Fantasia (1940)

There are times when you just find it hard to find the right words to express something. Seriously… How can you express Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile in words or tell a blind guy what Red color looks like? Walt Disney’s classic of sight and sound falls comes under this category. Made in 1940, this film was groundbreaking in its animation style back then. Even after more than 70 years, the film’s power has not lessened. This is an art film where Disney artists came up with their own sights and images for the ‘music’ that’s playing in the background. There are six main animated segments, accompanied by classic music and Deems Taylor plays the host who presents these segments before their commencement. When he’s done, we see Conductor Leopold Stokowski’s figure, bathed in brilliant splashes of colour, guiding the beautiful music played by The Philadelphia Orchestra. The film fades and the images flow in the screen, dancing to the beautiful music.

Grandiose, but never pretentious, Fantasia is a true work of art. The artists exploit their freewill of interpreting classic works of Western music and the result is as thrilling as a roller coaster ride. Sometimes these segments have a definite story. Sometimes, there’s no definite plot but it does contain a series of definite, abstract images. And then there’s the kind where music exists for its own sake. As Fantasia is divided in six main segments, I’ll go through each and every one giving a brief description about them and what I felt about them. This is a difficult task, yes, especially when you are trying to describe the emotional effect the astounding marriage of sight and sound had on you. But this amateur reviewer will try his best. And I won’t be covering everything, as I want many things to come as an absolute surprise to you.

Here we go…

1st Segment: The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a

In this beautiful segment, we witness the changing seasons brought about by the magical fairies. This segment presents a variety of dances, performed by various ‘elements’ of the Mother Nature as the seasons change… This is one of my least favorite segments yet the animation is jaw-droppingly (Is that a word?) powerful and one of the most complex I have ever seen in any hand-drawn animated film. This is a segment that takes place in a forest, on a river and even underwater. My God, they even animated the ripples that the fish, while swimming, produce! We see a spider’s web getting covered in dew drops as the magical fairies dance about it while the celesta plays silently in the score. The beautiful harp plays along as the leaves dry up and fall in a poetic way. We see the fish dancing with their beautiful long fins as the violins play lazily in a dreamlike manner. We see the brilliant ballet of the fairies in the end as they cover everything in frost to welcome the winter. The frost crystals shown in this last part looks unbelievably 3D-ish! This is a very meticulously detailed segment where imagination is allowed to flow freely. Attention has also been given to the facial expressions of the fairies like one fairy looks a bit bored as she might be tired of these daily chores!

What a beautiful interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. Although, some of the ‘dances’ in this sequence were a bit unappealing to me, it was still a wonderful watch, thanks to the ahead-of-its-time animation.

3.5/5

2nd Segment: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

This is one of the most iconic scenes in cinema and it stars… Mickey Mouse! This is a definite parabolic segment based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem. It’s the story of an apprentice (Mickey Mouse) who tries to attempt a few of his master’s magic tricks but doesn’t know how to use them! One day, he’s ordered to carry water to fill a cauldron. When the master goes away, he uses magic to make the broomstick carry water for him. But he doesn't know the counter spell to stop it! A very thought-provoking story that also entertains. Mickey’s child-like performance as he plays with powers beyond him is immaculately captured through hand-drawn animation. The music composition done by Paul Dukas truly was a proper selection for this segment as it beautifully portrays the emotions of naughtiness, guilt and that feeling of awe when you try out something new.

I really enjoyed this part. And it has no dialog!

4.5/5

3rd Segment: Rite of Spring

According to our host, Composer Igor Stravinsky had created the score in order to depict the beginning of life forms on Earth, how some of them evolved into Dinosaurs and how they eventually died. The Disney animators bring this vision to life in this segment.

This is another extremely complex segment where we journey through the Milky Way, reaching Earth which is nothing but a big hot mass full of active volcanoes and storms. So many things happen at once, all of them ‘performing’ at the mercy of the gigantic score. The volcanoes roar… Hot yellow bubbles explode… The Earth breaks and volcanic rivers flow into a giant sea… Moments later, we witness life evolving in the seas…

Once again, the animation is grand in scale and, surprisingly, there’s total absence of sound effects. As promised, it’s just sound and images mixing together to re-create the events of evolution, the way science claims it had happened. This is a very powerful visceral experience.

