"The Eclipse of Destiny"

KANDAHAR

Original title: سفر به قندهار (Safar e Ghandehar)
Year: 2001
Country: Iran
Language: English, Persian, Pashto, Polish
Number: 982
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf  
Starring: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sedou Teymouri, Hoyatala Hakimi
Cannes: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Golden Palm
IMDb: 6.7
RT score: 88%


Kandahar is an extraordinary story about Nafas, an afghan woman who fled to Canada during the soviet invasion. She have gotten a letter from her sister who was left behind that she is gonna commit suicide when the next full moon occurs. So Nafas decides to go back to her native country to pick her up before it's to late. But the Taliban ruled Afghanistan isn't a safe place, specially for women who have to wear burqas all the time. A place without law, poverty and diseases.

Kandahar is a good film which set the great mood, with all the amazing cinematography, colors and music. It also feels authentic with all the local resident which I highly suspect isn't actors at all but are who they are. It's also the case with the character Tabib Sahid a doctor who helps our heroine. He is an African-American who converted to Islam and came to Afghanistan to fight against the Russian. After the war he decided to help out by being a doctor and help the needy people. Sahid is played by Hassan Tantai who is in fact an Islamic terrorist. That kind of give us a little chill, because he's performance in the film, where he play are more helpful and understanding character. But isn't it like that if a person is to perfect he got to be a serial killer.

But enough about him. Kandahar is a great film, a journey into a different world. This film was released before 9/11, we see an Afghanistan that is split and out of touch with the world around it, and I think that this movie with make it easier to understand this society.


Grade: A-


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"A Century Has Passed"

TITANIC

Year: 1997

Country: United States

Language: English

Number: 930

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Gloria Stuart
Oscar nom: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, Best Dramatic Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Actress (Kate Winslet), Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Stuart), Best Makeup
IMDb: 7.6
RT score: 88% 

Well it's now 100 years since the unsinkable ship, R.M.S. Titanic hit an iceberg and sank down to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. 1514 of it's 2223 passenger froze to death, mainly because there wasn't enough life boats for every one, because every one though it was unsinkable. And the captain was also forced into taking a faster route so the biggest creation men have seen could arrive some day early. Well there's a lot of things that could have been prevented this from happening. But it's because of this accident that's why the safety about every vehicle is extremely important. It also the first time the rescue message S.O.S. (Save Our Souls) became the standard distress code.

Technically, Titanic is a story about the treasure hunter, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his team who explore the wreck of Titanic just so they can find a lost jewel that was aboard the ship. A diamond necklace named Heart of the Ocean. After finding the safe that it was suppose to be kept, all they find of value inside is a drawing book with a drawing of a naked lady with the diamond they are looking for around her neck. An old women named Rose Dawson (Gloria Stuart) calls them and claims she is that woman on the drawing. She's then transported to the boat and tells the crew about the journey aboard Titanic. 

She tells about, her a rich american girl (Kate Winslet) who is engage to a rich, arrogant and snobbish steel plant owner named Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). She is tired of this strict life of all the lies and repressions. But on Titanic she meets the young and poor painter and adventures Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) who prevent her from trowing herself into the water. And she is eminently developed an interest for this extraordinary lad, who is more himself than any other of the people at first class combined. And Rose finally opens herself. But the fate want's it other wise, because of the horrible event that took place on the night on the 15. April. I guess you can figure out what happened to Rose and Jack.

The love story itself isn't that original to be honest, it's the same love story that is as old as the ocean itself. But what really fascinate me about this film is that it have a huge almond of historical and class differences attached to it. We see the differences between rich and poor. For the rich this trip was just another trip to america drinking Scotch, smoking cigars and discuss politics, while the passengers on third class drinks and dance and having their times of their lives, because they are all immigrants who dreaming of the new world, not just Brits, but also Italians, Swedes, Turks, Russians and many others, most of them didn't make it, because they were kept under deck to avoid a big crowd so the rich people could get into the life boat first.

The Historical aspects of is that this was the biggest vessel ever build on that time. The ship was seen as unsinkable, and was the pride of the British Empire. This was during the so called "La Belle Époque" (The Beautiful Era). And the year 1912 is for many people the year that lead to the decline of the pride of all mankind and primarily the British empire, because of Robert Scott's failed attempt to reach the south pole first, and the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic. And two years later the first world war followed.

