Cinema Cinema

Movie: The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) Language: Spanish Genre: Drama Director: Alejandro Amenábar Year: 2004 Watched on: 23 May 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) This is a touching true life story of a Spanish fisherman Ramón Sampedro who spent nearly 30 years of his life campaigning in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die. Ramón (Javier Bardem) is left quadriplegic after a freak diving accident. Ramón lives with his father, brother, sister-in-law and young nephew. Two women are in love with him, Julia (Belen Rueda) a lawyer who herself is suffering from serious ailment and a single mother Rosa (Lola Duenas) who is also a DJ in local radio station. The film is all about Ramóns life, thoughts, emotions and the people who love him. Director Alejandro Amenabar has done a great job and make film look a like a beautiful poem. The script is crisp, performances are brilliant, music is fantastic and cinematography is spellbinding. More than all the ...

Movie: Amadeus Language: English/Italian Genre: Drama/Music Director: Milos Forman Year: 1984 Watched on: 1 May 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) The Cinema adaptation of Peter Shaffers famous play Amaedus by Milos Forman is rich in content full of vivid and colorful images and brilliant music. The subject of the film is the love, hate and jealous relationship of Antonio Salieri who was the mediocre court composer of Austrian Emperor Joseph III with Wolfgang Amaedus Mozart and his work. Though it is historically inaccurate account of the things, it still makes a good movie because of the feel it creates. Undoubtedly Mozart was a genius but Antonio Salieris work was never considered mediocre. The entire story is unfolded in flashbacks by Salieri in mental asylum. Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is highly confronted with the gift of music granted by god to the rude, immodest, fancy and footloose Mozart (Tom Hulce). Salieri is in awe of Mozarts music, he can recognize the genius of Moza...

Movie: The Pianist Language: English/German/Russian Genre: Drama/War/Holocaust Director: Roman Polanski Year: 2002 Watched on: 30th April 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) Famed Director Roman Polanski presents extraordinary true life story of a Polish Jew Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. The film is based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman and is set during Second World War when Hitlers Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Szpilman (Adrian Broody) is an employee and gifted Pianist employed by Polish Radio. As German forces tighten their noose on Poland, all the Jews in Warsaw are forced to move in to ghetto leaving their processions. Driven to destitution, the Jews are constantly subjected to humiliation, abuse and death by German Nazis. A friend in Jewish police formed by Nazis saves Szpilman by pulling out of a train bound to concentration camp but his family members arent that lucky. Later Szpilman with luck and help of polish friends survives the entire period of Nazi occupation o...

Movie: Talk to her (Hable con ella) Language: Spanish Genre: Drama Director: Pedro Almodóvar Year: 2002 Watched on: 29th April 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) Spanish Writer Director Pedro Almodóvar delivers a brilliant film with a complex story line, complex characters and wide variety of emotions. Simply put, its a story of two men who are in love with ladies who are comatose. One is Benigno (Javier Cámara), a lonely male nurse who has spent most of his adult life happily taking care of his invalid mother and now, since her death, has transferred that affection to a beautiful young BallerinaAlicia (Leonor Watling) left brain-dead by a traffic accident. The other is Marco (Darío Grandinetti), a travel journalist in love with a lady bullfighter (Rosario Flores) who, after being gored in the ring, is also left in a vegetative state and is being cared for in the same Madrid hospital where Benigno works. The two men meet while standing vigil over their co...

Movie: Boogie Nights Language: English Genre: Drama/Thriller Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Year: 1997 Watched on: 23rd April 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) A brilliant one by P T Anderson. He takes audience for a trip down the alley of American porn industry starting from 1977 and ending in 1984. The film is an exotic cocktail made of several interesting characters weaving a story that makes one laugh, get shocked and sympathize at times. Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) accidentally discovers Eddie (Mark Wahlberg) who has something special that can make him porn superstar. The film is all about life of Eddie a.k.a Dirk Diggler, people around him and the profession he is in. The film it seems is loosely based on life of porn superstar John Holmes. Interesting characters of the movie include, A porn star mother Amber(Julian Moore), fighting for her kid, Roller girl (Heather Graham) who never takes her skates off. Little Bill(William H. Macy) who always finds his wife with someone e...

Movie: Blood Simple Language: English Genre: Drama/Thriller Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen Year: 1984 Watched on: 22nd April 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: *** (3/5) This movie is the famed Coen Brothers first movie. This movie is credited as one of the movies that started independent cinema movement in Hollywood. A bar-owner Marty in Texas through a hired private detective Visser comes to know that his wife Abby is cheating on him. Her lover is Ray who happens to be employee of the bar. Marty hires the private detective to kill his wife and her lover. But the private detective has his own plans. Overall a good film if not extraordinary. I think the characters that standout because of performance are those of Marty (Dan Hedaya) and the private detective (M. Emmet Walsh). Others performance is just about ok. The script is tight and the direction is impressive. On the technical front photography is good and music goes well with the movie. The sound too is good, the slow beat of fans ...

Movie: Ôdishon (Audition in English) Language: Japanese Genre: Horror/Thriller Director: Takeshi Miike Year: 1999 Watched Date: 20th April 2005 Reviews: Chandrakanth: **** (4/5) I think it is a very interesting movie. It is one of the best horror flicks I have ever seen. Yep way ahead of loud Hollywood movies in the same genre like "I know what you did last summer", "Scream", "Nightmare on elm street" etc. What works for this movie is the mixture of gore and realism. Luckily there are no wounds oozing green blood , Metal nails , ugly mask and other special effects. The movie starts off with romantic mood where Ayoma is seeking a new wife, later it slowly wears a shade of mystery when lady Asami goes missing before a shocking finale. The shock value I guess is tremendous. The initial pace and mood are deceptive as they camouflage gory violence. Basically it screws up our perception of what's going to happen. Cinematography is excellent. Though t...