4.5/5

4th Segment: The Pastoral Symphony

Ah… Now we have arrived at my favorite part of the film. The legendary Composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s score accompanies a gathering of mythical Greek creatures. Fauns, Centaurs, Cupids, Pegasus and many other creatures join in to party with Bacchus, the lord of wine. Later, the party is interrupted by a giant storm…

This segment is an explosion of colors. Imaginations of the artist run wild as they paint this scene with all the colors of the world and place the purest fruits, flowers in this scenario. To make the setting more wonderful, the art-direction adds heavily to the mythical aspect. And then the characters fill in the scene, captured with poetic mise en scene all performing once again to Beethoven’s beautiful score. This scene is so rich that rivers of wine fill the land (Literally) and the rainbow almost pours its colors on the entire setting. I can go on for ages in the process of describing this scene but I’ll save you the time and let you discover the well-engineered wonders of this segment. This part defines Heaven for me. Yes, this is what it looks like. Masterpiece.

5/5

5th Segment: Dance of the Hours

This is a comic ballet depicting: morning, afternoon, evening and finally night. A certain different groups of ‘performers’ dance to Composer Amilcare Ponchielli’s score, depicting different hours of the day. I’ll keep this a surprise as who the performers truly are. A comic sequence indeed but I personally found myself bored most of the time. This segment is just dance, dance and more dances. I’ll just say that the animators were ‘too’ imaginative in this scene and it would have helped if a few things were cut down. Still, it's worth watching this dreamy sequence.

3.5/5

6th Segment: Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria

Now you have reached the most serious part of Fantasia. This segment has two different pieces of music in it but when put together it forms a battle between the forces of good and evil. That’s how the animators interpreted it. This segment depicts the gathering of the forces of evil and restless spirits summoned by the powerful devil Chernabog. The evil forces perform a sort of dance macabre in front of the devil who admires them and toys with them. The grand score that plays here is Night on Bald Mountain (The segment does take place on a mountain) composed by Modest Mussorgsky. Once again, the animation here is bold, complex and full of impressive imagination. The way the devil summons the dead from the abandoned town, the way the dead come out of their graves, sometimes ghostly figures of knights and soldiers who possibly died in some war, is a sight to behold. The atmosphere is both melancholic and dark. The emotions are furthered intensified by the music…

And then… their terrible soiree is interrupted by a sound of a bell. Probably it’s a church bell. The devil and the forces of evil retreat as dawn slowly bring in warmth and hope. Franz Schubert’s iconic Ava Maria fills the air, coming from a group of people, supposedly Monks…

If the Pastoral segment depicts paradise, this final segment depicts our material universe. There is good and evil everywhere… but in the end it’s the good that always triumphs. The hour is darkest just before dawn…

My second favorite segment in Fantasia. Another flawless masterpiece.

5/5

Whew! So now we have almost arrived at the end of this huge review. I don’t know if I've become successful in expressing what Fantasia is about. But if I have, well and good. You see, art has so many different forms. Sometimes it has a definite meaning and sometimes it’s left for the viewer to decide what certain aspects actually depict and what they see in it. Fantasia is a grand and audacious art. It’s a visceral experience that simply exists to feast your senses and serve as a reminder that cinematic art has no bounds. Don’t worry, mate. This isn't something heavy or boring artsy-fartsy stuff. It’s pure cinema that is meant to be felt. Fantasia, for me, was like entering a child's imaginary world where all the stories that probably his parents told him come to life. But Fantasia IS a dream world and what a stunning dream it is!

Although I wasn’t impressed by few of it’s segments, the experience as a whole was unforgettable. Please don’t miss it…

4.4/5

Tetsuo The Iron Man (1988)

Holy Shit! Shinya Tsukamoto's cult classic Tetsuo the iron man (1988) simply is beyond words! Cinema takes an obnoxious, bizarre and graphic form and results in the creation of one of the most scariest and shocking film experiences. It's hard to believe that this film had a very low budget and was shot with a 16 mm. All the elements such as the jaw-dropping stop motion effect, the incredible metallic soundtrack, the smart sound mixing, the extreme film editing, the black and white cinematography and an highly innovative story come together beautifully and prove that cinema, indeed, is limitless and low budget can never suppress a man's vision.

