INCENDIES (2010)

DVD-PICK

Incendies(2010), is a French-Arabic movie directed by Denis Villeneuve gained much appreciation for its excellent plot, well crafted screenplay and some amazing performance by the leading actors. The movie is based on a play called Incendies by Wajdi Mouwad.

PLOT

Nawan Marwan (Luban Azabal), the mother of Jeanne (Mellisa Poulin) and Simon hand over two letters and a surprisingly unique will to her lawyer for whom she worked as a secretary before her death. The mother expects nothing from her children but to find their father and brother. The twins are shocked when the letters are given to them, because the will of her mother is quite different from an ordinary one. The letters are supposed to be handed over to their father and brother, but before them lay a tough task of finding them in a foreign country. Jeanne decides to search her father and brother in Middle East, whereas her brother stays back in Canada but soon joins her. The story moves rather slowly than expected but without losing its track it peaks well at the right moments sensing the pulse of the audience, hats off to the director for a well stitched screen-play. The movie fluctuates from past to present to show the war atrocities in the name of religion only helps the director to tell about the sufferings of young Nawan and the war atrocities in the name of religion. As the story slowly unravels before us, we head to a shocking revelation, something which we can’t expect in an Indian movie. The movie was well received by the critics and bagged several international awards but sadly missed the Oscars. For a movie despite a strong story line losing in prestigious events like Oscars certainly gives us a mixed feeling, and even occasionally makes me to question the credentials of Academy Awards. Nevertheless the movie scored well with the audience which is I think more important than anything else.

Bottomline: A heart rending master piece which should’nt be missed out.

Of Gods and Men

Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) 2010, is a French movie directed by Xavier Beauvois. It is about a bunch of Trappist Monks at an Algerian monastery threatened by Islamic terrorists. The movie received several accolades when it was released and more importantly this movie is said to be based on a true unpleasant events in 1995.

PLOT: A small group of French Christian monks live in a Monastery situated in the Algerian Countryside. Father Christian’s (Lambert Wilson) character has been well etched and crafted. As a strong believer of love he persuades other monks to stay in the Monastery. Another important character in the movie has been acted out well by a well known face in the French Cinema, Michael Lonsdale. Father Luc (Michael Lonsdale) is a doctor without expectations desperately wants to serve the people as long as he could. Islamist terrorists constantly trouble the monks asking for more medicines despite knowing the latter are running out of stock. Father Christian’s courage has been well portrayed throughout the movie. Algerian government repeatedly pleads the monks to leave but the monks decides to stay inspire knowing the fact that their stay further adds more turmoil. The Character of every monk has its own importance, though initially some of them wanted to leave but later, they all decide that to flea has nothing to add to their sacrifice of becoming as monks. The movie was well received at the box-office and also gained critical acclamation for its screenplay and not to forget the music is exceptionally convincing at all means. It was premiered at the Cannes Film festival and was nominated for several awards including that of BAFTA.

Obscenity

Obscenity in lyrics few decades back was considered a taboo, but now things have changed drastically nobody actually cares about it. As far as Indian movies are concerned, songs are not just ‘songs’-they depict our culture seriously. Ever since we entered into the world of celluloid, songs have been playing a crucial part and there can’t be any denial. Most of the lyrics are not obscene but few are, they are either covert or requires certain amount of maturity to comprehend the real intentions of lyricists. Indian culture has accepted certain elements, only when people accepted minimal obscenity, lyricists started to lurk.

Repulsion-Timeless Classic

Repulsion (1965) is a psychological thriller movie directed by noted director Roman Polanski. The movie gained critical acclamation for its narrative style and it is still considered as one the best movies under the thriller genre.

Plot:
Carol (Catherine Deneuve) is a young and good looking lady who works in nail salon in London has a strange phobia called androphobia. People who suffer from androphobia generally fear the presence of men; they avoid any sort of interaction with men. Carol is closely attached to her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) and stays with her but hates her sister for her relationship with a married person. James Frazer as Colin comes as a boyfriend to Carol but finds it hard to cope with her because of her abnormal behaviour. Carol behaviour turns worse only when Helen and her boyfriend leave on a holiday to Italy. Her psychosis turns very bad and she totally withdraws herself from the real world. Frustrated by her behaviour Colin tries to call her upon in her house but she refuses to open the door, not knowing what to do Colin breaks open the door but eventually gets killed by her, she then dumps the body in the bathtub. While Carol’s hallucinations take a dead turn, the landlord of the house meets her only to get killed. Unaware of the all these happenings Carol’s sister reaches London with her boyfriend only to witness two dead bodies lying in her apartment, while her sister suffers from schizophrenia.

The movie was highly praised by the critics and was also nominated for several awards including BAFTA. Every character in the movie was neatly crafted and the performances of the actors were quite remarkable, especially that of Catherine Deneuve with her stunning looks delivered an unmatched performance and gained several accolades for her role.

Turn of the decade

As we are all eagerly looking forward in welcoming the brand new year, one should not also forget the fact that we are at the end of the decade. Lot of happenings occurred in these past ten years the most remarkable achievements were seen in the field of technology. Not only, has the world seen a significant growth in the advancement of science and technology but also in sex and relationships. I just want to share ‘The Three’ of the decade.

Mobile Phones
Mobile phones in the early years of this decade was seen as an unnecessary element but now at end of this decade it has become a part of our lifestyle and one can’t even imagine a day without mobile phones. It has come a long way from being just a device to ‘talk and end’ to smart phones-which can do a lot than just ‘talk and end’.

Social networking
Though the Social networking sites grew only in the middle years of this decade it has seen a tremendous response in the end. Gone are those days when people used Internet only for gathering information.

Sex and relationships
The way we see ‘sex’ has changed a lot in India. Sex the word itself which was considered as a taboo has changed gradually in this decade. Words like Gay, Lesbian; heterosexuality has become common words of expressions. Another factor is the rise of Divorce cases, relationship these days soar much earlier than expected because of several factors like:
Life in Metros: People who live in the urban set up are much more egoistic than the people in rural places and one of the reasons behind this is quite obvious, education. Education has definitely helped our lifestyle to reach a new level but not our relationships; it only gives us the unwillingness to accept our faults and makes us even more egoistic. Factors like self –centeredness refuses to move away and paves way for separation.

Stressful life: We are living in an unconvincing world which always expects more from us and never let us to look after ourselves. Our modern world has given nothing but frustration and tension and gives away very less time to think about emotions. Relationship is all about spending more time with the spouse but very less time is spent for highly sensitive intimate relationship and that is the core reason for the relationship to go downward spiral.
Talking about relationships one cannot ignore about Live-In Relationship which has also become more common in recent times. The decade has shown us new a new perspective towards life and more importantly it has been a path breaking decade.

A chat with Jaishree Misra Part 3

Jaishree Misra Interview Part-III

A chat with Jaishree Misra Part 2

Jaishree Misra Interview Part-II