Film_Fan_Raja

Once in a blue moon comes a movie which sweeps you away with the honesty of filmmaking. This was available on Amazon Prime and I've heard good things about its soundtrack so checked it out. Boy was I glad.

It is not the story narrative which appealed to me but filming of the slice of life unraveling complex human behavior of people struggling to make a living in Dublin. It's a musical which doesn't throw too much attention to music but the people. It's not fast paced - there is not forced ambition - just the experience of being human with sensitivity and compassion.

The music matched songs - stood out with sensitive soothe and would definitely have you listening to them post watching the movie too.

Small nuances like - the strings hanging from guitar / the girl dragging the vacuum cleaner on the streets and how pestering she was on the first meeting - cutely annoying (never thought I will use that phrase) / she not having batteries to play the CDs and getting them in the middle of the night singing lyrics was golden.

The lead characters - never felt like they were acting. Nothing over the top and in the end you fall in love with the main characters. I will say, these are kind of movies which make movie lovers like me feel alive. Hope and wish we see more such movies at least once in a blue moon.

An Anatomy of a Fall (2023) A close friend who is also a movie buff, wanted me to watch this French movie and boy was I pleasantly surprised. The bilingual movie gets you from the start, the direction was very original and the way in which similar scenes are typically made were completely different here. A small example is when an unanticipated dramatic incident occurs during a movie - they normally show characters running in slow motion and they try to enhance the sadness quotient by a somber music. On the contrary here - they show blank spaces in the house.

A lot is left to interpretation of the viewer and that adds to the charm of the movie really. I am not going to divulge the plot or the characters as it won't do justice to the original screenplay but will try and give a few thoughts which have been with me since I watched it.

Long before when I watched Kurosawa's Rashomon, I was left with the feeling that there is nothing like absolute truth, you only experience versions of the truth. How many times we read an article in newspaper / hear a friend talk about something / watched news and wondered - how objective is this? This movie comes very close to questioning your rational and think twice about how much you believe things which you have not seen yourself directly. What is it that makes you believe a person? Is it because of your bias? Your preconceived notion of life? Or you just go with - what will people gain or lose by this? Are we living in a world which makes us justify everything we do or we just say - I want to believe this version as this is what makes me happy or easy to deal with mentally.

The movie takes care to not bias you fully but leave you with a doubt in a subtle and tactful manner. I am having this feeling after a long time - that a movie instead of entertaining me also made me question my judgement. This is one of those movies which really makes movies worth watching. Having said that - this may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The humor in this movie came in the most unexpected situations. A lot of people would have used a different narrative for this plot but the director used all her tricks to ensure you have an original experience- interestingly this has been the most notable work of the director - Justine Triet and the lead actress Sandra Huller has a lot of credit and awards and you would not wonder why. The movie felt long but you would understand why once you finish it. I do anticipate some key awards this Oscar season. We have to wait and watch.

To review this movie without giving background to its legacy would be a disservice. Here goes - Dune is a series of science fiction novels authored by Frank Herbert between 1965 to 1985. This was also made into the controversially critiqued adaptation by David Lynch in 1984 which included the iconic soundtrack by Toto. There are also some spin offs of this novel in TV and it is believed by some, to be the Star Wars for adults!

Coming to the 2021 version, director Denis Villeneuve (I loved his movie - Incendies and also known for other big budget movies like Arrival and Blade Runner 2049) has shown us the "Art of possible" on how can you take a movie by someone like David Lynch and give it a complete make over and still stay brilliant - hats off!

The new version has loads of stars that it almost looks like the cast of Avengers - Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Oscar Issac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardiem, Dave Baustista, Zendaya and the evergreen Charlotte Rampling as the reverend Mother.

Timothee Chalamet as heir apparent of the Atreides was oozing appeal both in looks and performance - he had the right charm for a confused teenager being pushed into an intergalactic conspiracy. The choice of Rebecca Ferguson for Lady Jessica was so apt, she played the role of the powerful Bene Zessirit with inner conflicts and Oscar Issac did what he could with scope provided and stood out.

Some interesting bits I loved were the fact that there were no artificial intelligence or robots given the story happens in distant future (year 10191 to be precise!), the sand worms looks much different / bigger, creative liberties were taken on how Baron looks and moves (the older movie had an over the top caricatured ugly spitting cartoon, new version is more understatedly ominous), the role of Duncan went without much fanfare in old movie but here since it is Jason Momoa - they gave a better fitting farewell, even the whole voice-over thing in 1984 version is replaced with narrative and visuals which were much more powerful. You see very little of Bautista but confident that we will see more of him in the next movie.

Music by Hans Zimmer played a really important role (if you have seen old movie - it was one of the best things about the old movie as it really stood out and would have been sensible to re-mix that same iconic tune like they do in James Bond. No sir - Hans Zimmer would have to completely reinvent and still stay relevant). The mood and lighting was captivating and cinematography transforms you to the world which is mostly dark and it works. The set decorations and costumes were also extraordinary and I am positive this movie is going to get the Oscar nod on several technical areas.

While it was a disappointment that they did not finish the story (I personally did not know they only did half a movie), you also suddenly empathize the fact that even with 155 mins of taut screenplay, they were barely able to tell only half of the movie. It is clear, the depth of the Dune story couldn't be decently told in 2 hours (heart goes out to David Lynch's version which choked to tell too many things and ended up not as fulfilling).

The new movie is bigger, better and had more heart, in short - just brilliant, leaving me eagerly waiting for Dune 2 in 2023. Thumbs up!!