A fairly enjoyable, decadent, slice of French cinema

'The Page Turner' ( La Tourneuse de Pages) is about Mélanie Prouvost, a girl (played here by Julie Richalet) who dreams of becoming a concert pianist. She attends trials with her mother, at a prestigious school. In the middle of her piano recital, one of the panel of judges watching and listening, who happens to be distinguished concert pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot), is disturbed by an assistant who brings her a message. Mélanie stops in the middle of her performance, waitng for the messenger to leave, so that all the judges may be attentive to her. With the messenger gone, she resumes her recital, but the flow of her performance has been interrupted, and the judges are not impressed. They do not accept her into the school. Her dream is destroyed.

Years later, when Mélanie is now a young woman (played here by the immensely beautiful Déborah François) she lands a job at Jean Fouchécourt's law firm (husband of Ariane Fouchécourt, who interrupted Mélanie's recital, all those years ago) so that she may exact her revenge. After working at the law firm for a while and gaining the trust and admiration of her employer, she finagles her way into Fouchécourt's opulent home, where she is charged with the care of their only child -- a young boy named Tristan, who's a budding pianist.

The vengeful damsel puts her diabolical plan into motion. One afternoon, when Ariane (who doesn't remember Mélanie at all, now that she's an adult) is practicing for an upcoming concert, Mélanie comes into the room, goes over to the piano, reads the music sheet from which Ariane is playing, and without invitation, turns the page at the right moment, so that Ariane may play on uninterrupted. Ariane is greatly impressed that this seemingly 'unmusical' young woman who's taking care of their son can read music. Ariane then hires Mélanie to be her page turner at the upcoming concert. The concert comes Mélanie turns beautifully for Ariane, and the crowd is immensely impressed by the performance. A strong bond begins to form between the two.

Jean goes away on a business trip, leaving Ariane, Tristan and Mélanie. Mélanie is due to leave the couple's home soon, so she doesn't waste time. She makes romantic overtures towards her host, Ariane, and a little romantic affair blossoms. But Mélanie is feigning her feelings, it's all part of her plan. With Ariane still in an emotionally vulnerable state because of some unpleasant past event whose nature I cannot recall, she falls deeply in love with Mélanie. Not only is Mélanie the pianist's page turner, she is now her love interest too. Ariane is now doubly dependent on her, Mélanie has become like a drug to her.

One of Ariane's band members, tells her that she doesn't have a good feeling about the new page turner, and Ariane doesn't pay any attention, she's smitten. Another concert comes and the Mélanie intentionally absconds, at the last minute, from the concert, leaving a stranger to turn for Ariane. Ariane is devastated. She is a nervous wreck. Without her lover at her side, the concert is a flop. Ariane, and the rest of the band members' reputation is tarnished. After the ill-fated concert, Mélanie reappears, and because Ariane has fallen so deeply in love with her, she tries to reprimand her, but she can't, she goes against her better judgement and takes her back. Mélanie is in a position of immense power -- exactly where she wants to be.

On the evening before Mélanie's departure from the Fouchécourt's home, Ariane writes a note, declaring her love for the young woman, and tells her that she would like to see her again (without Jean's knowledge off course), and slips the note under the Mélanie's bedroom door. Mélanie sees the note, reads it and keeps it -- ammunition to use against the woman who cheated her of her dream. Morning comes and Mélanie is up earlier than she's supposed to be, packs all of her belongings, leaves the note from Ariane in Jean's study, with the rest of his mail, where he's sure to see it, and blithely walks out through the large, ornate, front gate, without saying goodbye. Tristan sees her leave though.

Jean returns from his business trip and receives a warm welcome from his wife and son. He enters his study and as per habit, starts checking his mail, and discovers the romantic note. He reads it and is so shocked, he is at a loss for words. He enters the room where Ariane and Tristan are waiting to give him his homecoming surprise, shell shocked and holding the note in his hand. Ariane sees the deathly morbid look on Jean's face, and the note in his hand, and knows that she is ruined. She is so filled with the pain of shame that she falls to the floor, unconscious.

The camera cuts to Mélanie, walking alone down a picturesque country road, with a look of self-satisfaction in her steely eyes. Mission accomplished. Revenge has been exacted.

I had seen this film, about seven years ago, in a film magazine (Sight and Sound, I think) and had been intrigued by it. So when the Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo library -- my only source of French cinema (this isn't a paid advertisement, by the way :)) -- acquired a copy, I was thrilled. I snapped it up.

