Recalling that strawberries served with milk in a bowl as a good traditional dish in the western world, one may want to know how that figured in the film Wild Strawberries in Bergman’s 1957 classic with Bibi Anderson and the emerging Max Von Sydow. It must have held some symbolic power. In fact when one sees Bibi collecting them to give to her admirer only to lose them abruptly one sees the poetic force behind the symbolic gesture of collecting the fruit in the appreciation of traditional love and then losing it for a more lustful relationship.
When time stops in a sense, perhaps it is an allusion to impending death and that is what one might expect in a film of Wild Strawberries with poetry of words and a marvelous use of the unspoken word between lines. A man caught up in the passing of his life reflects on how it could have been done better; it was a kind of revelation having him see himself, as he was younger, through his dreams. There were tender moment when he could have been more loving with his wife and others where he saw he own mortality and imminent death.
Parallels could be drawn between his failed love for his wife and the fact that he has overburdened his son with a debt. He calls the forte to give back the money as honorable before relapsing into a dream that asks him to look into a mirror and see that another suitor to a first love was more successful than he. The point was to show how cold and indifferent he was to that young lady while in reality he may have inherited the same iciness from his own mother.
Like mother like son, his daughter-in-law would report to him on their journey to Lund where he was to receive an honorable degree. By the way one can only surmise that he was in conflict with his own past demons having had to face his daughter -in-law’s accusations of being unloving, being unfair to his son.
Another grand moment of silence in a dream, at an earlier moment in the film which preludes the fact of the audience knowing about his unsentimental past towards his family. He finds himself locked in time on an abandoned street with no one in sight. What strikes his attention and is a metaphor for the timelessness of the moment is a clock on the street without any minute or hour
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
Private Postman in Film:Il Postino
Pablo Neruda gets to a small non-descriptive island in the south of Italy and asks the post office to have someone deliver his mail personally while in exile. Massimo Troisi is the mailman who plays a touching role of someone who in life actually wrote poetry.Philippe Noiret plays Neruda and the sweetheart of the southern Italian town is Maria Grazia Cucinotta.
There is a subplot on the front of an election about to occur on the island and it's link to organized crime, that is tied into the family that Massimo marries into. This is because during the water works proposal the elected party is about to support Massimo's in-laws are approached to serve food to the workers. The proposal falls through once the election folds.
Massimo has to deal with an overprotective aunt which follows the stereotypical control that used to be prevalent on small rural towns and may still be where the daughter is not allowed to venture off with a young man without family consent, or the suitor has to keep his hands off the young lady until the wedding day. Pablo Neruda gets caught unwittingly in this romantic romantic comedy as the inept postman approaches him for words of poetry to use in order to win the girl's love and acceptance.
The film is broken up with classic religious symbols that parallels the families importance and the necessity of the girl to comply with the rule of her elders. There is a moment that could have been touched on in the romance when his love is threatened by the aunt and then the film cuts to a brief romantic moment between the young lovers toying with a ping-pong ball they used during a table game at their first encounter. Then the suitors are already in the chapel with the priest about to give permission for Neruda to act as a witness. There is no confrontation directly between the aunt and Massimo on the liberty he has taken to meet his girl in private and one can only imagine that this was worked out behind the scenes.
What makes this a romantic comedy is the improbability of meeting the girl of your dreams if you can't say two words to begin with. Troisi portrays the simple-minded southerner with efficacy while Neruda is thrown into the comic soup because of the favor the postman asks to bring the two together and then since the aunt objects his asks Neruda to remove him from the generated embarrassment. Neruda complies and this seals the friendship enough so that he is asked to be the best-man even though, technically speaking communists were frowned upon to partake in church services. The stereotypical reaction of the priest to Neruda's participation and the straight-laced attitude of the aunt when reacting to the postman's poetry using naked metaphors add to the humor.
There is a subplot on the front of an election about to occur on the island and it's link to organized crime, that is tied into the family that Massimo marries into. This is because during the water works proposal the elected party is about to support Massimo's in-laws are approached to serve food to the workers. The proposal falls through once the election folds.
