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Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s kiss
….a sense of anticipation, a sense of longing, a sense of hesitation, a sense of urgency driven by till-now suppressed passion…this kiss, forbidden one yet subtly intense, between Vampire and human, makes a kiss desirous…
I was told, repeatedly, by Shweta at work that the book is an indulgence for one’s imagination. I usually do not believe in Vampire-n-human’s magical journey into elevations of heart, but post watching the film, I find self now relentlessly hungry for ‘adult* romantic fantasy’ …* read woman! It may be termed as ‘meaningless’ by most, a grown up entertaining ‘fantasy based expeditions’, after having tasted life’s harsh realities. Well, I would beam, let’s not under-estimate the universe, the mother nature and all those secret dynamics of life that stay alive around us, which cant be gauged by ordinary & mundane eyes. There’s always a stream of hope, there’s always a desire to ’lift feet up, stretch on the couch, disconnect from the world and reach some other universe where earth’s rules no longer are valid’
I see my future like a waiting room in a big train station with benches and drafts. Outside, hordes of people run by without seeing me. They’re all in a rush…taking trains and cabs…they have somewhere to go…someone to meet..and I sit there, waiting. For something to happen to me!
Nadine Labaki’s debut venture Caramel is an enchanting film about women in Lebanon. Set in a beauty salon in Beirut, which becomes a space for love, to regain strength from loss, and sharing laughter for a group of women, the film explores the lives of these women trapped between tradition and modernity, the past and the present, and between doing what they want to do and what is expected from them, while also highlighting the sisterly friendship and warmth these women share and their joys & dilemmas, which are universal in their tendency and come across to us as familiar conflicts that most of us live with, every moment.
Protected from the scrutiny of the outside world, Layale, Nisrine, Rima, Jamale and Rose deal with questions related to extra marital affairs, lost loves and secret longings. They share their troubles, dilemmas and all those unspoken fears – Layale, 
an unmarried woman having an affair with a married man, feels a conflict between her obsession like tendency towards her lover and a strain of resistance that reminds her continually that she is going against the traditional values she was raised with {Self-deception}. While Nisrine, 
relatively a younger woman, fears her fiancé will find out that she is no longer a virgin and tries to work out a solution that does not destroy her chances for marriage {Being Non Virgin}. Rima 
can not communicate her attraction towards women, and is afraid of it {fear of being considered as an Unconventional young woman with abnormal tendencies}. Jamale, a divorced actress who is insecure about her age, struggles through her need to keep up with the younger women around her, because in a society where women’s appearances determine their fortune, she knows that she will soon have no worth {Haunted by the fear of redundancy}.
Their problems are personal and political, as Nadine, the film maker says – in a society tightly bound by rules and taboos.
There is also the touching story of two sisters, Lily and Rose {Irrepressible Hope}. Rose has always kept her older sister as the top most priority, and now at 65 has to let love pass her by again. Her older sister Lily picks up pieces of paper from the streets hoping they are letters from a soldier she was in love with as a young woman. Caramel explores their love stories with utmost sensitivity, and gently suggests it’s never too late to fall in love, and never too long to wait.
The film’s title refers to the paste for removing unwanted hair in the Middle East, a blend of sugar, lemon juice and water that is boiled until it turns into caramel. But it is also, according to Nadine Labaki, an idea of sweet and salt, sugary and sour, of the delicious sugar that can burn and hurt you. Bittersweet and affectionate, Caramel is an exceptional version of a woman’s world
Labaki who plays Layale, the protagonist in the film, describes the filmmaking process:
“The film came from personal questioning I have about Lebanese women [who] are an example of emancipation, of liberty, of independence for other regions in the Middle East. Lebanese women are really doing what they want in their lives. But at the same time, there is this struggle with their traditions, their religion, and their education. It is still a little bit rigid. So it is a struggle between these two worlds.
“When you think about Beirut, normally you see a grey picture, you see smoke, you see buildings that are destroyed, you see women crying in the street. This is what comes to your mind when you see the word Beirut. And I wanted to change that. I wanted to make a film that was colorful and about warm people, because this is also our reality. I think I come from a generation that doesn’t want to look back, that doesn’t want to talk about war anymore. It wasn’t easy in my case, because I finished the shoot and a week later the war broke out again. So I had a huge feeling of guilt. Why was I making a film about life when my country was at war? But then I thought maybe this was my way of struggling, of resisting: making films about life [in a time of war].
