Had to mention Casablanca eventually! Might as well do it now. Very good movie. You can call it the mother of all Love Stories and you would be right on the money. It is almost the yardstick on which love stories ought to be rated.
One look at the protagonist Rick Blaine, and you know that nobody other than Bogart could have pulled it off! Ingrid Bergman is the epitome of beauty and sensuality in the film. Man, does she light up the screen! Some very tight direction by Mr. Michael Curtiz and you know you have a winner here.The city of Casablanca here is almost a character on its own, surprising, considering the fact that the entire picture was shot in the studio, except for the sequence showing Major Strasser’s arrival, filmed at Van Nuys Airport!The story is powerful but a little cliched, considering modern sensibility, but one has to remember that this was the time (the movie was released in 1942) before cliches were invented, in a matter of speaking!The film is also known for it’s contribution of quotations and one-liners to popular culture. Here are some of my favourites:
1. “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.”
2. “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
3. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
4. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” (THE BEST ONE!)
For people who like keeping score here is the Oscar recognition given to the picture as per Wikipedia:
Last but not the least I would like to mention two of the actors in supporting roles: Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre
Very good performances by both and it must be mentioned here that they worked successfully together in many a classic movie and also that they were both pioneering character actors in Hollywood.
I’ll end the review with one of the highlights of the movie, the song As Time Goes By sung by Dooley Wilson (playing the character of Sam).
This was an absolute treat to watch. I have seen the movie only a couple of times, and it’s been a long time since then, but as with all good movies it has left a lasting impression.
Chariots of Fire is a British film released in 1981 and is based on the true story of British athletes preparing for and competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture. The title is a quotation from the hymn Jerusalem which is a setting of a poem by William Blake.
Great films are those where a couple scenes stay with the viewer long after the story and characters fade in one’s memory. This movie is no exception. The Trinity Great Court run at Trinity College, Cambridge, which involves running around the court before the clock finishes striking 12, and the scene where Eric Liddell (one of the protagonists) tells his sister (who worries he is too busy running to concern himself with their missionary work) he feels inspired: “I believe that God made me for a purpose… (the mission), but He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure,” come readily to mind.
The film is also special for me because of the theme tune of the picture by Vangelis, which comes up in the background score several times during the course of the film.
Rather than raving about it, I would like my readers to draw their own conclusions about this particular theme. Check it out below!
I have been a movie buff for quite some time now. Movies are great media for the simple reason that while imitating life they portray larger-than-life characters and incidents. I had my awakening into moviedom somewhere in the middle of the nineties, back when Cable Television in India was ruling the roost surpassing, by far, anything that had existed until then. Before Cable TV all we had were a couple of channels (a third one emerged a bit later, I think) from the Doordarshan stable, which was and still is India’s National Broadcaster. I would imagine that the TV remote was defunct back then!
Well, with Cable TV came the only decent and dedicated movie channel on offer at that time, Star Movies. It was around that time that I became hooked onto some very good (and some bad ones, I might add) cinematic fare. Once that happened Hindi movies started to look pretty ordinary. Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good cinema in whatever language it is presented in, but somehow at that point in time Hindi movies were very amateurish with the least attention given to the script.
Fast forward to the present time and we are in the middle of a cinematic revolution in India, with some very original concepts, terrific technique and very good presentation. I think people in India would agree with me when I say that a large share of the credit for this revolution must be given to Laagan, a breakthrough film from every point of view.
For me, any talk of cinema is incomplete without mentioning the maestro of Bengali cinema, Satyajit Ray. You know, back when I was a kid, people close to me used to comment that his cinema, while being very thought provoking and cerebral filled with analogies and allusions. But for me, Ray remains this master story-teller who will draw you into his canvas and make you empathise while at the same time thoroughly entertaining you. For the uninitiated I would recommend Parash Pathar (The Philosopher’s Stone), the Apu Trilogy (consisting of Pather Panchali (Song Of The Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)), Kanchenjungha, Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) and the Feluda and Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne films.
Posted by Tathagata 
Posted by Tathagata 
Posted by Tathagata 
