True Grit (2010)

True Grit (2010)

Written for the Screen, Edited and Directed by: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon
Nominated for 10 Academy Awards. 

It's a Western film, with a very interesting premise - after the death of her father, a 14 year old girl sets out to find her father's killer with a sheriff. The film reminds us of the title 'True Grit' in so many instances. Just the way, the 14 year old, Mattie even negotiates deals with Cogburn - she won't budge and she will stand on her word no matter what. Negotiation can be tough to sustain after a point of exhaustion - one of the main techniques of negotiation is to just exhaust the other party - but Mattie won't get exhausted. She would want things done exactly her way. This reminds me of how Rajamouli describes characters - he says when a character stands by their word no matter what, and when we see the extent to which they'd go for what they want - that's when we know the integrity of a character and that is what is a strong character. The film takes off with this premise - it's the story of an underdog and also a coming-of-age story for the girl. All of this set in a Western, it was a delight to watch. 

The series of events that the film presents us are very interesting - at times it feels like the Cogburn and Mattie are on the same page, at the same level of expertise. Although the heart of the film is in the ending 20 minutes - from the time where Mattie sees Chaney. Everyone is at gunpoint from there, and that's where the genre kicks in with full intensity. After the whole shoot out, and after the whole thing was resolved, I loved how the film cuts to 25 years later and explores this whole event from the point of view of past, and history. What's beautiful is that Mattie is still strong on her word. She'd do what she's meant to do, or even more. Mattie is easily one of the most inspiring characters I've seen in a long time, and the film was worth just for that, if not for watching a Western made by the Coen Brothers.

Aftersun (2022)

Aftersun (2022)

Written and Directed by: Charlotte Wells
Streaming on MUBI India.

Just with the posters and the logline, the film struck a chord within. It chronicles the time a father and daughter spend over a vacation. It has the treatment of revisiting memories, and it's done so impactfully. Just like C'mon C'mon (2021), I found so much beauty in this relationship between a kid and an adult, where there is an unlikely friendship, an invisible mentorship, and a mutual exploration of life together. There's no arrogance within the adult of having seen enough. This is where the film takes off. It's very sweet and heartwarming. The film is from the point of view of the 11 year old girl, and it does it so beautifully that even you can't see things beyond it except for a speck of doubt in the back of your mind. Even the way the film is shot, there are a lot of static poetic shots capturing the most random things which you'd see only when you're lost in thought and mindlessly gazing (dikkulu chudatam).

Before we can notice, grief slowly creeps into the film. There's a heartbreaking scene of the father bursting out crying - it's done so honestly. Usually, crying it out all is a very personal and an embarrassing experience. Films tend to show it very beautifully, but in reality crying it all out is a tad bit ugly. That scene captured that. And even after that I just kept wondering, like the daughter. I'm not a big fan of vague, ambiguous endings and so did I feel with this film. What happened? Explain it to me. I was looking for answers just like the daughter was. And then when I got to know what happened after reading about it, I questioned my whole viewing of the film. How could I not see it? Why did I not see it coming? It was so clear. I was angry. But then, I could also see how he was trying so hard to be okay in front of her and let her have a good time. I could see that he gave it his all, out of whatever little that was left in him.

Nope (2022)

Nope (2022)

Written, Directed and Produced by: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

More than as a singular piece, Nope works better as a piece in Jordan Peele's filmography. His directorial debut, Get Out, is a contained horror with a focused social commentary. With Us, he explores a similar style of horror, but with some added flavor of surrealism. With Nope, it's barely horror. It's mostly a surrealist, science fiction film with the undercurrent of a horror. I like how Peele is smoothly taking the audience into different sub-genres within the horror genre. Usually genre films are not considered high art, I like how Jordan Peele tricks you into believing that it's a genre film and does whatever he wants to with it.

Coming to Nope, it's an absurd, weird experience because of the elements they use in the story and the style of storytelling too. I like this kind of storytelling when it's done partially. If the entire film is as absurd, even the good elements don't land as much because I'm not as emotionally invested in the story. I like any film that's not predictable, and Nope is anything but predictable. I enjoyed feeling confused, and ambiguous for a bit. That feeling added with horror would exponentially elevate the whole experience. But this film doesn't go into the horror territory as much. And I didn't get what the film was trying to say or do as well. I would've loved the film, either if it was a little more clear or if it zeroed in on the horror elements a little more. Going to read explanation articles on the film now.

