ward #6

the hunchback of notre dame

theanalogkid — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:07:50 +0000

the title is a result of some bad translation and nothing else. it should have just been notre dame perhaps. the hunchback had perhaps the role that was equal in importance and weight of atleast 3 other characters in the book. for a book written in 1831 about a story set in 14th century paris, this book was extremely readable thanks to the wonderful translation by lowell bair. there are no heroes in the book, there are no one-dimensional caricatures. this has to be one of the best books to read when it comes to character development as it captures the intent, dilemma and decisions taken by each of the characters that you can sympathize even with the seemingly wickedest intentions. one of the qualms i had with the book was that some of the situations were contrived and placed just to keep the plot moving forward. if you want an extremely depressing classic thriller, this is it. 8.5/10

just saw….

theanalogkid — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:52:56 +0000

fantastic mr. fox, 2009 - stylish animation, funny and refreshing implementation. clooney, streep and bill murray are brilliant with their voices. wes anderson does complete justice to the imagination behind the original roald dahl source material. chuckles aplenty 8.1/10

whatever works, 2009 - a woody allen movie after sometime and with larry david in the lead. it has its moments. not a classic but definitely a worthy timepass. 7.0/10

l’avventura, 1960 (italian) - the first movie in antonioni’s alienation trilogy. arguably the best of the 3 too. beautiful b&w cinematography and an excellent study of loneliness, cynicism, alienation and the works. very demanding on emotions. 8.6/10

singam, 2010 (tamil) - 80s storyline and acting. headache-fest. torture. 4.0/10

blowup, 1966 - what was new with this movie? the concept is kinda rip-off of rear window. cant understand why this is rated as one of antonioni’s best. its slow and nothing ever happens for most of the movie and its not as stylish as some of his italian movies either to compensate for the lack of material. 7.2/10

raavanan, 2010 - mani ratnam wanting to be rgv. confirms my belief that mani ratnam is nothing but a hackjob except in maybe mouna ragam, alaipayudhe and kannathil muthamittal. the first half threatened make the movie bomb big but the second half kinda redeemed it. abysmal anyway considering the hype. 6.0/10

solyaris, 1972 (russian) - jus wow. a sci-fi more on the lines of star trek with the typical tarkovsky love for long-drawn scenes and plots. classic sci-fi that rates alongside 2001, a space odyssey and his own movie, stalker. impressive and gripping. 8.7/10

inception, 2010 - a lot has been said and will only be said more over the years. 10/10

aisha, 2010 - dismal and depressing. 2.0/10

enter the dragon, 1973 - bruce lee’s classic kung-fu flick. with all the bad acting and super slick action. kinda rekindled the love for martial arts flicks. 7.5/10

faces, 1968 - a love it or hate it flick with super-realism. the characters are drunk in the entire movie so there is excessive laughter and gibberish. an ageing couple fail to fan the dying embers of their relationship and end up having affairs with much younger partners. very interesting just for the way john cassavetes has captured the frames in over-exposed b&w with extremely odd angles so you feel like a paper weight in the room spying on the characters. very interesting film thats a product of its times. 8.7/10

following, 1998 - nolan’s first. unique and original and shot with a budget of jus $6000. very impressive and gripping thriller with a lot of twists. 7.8/10

faster pussycat! kill! kill!, 1965 - its russ meyer. the mayor of b-movies (thats can very well be a dialogue in one of his flicks). three violent busty women kill, rob, seduce and speed the deserts uttering pukka b-movie lines. this is the queen of b-movies. the types that inspired tarantino and robert rodriguez to make grindhouse. total entertainment. 7.2/10

horoshima mon amour (french, 1959)

theanalogkid — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:45:39 +0000

a french woman in hiroshima falls in love with a japanese man in an affair that lasts 24 hours. it seems to be heading for the inevitable end after 8 hours but the subsequent set of frames analyze the aloofness and the personal tragedy plaguing Elle. shot like visual poetry in b&w highlighting the loss in war because of the atomic bomb which acts like perfect backdrop to squeeze in the personal tragedy over tragedies of war. the cinematography and the 50s hiroshima nightlife and the psychoanalysis of the partners will linger. might have been an inspiration to modern films like lost in translation and before sunrise/sunset in terms of strangers meeting in a strange land. more so with lost in translation perhaps because of the personal lives of the characters being in shambles when they meet each other. on par with bergman and truffaut flicks of the heart and mind from this era, resnais adds one more. 8.5/10

ample make this bed

theanalogkid — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:27:52 +0000

ample make this bed —
make this bed with awe —
in it wait till judgment break
excellent and fair.

