Breathless

Director: Jean Luc Godard
Year: 1966















While watching this movie close attention has to be paid on the technique, because that is what makes it a benchmark in cinematic history. The story (written by Francois Truffaut) is simple. There are several one liners which stays in your head long after the movie is over, one's you would love to keep quoting. The part with the journalists interviewing Parvulesco, Patricia among them, is particularly full of quotes like these.
The characters build up beautifully & naturally.Michel imitates Humphrey Bogart in his ways, & Patricia takes on the expressions & styles of almost everyone she meets. There is something so very dramatic about them, yet they are not overtly so, they are not forced to explain themselves or what they are thinking or feeling, but can be figured out .The climax is remarkable, with the drama being smoothened out every time it has an opportunity to build, it is more cerebral than apparent. The music is sure to grab attention while staying in the background like it is supposed to.
The name of the movie is more a reflection on the story telling technique, hasty, with jump cuts, digressions from the main plot in several places soon returning to carry on the tale & the end without credits or titles, it's almost like a breathless narrator telling a tale, only with images.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Director: Michel Gondry
Year: 2004















You can't help but love this movie. It's a love story, yet it's not one of those sunshine-and-roses love stories where people live happily ever after, or the romeo & juliet style tragic tale of star crossed loves who have all the love in their hearts but are forced to be apart by the cruel world. This is a story that anyone can relate to, a tale of ordinary, imperfect people, looking for a little love, finding it & then messing it all up due to their own complicated minds. When it hurts, they rush into the only thing that they think will make their pain go away... having their memories of each other erased, but at the point of no return they realize that they don't want to let go of these memories. When things get bad, when you just stop trying to see the good in the other person then all that you see is the bad. You can hate a person, yet only when you stand to lose them, even the memory of them, that's when you realize that you can't stand to be without them, that you'd rather live with all the hurt & the things that you find unacceptable in them than live without them. That is what this movie conveys so naturally & beautifully.
The best part is that, the same plot could have been made melodramatic, overbearing on emotions, but it doesn't. It's not a fairy tale. It's about people who could almost be real. And anyone can relate to it, anyone who has ever been in a relationship with someone for some time. Jim Carrey has always been a fabulous performer, & he's at his usual best in this movie. Kate Winslett appears in a completely deglamourised role as the quirky, weird, fiercely independent yet sensitive, Clementine. They both carry their parts without making anything look unnatural or abnormal, that is what makes their characters even more believable.
If you are the sensitive sort, you may even get dewy eyed, especially toward the end, where the last few memories that Joel has of Clementine are being erased & they know that they can't hold on even if they wish to, it's rather touching. The Beck song at the end, "everybody's gotta learn sometime" kind of sums the entire thing up.
Overall, one of my favourite movies, & one of the few i'll watch over & over & over again, but never ever get tired of it.

My Blueberry Nights

Director- Wong Kar Wai
Year: 2007




















I realize that till now i have only reviewed movies that i particularly liked, on this blog. So i decided to make an exception. My Blueberry Nights(MBN), is one movie that i didn't like at all.
Wong Kar Wai's "Chungking Express" was nice, worth a watch. But if you watch MBN expecting the same, you will be left throughly disappointed.
The film opens promisingly. More so because Jude Law is always a pleasure to watch. In fact he is the only good thing about this movie. The first 30 minutes are actually nice, even though scattered & disorganized, as though someone went haywire with the editing job. Norah Jones, in her acting debut, looks heart wrenchingly lovely, but her acting skills aren't really as wonderful as she is behind her piano, doing what she does best.
The sub plots are just silly. They don't touch a chord, you don't feel for the characters, it seems melodramatic & often so irritating that you are tempted to hit fast forward to get to the end, & get over with it knowing that the lead couple get their happy ending, which of course, they do.
The music of the film is one thing that's commendable, with Cat Power & Norah Jones amongst others. But at some places even the music seems over bearing, over done. It would be much wiser to buy the movie OST CD than waste money on the DVD.
There's nothing much one can write about MBN. The Verdict: Skip this one. If you want to watch a light romance, watch Love Actually instead.