Gold (2022)

Gold (2022)

Written, Directed and Edited by: Alphonse Puthren
Starring: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Nayantara

Gold is a classic example of style over substance. There's barely any story in the film, and the whole film runs on the Alphonse Puthren treatment. There's terrific style throughout - almost every scene is cut to the beats of the background music, almost like music videos, even when nothing is happening in a scene, these minor jump cuts are what make the scenes dynamic and interesting, there's usage of text, split screen, and there's so much style in the edit that it feels like the film was tripping on the edit table. The comedy also works - Alphonse Puthren sometimes has better comedy in the filler/background scenes than in the main scenes, and even in Gold, almost every scene has really good filler comedy. It's probably because there's no pressure and the filler comedy can be really silly too sometimes and it's okay.

The waferthin plot of Gold is not the problem, the issue is that even after watching the whole film, I felt like I didn't know Joshi, the protagonist. On one hand, he's a middle class mama boy. On the other, he becomes this macho man suddenly. The ending is too much of a jump that it almost felt like a parody. I like the self referential nature of the film - it's beautiful that the film reminds you that with edit, style and music a director has such a strong visual signature. I just wish there was some substance in the film to latch on to. With films without a focused plot and great style, it's fun to watch the film for about an hour. After that is when it can get a little draining. Nevertheless, Gold should be studied by editors and filmmakers to see how one can trip on the edit in a film.

The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch (2021)

Written and Directed by: Wes Anderson
Cinematography: Robert David Yeoman
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2021.

The French Dispatch is a buffet of the arts. It goes to prove that film as a medium allows us to explore any and all possible combinations of art forms that are available. We have seen musicals, which use extensive amounts of music to tell story, like Annette, La La Land. We have seen TV or dialogue heavy film like Before Sunrise, where the writing takes a front seat. We have seen silent films or extremely visual films like Roma, where cinematography takes a front seat. We have seen films of Agnes Varda, where she combines the art of photography and film. We have seen films like Paterson, where the art form of poetry and film come together. Wes Anderson uses a lot of art forms, and combines them in a way that he creates an own artistic voice of his own. He doesn't necessarily does that by creating different worlds, he does that with his style and his craft. A godly voice over narrating the story, whimsical characters running around, with a lot of visual dark comedy happening with beautifully constructed set pieces. 

The French Dispatch is just like a magazine, it has different stories and different sections. For me, the most engaging story was the first one - the one of the troubled psychopath artist. I think what Wes Anderson did was, he wanted to explore the debate of the art vs the artist - which is so prevalent in the heavily political environment. But he didn't have the artist do something wrong which would make him get cancelled, he made him a straight up murderer and then played the same debate, which makes for a very interesting conflict. If you even remotely feel his art should be allowed to the public, then the artists who are cancelled for less scandalous acts should definitely be allowed to create. It's a very interesting short. I enjoyed the others too, but more so for the style and the craft than the story.   

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels (1995)

Written, Directed and Produced by: Wong Kar-wai
Streaming on MUBI.

What you take back after watching a Wong Kar-wai film is the feeling the film leaves you with. It's almost like an abstract painting. The feeling that a Wong Kar-wai film leaves you with is a bit similar to the feeling a Murakami book leaves you with, although Murakami uses story too to elicit the same feeling and Wong does that purely with imagery and sound. Fallen Angels is a film that leaves an effect on you, not with its characters, emotions or the story, but with the kind of imagery that the film uses throughout. Wide angles, handheld camera, rapid movements of the camera, fast cuts, neon lighting, the cityscape of Hong-Kong - it's an extremely visual film. The camera play is so dynamic, and it's so rare to see such movement of camera in the films in the 90s. Now, we see such camera work because of fluid cameras, but back then it was rare. 

Wong's usage of voice over is beautiful. It's almost like you are listening to a bed time story, irrespective of how dark or adult, the themes are. Just like Chungking Express, I'm only left with the residue of the story and characters in my memory - it's so vague. I'm just consumed by the imagery. Perhaps In The Mood for Love, was the only Wong film where I remember so much about the characters. I think it's because his world in itself is so rich to experience, that I get lost in the aesthetics of the film and the craft. It's so tough to achieve a kind of trust from the audience where irrespective of the story - you would be invested in a film just to experience the director's craziness and Wong has undeniably achieved that with his work. 

