The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Director: Anthony Minghella
Writers: Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Minghella
DOP: John Seale
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman

In the late 1950s New-York, Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), a young underachiever is sent to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf, a rich spoiled millionaire playboy. But when the errand fails, Ripley takes extreme measures.

Talented Mr. Ripley was the follow-up film from Minghella to 'The English Patient', which won numerous academy awards. That one was a typical Oscar bait film that you like watching it for the first time but have no intention to revisit it ever again. While this one is the exact opposite, with a truly dark story which won't make it a favourite during the awards season and tremendous performances from all concerned. Matt Damon is a favourite of mine more because of the films that he is involved with than because of superlative acting turns. He is someone who has played too many Matt Damonish roles and you've trouble seeing him as the character that he is playing. Ripley is an exception to that and it is in my opinion his best performance.

The errand that he is assigned for by the millionaire father is as part of a misunderstanding and there is the obvious class difference between Ripley and those he acquaints with on his trip.
Ripley is good at impersonating others, forging signatures and lying comfortably. He begins to long for the lifestyles of his rich new friends. There is also some homosexual undertones to the whole deal.

The greatest thing about the film is that he gets away with (physically not mentally) which is in stark contrast to the usual 'Crime doesn't pay motif' from Hollywood. We also want him to get away with it. Overall, it is a great watch and works as a psychological thriller. The film is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel with the same name and it was also earlier adapted as the film 'Purple Noon'. I do like to check out Alàin Delon's performance as Ripley.

Rating: 4/5

Beau Travail (1999)

Director: Claire Denis
Writer:    Claire Denis
Cinematographer: Agnes Godard
Cast: Denis Lavant, Michael Subor
Language: French

The film focuses on an ex-foreign legion (Denis Lavant) officer as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in Africa.

You can't do much wrong if you start your film with a club scene set to 'Kiss Kiss' song from Tarkan. The film has a meditative quality to it as we are shown various routines that the legion goes through in their non-combat days. First half of the film will work very well as an advertisement for recruitment. The character played by Denis Lavant is like the second in command with a father fixation for his own reporting officer. It could be sexual as well but it is not explicitly mentioned. In the beginning of the film, he mentions that 'Freedom begins with remorse'. The remorse that he is noting here is concerning his actions when he had a young man whom he thought of as a competition for him in terms of his superior officer's attention/affection.

It is an adaptation of Herman Melville's 1888 novella Billy Budd. It also reminded me of William Friedkin's 'Cruising' which also had a very confused protagonist. It is a great watch and has got a super great soundtrack. Claire Denis is a very interesting director and the films that I've watched of her's has a unique quality to them while each of them being very different in terms of settings.

Rating: 4.5/5

باد ما را خواهد برد The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)

Director: Abbas Kiarostami 
Writer:   Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographer: Mahmoud Kayari
Cast:        Behzad Boranu
Language: Persian

A man and his team arrives in a Kurdish village from Tehran posing as telecom engineers. The purpose of their visit is not made clear to us but we know that it is related to the impending death of a woman who is more than 100 years old. As the wait turns out to be a long one, the protagonist who is called Engineer by the villagers, begins to be fascinated by the village life.

By the end of the film we piece together that they are journalists who are there to document a village ritual related to mourning. Engineer becomes friends with a local kid who is in the middle of his exams. There is not much of a plot to speak of and it is seemingly a very simple film with binaries of urban and rural, old and young, and modern and ancient. It takes a while to get into the film but when it does, it becomes a great watch. 

The title of the film comes from a poem by Forugh Farrokhzad.

"In my small night, ah
the wind has a date with the leaves of the trees
in my small night there is agony of destruction
listen
do you hear the darkness blowing?
I look upon this bliss as a stranger
I am addicted to my despair.

listen do you hear the darkness blowing?
something is passing in the night
the moon is restless and red
and over this rooftop
where crumbling is a constant fear
clouds, like a procession of mourners
seem to be waiting for the moment of rain.
a moment
and then nothing
night shudders beyond this window
and the earth winds to a halt
beyond this window
something unknown is watching you and me.

O green from head to foot
place your hands like a burning memory
in my loving hands
give your lips to the caresses
of my loving lips
like the warm perception of being
the wind will take us
the wind will take us."

It was the follow-up film from Abbas Kiarostami after he won Palme d'Or at Cannes for 'Taste of Cherry'. What makes Kiarostami different from other Iranian filmmakers of his time is that he is much more European in his approach with existentialism being the common theme. This film is also not much different. I've only seen his later films beginning with 'Taste of Cherry' and I guess I've to catch up with his earlier works to see whether this is consistent throughout his career. Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the contemporary one who very much carries the mantle from Kiarostami.