Massimo has to deal with an overprotective aunt which follows the stereotypical control that used to be prevalent on small rural towns and may still be where the daughter is not allowed to venture off with a young man without family consent, or the suitor has to keep his hands off the young lady until the wedding day. Pablo Neruda gets caught unwittingly in this romantic romantic comedy as the inept postman approaches him for words of poetry to use in order to win the girl's love and acceptance.
The film is broken up with classic religious symbols that parallels the families importance and the necessity of the girl to comply with the rule of her elders. There is a moment that could have been touched on in the romance when his love is threatened by the aunt and then the film cuts to a brief romantic moment between the young lovers toying with a ping-pong ball they used during a table game at their first encounter. Then the suitors are already in the chapel with the priest about to give permission for Neruda to act as a witness. There is no confrontation directly between the aunt and Massimo on the liberty he has taken to meet his girl in private and one can only imagine that this was worked out behind the scenes.
What makes this a romantic comedy is the improbability of meeting the girl of your dreams if you can't say two words to begin with. Troisi portrays the simple-minded southerner with efficacy while Neruda is thrown into the comic soup because of the favor the postman asks to bring the two together and then since the aunt objects his asks Neruda to remove him from the generated embarrassment. Neruda complies and this seals the friendship enough so that he is asked to be the best-man even though, technically speaking communists were frowned upon to partake in church services. The stereotypical reaction of the priest to Neruda's participation and the straight-laced attitude of the aunt when reacting to the postman's poetry using naked metaphors add to the humor.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Planet of the Apes: A political film
From what I was able to gather it was not until the film was being made that the producer finally discovered that his film was going to be political. Strangely during the shoot breaks the orangutans hang around only with their 'own kind' as did the chimpanzees and the gorillas. Behind the costumes were people who were otherwise friends with those wearing costumes of another ape. Apparently their behavior was modified by their outward appearances and that said much as far as the politicized movie was concerned. And in the film one can see the parallels between the class system we have and the sociological order that was set.
Before when people made movies with apes the movie was either a comedy or a poorly done Japanese sci-fi. This film had to have the seriousness that would be wanted to show that the apes were in authority and they commanded the astronaut prisoners they captured after their space craft landed. Care was taken so that the prosthetics that were used would be real enough so that the apes would be as expressive as they normally would be; smiles would be registered as such and frowns equally so too. Their hands and fingers would be covered with simian fur and their nails colored brown. One mentions all this because the costuming of the film was proportionately larger than in other movies. Here there were tens of apes all modeled to look real and capable of of convincing the public that they were in command once the humans had destroyed their world in some atomic war.
In order for the masks to work it took good actors to make their expressions possible. An inexperienced actor might not have exaggerated facial expressions well enough. If the chimpanzees kissed as did happen to copy the body language of their human cousins, it has to be realistic. Large name actors were called forth so that there acting would be given credence and the film would be publicized well. Not all of them stayed on like E.G. Robinson who gave up his role because of the unaccommodating facial prosthetics and costume to be worn for hours on end.
About the politics in the film? Since the different apes were each given a different role that later came into conflict among each other one can say that an analogy had been made between their social order and ours. Our class system goes through an upheaval from time time to create a new social order. One may say that the Arab spring, an ongoing process to bring democracy to the countries of autocratic rule in the region is an effort to create a new social order there. Pity that those in power for decades today are so vain as to think that they can hang onto power for ages, just as the gorilla general and the aristocratic orangutans thought their positions should be unquestioned and untouched.
Before when people made movies with apes the movie was either a comedy or a poorly done Japanese sci-fi. This film had to have the seriousness that would be wanted to show that the apes were in authority and they commanded the astronaut prisoners they captured after their space craft landed. Care was taken so that the prosthetics that were used would be real enough so that the apes would be as expressive as they normally would be; smiles would be registered as such and frowns equally so too. Their hands and fingers would be covered with simian fur and their nails colored brown. One mentions all this because the costuming of the film was proportionately larger than in other movies. Here there were tens of apes all modeled to look real and capable of of convincing the public that they were in command once the humans had destroyed their world in some atomic war.