The Royal Tenenbaums Analysis

 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Directed, Co-written and Co-produced by: Wes Anderson

I'm surprised to see that this film wasn't released after Amelie (2001). Both the films released in the same year, which means none of them were influenced by each other but to me, I can see a lot of similarities: in the tone of the film, the bittersweet mood that the film carries throughout, the narrative through the voice over of a narrator, introducing different characters with charge ins, symmetrical composition and mise en scene. Both the films use dark comedy too, the way they show Amelie's mother die, and the way here the dog dies, and the guy who attempts suicide. Hell, there are a lot of similarities and it's a shocker for me that such similar styles of storytelling were never influenced from each other. I was initially under the impression that Amelie would've been the inspiration for the entire filmmaking voice of Wes Anderson, but doesn't turn out to be true. 

I could see that perhaps Dil Dhadakne Do would've been influenced by this film - whether it's the dysfunctional family, the quirky narrative, the struggle in spite of being privileged - in this film, they become prodigies and yet suffer a lot in their adult. It goes to say that every segment of life can be different and it's a very hopeful worldview, because people who haven't "made it" can look forward to another segment of life. Life is supposed to be that way, if you make it once and relax for 10 years and still are the same - then that wouldn't be fun. There has to be a rollercoaster experience for us to be grateful for what we have. Lot of complex themes are explored in the film. Every character is fleshed out well, their flaws, and their emotional journey comes through pretty well. It's a nice template that Wes Anderson has discovered, where there is a unique filmmaking voice, but it also comes with a lot of extravagance, and hence it's good for them to sell the movie. 

My Blueberry Nights Analysis

My Blueberry Nights (2007)

Written and Directed by: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman
Nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes.

The frame rate. The bold colors. The dissolves. The dyed hair of the girl. The usage of pop music. The voice over. The usage of texts. Things obstructing the actors' close up shots to create a sense of depth. The film shows off its style unapologetically. It's a Wong Kar-wai film on the face and it'd be a feast to fans of the filmmaker. Not so much for someone who is being introduced to Wong Kar-wai with this film, because this is an anthology-ish film without actually being an anthology like Chungking Express. The characters are flawed, complex and intriguing, and I could even empathize with some of their thoughts and feelings. But I couldn't root for them. This isn't much of a complain, because Wong's films are more about the things that the film and the characters make us feel than the characters themselves. In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express cater to the loneliness, solitude and the unrequited love within ourselves. Wong's films are more immersive because we don't feel for the characters - we feel for ourselves through the music, the filmmaking and all the stylistic elements I was mentioning in the beginning.

Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong filmmaker), Hong Sang-soo (Korean filmmaker) and Haruki Murakami (Japanese author) - these three artists have a similarity in their voice. They make films about wandering souls, the drudgery of life, the food and beer, the mindless sex, the hangover of people and especially women, and all of them create art with a strong visual sense. I think Woody Allen could be too put in this category of artists. I'm yearning to discover more. Please help me if anyone can think of more artists like this.  

The Disciple Analysis

 The Disciple (2020)

Written and Directed by: Chaitanya Tamhane
Executive Producer: Alfonso Cuaron
Won the Best Screenplay at Venice Film Festival. 

The Disciple is a story of a young man who is in the pursuit of excellence. It's a heavy film, it's highly reflective - especially if you are an artist. It is set in the world of Indian classical music. The film has such strong imagery that after watching 5 mins of the film, I remember feeling that I know every shot till then, in the exact order. Every scene has on an average 2-3 shots in it. These shots are shot in deep focus, hence portraying the world more than focusing on one particular character. I remember one of the shots in the first scene, where the camera slowly tracks into the disciple being in awe of his guru. That shot was equivalent of a 10 min introduction of the character. I could see Cuaron's words coming through the film, about how even with small setups and budget - we can create cinematic imagery. 

