Classics

There have been few filmmakers more celebrated but less comprehended than Sergei Paradjanov who, along with Tarkovsky, is acknowledged as one of the two greatest filmmakers to emerged from the former USSR - at least after the early period of the pioneers (Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko etc). The late Paradjanov spent 15 years in Soviet prisons and therefore made only four feature films in his entire career.

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) is a strange film in black and white and set in a small unnamed town. A circus comes to the town in the dead of night and its chief exhibit is the giant carcass of a whale. Also advertised alongside the whale and various other marine wonders is a performance from a mysterious person called ‘˜The Prince'. The story is told from the viewpoint of a simple postman named Janos who is fascinated by creation and its mysteries....

Truffaut had a gift for spotting interesting literature in pulp fiction-that too from distant lands-and turning them into remarkable works of cinema. Shoot the Piano Player was based on an American pulp novel called "Down There" by David Goodis. (Others include Cornell Woolrich's novels that were the basis of the Truffaut films Mississippi Mermaid and The Bride wore Black and another of Ray Bradbury that metamorphosed into the Truffaut film Fahrenheit 451). This gift of spotting gems from pulp fiction actually helped the struggling authors. After the success of the film Shoot the Piano Player, the noir fiction writer's book "Down There" was republished as Shoot the Piano Player, a rare example of how cinema affects literature in a positive way.

The Silence was the first Bergman film I ever saw, way back in 1973 as part of a film society screening in Chennai. India. I loved the disturbing and profound film but could not come to grips with why I loved it so much. Was the graphic carnal content (for the social standards of that decade) a reason for my liking it? Was it the austere film making where ticking of a clock was the most important sound effect in the film? Was it because of the mesmerizing performances? Was it due to the theological and existential content?

Few films have exerted such profound and lasting influence on viewers the world over as The Bicycle Thieves, which was made sixty years ago. Its maker, the legendary master of Italian neo-realism, Vittorio de Sica (1901-1974), directed a series of outstanding films, but none with a greater impact on the connoisseur and commoner alike than The Bicycle Thieves.

12 Angry Men forms the cream of greatest American films ever made and is in the same league as Kubrick's and Ford's masterpieces, writes Srikant Srinivasan

If I was to choose one debut movie from Hollywood that I would have loved to make, it would not be Citizen Kane (1941), it would not be Duel (1971) but it would be Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957). Perhaps the word "Powerhouse" was coined keeping 12 Angry Men in mind. The film still has the raw power to shake, thrill and move audience of any generation. The granddaddy of all courtroom dramas.

12 Angry men follows the decision making process of the 12 titular men, coming from various strata of the society, on a teenage murder convict inside a single room as all of them but one ritualistically try to wrap up things with the seemingly solid evidence provided to them. Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is disgusted at disposing off a life so simply and tries to make the rest of them deliberate over their decision. What begins as a single dissident voice turns out into a fierce tug of war that gradually descends into a no competition. All of them slowly realize that what they have at hand is supposed to be a qualitative process and not quantitative and that there is more than a vote at stake.

12 Angry men remains one of the best character studies made on film till date. The protagonists enter the room with wide range of mentalities ranging from boredom and arrogance to curiosity and apathy. As the day progresses, each person's mentality catalyses the others' and the chemistry within the members changes in order to suit each other's ideologies. At the end of it all, not only is the prejudice of the characters shattered but so is the audience's preconceived notion about the power of cinema. The viewer will walk out of the movie with open minds as the characters walk out of the dreaded room.

The most stunning aspect about the film is that nobody knows the truth at the end of the ordeal - Neither the characters nor the audience. One is reminded slightly of Kurosawa's minimalist masterpiece Rashomon (1950), for both deal with subjective accounts of crimes and yearning for absolute truth. Kurosawa's film leaves the audience helpless and craving for objectivity with the woodcutter's benign act being the only comforting element, whereas 12 Angry Men makes them gradually reconcile with the fact that there is much more to "truth" than meets the eye. The film's greatest success lies not in changing the decision of the characters, but in making them and the audience acknowledge the fact that there are possibilities outside their frame of minds.

Minimalism in film is ironically a very tough job and not many have achieved it with success. As they say, it is difficult to be simple. Pulling off a film inside a single room and with a dozen characters is definitely not an easy task and Lumet has done it with more than perfection. What could have easily rolled off to a claustrophobic garrulous mess is instead fabricated into a gripping study of human characters and group dynamics. The performances are all top rate and one wonders if these characters were written with the corresponding actors in mind. Lee. J. Cobb's loud arrogance is as moving as Martin Balsam's quiet leadership. Such great casting never comes often.