In order for the masks to work it took good actors to make their expressions possible. An inexperienced actor might not have exaggerated facial expressions well enough. If the chimpanzees kissed as did happen to copy the body language of their human cousins, it has to be realistic. Large name actors were called forth so that there acting would be given credence and the film would be publicized well. Not all of them stayed on like E.G. Robinson who gave up his role because of the unaccommodating facial prosthetics and costume to be worn for hours on end.
About the politics in the film? Since the different apes were each given a different role that later came into conflict among each other one can say that an analogy had been made between their social order and ours. Our class system goes through an upheaval from time time to create a new social order. One may say that the Arab spring, an ongoing process to bring democracy to the countries of autocratic rule in the region is an effort to create a new social order there. Pity that those in power for decades today are so vain as to think that they can hang onto power for ages, just as the gorilla general and the aristocratic orangutans thought their positions should be unquestioned and untouched.
Portrait of Dorian Revisited
The portrait could never change, but it did and took on the ill-fated look of a man filled with demons. How could anyone look so horrible on the inside? Ask Dorian who would stoop to slyly wield an influence on unsuspecting youth and cause the suffering he did among those that admire him, at one time.
He was the subject of a portrait with strange power that the artist felt when he painted it. He was drawn to paint eternal beauty but there would be a curse on this as was instigated by a common friend whose value system was projected onto Dorian, it seems; a value system that made Dorian grow demonic with each encounter he made and leave people kill themselves or get killed. He would want to rid himself of that curse bu each time he wanted to do good as through marriage there was his sadistic mentor who would have think of pleasure first.
So pleasure then governed his days as he took his cues from his mentor and according to the curse which was supposed to have been laid upon him by the cat stone idol, he developed episodes of falling into the spell of being another man content to do debauchery with no respect for the other individual. Such as the case when he fell in love or rather lusted after a young singer. She visited his home and fell in love with his Chopin music, sad she called it but she was sad to see that the only way to keep Dorian was to put her principles aside and stay over the night rather than leave for home.
She was attracted to the man who later destroyed her stating that after the affair he could no longer see her, She took her life and word did get back to Dorian whose facial expressions would stay stern no matter who had fallen because of the power of his pen or because he decided to become moral for a day once his period of reveling at the east London pub was over. Her brother would follow her fate as he would try to trace who the murderer was only to be to killed at a fateful hunting event. Originally he had mistaken Dorian for someone else when he saw him at Dorian's favorite haunt only Dorian had to have been older than he appeared.
It was Dorian's painting that would show his aging all the time while the man would gallivant and break hearts and minds along the way. Dorian would store this painting away so that the artist would not ask to see it although eventually he was shown it as Dorian allowed a glimpse of his horrible world to the man who created his image in oils. That man had to be destroyed because he had witnessed the terrible transformation of the painting and to Dorian suddenly stricken with desperation, this could not be tolerated.
Then he decided to marry his niece and get away from the habit of cruising the pubs at night but he soon felt remorse for having chosen her and wrote her a letter of refusal just as he had done to his previous love he met at the east end pub. To witness that 'good' moment he drove back to his London mansion to see if the change would register back on the painting and the grimaces of horror would soften. There was something positive, he thought but in order for the painting not to 'cause any more harm', as he put it, he decided to stab it and stab it he did by cutting through at the level of his heart. He had externalized his ills and the painting could only have reminded him of his past guilt. He died upon stabbing it as its ugliness was transferred to him. The portrait returned to its original state with a dagger through it and his second lady was free from potential harm.
He was the subject of a portrait with strange power that the artist felt when he painted it. He was drawn to paint eternal beauty but there would be a curse on this as was instigated by a common friend whose value system was projected onto Dorian, it seems; a value system that made Dorian grow demonic with each encounter he made and leave people kill themselves or get killed. He would want to rid himself of that curse bu each time he wanted to do good as through marriage there was his sadistic mentor who would have think of pleasure first.
So pleasure then governed his days as he took his cues from his mentor and according to the curse which was supposed to have been laid upon him by the cat stone idol, he developed episodes of falling into the spell of being another man content to do debauchery with no respect for the other individual. Such as the case when he fell in love or rather lusted after a young singer. She visited his home and fell in love with his Chopin music, sad she called it but she was sad to see that the only way to keep Dorian was to put her principles aside and stay over the night rather than leave for home.
