Dear Readers,
The following is an excerpt from my article that was published in the Indian National Daily, The Hindu. The article talks about my all time favorite cinematic gems.
Please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Rashomon (1950) pioneered Akira Kurosawa's dream tryst with success and paved the way for the Japanese master to become one of the most influential moviemakers of his time. The sole purpose of Rashomon is to accentuate the subjectivity of truth vis-à-vis its absoluteness — an incident is described from the perspective of four different persons, wherein each person comes up with a completely different version of the incident. The concept of Rashomon, though well ahead of its time, sowed the seeds for creative innovation in the world of cinema.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
In The Seventh Seal (1957) Bergman is at his most imaginative and insightful in portraying the battle of life versus death. The Swedish movie is a metaphorical account of a knight returning home from the Crusades. He is haplessly pitted against the grim-reaper (personification of death), who lets the knight decide his fate through a game of chess. Bergman brilliantly complements the tones of melancholy and pessimism with those of euphoria and optimism. The Seventh Seal is strongly indicative of the human ability to rise after a fall, which allows him to snatch victory even from the jaws of defeat.
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Directed by the Russian moviemaker, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker (1979) is regarded by many as a archetype in the existential cinema that presents cinema at its most enigmatic. The synergy of its hypnotic background score and picturesque cinematography makes the movie poignant as well as visually stunning. The movie had been shot on an experimental film and couldn't be developed. The incident nearly destroyed Tarkovsky, who eventually reshot it with a highly reduced budget. The movie presents a deep insight into the complexities associated with life, while simultaneously questioning some of the established beliefs.
Directed by Luis Bunuel
Spanish movie-maker, Luis Bunuel is regarded by many as the pioneer of surrealism in cinema. Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog), a silent movie is a sequence of bizarre and surreal images: a straight razor seems to be placed by a woman's eye; a cow's eye is slit open, a woman pokes at a severed hand in the street with her cane; and a man's hand has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge. An Andalusian Dog (1929) was Bunuel's maiden attempt at surrealism, through which he not only opened the doors for the irrational and the inconceivable on the celluloid, but also added a new dimension to the hitherto stereotypical cinema.
Spanish movie-maker, Luis Bunuel is regarded by many as the pioneer of surrealism in cinema. Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog), a silent movie is a sequence of bizarre and surreal images: a straight razor seems to be placed by a woman's eye; a cow's eye is slit open, a woman pokes at a severed hand in the street with her cane; and a man's hand has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge. An Andalusian Dog (1929) was Bunuel's maiden attempt at surrealism, through which he not only opened the doors for the irrational and the inconceivable on the celluloid, but also added a new dimension to the hitherto stereotypical cinema.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Regarded by Kubrick as his very best, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) is incredibly brilliant and sui generis. It's an elixir for sore eyes; a panacea for perturbed souls; a true psychedelic pleasure. Like most of his avant-garde works, Eyes Wide Shut is open to speculation and can be interpreted in a number of ways. Eyes Wide Shut is snubbed by many on the account of eroticism, but on the contrary, the movie is aesthetic as well as thought-provoking. The cinematography is awe-inspiring to say the least and is well complemented by its haunting background score.
The movies that almost made it:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): Directed by Sergio Leone
12 Angry Men (1957): Directed by Sidney Lumet
Rear Window (1954): Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
La Dolce Vita (1960): Directed by Federico Fellini
Aparajito (1956): Directed by Satyajit Ray
The Prestige (2006): Directed by Christopher Nolan
There Will Be Blood (2007): Directed by P.T. Anderson
Please note that the original article is available at the following links:
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Congratulations on being published in The Hindu. An excellent selection of films, I must admit.
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton, mate!
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