:)Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
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:)Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
Hot Shots Part Deux :rotfl2:. Hit aana oru hollywood padathayum vittu vekkala. Otti Thallitanuga :lol2:.
I was laughing uncontrollably when Charlie Sheen hits the other boxer at the end of the game. :rotfl:
Vivs,
Thanks for the reminder, I'll do it after midnight.
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Right now, I'm making video compilations. Related to this thread, and if you're interested, I've used opening track of Pulp fiction, track named "misirlou", to Arsenal's 1st half vs Bolton. 2nd half will have another track from the film OST. I'm rendering it.
Uploaded first part already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5tVLDYnu7k
My reading is partly based on Cronenberg Interview in different parts, and also based on two or three other films made by Cronenberg (Existenz and maybe even Naked lunch). The interview is useful in that it is mostly about themes covered.
(Spoilers ahead)
As said by Cronenberg, the film is essentially a critique on extreme "sex and violence" finding outlet through Tape and Satellite, into Television. (The upcoming remake would probably involve Internet, and extend this. David Cronenberg had made a similar film on "simulated games" and loss of reality in 1999 film "ExistenZ")
The protagonist is co-owner of a channel broadcasting soft-core porn, and violent films. And the protagonist isn't just marketing a product in demand (he admits this so freely in Television interview, right?!), but is also his own weakness (or obsession). He descrambles using a pirate receptor (who could be respectfully compared to "hackers" in Internet). But we later find out the pirate guy is actually employed and is part of the secret organization developing this hallucination-causing violence-inducing snuff film, which would soon be telecast across United States. Their motives are unclear. I suppose it's the blanks left open - the danger of terrorism is one thing, and "combative control" of government, but what we do know is it has a vicious dictatorial ideology to cleanse audience such as the protagonist. The social dangers of television is read out by philosopher named so cheekily as "Oblivion", who predicts the future in the same TV interview with the protagonist. His clinic run by his daughter, is to help homeless get social lives through "television service", in vision of her father. Later we find out through one last tape (a "snuff film" recorded by him) the professor was initially asked to design "Videodrome", but as he found out what it were intended for, he had protested and therefore gets killed. Now, the "tumor" in brain (the word they were looking for, might be 'psychosis' or maybe even 'mutation') takes control of the reality into a tv 'aesthetic', the sleazy production values kind of distortion, for the victim (in this case, the protagonist) to manifest his "violent tendencies" that he were, until then, realizing it through TV. The reality is distorted to a state where his body is also manifesting into sleazy violence aesthetic. The vaginal shaped opening into his torso, the hand mutating into a gun, etc. The Videodrome agents influence(or program) him to kill the co-owners of his channel. and ordered to kill the philosopher's daughter, she plays a video that kills this "warped reality" state by a television manifesting into animate object, actually a humanoid hand-with-gun. This shooting ends with this humanoid-TV bleeding and the protagonist wakes up reborn. free from control. She implants a new ideology of "new flesh". In that, he is free from control of videodrome and he could actively go against it. The comical ways by which he terminates the "Videodrome" agents is the distorted "tv aesthetic" of violence doubly distorted by the newly programmed "new flesh". This "conditioning" is very cinematic and hardly a moral judgment (I prefer that way!), as admitted by Cronenberg in that interview, the state of protagonist is in many ways representation of lurking danger of kids mimicking violence in schools. And in many such incidents, the kids take their lives at the end of it. Here, the film ends on an open note, he either commits suicide or is making up his own personal (re-)program to transform out of distorted state?! Or is he giving up his life. OR is he evolved into something else, if we were to believe the image on TV asking him not to worry about his "body".
Btw I watched the philum again (before posting the above post, there are lot of visual hints to delineate reality and distorted reality), can't really say it was an enriching experience. It had withered down a bit, but certainly ahead of its time. In this case, Equa is spot-on about "constant reevaluation" of films, in that I can't actually divorce my initial thoughts but the reassurance of subsequent Cronenberg films and the interview helps to connect the disjointed points.
Thanks Thilak :)
Thats where it was confusing - differentiating between reality and the distorted reality...I dint get the hints.Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
existenz is in queue!I like his style - something that is crispy - he makes movie that runs for abt 80-90 min and the plot builds up interestingly.Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
Avatar.
Disappointed, but well it was visually spectacular. Same feelings as to Titanic, I should say. Watched it on the 100th day or something, I remember vaguely.. And then on New year 2000.
El secreto de sus ojos-(the secret in their eyes)- Simply superb! retired criminal court employee tried to write a novel,based on 25 years ago case in which a girl was raped and killed, and he was helped to solve the case... interesting movie... wonderful performance. :2thumbsup: :clap:
- Not much. But in my second viewing which was last night, I was able to see a change of tone, and the mise-en-scene like the apartment looks much different. Moreover, there is an exaggerated perception (like animate tv, animate tape, animate gun flexed into his skeleton, etc) only gradually appearing. I suppose that is proportional to him watching the video and its effect slowly distorting his mind.Quote:
I dint get the hints.
- :thumbsup: It has lot more twists, good looking stars, and I'm not sure of what he intended at many places. The ending is a big "twist", and makes us question the full ride. So Good luck! One interesting thing though - here in Videodrome, the protagonist is made to flux the "Gun" into his nerves, veins and skeletal muscles (in a grotesque graphic sequence), signifying that the action of pulling the trigger and the bullet piercing into the target are both "organic" and within our human body. It's actually "us" who are the proponent of "violence", not the gun. In a similar sense, there are comical weapons in "Existenz", everything is organic !! Made from human bones and teeths. :PQuote:
existenz is in queue!I like his style - something that is crispy - he makes movie that runs for abt 80-90 min and the plot builds up interestingly.
ok :)Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
avlo thuLLiyama paakala!
yep!He is the Gun and TV is the mind. :)Quote:
-So Good luck! One interesting thing though - here in Videodrome, the protagonist is made to flux the "Gun" into his nerves, veins and skeletal muscles (in a grotesque graphic sequence), signifying that the action of pulling the trigger and the bullet piercing into the target are both "organic" and within our human body. It's actually "us" who are the proponent of "violence", not the gun. In a similar sense, there are comical weapons in "Existenz", everything is organic !! Made from human bones and teeths. :P