She was attracted to the man who later destroyed her stating that after the affair he could no longer see her, She took her life and word did get back to Dorian whose facial expressions would stay stern no matter who had fallen because of the power of his pen or because he decided to become moral for a day once his period of reveling at the east London pub was over. Her brother would follow her fate as he would try to trace who the murderer was only to be to killed at a fateful hunting event. Originally he had mistaken Dorian for someone else when he saw him at Dorian's favorite haunt only Dorian had to have been older than he appeared.
It was Dorian's painting that would show his aging all the time while the man would gallivant and break hearts and minds along the way. Dorian would store this painting away so that the artist would not ask to see it although eventually he was shown it as Dorian allowed a glimpse of his horrible world to the man who created his image in oils. That man had to be destroyed because he had witnessed the terrible transformation of the painting and to Dorian suddenly stricken with desperation, this could not be tolerated.
Then he decided to marry his niece and get away from the habit of cruising the pubs at night but he soon felt remorse for having chosen her and wrote her a letter of refusal just as he had done to his previous love he met at the east end pub. To witness that 'good' moment he drove back to his London mansion to see if the change would register back on the painting and the grimaces of horror would soften. There was something positive, he thought but in order for the painting not to 'cause any more harm', as he put it, he decided to stab it and stab it he did by cutting through at the level of his heart. He had externalized his ills and the painting could only have reminded him of his past guilt. He died upon stabbing it as its ugliness was transferred to him. The portrait returned to its original state with a dagger through it and his second lady was free from potential harm.
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Magic Gardens
There are ways to cure polio besides the electrical stimuli that used to be administered to the legs thinking that if the muscles where shocked then the person would walk again. Just a visit to the secret garden but you must not tell anyone if you know how to keep something to yourself. This is where an orphan girl managed to bring a father and son together although know one was supposed to know about the garden. It was locked up by the widowed uncle whose wife died there, the story goes.
The garden in England was first sighted through the hole of a real one, there through the magic of a robin who understood the orphaned girl's command to be taken to this place. She only knew about through a key that she picked up from her aunt's room and was invited to go there through a maidservant who told her that is where her mother used to spend her time outside the mansion. The girl knew this to be a magical place and was instructed not to tell. She dutifully warned a manservant who used to tend the animals of the mansion. They soon bonded and would reunite to plant flowers of every kind. Such was the garden that when the Emperor of India lilies were planted, they immediately took root. aside from that the meadows of the secret place were full of newborns critters and the air was joyful. This was to be the escape for the orphaned girl whose mother, a sister to the aunt had died and she was taken care of an evil godmother figure..
The garden in England was first sighted through the hole of a real one, there through the magic of a robin who understood the orphaned girl's command to be taken to this place. She only knew about through a key that she picked up from her aunt's room and was invited to go there through a maidservant who told her that is where her mother used to spend her time outside the mansion. The girl knew this to be a magical place and was instructed not to tell. She dutifully warned a manservant who used to tend the animals of the mansion. They soon bonded and would reunite to plant flowers of every kind. Such was the garden that when the Emperor of India lilies were planted, they immediately took root. aside from that the meadows of the secret place were full of newborns critters and the air was joyful. This was to be the escape for the orphaned girl whose mother, a sister to the aunt had died and she was taken care of an evil godmother figure..
Monday, December 13, 2010
Animal Farce - Movie
Directed / written by: Nader Dowlatshahi
Reviewed by: Martin Dansky
This is cinematic parody of the book Animal Farm (George Orwell).
The characters of this movie are masked and represent the animals on a farm about to get rid of their human overlord. A pig will soon rise to power and dupe the creatures into working harder for the benefit of their farm. The inspiration for that setting came from Orwell’s story only the difference is that this is a farce and a pretty good one on different levels unlike the original, which was mostly, meant as political satire.