It had a Moonlight sort of a coming-of-age vibe to it, which I absolutely loved. The film doesn't avoid truth, for the sake of being reverent - we see the guy jerking off to porn. There is a line said by the woman in the tapes - "technique can be taught, what can't be taught is truth and it needs bravery to look within oneself with unflinching honesty". This line stuck with me. The film succeeds in doing so. By seeing Sharad jerking off, we see his loneliness. My favorite parts of the film was, where he rides his bike in slow motion and there is transcendental sound and voice over of the woman - speaking truths of being a purist form of an artist. I was wondering about the kind of worldview the film was trying to present. It doesn't operate from a prejudiced worldview, where we select what falls within our theme. It neither says that purism works, nor do they say that it doesn't work. They present us with the truth, and capture it. What we take out of it, is up to us - if we want to be in the pursuit of excellence, or be content with what we are.  

Y Tu Mama Tambien Analysis

Y tu mama tambien (2001)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron

Cinematography: Emannuel Lubezki

Nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars.

The film starts with a sex scene. It's a long take. The camera is handheld and lingering. Raw and intimate. Sometime later, there is another scene where the two guys are jerking off by laying on two diving boards on a swimming pool, each - and they cum into the water, which is captured by an underwater shot. These scenes show us the way they treat sex to be very casual and open in the film. All of this punk tone, makes sense with the contrast they bring through the last scene where they are almost grown ups and are ready to finally face life.

It's a road film, where these two guys meet this women and travel with her. The way she ends up having sex with the both of them to not upset the other person, is funny. Especially, the guys end up fighting about infidelity all the time but they themselves can't resist themselves when they see a beautiful woman. The sex scenes are more effective because of the long takes. The camera feels so intrusive into their personal space. We can feel the motivation behind the camera.

The film uses an excellent editing technique, which practically any film can use to alter the film on the edit table - of course, it's an intimate and a personal film. The frame suddenly gets completely silent, we don't even hear the ambiance and then the voice over starts. We only hear the voice over, and after it's done - we go back to the scene. Something like this could be done with any film on the edit table. 

Irrational Man Analysis

Irrational Man (2015)

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone

Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2015.

This film is a creative cocktail of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and the classic Woody Allen - it's a blend of philosophy, infidelity, crime, morality set in a funny, light hearted world. The film has a difference in the way the characters emote, behave; and the way it's intended for us to feel. In a lot of scenes, the characters are going through a lot of conflict, and intense drama - for example: the revelation of a partner cheating on them, the revelation of a partner being a murderer, break ups, etc. But we never feel the intensity of these scenes, they are all shown from a very large perspective, about how all of this generally happens in life - the absurdity of life. The light hearted treatment of heavy scenes, puts the filmmaker on a higher stance. The way the scenes cut from an intense scene, abruptly - to a light hearted scene with jazz music, with poetic voice over - is what makes the transition to be seamless, between both the tones.

Woody Allen's way of portraying women - though he portrays them in his zone, free spirited, promiscuous, liberated, open to life - the depth and layers that he adds beyond this, makes every woman and every character in his film so unique and different from each other. The unique aspect is that he doesn't judge his characters, he sort of plays god and presents everyone with some honesty. He establishes characters with simple tools like, body language and dialogue. The ending of this film sort of surprised me because of the way it brings everything to normalcy, and this whole thing is just a phase in her life.

Mank Analysis

Mank (2020)

Directed by: David Fincher

Written by: Jack Fincher

Streaming on Netflix.

In this day and age of franchises and big tentpole films Netflix has been the only studio to be so generous to auteurs. It gives them money, and let's them make whatever they want to make - Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things and now David Fincher's Mank. These films are dream projects and they wouldn't be possible to make, at least in the way they want - if it was not for Netflix.

This film immediately plunges us into the world of Hollywood in the 1930s. With the opening titles, and the images that follow - we don't see pristine g that we usually see in a David Fincher film, it sort of replicates the look of the films made back then. This is unlike Cuaron's interpretation of capturing the past - I liked that more - because a film made in 2020 capturing the 1930s will be different from a film made in 1950 capturing the same world. This variation could also be artistic in a sense, how Roma was made.

I'm not a person who would take sides of either Welles or Mank, I respect both of them and with this film - I understood that they had certain differences and I have respect for the both of them now. After knowing that Mank had written that script, while going through troubles himself - it makes it a more personal story. I loved how the way, the film kicks off - 'there are millions to be made, and your only competition is a bunch of idiots'. It feels like Mank has a time blur throughout the time he's writing the screenplay, and only after writing it does he realize - that it's the best thing he's ever written.

