Roman Holiday - Charming!

This much copied classic is one fun filled film. At the helm of things are 2 legends - Gregory Peck and the b-e-a-utifull Audrey Hepburn. She is damn cute and incidentally won an Oscar for the performance in this film.

The film is about this Cute Princess who is on a tour across Europe as a PR activity. She feels constrained and her life is Scheduled and protected. She craves to break free when she sees people dancing on the streets. So she escapes at night. Gregory Peck is a reporter who lives on loans. He never has cash. He stumbles into her that night and there starts the magic. The chemistry is electric. The humour subtle. The princess is so happy to be just an unknown girl. Gregory realises shez the princess and to get the most amazing story, takes her around Rome for a whole day. Quiet obviously they fall in love, but the sense of duty towards her family and country takes the princess back to her castle, while the reporter throws away the biggest story of his life - for he doesnt want to expose the princess.

What is so charming about the film is the story, the subtle comedy, the chemistry between the main actors and the amazing acting by them. Just looking at the innocent looking Audrey, you believe she is the Poor little rich kid who craves freedom. Gregory plays the perfect gentleman with the witty retorts and charming one-liners. Overall this movie is one hell of a charmer. Do not miss it. ( Dil Hai Ki maanta Nahi - the remake of this film was a very good adaptation - I must add!! )

Casablanca - Eternal Charm

Cast : Humphrey Boggart and Ingrid Bergman.

I have seen this movie in the top movies of all time list several times, so I had to see it and judge for myself. So, I watched it and it turned out to be an outstanding movie.

This movie is set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. This place is not taken over by the Germans and is the place through which people can leave for America - if they get a "letter of transit". Rick - Humphrey Boggart is an owner of a night club in Casablanca and is quiet an influencial man. The local Police under command of the captain Louis Renault comes to Ricks club to catch a person who has robbed two "Letters of Transit". This they know is for the safe escape of a Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, who is presently in Casablanca with his wife. They dont want him to escape because he had escaped a Nazi Concentration camp and was fighting a battle against the Germans. The Captain is aiding the Germans in getting Victor caught again and send him to a concentration camp, but they know they cant catch him without any evidence of wrong doing in a neutral territory. The guy who smuggles the Letters gives them to Rick for safeguarding, before getting caught.

When Victor and his wife Isla Lund (Ingrid Bergman) arrive at the famous night club, Rick recognises her as the girl who broke his heart recently. He loved her deeply and she had said she would come with him, only to leave him completely at sea, when the time came for escape from a city attacked by the Germans. He hates her for it. Isla loves Rick and wants to explain why she did not come with Rick. She tells him how she was already a married lady before she had met him. But abck then she was told that Victor had been killed in the concentration camp. On the day of the escape Victor had come back, so she cudnt leave him. She respected Victor a lot for being a revolutionary fighter and she could not possibly leave him when he needed her the most. She pleads Rick to give her the Letters of Transit for Victors escape, because it is for the greater good. Rick, jealous as ever first denies and then agrees on one condition -that she would stay back with him. She agrees. Then Rick plans the escape. The movie ends with an amazing sacrifice by Rick, for the greater good - because he sees what a great man Victor is. Don't worry, nothing happens to him - this movie has a happy ending :)

This may seem a movie surrounded by war, but is a great love story. One which has Seperation, Pain, Suffering, Sacrifice and Passion. Ingrid Bergman is one of the most beautiful woman you would ever see. She is spectacular. Humphrey Boggart is the spine of the film. He displays pain, jealousy and swagger with equal ease. I can see how these two are legends of Cinema. Overall the story is the winner. It was an Oscar winning movie of 1942 and runs for just over 90 minutes. But it surely is endearing and engaging. I enjoyed watching it and I will surely watch it several more times. I recommend this classic to one and all. Ah! Ingrid - U R divine:)

'The Foutainhead' - the movie

External Links: Cross-posted on Movie Reviews IMDB Entry.