One can be pleased with the original thought behind the production of the film and the humanness of the characters whose story is related to the fiber behind the original tale with the addition that twisted relationships unravel before your eyes as the animals pair up to marry at the end. It is as if they finally find completion doing that and the marriage ceremony adapted to the mixed marriages does makes the viewer question the seriousness of our institutions; it is also a humorous way to see how relationships develop. Many times they are nonsensical especially when a sheep and pig are mated!
The sheep has homosexual tendencies and wants to make it with the horse that is interested in the chicken and so he does his best to distract his attention. Here is a comical element that was worth exploring. Somehow the sheep and horse end up making out in the bushes when the latter is supposed to be a straight animal. The horse is being offered the sheep’s milk, which is absurd for the character to do. How are the animals somehow involved in their own pleasures instead of the issue at hand? They have just overthrown the empty-headed human. How could they possibly be so keen on crossing wires like this? Well again through subtle dialogue the writer, Nader Dowlatshahi, has been able to reveal the nonsense in their lack of focus, they should be taking matters more seriously instead of being so sexually distracted.
This farce tells the viewer that just as different animals end up in couple situations beyond our wildest dreams, so life is not to be taken seriously whenever there is a power struggle. New leadership or someone tries to push their political agenda on you and you know it’s impossible to fulfill. The idea of “making a metro that will go to the Milky Way and beyond” is farcical to say the least. Pigmaster has his agenda that gets his followers to fall into step during the day but if you pay attention very little is going to be done with toy dirt trucks and shovels!
All the while the movement of the camera suggests a freehand motion and it goes well with the randomness of nonhumans who walk differently from us. The color and choice of costumes catches the viewer’s attention, as he is curious to see what kind of character can lie underneath, especially the pig and animal ones who are stereotypical of certain people; having a weakness for anything representing humanity even though they would fight against it.
The animals sat at the beginning of the story to see an older pig matriarch about to die; only before she does, she wants to give them the combination to a safe of money that the human owner kept. It is hilarious to see that she dies just on the second number and the animals can’t quite piece the right combination to get the safe open later on in the film. Should it surprise you that they are unable to concentrate on how to open a lock? They would then be quite incapable of doing anything human but they do exemplify man’s greed and the need to have exactly what was the cause of their unrest, accumulated money that was stored away.
Even the Pig master shows his human gluttony by playing poker with his empty headed friend who he just had kicked off the farm. Firstly it shows that he was in collusion with his human sidekick and then since he is betting, he has the same greedy vice as his the expelled human! One finds it humorous too that the pig would exact a ransom from the former landowner by getting some farm products from the very animals he is trying to employ for his ambitious metro project!
The empty headed character certainly does not let the human down and neither dies tit face who was the owner’s messenger in stealing animal produce. Their masks are certainly delightful as well as their body movements. Empty head’s bulging eyes look ridiculous each time he tries to run after another piece of money until he gets caught with his head in a bin and can’t get out! How could anyone fall victim to his or her own greed so easily? The author made the serious associations of the film humorous through these
elements.
Titface walks about oddly as if he could never rob the animals of their produce and breaks an egg while he is at it! His mask shows a tit on either side, which soon becomes an object of being squeezed when he gets caught! He is definitely a useful comical character to this satirical version of Animal Farm.
The incorporation of other elements adds to the fanciful tale. A scarecrow, which is supposed to keep, crow’s away witnesses Pigmaster take away a load of money for himself. Again to lighten the seriousness of the theft, the scarecrow has a crow friend who also sees the theft. Genius donkey is unhappy with his new freedom and finds his way to an end by lying on some train tracks. One assumes that he takes his life.