It also captures how some things don't matter anymore, like the screenwriting credit here - though he fights for it, after a point he lets it go. He knows that he's done it and he's good at it, this only makes me wonder how many legendary artists, creators and sportspersons in the world are unheard of, because of bad luck or circumstances. Citizen Kane is a film that represents the megalomania that humans feel, and this film, Mank, about the story of Citizen Kane - is no lesser in representing the same.

Mighty Aphrodite Analysis

Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

Written & Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress - though I think that she's the actress in the leading role in this film).

It is rare that I crack up after reading the logline of a film. This film is about a man, Lenny, and his search for his genius adopted son's biological mother - although she turns out to be a dim-witted prostitute named Linda. The logline itself has the structure of a joke - the setup and the punchline. Although the film builds on this, it's not entirely about this aspect. The film deals with Lenny's relationship with Linda - where his intention is to get her married and "settled" so that when his son grows up and if he seeks to find his biological mother - he won't be "disappointed". As usual, all the characters are multifaceted and contradictory. The film talks about choice - should we let people be who they're or try to change them according to our understanding of what's good or bad? Lenny is always advicing her "for her good" - to quit prostitution, and to even quit her dreams of acting because it's tough and he essentially thinks that she won't be able to do it.

When Lenny finds out about his wife's (obvious) affair, he looks at Linda as an option - or he doesn't. They just have sex that day, for the first time and I thought that this is the classical Woody Allen pro-infidelity, counter culture worldview. But in the next scene, both Lenny and his wife go back to each other and realize that they love each other. It felt forced, but until they build on this and ultimately pay off. Now, Linda has Lenny's kid and Lenny has Linda's kid - and both of them don't know about it and it's all even now. This was a genius and probably the best possible pay off the film could have with that premise. This film doesn't deal with the existentialism, and the philosophy that he usually explores within the world of the story. This film is funny, right at the one-liner stage, and this doesn't rely on jokes in between the scenes (we also have these). 

Children of Men Analysis

Children of Men (2006)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron

Cinematography: Emanuel Lubezki

Streaming on Netflix.

It's a science fiction dystopian thriller - it's a world where fertility has stopped and it's a warzone everywhere. Miraculously, when a woman gets pregnant - Theo must ensure her safety.

At the core, this film is a survival thriller - it works on primitive levels. People trying to save a pregnant woman amidst war zones - it's an accessible story. But what Cuaron does masterfully is, he convincingly builds up the world - it feels so real and immersive. A simple story masterfully executed is always better than a complex, layered story executed in a substandard way. 

Cuaron uses every filmmaking tool to tell the story, to convince us of the world - most of the camera movements have a realistic, handheld vibe - it gives an unsettling effect. The long takes are unbelievably beautiful, and if long takes aren't executed or utilized to their best - then is when people find them gimmicky. There is a scene in the car, where they are attacked by people - that scene was breathtaking, because of the spontaneity of the events on screen. The camera finds multiple subjects within the scene and moves towards them, and every camera move is motivated and not random in this long take. 

The imagery of the world is so strong, we see navy blue and brown a lot and the look has an unsaturated vibe to it. The production design and costumes plays a key role in bringing in this kind of a look to the film, because the costumes, the entire roads and the walls are in a certain color a lot of times. 

One technique Cuaron uses in a lot of his films is, he never calls attention to the "scale" or the "budget" of the film. For example- the way they use extras in this film is so clever, they never show us the 100 extras walking beside - the extras just pass by behind the wall and we can only see them when the handheld camera moves a little away from the subject. This makes us believe that they're not extras and that people are all around, they're behind the walls and they're behind the camera and they're everywhere. It's not a film anymore. It's real. That's Alfonso Cuaron for you.

Ramaraju for Bheem - RRR Teaser

Ramaraju for Bheem - RRR Teaser

I generally don't write about trailers and teasers, but some of my strongest responses to cinema have been in trailers and teasers. Whether it's the Gangs of Wasseypur - 2 trailer cut, Super Deluxe's trailer cut or a lot of S. S. Rajamouli's trailers and teasers. This teaser has been haunting me from the moment I saw it, I watched it a lot of times. There are only few filmmakers who completely take control of me, as an audience when I'm watching something. I become a kid, when I'm watching Rajamouli's work - it's because I know that he will deliver for sure and no matter how huge my expectations are - he will reach them all the time.