Its is not everyday that you watch a 1949 Hollywood flick - but when it is based on the famed novel - 'The Foutainhead' - the period of the movie doesn't matter; the story of Howard Roark is as fresh and as inspiring today as it was 70 years ago.

But watching a 1949 hollywood movie makes you remember those 'Black & White' cinemas we used to watch on Doordarshan in our childhood - Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar types! The dialogue delivery seems weird and melodramatic. If you have ever seen one of those Clint Eastwood 'Inspector Callahan' movies, the dialogue delivery is in the same style, albeit even more accentuated.

I would say that the performances are good - by 1949 standards. Gary Cooper, with the wooden dialogue delivery does a perfect portrayal of Roark and Patiricia Neal is perfect as Dominique Francon who is the detached from world but selflessly dedicated to Roark. Robert Douglas also gives perfect evil smiles as Elsworth Toohey - the demagogue. Raymond Massey as Gail Wynand too does justice to his character so does Kent Smith as Peter Keating.

BUT But but, still the movie feels more like the characters are reading the dialogues from the novel even enacting the scenes exactly as described in it. For example, when Gail Wynand is awarding the last contract to Roark at the end of the movie, his expression can be paraphrased exactly as Rand wrote in the novel; I quote:

Wynand's face was more than the face of a stranger: a stranger's face is an unapproached potentiality, to be opened if one makes the choice and effort; this was a face known, closed and never to be reached again. A face that held no pain of renunciation, but the stamp of the next step, when even pain is renounced. A face remote and quiet, with a dignity of its own, not a living attribute, but the dignity of a figure on a medieval tomb that speaks of past greatness and forbids a hand to reach out for the remains.

Technically speaking, while the near-perfect portrayal of the scene would work to the credit of the actors, for a first time viewer, who hasn't read the novel - the gestures would seem animated - one would feel the lack of realism and a flavour of mythological drama in the direction of the movie.

Not the movie crew's mistake at all, I would say. The Fountainhead is a story of characters - the essence is not so much in the sequence of events (which can as well be compared to one of the 'Angry Young Man' Bollywood flicks of the 70s and 80s) - the crux of the story is in the characters that make it up. Unfortunately, in limited time of the movie, it is difficult to give time for development of characters - especially with so many of them being unique and intense.

So for those who haven't read the novel, with an expectation of seeing some drama - the movie should turn out to be a good watch. But for those who have the time and the urge - nothing would beat reading the novel itself!!

Wild Strawberries - Poignant

This is the first and only Ingmar Bergman movie I have seen and you can see why he commands such great respect in the world of films. This movie is in Swedish. It was made in 1957 and is one of the showcase films of that era.

The story is about this old man called Proffesor Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom - whos a veteran Swedish Director himself - he is just amazing). The movie starts with a nightmare. Proffesor Isak sees his own death. He wakes up sweating and immediately starts packing for his journey. He is supposed to go to Lund from Stockholm to get an honourary degree from Lund University. He is an impossible man, who everyone fear. He's also alone. He travles with his daughter in law who loathes him. During the journey he meets a quarreling couple, a girl travelling with her fiance and another guy who loves him. They tag along. Prof. Isak in between goes to his childhood home and also to meet his mother.

During the relationships he dreams and hallucinates about many incidents in his life. His introspection brings him happiness and grief. He dreams of the girl he loved, about his wife and defining moments in his life. I think he wonders what if something was different. How his life would have turned out. This sour old man at the twilight of his life looks back and wonders if its too late to change. In the fellow passengers he sees his life. He realises how he had pushed everyone in his life away from himself. Even his wife.

Bergman uses his camera like a palette and in that black and white motion picture you can almost see colour. This movie is not for everyone, certainly not for the masses. The picturisation gives it a weird dreamy look and the black and white hues give it a haunting one. I enjoyed this film, but more than that it somehow told me that there much more in life than to achieve self set goals and how lonely do you get when you are so self centred. You can call it an ART film, coz Bergman works like an artist.