Bull also takes to the streets in search for the sheep that disappears. He tries out his strength in a ridiculous show of machismo by trying to lift up a truck along the way to find his animal friend. He loses sight of golden horse and floozy hen (chicken) who are also eagerly seeking out sheep and go through the oddest of circumstances enough to show that there is an additional element the author wants to reveal while they wander to the alter. These animals are very much alienated from the rest of the world! Immigrants are also represented in a scene after they meet the first guard in the checkpoint as if they are in the customs office. When they try to get on the bus there is a conflict with the bus driver creating the first confrontation between humans and animals in the human territory. It is that which you see through their wandering onto to bus only to called ‘animals’ of which they are! Santa Claus is supposed to represent the status quo in the movie. Their unproductive meeting with him also attests to their alienation and by extension to the alienation of anybody who is foreign or to foreigners and immigrants. Mr. Bully (cow) gets lonely in the human land searching for his lost identity…
The movie with its sassy closing musical score is a delightful twist of the Animal Farm which suggested that the pigs rise to power only to act the same way as humans did, if not worse through greed and selfish projects. The characters all have a distinctive personality and human charm and the wedding at the end makes for a delightful twist to the drama of what people might have expected but it does show that changes in life, trying to adapt to a life in a new world, can be as bizarre as having animals overtake the keep of a farm they were once familiar with.
=== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === ==== ==== ==== ==== ===
Actors:
Brian Lorne Maged - As: Pigmaster
Barbara Lipson Halfner - As: Floozy Hen
Kristina Varkevicious- As: Piggy miggy- & Lazy Scarecrow
Martin Dansky - As: Empty headed Human & TV reporter
John Harvey - As: Genius Donkey
Monica Kim - As: Mr. Bully
Mark Spires - As: Lion king Judge
Leo Cipolla - As: Sissy Sheep
Nader Dowlatshahi: Golden Horse
Edited By: Brad Kine
Produced By: Behzad Dowlatshahi - 2009
Genre: Comedy
Reviewed by: Martin Dansky
This is cinematic parody of the book Animal Farm (George Orwell).
The characters of this movie are masked and represent the animals on a farm about to get rid of their human overlord. A pig will soon rise to power and dupe the creatures into working harder for the benefit of their farm. The inspiration for that setting came from Orwell’s story only the difference is that this is a farce and a pretty good one on different levels unlike the original, which was mostly, meant as political satire.
One can be pleased with the original thought behind the production of the film and the humanness of the characters whose story is related to the fiber behind the original tale with the addition that twisted relationships unravel before your eyes as the animals pair up to marry at the end. It is as if they finally find completion doing that and the marriage ceremony adapted to the mixed marriages does makes the viewer question the seriousness of our institutions; it is also a humorous way to see how relationships develop. Many times they are nonsensical especially when a sheep and pig are mated!
The sheep has homosexual tendencies and wants to make it with the horse that is interested in the chicken and so he does his best to distract his attention. Here is a comical element that was worth exploring. Somehow the sheep and horse end up making out in the bushes when the latter is supposed to be a straight animal. The horse is being offered the sheep’s milk, which is absurd for the character to do. How are the animals somehow involved in their own pleasures instead of the issue at hand? They have just overthrown the empty-headed human. How could they possibly be so keen on crossing wires like this? Well again through subtle dialogue the writer, Nader Dowlatshahi, has been able to reveal the nonsense in their lack of focus, they should be taking matters more seriously instead of being so sexually distracted.
This farce tells the viewer that just as different animals end up in couple situations beyond our wildest dreams, so life is not to be taken seriously whenever there is a power struggle. New leadership or someone tries to push their political agenda on you and you know it’s impossible to fulfill. The idea of “making a metro that will go to the Milky Way and beyond” is farcical to say the least. Pigmaster has his agenda that gets his followers to fall into step during the day but if you pay attention very little is going to be done with toy dirt trucks and shovels!
All the while the movement of the camera suggests a freehand motion and it goes well with the randomness of nonhumans who walk differently from us. The color and choice of costumes catches the viewer’s attention, as he is curious to see what kind of character can lie underneath, especially the pig and animal ones who are stereotypical of certain people; having a weakness for anything representing humanity even though they would fight against it.
The animals sat at the beginning of the story to see an older pig matriarch about to die; only before she does, she wants to give them the combination to a safe of money that the human owner kept. It is hilarious to see that she dies just on the second number and the animals can’t quite piece the right combination to get the safe open later on in the film. Should it surprise you that they are unable to concentrate on how to open a lock? They would then be quite incapable of doing anything human but they do exemplify man’s greed and the need to have exactly what was the cause of their unrest, accumulated money that was stored away.