Deborah Francois, the actress who plays the older Mélanie, is immensely talented and beautiful. It's a pleasure to watch her. She bares a resemblance to the great Audrey Hepburn. She is the French equivalent of Hepburn. I adore her.

The 'questionable romance' in this film was, ahem… interesting to behold. There's a scene in which Mélanie emerges from a swimming pool, water flowing down her scantily clad form, and walks past Ariane, who looks at… You get the picture. :)

I found 'The Page Turner' to be a fairly enjoyable film.

Del Toro's Fantastic 'Robots-versus-Monsters' Epic

Tectonic movement under the Pacific Ocean, creates a fissure, but this is no ordinary fissure, it's a portal, a bridge between our world and another world populated by beings bent on exterminating humanity and taking over earth. To achieve their goal, the hostile alien beings, send gigantic creatures known as Kaiju, to wreak large scale destruction on land. To counter this attack, humanity pools its resources and creates monsters of its own -- equally gigantic robots known as Jaegers, piloted by two people through a neural link, and capable of destroying Kaiju. The battle for earth escalates, culminating in a final confrontation deep under the ocean.

 'Pacific Rim' is a Guillermo del Toro film alright. Long time collaborator Ron Perlman is in it; there are massive, highly unsual creatures in it; it has dimly lit visuals, in which a golden yellow colour tends to appear; it was photographed by long time collaborator Guillermo Navarro; a Catholic rosary appears on screen; there are shots that are so detailed that they have to be seen more than once to be fully appreciated, and so on.

The immensely exciting choreography of the human-to-human and Jaeger-to-Kaiju fights, was a great deal of fun to watch. There was grace, power and clarity. My most favourite Jaeger-to-Kaiju fights are the ones where jaeger Gipsy Danger (piloted by Raleigh Becket [Charlie Hunnam] and Mako Mori [the beautiful Rinko Kikuchi]) goes head-to-head with the Kaiju that I have nicknamed 'Electro-Disabler' and 'Spitter', after Electro-Disabler has disabled jaeger Striker Eureka and destroyed jaeger Cherno Alpha, and Spitter has destroyed jaeger Crimson Typhoon. Ohh maan, both fights are uber-fantastic! The camera briefly focuses on Gipsy Danger's right heel, while she's fighting Electro-Disabler, and we catch a glimpse of the Jaeger mechanics at work -- giant gear-like devices turning, seemingly playng the same role that the achilles tendon does, in the human body. Impressive! If the giant 'articulated' sword that Mako uses to slice Spitter in half, isn't an homage to Voltron, then I don't know what is!

I enjoyed the intense fist-fight between Raleigh and the arrogant Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky), co-pilot of Striker Eureka, who made an offensive  remark towards Raleigh's co-pilot Mako. Raleigh landed some impressive blows. Chuck got a satisfying comeuppance. I also enjoyed the balletic stick fights between the various pilots in (what I will call) the 'Jaeger Corps', whose purpose was to determine 'drift compatibility' -- whether the two participants could pilot a Jaeger together or not. I wondered how this 'drift compatibility' could be determined through stick fighting, and came to the conclusion that that was merely an excuse to include more exciting fight sequences in the film. :)

Charlie Hunnam reminds me of Garrett Hedlund, who played Flynn's son in 'Tron: Legacy'. Both bear a strong resemblance to one another.

I like Raleigh's monologue, at the beginning of this film. It's well-delivered and effectively ushers the viewer into this brilliant fantasy.

The two Scientists -- Gottlieb and Geiszler (played by Ben Gorman and Charlie Day respectively) -- who made up the Research Division of The Resistance, struck me as this film's equivalent of the signal analysts in the first 'Transformers' film -- something to cut to (a filler) when the Jaegers and Kaiju were not on screen. I liked Charlie Day's character but I also found him a little annoying. His high-pitched voice and the hyperactive, sort of ADD nature of his character, were a little annoying.

At first, I couldn't accept the side story that linked the leader of The Resistance, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), to Mako. It just didn't ring 'true' to me. I just couldn't accept that Pentecost had raised little Mako as his own, after her family had been killed in a Kaiju attack. And that memory of Mako's, where, as a little girl, she's pursued by a Kaiju, that is then killed by a Jaeger piloted by Pentecost, who triumphantly steps out of the 'cockpit' and smiles at Mako, who smiles back in relief -- I couldn't buy that. For me, it lacked 'truth'. But after three viewings, it seems far less implausible.