At times, the film takes a (deliciously) surreal form but we never lose our grasp on understanding Tetsuo's story-line. This film is not, even for a millisecond, afraid of throwing the most bizarre and gut-wrenching images at it's audiences (Which are hardly pretentious, for the record). There is, supposedly, a metaphor hidden in Tetsuo that man has developed a 'fetish' for machines and has been consumed by it. The film graphically shows people transforming into hybrids of metal and flesh which was quite brilliantly filmed. The idea of recycling metallic scrap as props was a smart move!

This film is, obviously, not for everyone. And whether you hate it or love it, Tetsuo still manages to rape your senses (I loved it!), giving you an experience that is totally new. I warn you again that this film is extremely bizarre and experimental so enter at your own will. A nightmarish near-masterpiece that easily beats David Lynch's Eraserhead, a film which had originally inspired Tetsuo.

Rating: 4.7/5

Revanche (2008)

How often have you been emotionally moved after watching a crime-thriller? Yeah, you heard it right. It is quite rare that we watch films like Revanche that instead of crafting a contrived crime thriller to amuse audiences gives more attention to the emotional experience. This film gives more attention to the characters involved in the situation, how they react and how it changes them.

Revanche never tries hard to create any excitement. Rather, it makes a significant use of silence. This silence makes the film more unpredictable, unexpected and I found myself biting my nails in frustration as to what is gonna happen next. Usually, movies control the characters. In this case, it's the other way round. Director Götz Spielmann proved that you don't always need Hitchcock-ian techniques to create a tense film.

The cast is incredible. They are ordinary looking folk, completely unknown to the audience. Revanche uses this as an advantage and the final result is so effective and appealing, even if it's a slow-burner. A flawless screenplay surprisingly adds a thought-provoking and humane elements to what first looked like a standard revenge film. This is a character-driven film, not plot-driven (For Example: The Sixth Sense, The Vanishing, The Silence of The Lambs).

You expect the silence to be broken. You expect a gunshot, a death. But it isn't. Through this minimalist approach, the film successfully achieves in bringing the audience more closer to the characters. Once we come closer, the silence is sometimes suddenly broken. And surprisingly, it's subtle. This film is simple yet thoughtful, thrilling but never forced, incredibly natural but never self-indulgent. The ending will trouble many. It did trouble me too but it was acceptable from my side as the film had clearly stated what it had intended to.

What. A. Movie!!

4.7/5

Walkabout (1971)

  

Original Poster of Walkabout (1971)

Beautiful. Just beautiful. When I was expecting another particular survival story, Roeg showed me an amazingly peculiar one. Set in the harsh regions of Australia (The exact location in the continent, in my opinion, doesn't matter) two kids, a 14 year old girl and her 6 year old brother, are abandoned by their father (He also tries to kill them but fails) who eventually sets their car on fire and kills himself. With no means of transport and no civilized humans around, the kids simply head out into the wilderness. They soon encounter an Aborigine boy who's on a "Walkabout": an Aborigine ritual which involves surviving in the wild for months with the aid of hunting skills after the adolescent reaches a certain age. Thence begins a beautiful and pure journey where the three characters try to outlive the harsh environment with the hunting skills the Aborigine boy possesses.  

Right at this moment, I am spellbound by this film's images and I will admit that I got to witness a new face of cinema today. Instead of showing us a sweet conventional survival story, Director Nicholas Roeg dwells on narrating the story in a different and thought-provoking manner. The film has been given a complex and layered narration that is a bit ambiguous. Through smart editing and significant number of freeze frames the director, during the Walkabout journey, tries to compare the two completely different cultures of men. 

One scene is particularly my favorite where the film alternates between the Aborigine boy butchering a Kangaroo and a butcher in some civilized city doing the same. These astonishing moments question the very nature of human beings. Whether we are lost in some unknown, remote and harsh region of the world or are behind the brick walls of the concrete jungle, we are all simply trying to survive in this cruel world. Roeg never even gives us a clear idea why the father attempts to kill his children and suicides. Though, that is a clear indication of the fact that the father couldn't survive in the civilized world. He was too weak that is the reason why he gave up his life.

This film leaves the complexity of the civilized world (Symbolized by the car burnt down by the father) and follows a journey on the beauty of companionship and purity of life. Yes, Pure is the keyword here. We are transported back to the age when everything was "Pure". The film's wonderful finale is the most powerful testament of this aspect. Sometimes certain situations arose in the film when the children are extremely close at getting discovered and saved by civilized people but aren't. At this point, Roeg's camera briefly focuses on these people and shows us what they are doing. There  are certain thought-provoking messages hidden in these scenes which, of course, I will not reveal here and will allow you, my dear readers, to discover it's beauty by yourselves. 