Rating: 4/5

Ravenous (1999)

Director: Antonia Bird
Writer:    Ted Griffin
Cast:       Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies

Captain John Boyd's (Guy Pearce) promotion stations him at a remote fort where a rescued man (Robert Carlyle) tells a disturbing tale of cannibalism. The film revolves around cannibalism in the 1840s California and some elements bear similarities to the story of the Donner Party and that of Alfred Packer.

The film could be described as a psychological thriller with elements of black comedy in it. There is some dubious use of comedic background music in it, especially during the big reveal, which kind of conveys that the film doesn't take itself too seriously and the audience should do the same. That said, there is some serious subtext to it regarding the cannibalizing nature of the Westward expansion of the US in terms of the effect that it had on the native Indians. The opening credits is similar to ones used in Westerns from the 60s, and even though it is set at a time that is typical of the genre, it is not at all stylistically same. The film is done in such a way that one could think of it as all happening in Boyd's head and not necessarily as anything mythic/supernatural. There is also some 'Antichrist' elements added to the character played by Robert Carlyle. Guy Pearce is a vegetarian in real life and had trouble while filming the meat eating scenes and used to spit them out after the director yelled 'Cut'. I think that actually might have helped enhance his performance in portraying the utter disgust.

Overall, it is a great and gory watch. Guy Pearce is a seriously underrated actor who should be in more films. Robert Carlyle is always great to watch and is famous for his role in Trainspotting as 'Begbie'. Cannibalism is a topic that is hardly touched upon by films meant for mainstream audience and that is very much like the way it is considered in society as well- a strict taboo subject. Ana Lily-Amirpour's (A Girl Walks Alone Home At Night) next film, The Bad Batch, is supposed to be a dystopian love story set in a community of cannibals. I haven't seen any other films from the director Antonia Bird and Robert Carlyle seems to be a constant fixture in them. She passed away recently in 2013, aged 62, and am thinking of checking out her debut feature film 'Priest' next. Female directors tend to get away with showing violence, at level 11, much more than their male counterparts and American Psycho is another such example of this.

Rating: 4/5

                                                                           

The War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin (1999)

Written By:   Laurence Rees
Narrated By: Samuel West

'The War of the Century' is a four part BBC documentary series which examines the Eastern front during the second world war. Eastern front began with Adolf Hitler's invasion of Russia in 1941 and what followed was a no-holds barred approach from both sides. It not only examines the war but also the terror inside Soviet Union during the campaign through the witness accounts from all sides-the ultimate Victors (Red Army), the vanquished (German Army) and the eternally oppressed people of Soviet Union. Why the Eastern Front serves as a testament for what humans are capable of doing to each other in 20th century is explained through the policies followed by both Hitler and Stalin. 

The late 90s and early 2000s were like last chance saloon for documentary makers to capture accounts of people who actually participated in the war and by then almost all the war documents that could be declassified were declassified. I had seen the 1974 documentary 'World At War' which is like a definitive account of the second world war. One drawback with it was that they couldn't use some of the documents that were declassified later which kind of made some of it inaccurate. Still it is very powerful and a must watch. By the time 'The War of the Century' came, there were numerous documentaries made on almost all the aspects of war. How WotC differentiates itself is by telling the story of Eastern Front primarily using witness accounts and providing substantiation through recently declassified war documents from Russia. 

The four episodes are:

1) High Hopes: This episode deals with Hitler's invasion of Russia in 1941 till the siege of Moscow where they were thwarted by the Russian winter as well as the Red Army counterattack using reinforcements from Siberia, who were adept at battles during winter. It also looks at the attitude of German army regarding the occupied people and the culpability of it in implementing the Nazi agenda. They looked at the Soviet people as an uncivilized bunch and Hitler's tactic was to oppress them so that they will serve the German masters.

2) Spiral of Terror: Attitudes of both Hitler and Stalin was to meet terror with terror. This is why the Eastern Front turned out to be the most brutal as the orders were duly followed and things were taken to their logical conclusion. Stalin ordered for resistance against Germans in the occupied land and partisans became a feature in the occupied territories as they mount attacks against German occupiers and people who were suspected  to have co-operated with the Germans. Captured Germans soldiers were brutalized and mutilated which further escalated the violence due to German reprisals. Ukrainians suffered most as there were three groups doing the fighting-German Army, Soviet Partisans and Ukraine nationalist partisans who preferred independence. The Ukrainians had initially treated the Germans as liberators only to find their situation even more worse under them. 