Another thing that didn't sit well with me in the first viewing, is the sentimentality that precedes the final battle in 'Pacific Rim'. It seemed out of place to me. I'll give two examples. There's the scene where the father-and-son pilots of jaeger Striker Eureka, Herc Hansen (Max Martini) and Chuck Hansen, respectively, have to bid each other a final farewell, as Chuck goes off to help mount a final offensive against the aliens. And the scene in which Pentecost and Mako also have to part, for good. At first I wasn't moved by either of these scenes. But now, I'm starting to appreciate them. I now get moved, somewhat.

I noticed two references to old age, in this film. I wonder if they were of special significance. In the first 'drift initiation' sequence of 'Pacific Rim', brothers Raleigh and Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff), decide who's going to initiate the neural link, and Raleigh jokingly says to his older brother "Age before beauty, old man". And when jaeger Striker Eureka is rendered inoperable by a Kaiju energy burst, and Herc is flung to the far side of the 'cockpit', by the force of a Kaiju blow to Eureka's hull, Chuck rushes to his father's aid, and says "Come on, get on your feet old man!" as he helps Herc up, to which Herc replies, quite annoyedly, "Don't... call me that!".

'Pacific Rim' is an excellent film, a technological marvel. I have never seen anything like this before. This film is a great deal of fun to watch. It's a fitting homage to Monster Masters, Ishiro Honda and Ray Harryhausen. WOW.

Sissako's 'Timbuktu'

Abderrahmane Sissako's 'Timbuktu' is about the occupation of the titular city by Muslim Jihadists, and the subsequent fight against the invaders and their draconian laws, by the inhabitants of this enchanted place. The story centers on herdsman Kidane, his wife, daughter and adopted son, whose tranquil life is thrown into turmoil, when Kidane accidentally murders a fisherman who has ruthlessly killed his favourite cow, interestingly named GPS, for wandering into his fishing nets, while drinking from a lake.

This film has a lethargic pace and the camera dwells, seemingly pointlessly, on seemingly mundane and inconsequential images. An example is when Kidane has just killed the fisherman. For a long time, both figures lie motionless, partly submerged in water, as if dead. Then Kidane stirs, pries himself from under the lifeless body of his victim, and staggers away, shocked. The camera switches to a long shot, which shows us two tiny figures, one wading across a wide, shallow lake, while the other lies motionless, half-submerged. It stays this way for a long time. I wondered what Sissako was trying to put across. It didn't dawn on me. There's a scene in which a group of young men are playing soccer on a dusty field, without a ball, because the Jihadists have outlawed soccer. They dribble and kick an invisible ball that exists only in their imaginations, and rejoice when they score. It's quite a sight. The players, and camera, actually move as though there is a ball in the scene, when there is none. It's skilfully shot and scored. It's sad.

When Kidane is held prisoner by the Jihadists, for committing murder, he expresses to his captors, that it is not death that he fears, but that he will not see his daughter's beautiful face again. He said this at two or three different occasions. At first, I was moved. And then it started to seem inappropriate. There's a very strange lady in this film, who comes across as a mentally disturbed sorcerer. She walks around dressed in strange garments that drag along the ground behind her, with a live chicken on her shoulder. At one point in the film the camera gazes upon this woman for a long time, as she watches the goings-on around her. I wondered why. I did not see anything of significance within the frame. When one has become accustomed to the machine gun pace that tends to characterize mainstream cinema, it takes some effort to appreciate an unhurried approach. I blame Michael Bay! Just kidding. :)

I laboured through 'Timbuktu', under the starry night sky, in the freezing cold, in the picturesque garden of the Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo. The images of barren, sun-scorched, wind-swept desert, were in direct contrast to the cold, and seemed to alleviate it a little.

P/S: When I was collecting images to accompany this piece, it is only then that it became apparent to me, how beautifully shot 'Timbuktu' is.

M. Night Shyamalan hits a Home Run!

Before I watched 'After Earth', I read and heard negative reviews of it, so I went in with low expectations... and was pleasantly surprised.

James Newton Howard's score, although not as grandiose as most of his previous work, was quite effective and higly enjoyable. There was some top-notch acting from Will and Jaden Smith, and Sophie Okonedo. Jaden Smith has become a consummate actor at such a tender age -- it's unbelievable, the young man is a brilliant actor. I wonder to what extent, if at all, Jaden (Kitai Raige) drew from his real life relationship with his father Will (Cypher Raige), for the scene in which Kitai berates his father for being a coward who was "never there". Will Smith's performance was quite engaging, despite him being stuck in a single location for almost all of the film. His performance was beautifully subtle and yet rich with emotion. The same goes for Jaden's performance.