be its mattress straight —
be its pillow round —
let no sunrise’ yellow noise
interrupt this ground –

emily dickinson

*sigh*

luck

theanalogkid — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:20:32 +0000

think of corruption and bendable laws. when it goes your way, it seems quite harmless. when its the same thing that also serves you wars, potholed roads, wiretapping and censorship you throw a fit. am probably at a phase where luck is pretty favourable to me so one might wonder what i have to bitch and moan about. i simply don’t want to sit with a smug look on my face when i know it could have gone another way (sometimes simply because it can). is it unavoidable? the role that this mean little rodent called luck plays? next time the ball hits the net and flops into the other court meekly when the opponent is poised for a venomous forehand at the baseline and you get the point, offer to replay it.
(mellow contemplating mood sponsored by the smiths song please, please, please, let me get what i want playing in a loop)

just saw…

theanalogkid — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:53:54 +0000

julie & julia - it was a delight watching this one. meryl streep can make a talented actress like amy adams look like a day 1 kindergartener. loved all the french food and the 50s france. based on a true story and a book by same name, its pretty nicely shot with lives of two women across 50 years side by side. stanley tucci was impressive as julia’s husband. where can i get bouef bourguignon in b’lore? 7.5/10

3 idiots -much ado abt pretty much nothing. the humor was good but otherwise just a crapload of “placed” scenes to milk emotions. a lot of rejected scenes from the munna bhai movies must have made it into this one. 6.0/10

avatar - judging by the sappy storyline, i wud give it a 5/10. the technology was quite brilliant deserving a 9+. all in all as a movie it failed to hold my attention. oh the climax action made it worth the wait tho. 6.5/10

a serious man - i love movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. coen bros make a lot of these comedies. this was incredibly funny most of the time. if you liked burn after reading, barton fink, napolean dynamite etc. brand of comedy, you will feel at home with this. 7.6/10

the hurt locker - 9 nominations? it was just another war movie. nothing unique, nor realistic, no characters, no story, no nothing. peeves me no end to see something like this getting the recognition it is getting. 7.2/10

up in the air - very unique script. extremely funny and manages to develop the characters well enough for you to care for them. clooney is quite awesome. we need more movies like this mr. reitman! 7.9/10

thank you for smoking - as good as up in the air and just as quirky in its subject matter from the same director. you will have to watch this if you liked up in the air. 7.9/10

sherlock holmes - hahahah. i was mighty impressed. holmes the superhero. holmes the bare-knuckle boxer. holmes the alcoholic. guy ritchie has definitely started a trend here. i wish he was making avatar the last airbender instead of shyamalan. 7.7/10

antichrist - shocking and gruesome for the heck of it? i dunno. saw it cuz of lars von trier and charlotte gainsbourg. without doubt the most gross movie ive seen in a long time. was very happy that it was over when it was over. its nice though that someone still keeps the art of making movies unfenced. 6.5/10

500 days of summer - refreshing and original. might redefine the romcom genre (hopefully). extremely good soundtrack.. like garden state, juno etc. good performances too. felt the same way i felt after watching ‘before sunrise’, my sassy girl and ‘annie hall’ for the first time. definitely a long time favourite. the soundtrack is worth a buy. 7.8/10

9 - must admit i got this movie by mistake (instead of nine, i got 9). it was a good watch though. visually stunning fantasy ride set in an post-apocalyptic world. watch if you like totally offbeat animation and story. 7.3/10

ishqiya - dint understand the dialogues. they seemed to be funny because everyone was laughing. visually and aurally it was a treat. looked to me like a tribute to the old hollywood westerns and to butch cassidy and sundance kid to some extent. i will skip rating this till it comes on dvd and i can watch with subs.