3) Learning to Win: This episode describes the battle of Stalingrad at the end of which Russians began their ascendancy in war. Hitler had seen Volga river as the natural border for his German empire and he sent two army groups: one to the South towards the Caucasus to capture Russian oil sources and another one to north-east towards the city of Stalingrad which bordered with the Western banks of Volga. Stalingrad was the last of the Russian resistance against Germans in their quest of forming their lines along Volga and Stalin ordered the Red Army to defend the city. What followed was a brutal resistance characterized by close combat between the two armies. The distance between the two were a mere hundred meters but the Germans found it impossible to break through since things like their tanks were not useful in such a kind of battle. By this time, after several setbacks prior  to it when Stalin overrode his generals' advise, Stalin started to follow his generals's advise and a decision was taken to encircle the German sixth army who were laying siege to Stalingrad. Strategy was successful and the field marshal of the sixth army surrendered against Hitler's orders. 110,000 Germans surrendered and 95% of them died during their time under the Soviets.

4) Vengeance: The final episode documents what happened leading up to the Red Army occupation of Berlin. The German occupying force in Soviet Russia followed a 'Scorched Earth' policy during their retreat which meant that the suffering of the occupied people continued. To compound matters Stalin began deportation of his own people, who belonged to ethnic minorities like Chechens, Tartars, Kalmyks etc, to Gulags in Siberia. He targeted all those groups who were suspected to have misgivings with the idea of Soviet Union. When the Red Army reached Eastern Prussia and Germany, it marched ahead pillaging and raping its way through. Even the Russian prisoners of war were not spared as Stalin didn't believe in the idea of it. Russians were not supposed to surrender and he treated PoWs as traitors and they were sent to gulags. As the war ended Stalin began manufacturing his legacy as the commanding figure who won the war. Within a year after the end of war, he took actions against all three of the Army, Navy and Air-force generals to seal his legacy. In effect half of Europe exchanged one tyrant for another.

Overall the documentary is a great watch and I quite liked the dispassionate way in which it was presented, especially when it comes to the narration. I do recommend Dan Carlin's podcast 'Ghosts of the Ostfront' as the best account of the Eastern Front- for information as well as for the passionate delivery. All these ideologically pure movements, be it the Nazis, Islamic State or Hindutva movement in India, seeds of their own destruction are contained within them. The only question is how much damage they can inflict upon people before they destroy themselves. As for the the Eastern Front-everything ran into millions-tens of million dead, millions captured & deported, million raped etc.

Rating: 4/5

                                                                              

Dogma (1999)

Director: Kevin Smith
Writer:    Kevin Smith
Cast:       Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino

An abortion clinic worker (Linda Fiorentino) with a special heritage is called upon to save existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck), trying to exploit a loop-hole and reenter heaven. The voice of God (Alan Rickman) communicates to her that two prophets (Jay and Silent Bob) will help her and along the way they meet Rufus (Chris Rock), the thirteenth apostle. If you think the ensemble cast is not big enough, you got George Carlin playing a cardinal, Salma Hayek as muse and Alanis Morissette as God no less. 

I recently saw 'Noah' and it also involved some angels called 'Watchers' about which I had no idea despite having gone to Sunday School for a long time. Going to Sunday school might have had a strong influence on me becoming an atheist and face it, who the fuck would really want to spend half your Sunday on such a thing. Instead of the do-good stuff from New Testament, had they taught about the moody genocidal God from the Old Testament and the rebellions he/she faced from angels like Lucifer, it would have been more interesting. I guess it is not PG-13 stuff. Loki, Angel of Death, is the one who did the genocidal stuff for the God and when he was engineering a plague on God's orders, another angel Bartleby talked him out of it by making him feel guilty. They were banished for eternity from heaven to Wisconsin for their insubordination. When a cardinal (George Carlin) declares an arch from his church to be one which can cast away your sins upon crossing, the fallen angels see it as a way to reenter heaven. But since it would make God fallible, by making his curse redundant causing the whole existence to be negated,they have to be stopped and the film revolves around this.  

Kevin Smith really was on ball during the early part of his career and Dogma was his first really major film at least based on the Cast list even though it is strictly independent in spirit. It was his fourth film with Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy coming before it. One could say he went off boil after Dogma but Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks 2 were watchable nevertheless. His most recent film 'Tusk' was him coming back to form and he had admitted that he was thinking about packing it in altogether after making some thoroughly forgettable films. Looks like he is gonna be prolific again with two films in production (Yoga Hosers and Clerk 3) and another two announced. Hopefully the quality won't suffer for it.

Overall Dogma is a great watch but at over two hours it is lightly longer than it should be. I had seen it a long time back with it being the first one I saw from Kevin Smith and on re watch its quality does not drop. In fact it was more enjoyable second time round with plenty of jokes that you might have missed on first watch. It drew protests from the predictable quarters even before its release and Kevin Smith got two death threats for it. Even Kevin Smith joined the protests against the film and got himself interviewed doing it. The overall message of the film is that it is good as long as people see things as ideas rather than making a belief structure around it. Before filming, Kevin Smith warned Jason Mewes to be on his behavior because of the involvement of actors like Alan Rickman and Jason went on to memorize the entire script, according to his own words, so as not to annoy the 'Rickman dude'. 

Rating: 4/5