I was quite intrigued by the appealingly unusual production design of this beautiful 'coming of age' story. The sets, props, costumes and other elements seemed to me to have been deeply inspired by Mother Nature.The shapes, colours and textures of the clothing, dwellings, vehicles and weapons, all echoed Nature, they were 'organic'. It was this huge homage to Nature, exquisitely combined with cutting-edge imagery and technology. You had these beautifully rendered cutting-edge images, overlaid on or popping out of these very naturalistic, organic-looking devices -- an absolute triumph of design!

Will Smith is a natural fit for the Science-Fiction genre. There's something about seeing him in these imaginary environments, surrounded by all of that super-advanced pseudo-technology, that's just right e.g. 'I, Robot' and 'Independence Day'.

The writing was impeccable. The themes explored -- guilt, fear, coming of age, the nature of reality, self-mastery, the father-son relationship -- held a great deal of resonance for me. At the end of the film, When General Cypher Raige, asks the medics attending to his broken legs, to stand him up so that he can salute his son Kitai, my eyes welled up.

There were echoes of Joseph Kosinski's 'Oblivion' and James Cameron's 'Avatar' in this immensely enjoyable film. I look forward to watching 'After Earth' again... and again.

What did you think of this film? Do you agree or disagree my take? I am curious to know.

Ridley Scott's Somalia

Every time I encounter a Somali person on the bus to or from work, Ridley Scott's 2001 film 'Black Hawk Down', which is set in Somalia, springs to mind. And I wish I had the chutzpah to ask them what life was really like in Somalia, at the height of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's misrule. And what they thought of Scott's cinematic interpretation of Somalia and the events of that Sunday in 1993, when several U.S. army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.

(Images: [top] paintedframe.blogspot.com, [middle] killermovies.com, [bottom] fanpop.com)

Review: Ronny Yu's 'Fearless'

'Fearless' is about real-life early twentieth century Chinese folk hero and martial artist Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li). The film begins in Yuanjia's childhood, when he practices martial arts, behind his disapproving father's back. It is during this time that he has two pivotal experiences: seeing his renowned martial artist father Huo Endi (Collin Chou), seemingly defeated in a fighting contest and experiencing his own defeat at the hands of Zhao Jian (Shang Yapeng), an obnoxious neighbourhood child, shortly afterwards. He swears that he will never be defeated again. As a man, blindly fuelled by these two experiences, and having acquired impressive martial arts skills, he defeats numerous opponents, eventually acquiring the title "Champion of Tianjin".

After Yuanjia hastily fights and kills Chin (Chen Zhihui), the head of a rival martial arts school, who had severely beaten one of his students Liu Zhensheng (Yi Shixiong), Yuanjia's family is butchered in retaliation. Yuanjia goes on to kill… the butcher (Jacky Heung). When he finds out that the cause of all the bloodshed is trivial -- Liu Zhensheng's having a secret love affair with Chin's wife -- Yuanjia leaves Tianjin, grief-stricken and ashamed. He ends up in picturesque rural China, a place that looks like something out of a fairytale, and it is while there, that he finds healing and returns to Tianjin, to right his wrongs.

'Fearless' was beautifully shot, the cinematography was absolutely stunning. It was a feast for the eyes! I enjoyed the rich, vibrant colours and evocative lighting. Of note are the scenes set in the aforementioned picturesque locale, that Yuanjia ends up in. And the images at the end of the film, of Yuanjia gracefully practicing his art, while a magical light illuminates his face and shoulders, against a stark, dark blue background, lending a 'heavenly' quality to the images. Absolutely stunning.

There were hints of 'The Last Samurai' -- a warrior who has gone off the rails, finds his way back to the light, with the help of a beautiful female with whom he has no sexual relations, in a picturesque, somewhat secluded country setting. And Masato Harada, who played Japanese diplomat Omura in 'The Last Samurai', was present as Mr. Mita, also a Japanese diplomat.

There are three qualities that I look for in a screen fight -- grace, power and clarity. The fights in 'Fearless' had all three. They were a pleasure to watch. Fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping is like the postman -- he always delivers. Although, there's one fight that takes place on a wooden platform elevated very high up from the ground, that was somewhat dodgy. Parts of the fight didn't transition smoothly into each other, it was jerky, as though some footage had been unskilfully excised. And the fight wasn't quite 'natural', the wire-assisted moves were rather too apparent.