Rajamouli says that he's more of a storyteller than a director, but the images he creates - is one of the reasons his films are universal. The teaser released in all languages, and the one of the strongest response has been towards the 6th shot in the teaser - the shot of the wave. Of course, the stories he tells are strongly rooted in our culture and the conflicts are mostly primal - but the curiosity of the audience is to see what kind of images he'd have created. I remember feeling the same when I watched Baahubali: The Conclusion's trailer. Even with his dream project - my curiosity is about the kind of images that he'd create. 

The underlying emotion that he carves out of Ram Charan (and even Prabhas) is that of honesty and integrity - we saw that in Magadheera and in Baahubali. That's their strength. The underlying emotion that he carves out of NTR is Roudram - we saw that in Simhadri and this emotion is like home territory to NTR - he does this seamlessly. So now in the teaser, it's evident that there's going to be a lot of Roudram from Bheem, I'm curious to see how Ramaraju's character is developed. When Rajamouli puts out something, it's a reminder of how achieving excellence could make us feel and why we should pursue it. 

Our Sunhi Analysis

Our Sunhi (2013)

Written and Directed by: Hong Sang-soo

Hong Sang-soo's films are mostly set in the world of film festivals, filmmakers, film students and film critics and he makes his films by writing from 4-9 am in the mornings, on the days of shoot. There are long conversations in cafe bars where the characters are drinking, eating - he adds some conflict by having interesting relationship conflicts between them. 

This film is about Sunhi, a recent film school graduate who is looking to get a letter of recommendation from her film professor for her Masters in Film in the US. He is trying to convince her to start making films instead, and stresses the importance of practical experience - and I was getting a lot of advice there. She later confronts her ex-boyfriend who makes a film about their failed relationship. She meets another filmmaker too, and all the three men are falling for her.

The best part about the film is that, it never tries to look down on any of the men for falling for her - it respects the identity of everyone. Usually in films where more than two people are falling for one person, they tend to show some of them as stupid - just because it's tough to empathise with a lot of people. But this film respects the identity of every character - however quirky they might be.

Hong Sang-soo's films, I think, are the pinnacle of the Personal Film Movement (a term which I'm coining, haha) because Hong's process is so light where he lets conversations flow instead of forcing them. I think Hong tries to focus on getting more life experiences, so that he can effortlessly make films about them, and I think he sees himself in a lot of characters in his films. His films inspire me to be more brave while writing.

Touch of Evil Analysis

Touch of Evil (1958)

Screenplay, Direction and Starring: Orson Welles

Spoilers ahead, it's a film noir.

This film is relevant till date, both in style and substance. It's about a bunch of cops, investigating a murder through a bomb blast in a car. It has a racial angle to it as well, which is what holds the relevance. Hank Quinlan played by Orson Welles is one hell of a character, he is racist, he seeks vigilante justice, he plants evidences and frames suspects because "he knew that they were guilty", and he is unapologetic and even proud about it. The mere outlook of Hank adds a layer to the character, especially his eyes and the way he looks. In a fight with Varga, he suggests a vote out and he wins - the idea of him winning through majority depicts the plight of minorities, you are always voted out, even if you don't deserve to.

The cinematography is so good, I was surprised by the long shot in the opening, I didn't see such long shots in the 50s and that too in the outdoors with such amounts of extras and camera movement - it was phenomenal, and here the long shot is in sync with the storytelling too, the shot cuts exactly at the inciting incident - the bomb blast. The technique of the lighting getting dim - on and off, especially when it's Hank - it conveys a sense of ambiguity, and it acts as a foreshadowing. Hank being a weird guy, to an outright murderer - it happens so effortlessly, we are never shocked or surprised by his actions - this is an indication of consistency and coherence in character, and that in a morally ambiguous character is everything.