Needless to say, 12 Angry Men forms the cream of greatest American films ever made and is in the same league as Kubrick's and Ford's masterpieces, if not better. Be whatever your mood while you watch the film, you will end up awe-struck at the flawless execution and at the realization that only "Seeing is Believing".

P.S: I started writing on Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986), but changed my mind later. Nevertheless, this article goes to one of the finest talents from the industry, Paul Newman (1925-2008)

At a time when film-noir had become a genre and heist films had become a sub-genre, The Killing sought to break away from rigid rules and provide fluidity and hence novelty to the genre, writes Srikanth Srinivasan

Whenever Kubrick's canon of films is discussed, this quiet little early gem is invariably lost out amidst the mammoths like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and A Clockwork Orange (1971). But very much in the same way the latter films defined cinema of their decades, The Killing (1956) forms a vital film of the 50's Hollywood.

The Killing follows a group of men who plan to carry out a robbery in a race course booking center. The group includes a cop in financial distress, an ex-convict who dreams of getting away to a remote place with his all-trusting girlfriend, the bumbling cashier at the booking counter, an employee at the course and a couple of other contract hires. They carry out the plan as per the text book alright, but the real trouble begins later, as usual. Things deviate from the schedule and needless to say, go awry. Thus follows a Tarantino-esque proceeding towards an immortal climactic scene.

When viewed today, it is inevitable that one is reminded of films like Reservoir Dogs (1992) and similar movies of the Tarantino age. The ultra-solemn genre of heist films is considered to be resurrected by the wry humour of Reservoir Dogs. But Kubrick had done the same even during the inception of the genre. Consider the scene where Sherry (Marie Windsor) is shot by her husband George (Elisha Cook). She goes down saying "It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line.". Now which director (but Kubrick) in his right senses would have made such a move in the age of Rififi (1954) and Asphalt Jungle (1950)?

The Killing is perhaps the oldest film with non-linear narration that I have seen. Multiple points of view give rise to different visual segments that overlap temporally and evoke a sense of thrill that is so uncharacteristic of the 50's. I don't know how the audience would have reacted then, but when viewed today, the film seems to have grown with time and its potency to enthrall audience has visibly become enhanced, considering the slew of films based on similar structures that flooded the 90's. The film provides ample scope for a remake, for it seems tailor made for the new audience.

Black comedy, that would go on to become a strong point in many Kubrick films, clearly shows its roots in The Killing. The movie's intense plot never becomes heavy handed, thanks to the presence of a comic thread throughout, be it in the strained relationship between the Peatty couple or be it in the intriguing arrogance of Nikki Arcane. Though the explicit oral narration becomes irritating at places, the film's dynamics have enough to overcome that. At a time when film-noir had become a genre and heist films had become a sub-genre, The Killing sought to break away from rigid rules and provide fluidity and hence novelty to the genre.

It is fascinating to see what Kubrick has churned out without the use of even one A-list actor. The Killing was enough to launch Kubrick big time and tell the industry that he had arrived. There was no stopping the master now.

Akira Kurosawa's superlative Rashômon might just be one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. The miraculous work of a filmmaker whose standing as one of cinema's great visionaries is unquestionable, this beautiful ode to silent film gorgeously translates the key elements of that era (the close-up facial shots especially) while covering new ground, recently revisited with lumbering effect by the mediocre Vantage Point. The film has inspired countless subsequent ones, its expertly-utilised multi-narrative tactics and wavering between characters' points of view divisive when originally released to Japanese audiences and critics, yet exactly the sort of style that has made Kurosawa's gorgeous masterpiece as adored as it is in the modern day. This is filmic poetry.

In the history of cinema, Lawrence of Arabia is a landmark film by director David lean. This film popularized the story of T.E Lawrence who in the First World War led the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire (turkey) for the liberation of Arabia. Since the story is based on historic fact, what makes this film great is that it combines great acting by its cast along with stunning direction by Lean and cinematography by Freddie Young. This movie which has stood the test of time since its release in 1962 is a must watch and was made to be seen on the big screen.

Blanc ("White" in English) is easily the film lacking layers in Kieślowski's Trois Couleurs trilogy. Though interestingly it is the film having the most rich storyline out of the three. Both Bleu and Rouge have stories that are simple if you consider a story by the number of events that happen and the number of twists that the tale takes. Yet, both are exceedingly rich in metaphors, in cinematic challenges achieved, in the psychological depths that they enter into through their characters and of their characters, and both are extremely thought-provoking.