Even the Pig master shows his human gluttony by playing poker with his empty headed friend who he just had kicked off the farm. Firstly it shows that he was in collusion with his human sidekick and then since he is betting, he has the same greedy vice as his the expelled human! One finds it humorous too that the pig would exact a ransom from the former landowner by getting some farm products from the very animals he is trying to employ for his ambitious metro project!
The empty headed character certainly does not let the human down and neither dies tit face who was the owner’s messenger in stealing animal produce. Their masks are certainly delightful as well as their body movements. Empty head’s bulging eyes look ridiculous each time he tries to run after another piece of money until he gets caught with his head in a bin and can’t get out! How could anyone fall victim to his or her own greed so easily? The author made the serious associations of the film humorous through these
elements.
Titface walks about oddly as if he could never rob the animals of their produce and breaks an egg while he is at it! His mask shows a tit on either side, which soon becomes an object of being squeezed when he gets caught! He is definitely a useful comical character to this satirical version of Animal Farm.
The incorporation of other elements adds to the fanciful tale. A scarecrow, which is supposed to keep, crow’s away witnesses Pigmaster take away a load of money for himself. Again to lighten the seriousness of the theft, the scarecrow has a crow friend who also sees the theft. Genius donkey is unhappy with his new freedom and finds his way to an end by lying on some train tracks. One assumes that he takes his life.
Bull also takes to the streets in search for the sheep that disappears. He tries out his strength in a ridiculous show of machismo by trying to lift up a truck along the way to find his animal friend. He loses sight of golden horse and floozy hen (chicken) who are also eagerly seeking out sheep and go through the oddest of circumstances enough to show that there is an additional element the author wants to reveal while they wander to the alter. These animals are very much alienated from the rest of the world! Immigrants are also represented in a scene after they meet the first guard in the checkpoint as if they are in the customs office. When they try to get on the bus there is a conflict with the bus driver creating the first confrontation between humans and animals in the human territory. It is that which you see through their wandering onto to bus only to called ‘animals’ of which they are! Santa Claus is supposed to represent the status quo in the movie. Their unproductive meeting with him also attests to their alienation and by extension to the alienation of anybody who is foreign or to foreigners and immigrants. Mr. Bully (cow) gets lonely in the human land searching for his lost identity…
The movie with its sassy closing musical score is a delightful twist of the Animal Farm which suggested that the pigs rise to power only to act the same way as humans did, if not worse through greed and selfish projects. The characters all have a distinctive personality and human charm and the wedding at the end makes for a delightful twist to the drama of what people might have expected but it does show that changes in life, trying to adapt to a life in a new world, can be as bizarre as having animals overtake the keep of a farm they were once familiar with.
=== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === ==== ==== ==== ==== ===
Actors:
Brian Lorne Maged - As: Pigmaster
Barbara Lipson Halfner - As: Floozy Hen
Kristina Varkevicious- As: Piggy miggy- & Lazy Scarecrow
Martin Dansky - As: Empty headed Human & TV reporter
John Harvey - As: Genius Donkey
Monica Kim - As: Mr. Bully
Mark Spires - As: Lion king Judge
Leo Cipolla - As: Sissy Sheep
Nader Dowlatshahi: Golden Horse
Edited By: Brad Kine
Produced By: Behzad Dowlatshahi - 2009
Genre: Comedy
Thursday, December 24, 2009
South Africa after Mandela's Release
One wonders how Clint could be doing the films he does based on the fact that he is betterknown as a no-nonsense actor of many westerns, in films like The Good The Bad and The Ugly by Sergio Leone.But here he is many years later dealing with difficult topics like a child kidnapping with Angelina Joli and now a film, Invictus which shows South Africa reforming after Mandela's prison release.
Here is a golden globe award winner film, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon; the story of Nelson Mandela taken from the perspective of his attempt to reunite the country.It goes into the mind of the man as he recites the poem that gave him a sense of purpose and transports you across rugby playing fields as the country gears itself for recognition in the political sphere.
I wonder too how much of Morgan's monologues came from him originally but no matter,I take it that he must have been inspired enough to be as conciliatory as his lines portrayed him to be.He had to face his peers who challenged his pacifist ways in not excluding the Africkaner security people who guarded the previous President and he had more than enough savvy to keep some of the former cabinet members too.