I will say I wouldn't have liked this movie if it were so selfish if it had just followed Jack and Rose during the the disaster. The film show us very much of the disaster itself and how many died. We see the horror and the madness. It's like Sergei Eisenstein's famous stairway scene in The Battleship Potemkin. It's so horrifying to watch all the people falling down in the water screaming, It's worse than hell. The movie covers every kind of personalities aboard as the ships goes down, and how they deal with it.

Does this movie deserve all that reconstruction? Does it deserve all the 11 Oscar wins? Yes and Yes. Titanic is a movie that is a great reminder of how important it is to follow who you are. And always think about safety and see it all in a perceptive compared to earlier times. Most of the Oscars Titanic won was basically technical, and I must say they are pretty good and convincing, both in art direction cinematography and costume. My conclusion of this film is that the love story might be a turn of, it's all the other aspect of it so superb. Rest in Peace.

Grade: B

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"An Allies Wet Dream"

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Year: 2009

Country: United States

Language: English, German, French, Italian

Number: 1079

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Diana Kruger, Melanie Laurent

Quentin Tarantino's seventh motion picture, Inglourious Basterds, is a war film specially inspired by the sub-gernes the mission war film, such as The Dirty Dozen and the original Inglorious Basterds, which this movie isn't a remake of. But there are some of the the same elements. Quentin Tarantino is famous for breaking boundaries, and he certainly did with this picture exactly called "Inglourious" Basterds. The perfect title. The movie is full of them, those basterds. That is impossible to don't love, or least one of them.

Inglourious Basterds tells many different tales from the nazi-occupied France, but basically it's the story about a group of jewish soldiers, lead by the american Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who is dropped into Vichy France to take down as many nazi general, or nazi scalps as possible. "They call themselves the Inglourious Basterds, They are pretty much like the bounty hunters, and crooks of the wild west, specially the spaghetti westerns. But there's not only them, It's also the nazi detective, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), know as "The Jew Hunter" who job is to find people, many of them jews. He also killed the entire family to Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) who escaped to Paris where she opened a film theater. Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels decides to screen a propaganda film in that theater, where almost all nazi generals will attend, including Adolf Hitler himself. That means this is a target for the Inglourious Basterds to attack. But Dreyfus also has some plans to avenge her families death. This is where all the Basterds meats.

Inglourious Basterds is an amazing, and fresh war film, or more like a black comedy. It's specially Christoph Waltz who steals the whole show, with is charismatic character Hans Landa. A detective who speaks a total of four languages; german, english, french and italian. And unforgettable, and funny performance. Brat Pitt is also funny, talking with his thick southern state dialect. I also loved Mélanie Laurent's performance as the best femme fatal in a long time. I could talk about all the characters, and all their original personalities, but you have to see for yourself. This is truly an original piece of filmmaking, and also a mix of many different sub-gernes that the new generation. What a genius.


Grade: A+

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"Just another day in Truffaut's life"

DAY FOR NIGHT

Original title: La nuit américaine 

Year: 1973

Country: France/Italy

Language: French, English

Number: 567

Director: François Truffaut 

Starring: Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean-Pierre Léaud

François Truffaut's Day for Night is probably his best or shall we say most prestigious film of them all, compared to all the low budget film he had made until then. Day for Night is a meta film (a film about the making of a film) that shows us all the difficulties on the set, that is actually a drama film itself.

Day for Night follows the cast and crew during the filming of Je Vous Présente Paméla (Meet Pamela). Truffaut himself plays the director, Ferrand who faces many difficulties from many of his staff members, like from the old diva Severine (Valentina Cortese) who have troubles of remember her lines. Or the young and heart broken actor Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud) who is about to run away from the set because of that. There's just some of the problems.

Day for Night is a good and well constructed meta film that has everything a movie set needs. All the details, all the props and all the three dimensional people as they are in the real life drama film that we all live in. And what's funny it's that at some point some of the characters says this will be the last film they make, something all of the staff perfectly understand without any form of upsets. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"Tell me something new"

BROADCAST NEWS

Year: 1987
Country: USA
Language: English
Number: 766
Director: James L. Brooks
Starring: William Hurt, Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, Robert Prosky

James L. Brooks' Broadcast News is an exciting, fresh comedy that takes place inside the world of news reporting. Besides from being funny, the character shows a wide emotional range, everything from happiness and anger performed in a emotional and realistic way. We follows three very different individuals, whom we first see as children and later on see them as adult and laught and clearly see why they are what they are in the present.

Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) has always been obsessed with the news, so much that in some ways it's effecting her mental health. Her friend and colleague Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) was the nerd that was used as a punching ball by the big guys and instead of lying down he burst out that they in ten years will works as garbage men making only $10 000 a year, while Aaron himself is being a famous reporter. They are the winning team, and there might be a little sparkle between them. But one day a sport anchorman, Tom Grunick (William Hurt) who uses every possible tricks to get what he want, disguised as a humbled gentleman. He breaks through as a news anchorman in his first week at the job, while Jane and Aaron feels out competed by this new threat, while there are a romantic tone between Jane and the man who is against everything she stands for.

Broadcast News is a good comical and satirical view about the life of a news reporter. Among all the employee there's all kinds of special types that we can see our self in, if it's the stressed out type or the arrogant ones. This not only a comedy, but also a serious drama about how much stress it's actually is to be working in the news and that their job is always hanging in a thin tread. It's a great cast, specially Holly Hunter who playing a character that is so into her work, that it's changes her mentally. But when she's alone and has nothing else to do, she gets all her frustration out by crying, and this is probably the funniest, and saddest moment in the film because it's shows that she tries to do everything and is afraid of not being successful. Albert Brooks is just supper and is probably the character we have most sympathy with because he's intelligent but not the love he needs. William Hurt isn't anything but the same monotone character as he's played dozen of times, but this add some anger towards his character. Broadcast News is a great film with a well chosen cast and a great story about the difficult life of journalism.


Grade: A-


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"We don't take kindly to strangers"

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

Year: 1955
Country: USA
Language: English
Number: 287
Director: John Sturges
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Anne Francis

Picture this: A western noir, which John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock happened to be. Seeing my first so called "western noir" It's simply one of the best and most suspense films I've seen until now in the western genre. Featuring great performances that we already know from this genre such as Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin that all fits right into the film and makes the whole setting believable.

The movie is set in the year 1945. A town called Black Rock lies in the middle of the desert where the Southern Pacific Railroad train always pass by. But one day, the first time in four years the train actually stops there. But there's only one passenger that goes of the train. A war veteran named John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) who has only one functional arm. Most of the inhabitants, who mostly are workers who spend most of the day just sitting rocking' in their chairs out in the hot sun, is very suspicious of this new stranger and wondering what is he doing here. They find out that he's looking for an old man named Komoko. But every where he ask about him, all the people of the little town are scared that he might stick his nose into something that shouldn't be any of his business.



Bad Day at Black Rock is a very well made western film, set in modern day where it doesn't seemed to have changed at all since the wild west. The crooks are pretty much the same and there's also no law at all. Robert Ryan does an excellent performance as the unofficial leader, Reno Smith who does every thing to get rid of the man who might reveal the towns darkest secret. The rest of the western cast is just superb, their appearance have the kind of "We don't take kindly to strangers" kind of feeling that really makes this film so exciting and thrilling to watch. I don't want to give away the ending, but I promise this movie doesn't ever drag.


Grade: A+


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"Everything other than sweet"

TURKISH DELIGHT

Original title: Turks fruit

Year: 1973

Country: Netherlands

Language: Dutch

Number: 572

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer, Tonny Huurdeman, Wim van den Brink

Before Paul Verhoeven made a career in Hollywood as one of the most infamous director with such controversial films as Total Recall and Basic Instincts, he made even more daring films in his native Netherlands. And it's Turkish Delight that clearly stands out as his greatest one, with Rutger Hauer in the leading role, another Dutchman who later became international famous. And also the cinematographer Jan de Bont who later made such great action films as Speed and Twister. Turkish Delight have many times been ranked as the best Dutch film of all time, and was a big box-office hit in Netherlands.

Turkish Delight is the story about the hyper sexual sculptor, Eric (Rutger Hauer) who one day hitchhike with a girl named Olga (Monique van de Ven) whom he develops a sexual desire for, but is later evolved into what they think is real love. Eric is a restless and egocentric person, who don't like to be bossed around, he's more or less a real anarchist. Olga seems to be more and more repulsed by his wild pranks, but there's also the problem that every one around him seems to be effected in a negative way. Nobody, specially Olga's family can't stand him, he's seems to not get along with any one.

Turkish Delight is a very dark and perverse, but at the same time kind of liberating film. I think that has very much to do with the fact that Eric is an artist. This is truly an amazing performance by Rutger Hauer, a man we either love to hate or love. There are also a lot of shocking scenes (thought I can't understand why they actually censored people's private parts) many shocking sex scene which is either to daring or embarrassing to watch. There's also a pretty violent scene, a dream sequence where Eric brutally kills Olga and another man whom she have slept with. My overall opinion is that this is a wonderful but grotesque love story.

Grade: A-

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