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Capsule comments on recent films:
Taboo themes
This columnist was disappointed that wholesome good cinema around the
world were not available at the screenings both in Goa (IFFI) and Kerala
(KIFI) between November 22 and December 17. However a few films
attracted my attention. My appreciation of such films is governed by my
own taste and understanding of the films. Therefore it is subjective
analysis.
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The Little Rose |
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The House of Branching Love |
With a variety of films presented under different packages, one has
to indiscriminately select a film. Either to enjoy it or just sit
through witnessing the stupidity that is to be unveiled.
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The Japanese Wife |
I made it a point to see different language films from different
countries. My choices were bent on European cinema, which I use to enjoy
for decades. But sadly the European cinema now has lost its lustre and
aesthetic presentation even though the technical devices are awe
inspiring.
But one redeeming aspect in most films had been the exploration of
themes hitherto tabooed but explicitly probed in open discussion. One
must admit that some good films out of the lot seen were absorbing by
the silences, expressions, slow and meticulous movements, suitable
colour, décor and creation of the right atmosphere. Dialogue was
sparingly used.
Let's take a few examples.
Due to my disgust over seeing films of violence justified or not, I
chose films that underscore human relationships based on psychological
approaches. The Polish film Little Rose by Jan Kidawa Blonski left me
wondering what the political pressures in the 1960s had been in Eastern
Europe where the dictates of a supreme power determined things in
finding people operating as undercover agents of Jewish anti-Semitism.
At one level the film exposes the discriminating party politics and
shutting away even its own party members after spying on them. At
another level the film depicts the dilemma of a naïve woman falling
between two 'stools', as it were, and then becoming a victim.
The quick transition from idealistic romance to a deep rooted loss
with falsely accused professor who fought for freedom of expression
ended in a tragedy that haunts anyone.
Male chauvinism and the undiplomatic use of maneuvering the woman for
selfish political reason and the inner suffering of the woman concerned
are also poignant.
The film from Finland The House of Branching Love by Mika Kaurismaki
is again the showpiece of western decadence in family relationship,
though shown in a lighter vein, comical fashion.
The free society engages in unrestricted freedom even in open sex
even if it is to teach the other a lesson.
The irony is that the characters involved were all related to one
another in some form.
This is also one of the typical films by the director whose films I
have enjoyed.
I enjoyed the Bengali film The Japanese Wife by reputed actress and
woman director of India, Aparna Sen.
This is a love story between a Bengal school teacher and a Japanese
young woman not so rich. They had not seen each other at all, but they
corresponded in faulty English through exchange of letters. The slow
pace and clear utterance of sincere sentiments between them is movingly
cinematic. The cinematography is superb capturing the real rural India
and the images of nature and it onslaught on the protagonist is so real
that one congratulates the director for her sense of the grammar of
cinema. The film is not a simple love story, but a complex one with a
widow coming into the scene of the naïve teacher who is in a dilemma.
According to Aparna Sen 'love is the only emotion that can bring back
our respect that are getting lost today' The film subtly questions
conventional ideas of friendship, love, marriage, customs and the like.
More films are introduced in the coming weeks.
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