Jas Personal Blog
Movie Review
Amélie – One of the most beautiful movies made
Apr 1st
This is one movie I have always wanted to see and had kept it for a day when I would be really down in life. Reason? This movie is a lovely story that shall take away your heart with its creative direction, innovative sound usage and a very detailed view of unnoticed small things of life. It is a journey though an abstract direction where the director keeps you in awe with a smile if you are of a creative type. And yes, this movie could only be made with a soft touch of French. Amélie offers a poetic and escapist vision of everyday life; something which reflects very nature of my own.
Amélie Poulain is a young woman who has grown up isolated from other children and hence gets dissolved in the small exhilaration of life like peeling off the dried adhesive gum (like fevicol) from fingers, slurping away the last of liquid in a glass with straw, cupping your ears and removing to hear how sound changes, perfectly spinning a coin and putting strawberries on all fingers and then eating them quickly one after another. She loses her mother to a freak incident when a woman trying to commit suicide from Notre Dame Cathedral lands on her mother. This makes her more taciturn and she develops an unusually active imagination.
The movie is tied to the death of princess Diana, who died in Paris only, the news of which changes the track of movie as she hits on a fifty year old small box of mementos. She decides to return the box and in process realizes that she derives much happiness in doing good in the lives of others. Amélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex but hidden schemes that impact the lives of those around her with subtle, arm’s-length manipulation, leading to several sub-plots and episodes. In one scene, she helps a blind man to cross a road and takes him along with a vivid narrative of the ambiance, “Step down. Here we go! The drum major’s widow! She’s worn his coat since the day he died. The horse’s head has lost an ear! That’s the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window – lollipops. Smell that! They’re giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We’re passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby’s watching a dog… that’s watching the chickens. Now we’re at the kiosk by the metro. I’ll leave you here. Bye! ” and the camera supports the scene beautifully!
Amélie’s cinematography describes the way Amélie thinks within herself. Her mind is vivid, shy, full of excitement and artistic; it gives the audience a better look into how the world can be different in different colors of thoughts. She looks upon the world like it’s a game, and script follows just that.
The scene where Amélie meets her love interest, Quincampoix, is beautifully captured as she kisses him slowly on cheeks, neck and eye and then subtly gestures for him to return the favor. That he remembers to drag his nose on her cheek after kissing her neck is beautifully scripted! Each shot within the movie sequence is like a line within a poem.
Director could not have taken a better thespian for the lead role. Audrey Tautou exuberate a very soft feminism with charm and effervescent flair. The scene where she tries to phone Quincampoix from ad and reaches Porno Video Palace is so beautifully expressed by her with a shy awkwardness on questions being asked; something that fits the physical expressions of Audrey only. Probably the first movie of her which I saw was Hors de Prix (Priceless), which again is another smooth and lovely movie.
If you haven’t watched the movie, I would suggest you should at least put it on your wish-list, you would not be disappointed if you watch it at leisure!
Wake Up Sid is refreshing
Oct 10th
Its 2:30AM and am not sleeping, there are two reasons. One, its Friday night and who the hell sleeps on Friday night! Second, I went out to see the movie Wake Up Sid and have come back and cant wait to blog on that!
Cinemax, 10:45PM show and am still feeling as fresh as 5AM breeze in forest on banks of a river in mountains. Credit goes to Karan Johar, for a change. Wake Up Sid is as refreshing as a lemonade and as cool as a cucumber. The story is very well 21st century and urban without ever getting ‘sexy’ or ‘adult’ as Yash Raj’s films. I could not help to notice the similarities in performance and music style with Lakshya movie (whose first half is very very fresh and crisp and similar).
When at 8:30PM today my friend told me that he was going for a movie, I had no idea what was there in store, and movie came out to be ‘Wake up Sid’. We left by 9:20 as packed my stuff from Gym, throwing myself in his car with my backpack still on. We raced through the troughs and crests of Banjara Hills Road no.36 to hit Cinemax looking for food inside cafeteria there. A little good news after months and months of gloomy news had me perked up already for the night. Ladies in the eatery there looked finely dressed and two faces just caught my attention for such cute were they! Wearing IIM Indore shirt gifted to me by my friend I sat down with my friend once we got the pranthas we had ordered. Just then I hear a feminine voice address me asking if I was from Indore. I take a look and there stands one of those pretty faces; Boy! she was beautiful! As I clarified that I was from FMS Delhi and the shirt was from my friend only. the simple nods of the glowing face just made the day/night. Human, aren’t we!
The opening shot of the mobie looks so similar to our story, trying to read night out, trying till an hour or two, then hit for food/laptop/net etc and spend crucial 2 hours there, coming back to study at 3/4AM and deciding its better to sleep and study tomorrow. When the results would come, we would decide that next time onwards we will study on regular basis from very start, but then that day never does come and plans are made, scrapped and sublimed.
I really liked acting of Ranbir, it made the evident harsh truths so easy to come out. And the credit here goes to debutant director, Ayan Mukerji. There’s a subtlety with which he repairs the relationship between Sid and his mother (Supriya Pathak). The distance between the two is born out of the different cultures the two belong to. She is uneducated, he is westernised and the twain don’t meet. There’s a grave dimension to the Punjabi mother who tries to speak English with her son, even though it is pretty awful, hoping that it will make her a friend of him as his other friends whom he talk to in English. It’s grave because we know it’s so real, we see it all around us.
Even when Sid ruffles up Ayesha’s place and when she is upset for a reason, it does not get melodramatic, as she doesn’t intend to make him feel guilt from inside, as melodramatic women would do. Instead it is as smooth and plain as a chocolate bar. And Sid’s animated T shirts with perky colors pep the screen up.
Neatly lensed, the movie looks at Mumbai — with love and affection. The picturisation is very vivid and colorful. The painting of Ayesha’s home, the interiors of Mumbai magazine the leads are working for and the colorful paintings of areas around Ayesha’s home add an array of colors to the story. Amit Trivedi’s Iktara, a song filled with an unbearable lightness of being, keeps the promise made from songs of Dev D. Songs make the movie soar; they help us look inside the head and mood of Sid and Aisha and help carry the story forward.
Actually, Wake Up Sid is a slice of life film. It’s not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can’t help but draw parallels with your own life or with someone you know. There are so many things I have done myself which Sid does, so once the movie ended there was a lightness in the mind and a big smile on the face. While we moved to go back from the cinema (it was already 1:30AM), I wondered if I will again find those Indore people! As my friend went to loo, I just stood near stairs lost in self. After some time I just turned around and saw the Pretty Face. As the I started walking slowly towards their group, the sweet music filled the mind inside me. Just when I was going to approach them, a voice says “Lets go”. It was my friend who had come back from loo, suddenly the music stops, and I look between the two and know what needs to be done. Still next moment I am stepping down the stairs, walking back to his car with mixed emotions. Still appreciating the freshness of the movie, we cozied ourselves in the car, as the speaker stared blurting out the appealing title song of Wake up Sid. It was time to wake up, go home and sleep.
Note: Some truths have been dramatized for intended hue.