I enjoyed the restrained but impactful interactions between Yuanjia and Moon (Betty Sun), the lady who helps him heal. In some instances, Li and Sun conveyed much without speaking, but merely with the look in their eyes. It was beautiful.

I watched 'True Legend' (2010) before I watched 'Fearless' (2006), and so the advantage of hindsight or is it foresight, or both?… came into play. It seemed to me that 'TL', which debuted several years after 'F', was somewhat a retread or remake of 'F'. I find it interesting that both films were scored by the same composer, the talented Shigeru Umebayashi; Yuen Woo-ping choreographed the fights in 'F' and on 'TL', he directed everything, the fights and all other aspects; the theme of re-igniting Chinese pride by trouncing invading foreigners in the 'ring', runs strong in both films; and the set design, in both films, of the area where the bouts take place, is similar. And I wonder if Collin Chou, who played Huo Endi, Yuanjia's father in 'Fearless', is related to Jay Chou, who portrayed the 'god of wushu' in 'True Legend'. If 'True Legend' was intended as a remake of 'Fearless', then the former wins, hands down!

'Fearless' isn't the best entry in its genre, but it's definitely worth a look.

Jiéshù

(Images: blu-ray.com)

The Dark Knight Rises: Second Impressions

The first time I watched ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, it blew me away. But on watching it for the second time, it didn’t appeal to me as much. I found it far less enjoyable. Was I in a ‘Hollywood-marketing-machine-induced’ euphoria when I watched it the first time? Was the euphoria of my own making? I’m not certain.

The unintelligibly edited hand-to-hand fights, that had held a sliver of appeal for me before, didn’t appeal to me at all, this time. Perhaps Nolan and crew should have hired master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix, Fearless, True Legend; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon etc.) and asked him to tone down the awe-inspiring, gravity-defying moves that characterise a great deal of his work! I’m certain that master Yuen, even with his wings clipped to suit Nolan’s ‘realistic’ style, would have done a superb job.

The sound effects and score seemed to drown out the dialogue. Was it a result of poor sound-mixing on the part of the filmmakers? Was it the theatre’s sound system that was faulty? Was it my ears? I don’t know. Although, I doubt very much that it was my ears – they are still in fairly good condition you see. The other two are more probable.

I still don’t know how Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) had what seemed to be close ties to Bane (Tom Hardy) or how she knew so much about him. I know that the answers lie in the film’s dialogue – if only so much of it wasn’t so difficult to hear!

The epic scale of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, demands that one be in awe of this film. Its scale is epic indeed; a marvel. One example is the huge vehicular chase involving Batman as the pursued and almost all of the Gotham Police Department as pursuers.  But I’m currently of the mind that there isn’t that much mass/substance to this colossus of a film. Ah, the epic proportions of this film, the spectacle of it.

In some instances, the film – the moving images – relied too much on the score, to generate excitement, to the point that the score overshadowed the images. The score made grand promises of excitement while the images failed to deliver. An example is when ‘The Bat’ flies the ‘nuclear bomb’ out of Gotham so that the ‘bomb’ detonates out at sea. The music in this sequence is grandiose, but what’s happening on screen isn’t grandiose.

It’s annoying to watch a film that was partly shot on IMAX film and be unable to see, fully, the grandeur of the IMAX shots, because you’re watching the standard-sized print, on a standard-sized screen. Such was the case with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

The theatre screen wasn’t large enough to accommodate the whole film image. The film image exceeded the boundaries of the screen, such that part of it could be seen on the area around the screen. That was very annoying. Are movies nowadays being shot in a wider aspect ratio than before? Is it because ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was shot on a variety of film stock sizes – IMAX, 35mm and I-don’t-quite-remember-what-else. Did the projectionist not know what he was doing? I don’t know.

I don’t think that this film would have been any less enjoyable without Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard), Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and Robin John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). These characters felt a little tacked on. I felt that their presence wasn’t integral to the story. It was as though they had been added at the last minute, when the filmmakers felt that there weren’t enough characters to keep the audience interested. ‘Batman’ films have always been an ensemble piece, after all.

The idea of a prison with a shaft leading up to the surface seemed rather too implausible this time. So were the prisoners chanting the phrase “deshi basara” and a TV installed in prison, especially for Bruce Wayne to witness the destruction of Gotham.

Jodhpur, India, which was chosen to represent the landscape outside the prison, because of its ‘desolate look’, didn’t look foreboding to me at all. Instead, it looked beautiful. The rustic colours were absolutely majestic.