The Man without a Past (2002), a masterpiece from Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki, is an endearing tale of humanity, minimalist in style & dialogue, but with a compelling view on life through its frozen yet subversive tone of humor. The film begins on a tragic note, and soon turns into a longing, beautiful study of love and loneliness, of pain and poverty, of faith and fragility. It is about a provincial welder, the unnamed protagonist {played with soulful deadpan by Markku Peltola} who arrives in Helsinki by train, in search of work, gets brutally mugged & assaulted by a group of thugs and left for dead. Pronounced dead in the hospital, he miraculously returns to life, stumbles out of the hospital, with his face fully swathed in bandages, and somehow is found collapsed on a riverbank that’s adjacent to an urban Finnish landscape shadowed by poverty and bureaucratic negligence. Subsequently, he is taken care of by a security guard who happens to be a landlord of the shipping container shantytown and as an unskilled individual, amusingly fancies himself a ruthless enforcer of law and order. Poverty and existence of the downtrodden working class, I felt while watching this film, never has been captured in such an inviting manner. Not so eventful yet simple everyday-ness, resilience and nobility of poor families in hard times takes the audience far away from the universal definer of poverty, i.e. the struggle/labor and the sweat : simple family meals, the woman at the helm of family affairs striking conversations with the stranger who is recuperating from his head injuries to figure out his real identity, family sitting outside enjoying the music floating out of a radio, dad after a hard day taking a hot shower bath in an open bathroom with his kids perched on the tin roof pouring hot steaming water through a bent pipe, dad requesting M to share his crop of Potatoes – a handful of Potatoes grown out of a tiny patch of ground ….. 
despite repeated efforts by everyone, the protagonist fails to recall anything about his previous life, including his name {the final credits identify him simply as M}. Everyone, however, realizes that he could be from a working class because of his hands that look hardened from work, and his face clearly bearing signs of weathered hardship and disappointment. He, eventually, settles down in the community of homeless and destitute, & with a home in a converted storage shed with a mattress, a portable stove and a refurbished jukebox {M manages to salvage this jukebox, which interestingly reflects his music preferences, i.e. ‘rhythm music’ {rockabilly, blues and vintage R&B}}. He also finds love in a melancholic Salvation Army worker, Irma {Kati Outinen}, who ladles out free soup by day, & lies awake in her dormitory at night, listening to Rock n Roll with almost a religious devotion… the film is littered with such quietly affecting sequences like that brief montage of homeless people sleeping on beaches and railroad tracks….Unexpected terrible blow of luck turns to good as M’s loss of his former life {a lot better and comfortable than his present status} symbolizes the emergence of a greater self / human in him, through his love for Irma and influence of his musical preferences that transforms the Salvation Army band into a swinging combo {with the thrift shop manager joining the band as a lead singer}. This juxtaposition of abject poverty, upbeat & lilting music filled evenings in a community setup and everyone’s affection for M for enabling them to take pride in themselves and discover something fresh and new about selves regardless of being surrounded by hardship, poverty and unfortunate conditions, makes this film a contemporary resplendent fairy tale with an optimistic point of view on life.
Aki Kaurismaki’s films, largely, are woven around the aspirations and experiences of working class protagonists. One can see and feel a genuine investment of human norms and morals, positive attitudes {that are strongly associated with the upper class in the society} on simple-minded, regular factory workers, municipal employees, which, effortlessly enable them to rise above their status in the society, their occupations, and their mere existence as insignificant cogs in giant wheels of production. Aki Kaurismaki, with characteristically impish forthrightness, writes that ‘my social, economical and political views of the state of society, morals and love can hopefully be found from the film itself.’ The talk between the protagonist M and the electrician from the municipal utility company who runs a cable from a nearby power line to M’s home (who later repairs the jukebox for M) captures Kaurismaki’s ethical ideals…the electrician refuses payment from M and asks something else in exchange for his favour – ‘If you see lying face down in the gutter, turn me on my back’. The film, on the whole, is beautiful and sad, witty and indifferent, promises a great beginning even being surrounded by the deepest misfortune.
