Films and Literature are largely about a narrative. It is about telling a story. Both make use of characters, plot, incidents, action, drama and the general function of entertaining the readers or the audience. Films have the arduous task of crunching the narrative into a span of 90 or 120 minutes. Literature on the other…
Dersu Ouzala, M, Battleship Potemkin, Yojimbo, Sansho the Bailiff, Aguirre the wrath of God, The Magnificent Seven, High Noon, Stage coach, Nazarin, La Strada, Bicycle Thieves, This Man must Die, Just before nightfall, 39 Steps, Psycho, The Day of the Jackal, Odessa file,The Medusa Touch, Django, Aparajito, Harakiri, The Third Shadow, The Maltese falcon, Casablanca,…
Never watched Werner Herzog’s films before. Watched Aguirre, the wrath of God today. In search of El Dorado, a group of Spanish explorers voyage into the Jungle beyond the Andes along with their slaves. Unable to venture further in the inhospitable terrain, the commander appoints a smaller group of 40 members to go further on…
Onibaba is an erotic horror story. It is about an old woman and her daughter-in-law living on the fringes of life, hunting down soldiers returning from the battle or killing embittered and emaciated warriors. They stash away the belongings of those who they kill to sell it to a local merchant who gives them sake…
The American movie goers have voted it to be the greatest movie ever made. It has been called a masterpiece, an example of exquisite movie craftsman ship and the greatest triumph of Orson Welles. I’m talking about Citizen Kane. Charles Foster Kane is a newspaper baron, a publishing tycoon who wins and loses friends as…
In my effort to watch old Japanese films, today I discovered a masterpiece by Masaki Kobayashi , Harakiri. The Japanese way of making films is an example in restraint and harmony. The representation of the emotions is intense and there is undeniably a remarkable classicism at work. Unity of action and unity of thought reign…
A novel is called a pocket theatre. It leaves so much to the imagination which is why it has to be the better. However there are certain kinds of novels which are enriched when portrayed in the visual medium; the historical, the mythological, the adventurous or the romantic. Reading a novel is a more personal…