Faces Places Analysis

Faces Places (2017)

Directed by: Agnès Varda and JR

A filmmaker, Agnes Varda and a photographer JR, embark on a journey together to meet people, capture their portraits and paste them on the surroundings. This could easily be the most beautiful film I've seen this year. This film is made by an 88-year old Agnes Varda, and it's so inspiring to see that someone at that age wanting to embrace the beauty of life. I've always thought of elderly people as "boring", patronizing, and who aren't impressed by anything; which they could be and I've always been concerned about how short youth could be - where we want to enjoy life to the fullest. But after watching this film, I've a belief that life could be enjoyed and lived till the time you die. I've already felt that by watching Woody Allen's films - but this film has inspired me to want to live for 100 years. When the world of a film inspires you so much, you can't talk about the characters, scenes - you're just in awe of the world and here, the world is life. I'm purely in awe of the beauty of life right now, and we need films like this once in a while to lift our spirits. Getting inspired by something, and looking forward to things in life, I think, are the best feelings one can experience and Agnes has both these qualities, which come through in the film as well.

It broke my heart when I read on her Wikipedia "Agnes Varda was a French film director..." - yes she passed away last year, and I'm so grateful that she made this film, and another film 'Varda by Agnes' before she passed. She has made 24 features, and some shorts too - I hope I can find them somewhere. Talking about Agnes, she never looks at him in a patronizing way - she is equally inspired as him in the journey. 

Spoiler Alert: When she says that they're going to meet Godard, I was so excited and I was myself surprised and even I felt so disheartened when he didn't turn up - and when JR asks her if Godard is trying to break the narrative of her film, I laughed out loud because she would've told him that they'll be filming it.

Contempt Analysis

 Contempt (1963)

Written & Directed by: Jean Luc Godard

Films which are set in the world of cinema are always intriguing, at least to film geeks. The opening shot has a camera tracking towards us slowly, with the credits being spoken out, and when it comes close to us - it slowly pans and tilts towards us. We have seen stories of filmmakers in films like Pain and Glory, 8 1/2, Stardust Memories, Day for Night, Hong Sang-soo's films and every filmmaker has a unique voice. Godard shoots long conversations between characters around one single conflict, the entire sequence in the house where they keep going back and forth - it holds our attention because of the way the conversation is designed, the proper orchestration of the amount of tension in the argument between them. Their conflict has two layers to it, about why she has stopped loving him and why she wouldn't tell him about what it is. It is just like ghosting, no matter what he asks her - she has stopped giving him answers.

We can't not talk about the style, when it is a Godard's film - in this film there is a sequence where we see some montages, and there is voice over of both the characters one after the other - I have never seen interchanging voice over of two different characters in one scene - it felt like a very interesting way to show both points of view - because usually films use voice over for one character, we dive deep into only that point of view and we see other characters from the lens of this character. And also, the camera movements were well used, whether it's a tracking back and forth between two characters while they are talking, or the slow panning shots to capture the landscapes. The translation from one language to another, actually adds to the scene in some places, not as much in Lost in Translation which generates humor out of it - here it adds a sense of uncertainty to the scene.

Uzak Analysis

Uzak (2002)

Written, Directed, Shot and Produced by: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Won Best Actor Male at Cannes Film Festival.

In one scene, Mahmut pretends to enjoy intellectual filmmakers like Tarkovsky and as soon as Yusuf leaves, he switches the DVD and watches porn. I laughed out loud at this scene, the filmmaker is making fun of himself as well - it's because even this film is slow and meditative. We get it right from the first shot of the film - it is a static wide shot of a person walking towards us, for more than two minutes, and then it pans a bit - this shot sets up the pace, as well as the visual aesthetics of the film. Most of the film has static long shots, it uses the off screen space as well - Ceylan's favorite filmmakers include Yasujiro Ozu which explains this influence. He is also influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni - who is known for his abstract filmmaking, to capture alienation.

This film is about loneliness, existentialism - films like these capture a certain facet of humanity and remind us that we are not alone in this - if we look for escapism in such films, we'd be bored to death. The very purpose of this film, is to make us feel the emptiness of life. We feel it when we look at Mahmut staring into his television, when the signal is lost. Films like these, are more about the setting, tonality and the overall viewing experience than the conflict, the events which happen in the film. They capture nature very well, the contrast between the exteriors and the interiors is distinguishable too - the exteriors are photographic frames, while the interiors are dull and grainy - depicting what they mean in the context of life. In the ending scene, when Mahmut sits on the bench and when the breeze hits his face, that's a good moment. I wonder if moments like these can be written on the script, they have to be captured on set.