And I love reading this review! Kenneth Turan’s film review starts with the much-lauded ‘The Man without a past’ is a FROZEN FINNISH TREAT….:)
This is a very engaging and thought provoking film about simple people leading richer {not in terms of materialistic factors} and meaningful lives, about a desolate looking boy with large brown eyes, should I say, almost tearful eyes 
and his younger sister Zahra 
{from a poor family that copes with many kinds of financial difficulties everyday, every moment} trying to hide loss of shoes fr0m their parents. The film starts with Ali returning home with his sister’s pink colored worn-out shoes that were taken to a cobbler for repairs. On his way back home, he stops at a fruit and vegetable shop to buy some potatoes for dinner. He keeps the black bag containing the shoes outside the shop, and goes inside the shop to sort through the mass of potatoes. A rag picker mistakenly takes the bag and dumps it in the dumpster-cycle thinking it is a part of the day’s junk. Teary-eyed Ali arrives home to reveal this unfortunate development to his sister who starts crying and keeps probing her brother (while doing her school homework) about what will she wear to school. Ali comes up with a solution to manage this crisis for a while, to hide this fact that Zahra’s shoes have been lost from their parents as it would be one more burden for their parents – both can share his pair of tattered sneakers, as her school is in the morning, while he attends his school in the afternoon. A sort of new regime is inserted into their day : Zahra rushes back to her home without tiny a pause, meets her brother secretly in the middle of her way back home, passes the sneakers to her brother who runs to his school. But this new secret mission of swapping shoes does not prove to be a great solution as it does not allow Ali to reach his school on time, and both the children with no other better option in their hands struggle through one uncomfortable situation after another, while hiding this from their parents and teachers.
Meanwhile, Zahra sees her lost pair of shoes on a schoolmate’s feet, and follows her home, who eventually becomes her friend. On a day off, Ali accompanies his father to the city’s wealthier localities in search of work as a gardener for a little extra money that would take care of the family’s financial needs {their happy discussion on the dad’s rickety cycle, after a hard day’s work, about getting a new pair of shoes for the little girl, however, ends at a bitter note when the cycle collapses due to the failure of brakes – a journey of hope ends in frustration}. At school, Ali comes closer to something that is far more promising enough to resolve the shoe crisis at home : a high profile children’s race with lucrative first and second prizes, and a pair of new sneakers happens to be the third prize. Ali in his badly destroyed and tattered shoes competes and tries not to lead the race throughout, but accidentally wins the race, and the first prize, which unfortunately, is not the one he desires for (a pair of sneakers, the third prize).
The film ends with Zahra realizing that she will not get a new pair of shoes, but a shot of their father’s cycle at the end of the film captures a box of red shoes.
The film’s portrayal of life being manageable and inherently sweet {not in a very indulging manner, but the sense of fulfillment that one would feel at the end of hard work and perseverance} despite countless hardships, in a gentle & relaxed style {with basic images such as fish swimming in a pool captured with almost a poetic fascination} and the comfort of Iranian life, family and customs {like the family prepares sugar cubes to be served at the mosque, younger kids caring for elderly neighbors} sets this earthy & essentially sunny creation apart from the rest – a young boy deeply upset about losing her sister’s shoes, his younger sister, though, grief-struck agreeing to work along with her brother to find a solution to the crisis without burdening their parents who are facing finance driven familial worries. Well, reminded me of my school days when we girls used to survive a whole academic year with a single pair of brown canvas shoes, which used to develop holes somewhere in the second or the third quarter of the year. A sweet of reminder of our childhood when we were deprived of basic childhood indulgences like birthday parties, dolls, and other entertainment. A sweet reminder of all those long discussions our parents used to have before every purchase/financial decision that’s beyond their capacity or demanding enough to trigger some kind of planning and managing their limited resources. A sweet reminder of one crucial lesson that we learnt from our parents : a paisa saved is a paisa earned…certainly an incredulously alien thing for the present Generation that leads highly pampered lives.
Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes is a film shot in gorgeous black and white, with overhead shots of perfectly arranged cups and ashtrays set on a checker-pattern tablecloth, and is full of supple & masterfully orchestrated light hearted talk. It is a cool, languorously stylish collage like film {features who’s who of hipster icons} that jumps from one vignette to another to reach a relaxed and ruminative buzz : the negative health effects of Nicotine and Caffeine {coffee and cigarettes often seem to go hand in hand. The nicotine makes a cup of joe tastes even better}, Cousins so different in personality, lifestyles and aspirations – grungy loser and successful movie star indulging in some conversation punctuated often with a patch of silence, a waiter spouts theories on Evil twins to twins, Bill Murray chugging coffee straight from the pot, Renee French reading a guns-and ammo-magazine while repeatedly getting disturbed by a clearly smitten waiter, Roberto Benigni & Wright playing a game of musical chairs while enjoying tiny cups of coffee, Treatise on Nikola Tesla’s theory of ‘Acoustic resonance’, Alfred Molina trying to bond with Steve Coogan who could be distantly related to him due to some incomprehensible family tree……..
yet to complete……
Mark Herman’s “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’, is a wonderfully crafted film with an emotionally riveting & wrenching end, captures the innocence of childhood and secret friendship between two boys juxtaposed with a grim landscape of adults that is filled with hatred, racial abuse and horrifyingly senseless human destruction, the darkest chapter of human tragedies. The film is based on the best selling novel by John Boyne.
