizoguchi that I had watched earlier. Japanese films of that era especially those of Mizoguchi and Yasuziro Ozu maintain a certain translucence and poise that is unmistakable. Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Yojimbo also have this quality….
A cinematic moment achieves greatness in capturing a particular moment of life, a moment which although small and individual by itself, represents or even encapsulates an entire way of life, a culture, or the personality of the character in entirety; Charulatha swinging in the garden; What Blake calls ‘To see the world in a grain…
The first novel that comes to mind is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The other novels are again of Marquez; Love in the time of Cholera, No one writes to the Colonel, The Autumn of the Patriarch, Chronicle of a death foretold. Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum…
A reflection on Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari and the meeting of history, culture, character and political change in a richly observed film.
Watched the movie Salon Mexico; a B&W Mexican film. Shorn of melodrama or exaggerated display of emotion, the film tells the story of two sisters Mercedes and Beatriz. All alone in this world and fighting poverty, Mercedes’ only aim in life is to give Beatriz a proper education and see her lead a comfortable and…
Two Fritz Lang films—M and Metropolis—open questions about justice, alienation, power, the city and the social responsibility of cinema.