And then there's the spellbinding cinematography and Roeg's amazing direction. Both capture the wilderness very meticulously and the "pillow shots" (A curious shot where the camera focuses on the surrounding elements, for brief moments, of the environment where the action takes place) makes the film more believable. There are beautiful shots of birds, trees, reptiles, the stark desert, the sunrise/sunset, etc. that fills the film with fresh images of mother nature. Walkabout is a beautiful and complex near-masterpiece film from the land of Australia. Just walk into Walkabout and you won't regret it. 

This is Pure Cinema :)

Rating: 5/5

Letter Never Sent (1959)

In Mikhail Kalatozov's Letter Never Sent, four geologists are searching for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia. Three men, one woman. Andrei and Tanya are in love. Sergei is in love with Tanya. Sergei is a strong man who had been on such expeditions but had returned with no luck. He is jealous of the nerdy Andrei's and the beautiful Tanya's relationship but never cares to hide that feeling. Sabinine (The Leader of the expedition) often spends his free time writing letters, which he will never send, to the woman he once loved. This is how the film begins: By presenting a set of characters, each having different perspectives but are present in the wild forests of Siberia for one reason. With the hope of serving their country, they are present there hunting for a diamond vein. It's no surprise that the diamond deposit is discovered in the film after days of hard work. Previous expeditions had failed but this one expedition proved that there indeed was a diamond deposit in Siberia. Soon, the four geologists, filled with zeal and satisfaction, find themselves engulfed by a huge forest fire and completely cut of from the civilized world. Will they survive? 

Before the opening credits, the film pays tribute to the people of the Soviet Union who have given their lives for the benefit of the country, whether it be astronauts seeking answers for the mysteries of space or geologists going in to the wilderness hunting for diamonds. Throughout the entire film, we see the characters suffering in the piercing cold and bleak atmosphere of Siberia. Their goal at this point is to safely deliver the map, on which the whereabouts of the diamond deposit is marked, to Moscow. We see sacrifice. We witness loss. We witness alienation, hunger, despair. This is where I realized that similar to numerous Soviet films, Letter Never Sent contains shards of Propaganda. Adventure? Nope. I look at this one as a miserable survival film filled with some unnecessary moments of melodrama, patriotism and hyperactivity. The fact is that I don't mind patriotism and propaganda. But in this case it's overdone. I just didn't care for any of the characters. Not even the gorgeous Tatiana Somailova whose performance in the 1957 Soviet Classic The Cranes are Flying (Also directed by Mikhail Kalatozov) was spellbinding. It was because of this film that I was intrigued to check out Letter Never Sent.

Now the big question: What relation does the film and it's title have? As stated earlier, Sabinine wrote letters to a woman he loved from his past. He wrote them, feeling nostalgic, without the intention of sending them (Of course, the team is already in the middle of nowhere). This relation is explained further in the final moments of the film but it's significance is again directed more towards patriotism, in my opinion. Another disappointing aspect.  

Unlike the ingenious masterpiece The Cranes are Flying, this film lacks true emotions. I went in with high hopes of seeing another Soviet masterpiece but eventually I was left disappointed. Albeit this film failed to emotionally engross me, Sergei Urusevsky's miraculous cinematography makes the film worth watching. Urusevsky and Kalatozov have collaborated in multiple films and their most well known work is of course The Cranes are Flying, where the film used astonishing camera-work. Though I believe Letter Never Sent takes it to a whole new level by composing unbelievable images. The camera work is well ahead of it's time. It looked like that the camera glided through the wild fire and the horrible blizzards very smoothly. The technical artistry of this film deserves a standing ovation and at times it completely overpowers the dissatisfying screenplay.

On the positive side, Letter Never Sent is one of the strongest proofs of how visually powerful cinema can be. If you ever tell me to compile a top 10 list of the most visually stunning films ever crafted, this one will gladly make it to the top 5. Mr. Urusevsky, you rock. (And I will highly recommend The Cranes are Flying in case you haven't seen it yet).