This film is about Bruno, an eight-year old German boy {precocious, curious and explorer by tendency} who befriends Shmuel, an eight-year old Jewish boy {gloomy, weighed down in spirit} in a nearby concentration camp, blissfully unaware of the atrocities, the ordeals that people are going through, and the enormity of the human destruction behind the fence. 
Set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the film journeys through a sunny, cheerful, warm and comforting childhood of Bruno {whose father is a high ranking Nazi officer promoted from a Berlin based position to be the head of a concentration camp that is used to house and eventually dispose of Jews} to reach the country side breathing out grim and bleak terminating songs of human lives. The film’s intention to engage with the complexity of the holocaust in a manner that could influence children as profoundly as adults begins from this point. Bruno who is not that enthused about this sudden move (away from his friends in Berlin to an isolated cold & distant looking mansion in the country side) notices a farm surrounded by a tall barbed wire fence with farmers and children dressed in striped pajamas milling about, a delightful discovery for the kid who wants a playmate. But he fails to understand the sudden frosty tension between his parents when he articulates his desire to play with the kids in the farm, and why he is forbidden to visit the farm where ’strangers – not like them’ people live. Thus captured how naïve Bruno is and how far away is the endearing world of children from the meaninglessly destructive existence of adults. Despite constantly being under the watchful eyes of his mom and the housekeeper, and many other restrictions, he keeps himself engaged with exploring the woods in the backyard. On one of his daily adventures he reaches an unguarded barbed wire fence where he meets Shmuel, an amiable & starving young Jewish boy, and thus begins a secret & very unlikely friendship speckled with Bruno bringing him food, playing Checkers with him from the other side. A rendezvous where the sunny and cheerful side of childhood {albeit with a narrow worldview} 
collides with a grim childhood burdened with an incomprehensible sadness, insecurity coupled with confusion over mysterious disappearance of elders in the family {hardened childhood}.
At home, Bruno’s mother {who has no clear idea about what her husband actually does in the countryside, until she sees the smoke coming from the stacks and is made aware of the atrocity behind the smoke and the smell that accompanies it* a young soldier callously remarks on the stench of burning bodies*, one amongst a few difficult scenes in the film} presents a distinct German point of view on the Nazi’s mission to destroy a human race.
The film tracks gradual changes in Bruno’s perception about the world around … at first hopelessly naïve …a sense of wonderment and admiration for his father being a great man who is defending the country in the war… the concentration camp is a farm.. Jews are strange people wearing striped pajamas, …{to} the numbers on those pajamas are part of a game, …{to} his inability to understand why that elderly Jewish helper in the kitchen/house gave up being a doctor to become a domestic servant who peels potatoes in the kitchen, why should one hate Jews {through careful indoctrination}, why is it so difficult to find a good Jew, why can not he be friends with Shmuel, the conflict between the lessons he receives and the reality he faces : Jews are supposed to be bad & yet Shmuel is nice, why can not Shmuel play freely like him…{to} a painful realisation of the fact that his father did not make any effort to save the elderly Jewish man from a humiliating punishment… {to} a pang of guilt for not being able to declare Shmuel as his friend on a specific occasion…{to} a quick reflection about the real/actual concentration camp that looks so painfully grimly & different from the ‘Concentration camp with positive working conditions, a cafeteria, and various kinds of entertainment avenues for the comfort of Jews’ that’s being propagated by the Nazis. As the film progresses, we see both Bruno and Shmuel losing their innocence and growing up too fast & too quickly {much to their discomfort} to come closer to the reality of their circumstances. One of the boys is free and the other is trapped in the concentration camp. The most compelling and brutal yet real ending of this film starts creeping on us when Bruno slips into a striped uniform (shirt, pajamas and a cap), enters the concentration camp to help Shmuel in his search for his papa who mysteriously disappeared, and in the process of which he loses his German identity & becomes part of the human march towards some deadly and abrupt a termination that usually involves thousands of Jews being herded like animals into a gas chamber, where naked men and children huddle …..
I came across quite a few intellectual and adultish debates on this film, how can an eight-year old boy be so naive and ignorant of those disturbing developments around him etc etc. TIME’s review says the looming presence of starkly factual Anne Frank’s Diary, Primo Levi’s recollections of the death camps, Schindler’s List in our minds renders this film ludicrous. A quick snap at this set of folks - ”KGOY – Kids Growing Older Younger’ is a phenomenon in the recent times.
“A sort of truth-crisis that made me feel suddenly that I had to take a stand. What is truth and when does one tell the truth? It became so difficult that I thought the only form of truth is silence. And in the end, going a step further, I discovered that it, too, was a kind of mask. The need is to find a step beyond”
- Ingmar Bergman on Persona
…..well….
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