One would have liked to see more of his personal dilemma. The absense of his wife of so many years and a daughter who could not see how her dad would obtain political unity through sport, made him a lonely man. That loneliness was effectively shown when he wanted to see his daughter once and she turned him down and then when they were together she commented on how her mother did not want to have reminders from Mandela, in the form of rosary bead bracelet.
The film is not drowned in politics, instead it takes a youthful approach in showing how Mandela would deal with other nations and keep rugby in the back of his mind. And the final showdown with a New Zealand team combines rugby playing with the notion that South Africa wanted to be accepted as a reformed country. That was Mandelas dream come true.
Here is a golden globe award winner film, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon; the story of Nelson Mandela taken from the perspective of his attempt to reunite the country.It goes into the mind of the man as he recites the poem that gave him a sense of purpose and transports you across rugby playing fields as the country gears itself for recognition in the political sphere.
I wonder too how much of Morgan's monologues came from him originally but no matter,I take it that he must have been inspired enough to be as conciliatory as his lines portrayed him to be.He had to face his peers who challenged his pacifist ways in not excluding the Africkaner security people who guarded the previous President and he had more than enough savvy to keep some of the former cabinet members too.
One would have liked to see more of his personal dilemma. The absense of his wife of so many years and a daughter who could not see how her dad would obtain political unity through sport, made him a lonely man. That loneliness was effectively shown when he wanted to see his daughter once and she turned him down and then when they were together she commented on how her mother did not want to have reminders from Mandela, in the form of rosary bead bracelet.
The film is not drowned in politics, instead it takes a youthful approach in showing how Mandela would deal with other nations and keep rugby in the back of his mind. And the final showdown with a New Zealand team combines rugby playing with the notion that South Africa wanted to be accepted as a reformed country. That was Mandelas dream come true.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Being Unwelcomed
I don’t know how they got there, they must have walked all the way or hid under trucks that crushed them whenever bumps were hit. It did not matter to the hosting nation that they would all huddle at soup kitchens on the Calais coast yet there was not to be any contact with the locals. If you were caught abetting these immigrants you could be sent to prison and if they swam across the Channel and drowned, they would be sent back anyway. Their soaked bodies would be useless across the sea.
The story is quite believable, there have been issues with people wanting to get across the channel just like that and the acting is quite realistic. Aside from a couple of slight editing glitches, like one where you see the French gold medal winner picking up the Kurd boy at the soup kitchen all of a sudden. One supposes he must have seen him waiting in line for food, as before, only the public likes to be reassured of a certain sequencing of events in the editing process.
I was not clear of how the police obtained the gold medal from the dead body of the boy; maybe there was a mention that it was found with his mate that accompanied him to the house of the swimming instructor. The two Kurds were hosted at this instructor’s house against the will of the authorities who questioned the man on several occasions; that was the backdrop to creating the necessary tension in the plot as one wondered whether the boy would get sufficient training before his host would be caught. Bilal, the boy never made it and his girl had to marry someone else her successful father chose, the life of the girl and her dad was the subplot in the picture. Naturally she was brokenhearted to learn of her lover’s demise in his effort to reach her.
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The story is quite believable, there have been issues with people wanting to get across the channel just like that and the acting is quite realistic. Aside from a couple of slight editing glitches, like one where you see the French gold medal winner picking up the Kurd boy at the soup kitchen all of a sudden. One supposes he must have seen him waiting in line for food, as before, only the public likes to be reassured of a certain sequencing of events in the editing process.
I was not clear of how the police obtained the gold medal from the dead body of the boy; maybe there was a mention that it was found with his mate that accompanied him to the house of the swimming instructor. The two Kurds were hosted at this instructor’s house against the will of the authorities who questioned the man on several occasions; that was the backdrop to creating the necessary tension in the plot as one wondered whether the boy would get sufficient training before his host would be caught. Bilal, the boy never made it and his girl had to marry someone else her successful father chose, the life of the girl and her dad was the subplot in the picture. Naturally she was brokenhearted to learn of her lover’s demise in his effort to reach her.
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