Which non-indian film u saw recently has made u post here???

[P_R]

The Pianist - for those with a taste for eternity

[V_S]

PR & grouch,
The Big Sleep is an excellent film (as I mentioned earlier), but as you mentioned, it's too complex to understand the plot the first time. I also needed to rewind and enable subtitles for certain dialogues, but once everything is understood, for subsequent viewing, it was very engrossing to me, especially the dialogues, very sarcastic. Bogart at his best.

Also, there are few changes done in the film (as mentioned by grouch) compared to the actual novel.
In the actual novel, Carmen (Vivian's sister) Killed Reagan, but in the film, it is blamed on Mars.

[P_R]

The Pianist - for those with a taste for eternity

There is one scene in the movie which is perhaps all the film was about.

Brody - a Jew in hiding in Warsaw taken over by the Nazis - is made to hide in an apartment. He is to live without making his existence known to neighbours. His friends will come by and leave him food.

The apartment has a piano, which he 'plays'. He hears the music although his fingers are a few inches above the keyboard as he plays in the air.

A lovely moment. Encapsulates his condition, of those like him, humanity at large etc.

Problem is, it comes about a tedious hour and a half into the movie.
An unbelievably superficially written hour and half. Characters as simple, heartspeaking, convenient as they get. Scenes and situations just a series of cliches. Yes it is real-life based so those situations are familiar. Granted. But it did not evoke the kind of impact it ought to have.

Respect for Spielberg trebles The train scene from which Neeson rescues Ben Kingsley. Heart vaaikku vandhurum. There are sequences like that here which make no impact whatsover.

You have a random pick-up and shoot, o the cruelty of Nazis, scenes. Again not a patch on Schindler.

The 'useless' professor who is sent to work as a factory marvelling at the production of a utensil. What a goddawesome moment in Schindler. That is a true human moment.

Many conversations are worthy.

Height was one where they are all waiting for the train to take them to the camps. One gendilman is reading Shylock

Brody: what are you reading
P1: (starts quoting full emotion) if you prick us do we not bleed/if you wrong us shall we not revenge

If you start with a weak, bland content it's going to be tough to make an interesting film out of it.

[kid-glove]

'Humanity at large', 'Human condition' seem little too nuanced to find currency in Schindler's. It's a mighty simplistic dual parable of monster (the bigger challenge is to show the human in the monster unlike the 'Goeth'ification here) and messiah that are as subtle as sledgehammer. Is it effective? Possibly. And it's also extremely unethical with regards to stylization of 'the cruelty of Nazis. And the jarring multiple POVs made it even more problematic (As against Pianist's carefully realized POV of the oppressed)

I think superficiality is a virtue of all holocaust films rendered in English. In fact, the characterizations, conversations and style of acting in Polanski's film seems lot closer to the behavior that I have seen in European WWII films (in the original language) than Schindler's, which apart from being somewhat Americanized, also suffers from a conspicuously melodramatic score (Extremely effective I admit).

Our ongoing debate to what is 'real' in films (and its importance) is best emphasized by Pianist, Schindler's vis-a-vis the 'what-if?' scenario (although made extremely plausible) of Inglorious basterds. While the former is informed by real-life happenings (edited, rewritten and dramatized of course), it's compromised by lack of authenticity in language and behavioral gestures. Suggestiveness is required to elevate the experience. OTOH, a film like Inglorious basterds addresses, and is extremely concerned about some of these aspects that it even comments on it. The lingual specificity is a matter of life and death. This is where you find QT so much more 'meta-' and advanced. Pity about the cocky demeanor in some of the interviews, the man is so much more than that.

[kid-glove]

Zizek andrE sonnar:

"Schindler's List is, at the most basic level, a remake of Jurassic Park (and, if anything, worse than the original), with the Nazis as the dinosaur monsters, Schindler as (at the film's beginning) the cynical-profiteering and opportunistic parental figure, and the ghetto Jews as threatened children (their infantilization in the film is eye-striking) - the story the film tells is about Schindler's gradual rediscovery of his paternal duty towards the Jews, and his transformation into a caring and responsible father."

[P_R]

And it's also extremely unethical with regards to stylization of 'the cruelty of Nazis.

edhai solreenga?
It was universally horrific. Random acts of violence, the old man made to do situps in the buff to show he is fit (enought to live on), Fiennes shooting the boy - every single one was extremely impactful. And 'real'.

OTOH the Nazis in Pianist were monsters. NY celebration ragging, dance as you wait at the level crossing ragging etc, slap the old armbanded man who does not salute, no sidewalk for you people, walk in the gutter, shoot the meek woman who asks a simple question etc.

'Humanity at large', 'Human condition' seem little too nuanced to find currency in Schindler's.

ennanga solreenga. PadamE adhu dhaanE. I could have done more.

suffers from a conspicuously melodramatic score

kizhinjudhu. enakku nyAbagam irukkuRa oNNu reNdu BGM score-la idhuvum oNNu.

Zizek sonnadhu valid readingnE vachukuvOm, what is problematic about that ?

[kid-glove]

And it's also extremely unethical with regards to stylization of 'the cruelty of Nazis.

edhai solreenga?
It was universally horrific. Random acts of violence, the old man made to do situps in the buff to show he is fit (enought to live on), Fiennes shooting the boy - every single one was extremely impactful. And 'real'.

OTOH the Nazis in Pianist were monsters. NY celebration ragging, dance as you wait at the level crossing ragging etc, slap the old armbanded man who does not salute, no sidewalk for you people, walk in the gutter, shoot the meek woman who asks a simple question etc.

I'm speaking in formal terms. How it is shown. Pianist is much more real and shows ugly as 'ugly' and repulsive. Schindler's OTOH seemed to find pleasure in its tracking shots, sniper shots, and even the young girl's death. Cheap shot at death shower. What not?!

'Humanity at large', 'Human condition' seem little too nuanced to find currency in Schindler's.

ennanga solreenga. PadamE adhu dhaanE. I could have done more.

'Human condition' isn't just about showing the extremes of bad and good in a simplistic manner.

suffers from a conspicuously melodramatic score

kizhinjudhu. enakku nyAbagam irukkuRa oNNu reNdu BGM score-la idhuvum oNNu.

I admit it was effective. But Pianist seemed less superficial precisely for not having such a score. And less of 'messiah' moments. 'Ayyo paavam'-nu remba contrived-A irundha eppadi?

Zizek sonnadhu valid readingnE vachukuvOm, what is problematic about that ?

remba plain-A B/W-a irukku. Idhukku ivalo sound-A? avalo thaan.

[P_R]

I found the people in list far far from real than the single purpose characters who populated the pianist. The 'useless' professor's sense of wonder at the utensil factory is one of the Most human moments in film history. Poignant, funny, inspiring, tragic all rolled into one. What is killed when people are killed is that kind of a mind. Perhaps this what zizek calls infantile.

[kid-glove]

Yeah, maybe if all the jews who get killed weren't reduced to merely hapless, Zizek would have digged it more than just 'infantile' methinks. :P

[ajithfederer]

I too like the Pianist more to Schindler's List. Not that S-L is bad or something but I like The Pianist more.