Schedule for Week 5

Here is the schedule for the coming week

Monday - Crime and Punishment by Aki Kaurismäki (Finnish)
Tuesday - Khosla Ka Ghosla by Dibkar Banerjee (Hindi)
Wednesday - The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky (American)
Thursday - The Elephant Man by David Lynch (American)
Friday - Camera Buff by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Polish)
Saturday - Aa Dekhen Zara by Jehangir Surti (Hindi)

Oh man, if I wasn't looking for variety I'd say the Bollywood ones are the weakest by far. Am looking forward to everything though, good or bad. This week promises to be more stellar than the last!

Le Divorce by James Ivory

Category: English

Matthew Modine is a waste in this movie, Jesus Christ.

The movie follows the life of Kate Hudson who meets her sister Naomi Watts( who is having marital problems of her own). Kate Hudson's character continues to socialize in Paris despite her sisters predicament. Worse still Naomi Watts is pregnant. There's a lot of jibes on the Parisians and their view and take on things particularly towards the end with the authorities and the police. But the movie isn't always rosy and that makes the otherwise dumb plot a little believable.

The movie is entertaining in extremely small parts and I wouldn't recommend this, unless of course if you're interested in watching two of the finest women in Hollywood then this movie could be one of those weekend flicks you catch. Also the cast is massive so watch out for big people in small roles.

Recommendation level: 1.5/5. Read above comment on Matthew Modine.

Moolaadé by Ousmane Sembene

Category: Non-English

Not being so acquainted with African cinema I happened to stumble on this movie by pure curiosity. I thought I was going to be really bored, but boy I was surprised. Ousmane is such a wonderful and passionate director, it's however not seen in his style or cinematography techniques, relying heavily on his own vision he makes films.

This movie is about a ritual called "purification" which is essentially female circumcision. A woman decides to stand up against this by calling forth a "Moolaadé". A ancient mystic power that is signified by a ribbon tied across the entrance to the house. One particular character who stands out aside from the protagonist is a man called Mercenary. His comments seem almost flowing from the directors mouth. This movie is definitely a must see for world cinema fans & enthusiasts. Despite the subject at hand, it has been handled so gently by the director that you have no idea he's making comments about women's rights and Africa.

Recommendation level: 4/5 the only reason why it loses one rating point is because of its length. Get this movie now, at any Crossword/Landmark!

Malamaal Weekly by Priyadarshan

Category: Hindi

Yes, the day has come that I even watch a lot of hindi films, the truth is this movie is genuinely funny. Set in rural India where a village affected by years of poverty and poor crops. After giving it all up to a cruel LandLady (!) a lottery ticket seems to be their claim to riches. The only catch? The winner of the contest, a member of their village ends up dead. How they deal with this while also slowly having their humanity removed due to the greed of money forms the crux of the story.

Paresh Rawal, puts in another performance that reminds us all of Hera Pheri, while Om Puri is pretty stellar. The rest of the cast includes the regulars like Shakti Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh, Asrani and a host of others.

Recommendation level: 2/5 - The movie is definitely funny and a must check out, even though it's a little too long in places with crappy sub plots it's still over all funny than the average comedy you see these days which is littered with crass humour. The only problem with the movie is, it doesn't stand out and while I write this review I can't remember any funny moments aside from Baje's hair.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Henry Levine

Category: English

Definitely one of the movies you should be watching to reminisce about the sci-fi movies of old. The movie follows a basic plot line where a professor makes way to the center of the earth aided by a student, a big Icelandic man & a widow. They follow the trial left by an old scientist who believed he had discovered the center of the earth and that "Atlantis" was in fact real. The movie of course is an adaptation of Jules Verne' classic novel.

The performances are top notch although the professor is definitely the most annoying person I've seen (even more than Zachary Smith from Lost in Space). Even though he's the good guy, he's annoying as fuck. But there's an awesome duck named Gertrude to make up for that...

Recommendation level: 2/5. The movie is a bit long but has it's own charm, take a look if you like old sci-fi movies, but then again perhaps that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Dancer by Kishore Vyas

Category: Hindi

Jesus Christ, it wasn't even possible to get a proper poster for this movie, needless to say you can recognize Akshay Kumar's face in this long forgotten 1991 movie. Raja (Akshay Kumar) has his father murdered by Dalip Tahil, who makes Raja's mother confess to killing her own husband.

WHAT?

Exactly, this movie is sadly funny being so stupid at places, I had to check it out since it was just Rs. 28/- and it had Akshay in a movie I had not heard of. The women are weird and the acting is crap, heck Akshay Kumar sounds even more manlier than he is today (obvious dub).

Recommendation level: 0.5/5 (1/5 for Akshay Kumar fans) seriously this is a let down by anyone's standards. Still if you want to cash in on some "omg I watch crappy movies and laugh when I am drunk with friends" of that then the 0.5 rating is meant for you.

Fallen Angels by Wong Kar-Wai

Category: Non-English

Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express was considered a pioneer in many ways be it, its technical expertise or it's understanding and execution of relationships in a society in constant conflict. It didn't work towards an ending and let the film simply "be".

With Fallen Angels, WKW tries to paint another portrait of individuals in conflict. His characters typically supressing themselves in one way or another. This one has a hitman, his business partner, a mute man & a blonde - these characters try their best to express. You can argue with me about the Gullit fan but she in no way suffers or is emotionally supressed.

The movie is brilliantly executed, the long lasting face shots interlaced with music and commentary is stunning (Doyle!). The characters are well played and most of all there's the trademark music from WKW. The only let down I had was that he tries to work to an end and that doesn't make it as likeable as Chungking.

Pretty faces all around.

Recommendation level: 4.5/5 - read above remarks! Get it for 4.5 rating I've given, for at the end of the day this is still a WKW movie.