Movie log 2009-2010

Thanks Prakash for lending awesome old movies- none of them are dated or aged.

1. Deliverance 1971 – Awesome photography, editing with well rounded gritty characters. Movie becomes the river it talks about, sometimes meandering and others like its rapids but finally arrested by the mighty dam.

2. Americanization of Emily 1964 – Wonderful chirpy ode to life and peace. Some of the best quotes are at – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/quotes. Movie is filled with witty dialogues. James Garner’s dog robber portrayal is one of the best performances in terms of holding together viewer interest.

3. There will be blood 2007 – Never has a man looked so menacing on the screen after Jack Nicholson. Nope I do not care much about masks and gory makeup, it is the chilling closeup of man projecting evil. Daniel day lewis just overshadows everything I have seen from Jack N. One of the best movies ever – right up there with Coen brother’s other work. The cinematography captures the hopes and futility of being an oil enterprenuer. Daniel’s performance will be benchmark for many generations to come.

Update – 2010-Nov 4 -

4. Aura 2006 - An Argentinean movie shot entirely in patagonia region has stunning visuals. Supposedly a 2nd and last movie by the director. It is very lucid in its flow and its shot of trees swaying in forest is pure poetry. Only thing jarring was somewhat muffled sound recording – was it deliberate – because there is sudden change in movie flow/sound when the epileptic character starts going into fits. Anyway movie has heist premise which is possible but  can it be pulled off in new conditions? Again story telling of higher quality than usual fare. Another way of joining various threads than flashback/non linear story telling. Acting by the characters too is very fluid -nothing seems forced/dramatic at anytime.

Fabiàn Bielinsky (director) had another wonderful movie – Nine queens (I guess remake – criminal was not such a good film though).