men who stare at goats - what has gotten into clooney lately? he is excellent in pretty much any role he has been in. jeff bridges is awesome as always. men who stare at goats gives a hilarious view of the US army not all of which is fiction. must watch anti-war timepass movie. oh its a bbc production 7.0/10

paracetamol-tasting

theanalogkid — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:36:20 +0000

i have been playing hide and seek with the germs for two days now. it all started with a stupid idea to have ice cream over the weekend. now i remember why i don’t eat ice-cream. ironically, i made the outrageous claim on the same day while eating that ice-cream to a friend that i don’t remember the last time i got sick. i thought these kinda stories were always made up. how cocky of me. did i mention the physically exhausting badminton games i have started from this weekend (nothing to be proud of since i have lost 10-0 twice)? that deserves a separate post i guess. i could not sleep that night as i was very excited about my new baddy racquet and ended up practicing shots against my shadow in the night (the humiliating 10-0 was the next morning).
anyway its like playing a game of chess with the germs. the first move being a sore throat. i said ‘good move sir, here have some cough syrup.’. dull move yet, a proven one. immediate relief and a bit of jumping around followed. followed by an outing in the night in the cold winds for some tonic water with unmentionables and steaks and super cold fresh lime and a victory walk for 3 kms at midnight in the chill of the night. that night i swear i thought i would die. i could not explain what i was feeling. every muscle in the body was making its presence felt. i got cramps around my chest which i mistook for a stroke. i had sprayed some baygon since the mosquitoes were making mince-meat of me. i must have tasted some from the air. it tasted metallic. my stroke-fears went thru the roof followed by ‘am dying, am dying!’. all this at 4 am with a very high fever. i remembered this was just a chess game. took a crocin. was fit as a fiddle and went to play baddy again at 6:30 am. came back in pretty high spirits and slept for most of the day and woke up with a sore throat and a cold. the fever was still gone. body ache was at its peak. now it was time for a combiflam, fine combination of paracetamol 350mg and analgesic. it worked like a charm and i was jumping around too soon again. sore throat is a biotech (auto spell corrected bad word). it came back for more. some milk and turmeric sent it out again. mild fever and cold took over. today is another day and its baddy time with a bad cold. now the right weapon for the war seemed to be a sinarest. yes, feeling better already. its either checkmate or i surrender. :-/ in all this, i realized paracetamol-tasting could be an emerging art. why do we always talk about something being a dying art? here is something that is definitely emerging. ‘fine pill this one. good balance of paracetamol and the analgesics. a hint of caffeine as well! good job i must say’.

i wonder why even the muscles in my jaw pain when i speak after playing these baddy games. very strange. ok so happy bhogi everyone. ‘pazhayana kazhidhalum pudhiyana pugudhalum…’ is a saying in tamil used with this festival. translates to ‘getting rid of the old and entering the new’. on this day no morning flights can land in chennai because of the smog caused by the bonfires of the old thru out the city. oh well…

fahrenheit 451

theanalogkid — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:18:56 +0000

in the distant future where minds are cocooned, firemen who doused flames once in the past burn books. fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns, hence the title. literature, knowledge and information is kept away from the reach of people who are shackled without their knowledge with ‘entertainment’. desensitized people are after all very easy to control. a society sown with these seeds grows to self-destruct. like a classroom that bullies a boy because he is different, the people themselves make sure the ones that still read are burnt with their books. ray bradbury paints a very bleak future which is shockingly similar to the society we are in currently where the idiot box and its reality shows cheap thrills entertainment and local news pumps in paranoia day after day. the words come out of the book in a frenzy like bullets from a machine gun, strong and powerful. it feels like the tale you are reading had to be told in a hurry. turns out that the first draft of the book was written in 9 days with a typewriter rented for a dime for half hour by the poor writer then. this is a must read for everyone. its a celebration for books and reading and writing and knowledge and freewill. let me wrap this with one of my favorite passages from the book (every page has one atleast).

about mortality and individuality..

