Month: January 2016

Corn Island

corn island

The Inguri River is situated in Western Georgia. Since the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, both Georgia and Abkhazia keep troops on the river.  Russia also keeps peacekeeping troops. One of the spring floods has created a little island in the middle of the river as if made for the cultivation of corn.

“Corn Island” opens with the farmer (Ilyas Salman) examining a tiny island in the middle of the water. He builds a small hut there and brings his granddaughter (Mariam Buturishvili) out to help him plant corn.  From time to time, small boats carrying soldiers cruise by.  Some speak Georgian, some speak Abkhaz.   Another batch of soldiers speak Russian. Occasionally there are gunshots.  Writer/director George Ovashvili shows how two people on opposite ends of life eke out an existence.  After years of searching for an island that might work, Ovashvili decided to build one from scratch-actually two, one for overhead shots and another within an artificial lake, where he had total freedom to operate the camera.  Through a farmer and his granddaughter’s journey, Corn Island manages to explore the ways in which war, in a generic sense, wages battle on land, bodies and time.

Birdman

Birdman

It is a 2014 American film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It was written by Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo.   The film was shot in New York City during the spring of 2013 with a budget of $16.5 million jointly financed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, New Regency Pictures and Worldview Entertainment.

Keaton is Riggan Thomson , a former film star whose claim to fame is having played a superhero ,Birdman.  Riggan wants to make his big comeback , and bid for credibility by writing ,directing and starring in an adaptation of Raymond Carver stories on the Broadway stage.  The protagonist’s on screen and off screen struggles whirl around at a rapid pace as the camera follows him through the narrow shabby , sets , halls and rooftops of the theater. While the Birdman trailers have positioned this film of Inarritu as counter-programming to Marvel and DC’s burgeoning cinematic universes ,the actual story is focused on more personal matters : troubled relationships ,artistic integrity, Broadway versus Hollywood.  Birdman is about a father ,husband ,lover ,business partner and actor. Birdman is basically a shadowy figure from Thomson’s past- one that ,above all else ,haunts him (as a voice to his self-loathing).

Together Inarritu and cinematographer Lubezki make ambitious use of a Broadway theater stage-employing every inch of the building to give the impression that most of Birdman was filmed in one continuous take.  Emma Stone supports Keaton as his daughter Sam, a recovering addict who wants little to do with her dispassionate father , but has little choice , being stuck with him while her mother is unable to take her in.
She’s bold and combative in a way that doesn’t feel simplistic or overzealous. Keaton gave a great performance as the main protagonist -the fact that he’d starred in Batman and Batman Returns in past added a self-reflexive touch to the film.

 

 

Swayamvaram

swayamvaram

Swayamvaram is credited with being the pioneer of the Malayalam New Wave Cinema. It is co-written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film shows the life of a couple-Vishwam (Madhu) and Sita (Sharada) -who have married against their parents’ wishes and want to start a new life somewhere else.  He starts looking for a job , and aspires to be a writer and publish his own novel while  Sita looks for small jobs. Financial pressure leads to vishwam and Seeta moving out of their home and seeking a cheaper place to stay. Eventually they both end up in a slum with a prostitute as their neighbour.   Vishwam finds a job as teacher in a junior college but soon loses it and finally ends up working as a clerk in a small factory.

Adoor  Gopalakrishnan made his debut with this film.  Swayamvaram is an ancient tradition in which the girl was given a choice to choose her groom as she liked.   In the words of Adoor , this film is all about choices; the protagonists could have chosen any one of them but they chose what they had conviction in.  An important aspect of the film is its cinematography which aids the director in creating haunting beautiful images. There is creative use of sounds as letitmotif to create unique musical notes, something which was quite new to indian films then.  The great Bharat Gopi made his debut here in a very small role at the end. An impressive debut by Adoor.

Ashadh Ka Ek Din

ashadh ka ek din

Mani Kaul’s Hindi film is based on play of the same name by Mohan Rakesh.  The title    of  the play derives from the second verse of Kalidasa’s play Meghaduta.  It literally means “one day during the monsoon”.  It depicts the love of Mallika and Kalidasa, the famous    Sanskrit poet and dramatist. Kalidasa lives in Himalayan village and is romantically linked with Mallika.   However he is invited to king Chandragupta’s court in far-off Ujjaini. Mallika sacrifices her love and encourages him to go to ujjaini. Vilom, a friend of Kalidasa and interested in Mallika, is a passive onlooker mostly.  One-day passing through his village with his queen ,he ignores mallika. Mallika makes her life complete without him.

 The characters’ lines were pre-recorded and played back during shooting thereby freeing the actors from any kind of theatrical conventions.  The sparse realism of ‘ Uski Roti’ is replaced by  Mahajan’s sensuously shot landscapes and relaxed camera movements , minutely registering light changes within the frame.