Rating: 3/5

Pune 52 (2013)

In recent times, the Marathi film industry has begun creating many interesting films that tackle social issues and represent a story in a very stylish manner. One of these films is Pune 52, Director Nikhil Mahajan's debut feature. I got a chance to watch Pune 52 at the Pune International Film Festival in Pune. While walking inside the theater, I was excited with a hope of enjoying another good and different Marathi film. I had already heard a lot about it's "dark themes" encompassing a supposedly good detective story. On entering the theater, I was satisfied to see a huge crowd occupying all the seats. With no seats remaining, I, along with many others, were forced to sit on the aisles. Few minutes before the film began, the director himself appeared with a broad smile and a feeling of satisfaction visible very clearly on his face while observing the huge crowd that had come to see his film. He gave a short speech and some words caught my attention: "Watch the film with an open mind. The film's theme is quite dark and noir-ish.  This is something you haven't seen in any other Marathi film yet". He thanked the audience and finally the screening commenced. 

    

The Dissatisfaction

Pune 52 is the story of a private detective, Amar Apte, who's economical condition is at it's all time low. He still continues with his profession as he loves solving mysteries. His wife, Prachi, is sick and completely tired with her husband. She had married him because he was "adventurous" but their love due to their economical conditions was slowing dying out. While Prachi insults her husband everyday for not properly bringing any bread in the house, we see a bored Amar who wants to bring back excitement in his life. His work has been both boring and unproductive until one day a young woman  named Neha hires him to keep a watch on her own husband whom she suspects of having an affair. Amar, with the hope of restoring some excitement in his life, takes the case and this point on wards, everything begins to change for him...

     

The Femme Fatale

Dark, of course, but Pune 52 didn't impress me. This film has the common elements of usual "noir" films which includes dark cinematography (At times, the film actually is shown in Black and White), a dark story and the involvement of a femme fatale (In this case, it's Neha). This dark setting was impressively filmed and the film had my complete attention for it's first half. After the interval, Pune 52 tends to become a bit pointless and pretentious. That also includes the ending which was completely abrupt, incoherent and left me dumbfounded. So, you wanna bring a change in Marathi cinema? I embraced the beautiful technical aspects of this film with open arms but couldn't find any meaning behind what the film wanted to say. No, the story is completely clear and everyone is aware of what was going on. But the story lacks any depth and film just covers that fact up by becoming pretentious. Although the script was dissatisfying, the acting is explosive and well done. Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni and Sai Tamhankar play very convincing roles of Amar, Prachi and Neha respectively.

I will conclude saying that Pune 52 was another interesting Marathi film with great performances but a poor script. If you are still interested, give it a shot. But don't expect any thing new, as I had.

Rating: 2.9/5

Official trailer of Pune 52:

Race 2 (2013)

This film needs no review. Race 2 (God knows who the directors are) is an irritating crap with an infinite, never ending series of plot twists (That automatically generates more plot holes) and the usual voluptuousness seen in almost every major Bollywood production. I watched this film with some friends (Thank God, I didn't watch this on the big screen) and I had an awesome time! No, it wasn't the film, it was my friends' funny epic comments. I even can't imagine watching this film alone! There came one point when the film really caught everyone's attention. It was the part where the funny-voiced Saif Ali Khan (The one wearing a pair of sexy goggles [That doesn't suit him] in the top left of the poster) plans to steal the shroud of Turin. Amazing planning, I must agree. When the plan was recited to a supposedly 'Godfather', he said,"Wow, such plan has not even ever been executed in a Hollywood film!" What an overstatement. In a few minutes, Saif let him down by stealing the shroud of Turin in a fashion almost similar to the robbery of The Declaration of Independence in  National Treasure (2004). That's it. I lost my patience from this point but my beautiful friends kept me going. At last, I successfully finished watching it. What a grand achievement! 

That's all I wanna say about Race 2, the worst film of the year. In case you wanna have a good time, go out, live your life, go places (In reality, not in films), meet new people and have an open mind. Do anything, but don't watch Race 2 even accidently. There are more worse films, I know, but I am not interested in wasting my time on them. I want to share my remorse of not having watched this video (Given Below) before watching the film which is far more superior, entertaining and above all: truthful about the current dominance of crappy big budget films over good ones. Well, probably this is gonna be a treat for 'target audiences'. But after the end credits roll, they are gonna forget it forever. And the money that the producers get from them, is gonna be used in the making of another crappy film. Possibly, for another sequel? 

In case you are interested, here are some songs from Race 2. Don't know who the composers are...

1. Party on my mind:

2. Lat Lag Lagayi:

Rating: 1/5