“Everyone must leave something in the room or be left behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

just saw…

theanalogkid — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:17:03 +0000

have not been watching movies much lately. this is over the last 2-3 months

the sting, 1973 - one of the best con movies of all time. it has robert redford and paul newman in it. need i say more? maybe paul newman’s 2nd best performance after cool hand luke. same director as butch cassidy and sundance kid as well. very difficult to find flaws in ths. classic. 8.4/10

in the loop, 2009 - well where do i start.. its a bbc production. its a political satirical comedy. its as funny as dr. strangelove in mocking war. ive seen it 4 times already. brilliant brit humor. must watch if you like brit comedies. remember to keep the subtitles on though. 8/10

go, 1999 - i hardly remember anything from this movie except it was total timepass. drug deals gone bad and amateurs trying to rip off pros and black comedy etc etc. like pulp fiction. am tired of these flicks. give it a shot if you are into that genre. 6.5/10

the international, 2009 - total timepass thriller. must watch for the shootout in the gallery. otherwise very so so. 6.5/10

event horizon, 1997 - timepass sci-fi. a spaceship has come from the future and blah blah. decent horror too. very similar to ’sphere’ i thought. 6.0/10

alien, 1979 - a timeless classic. arguably ridley scott’s best work. the thrills and the chills last for days. near perfect movie. its amazing the amount of work that has gone into making the spaceship as realistic as possible. check out the piping and cabling work in every frame. ridiculous effort has gone into this and it shows. the sets are important in a scifi (think 2001: a space odyssey) and this movie shows you why. 8.9/10

scoop, 2006 - must admit i saw this just for woody allen and scarlett johansson (in that order). one of the lesser funny woody flicks but funny nevertheless. woody as the magician splendini was hilarious. 7.0/10

the orphan, 2009 - pretty decent horror/thriller with a good twist ending. lots of gore as well if you are into that sort of thing :D. left me blood thirsty on an otherwise pleasant sunday. 7.1/10

yuke yuke nidome no shojo (go, go second time virgin), japanese 1969 - gorgeous b/w photography. almost entirely shot in a single apartment complex. a raped girl and a sexual abused boy on a spree exploring the bleak side of life. dark and freaky. 7.6/10

we - a documentary film on war and world politics based on the words of arundati roy. not sure how much of it is fact and how much propaganda. pretty good soundtrack surprisingly. havent checked on the sources so cant rate.

wake up sid, 2009 - decent timepass that wanted to take itself seriously but failed doing so. one thing i learned from wake up sid is that photography is the solution to india’s obsession with engineering and medicine. 6/10

ni na bian ji dian (what time is it there?), mandarin/french, 2001 - portrays urban loneliness in a heart wrenching series of frames. story of a mother who has lost her husband, a son who has sold his dead father’s watch and a girl who has traveled from taipei to paris who forges an instant connection with the guy who sells her a watch. very slow, surreal and dark. not for everyone. 7.9/10

this is it, 2009 - it wasnt a total marketing gimmick and definitely wasn’t all a last ditch attempt to squeeze cash. watch it and pay your tributes to the man. 7/10

ajab preb ki gajab kahani, 2009 - crap. #@$@#$!%$ 1.0/10

district 9, 2009 - one of the decent sci-fi flicks of recent times. mainly due to the splendid acting from the lead. good concept and good execution. fluffy and sappy ending kinda killed it. 7.5/10

star trek, 2009 - should have been called ’star trek for newbies’. after watching having watched some startrek tos and startrek tng, this movie is a mockery of the franchise to make some quick money. sigh 7/10

3 idiots, 2009 - the comedy was fun. way too much manipulative and drab and sappy otherwise. aamir khan shines on an otherwise pointless film. there is atleast 45 mins of rejected scenes from munna bhai. another film that seems to drive the point that photography is the next replacement for engineering and medicine. lol. too much masala and very formulaic. 6.5/10

glengarry glen ross, 1992 - one of the best talky movies. excellent cast with al pacino, kevin spacey etc. a script adapted from theater and shot very much in similar fashion shines in captivating the viewer from frame 1. a bunch of salesmen battling it out against each other in a dog eat dog scenario. very clever film with loads and loads of awesome dialogue. its like reading a book. 8.3/10

dorian gray, 2009 - based on the oscar wilde book. the movie is little too cinematic focusing on the horror element more. the guy playing dorian was too plastic and unconvincing. 6.6/10

the final destination 4, 2009 - yawn yawn yawn. ugh 3/10

surrogates, 2009 - cool concept for a scifi but repetitive human vs machine, technology, religion blah blah elements. some normal action. bruce willis kinda holds the movie a bit. good timepass beer movie 6/10

theanalogkid — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:16:31 +0000

dear blog,

i might be having an affair with facebook. please dont feel bad. its not over between us. its just a fad and it will fade. when i have something more than smalltalk, i will ofcourse be back with you.