Titanic

When I first saw this movie I understood little and had an iota of patience. Saw this movie again recently on TV and damn - it's a brilliant movie. Add to that Leo is there and a red-head Kate Winslet in all her vulnerable, voluptuous glory.
"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight." I loved the scene where the musicians played on while panic ensued around them. I had completely missed the grandeur of the movie when I saw it first; I never saw how strong a role Kate's was; the end of the movie where Rose and Jack try to escape towards the deck, the 'lower class' being discriminated against, the nouveau riche American lady hollering at the lack of humanity in her fellow travelers when aboard the boat, a group of people craving the word of the Lord when on the verge of dying, the fact that only 1 boat returned for survivors.
Old Rose says at the end of her narration, "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."

True Grit

I am fascinated by history. Ture Grit is a remake of a 1960s movie and I think also inspired by a novel. The story is simple - dude killed unfairly, his daughter is angry and wants to take some revenge; she hires an old marshall to find the killer in order to kill him.
The Wild Wild West was indeed wild. There was honour and animalistic behaviour. I liked the girl's performance and the Jeff was outstanding. Still don't know how he did a drunkard so well :)
The reason I had to write about this movie is that towards the end (because the end is simply cinematic awesomeness) I was peering into my laptop screen - took me a while to realise that I was literally drawn to the movie.
A particular scene right at the very end made me say, "Damn... no wonder this movie was named True Grit".

The Artist

So they decided to make a silent movie in 2011/12 and it won the Oscar for best movie. Well deserved! The silent movie managed to grip my attention throughout and I don't know why... I have a feeling that if it was a 'talkie', it wouldn't have been that powerful a movie.
I was simply mesmerized with the detailing and the sets and even the behaviour of people throughout the movie. The font in the newspapers, the clothing, the hair of the women, the cars, the homes, the sidewalks... The bulky actor suited the 1920s, the actress - Berenice Bejo - OMG!! I was quite impressed by her performance. She oozed of sex appeal, her body language cried of oomph and damn, she had one expressive face. There were moments in the movie where I literally gasped when she would strike a pose or express an emotion.
The story was simple. A leading proud actor falls behind the times. "Talking" movies would soon replace the era of silent movies - similar to how 3D movies will soon kill 2D movies - and this guy is a silent movie actor; the audience now wants new, young faces. Dude slips into depression along with the economy (1929/30); Berenice Bejo loves him secretly.. climax scenes... It's not an extraordinary plot, but it's a fantastic motion picture. The old ways were simple, and life seemed to proceed along just fine... movie makes one think along those lines...

Addendum: Berenice Bejo did not win the best supporting actress award at the Oscars but daym... some of her poses in that skinny frame of hers with those wonderful eyes and high bones of the face... ooooo laa laaaa

J. Edgar

One of the beauties of hollywood lies in the justice it can serve to historical movies. The biopic J. Edgar may well go down in history as a memorable creation. It was hard to imagine such an authentic recreation of the past. Leonardo is, as always, stupendous but somewhere, he ought-did himself. And it's not about the makeup, it's about scenes that become memorable.
When he cries in fear and calls Miss Gandy into his office, he makes her promise to keep safe the secret files.
To be honest, yes it was slow and might be considered boring by some. Comments from an audience member such as, "That is so gay.", during such a movie ruin the experience.
The movie did justice to portraying J. Edgar's motivations, personal flaws, progress through his personal life, his insecurities and his emotional disorders.
My ability to write about movies has deteriorated, if ever it was any good. :)

Indian Summer

Book

March 1947:

"While all this [riots] was going on, Mountbatten had to meet the Indian leaders. For that first week, the two least compromising and highest profile among them declined his invitation... Mohammad Ali Jinnah, representing the Muslim League, remained in Bombay making inflammatory speeches. Mohandas Gandhi, representing Mohandas Gandhi, was living among the outcastes in distant Bihar, and refused to take advantage of the viceregal aircraft. "


1937:

Excerpt from published article:
"Men like Jawaharlal with all their capacity for great and good work, are unsafe in democracy. He calls himself a democrat and a socialist, and no doubt he does so in all earnestness, but every psychologist knows that the mind is ultimately a slave to the heart and logic can always be made to fit in with the desires and irresistible urges of a person. A little twist and Jawahar might turn a dictator sweeping aside the paraphernalia of a slow-moving democracy... His conceit is already formidable. It must be checked. We want no Caesars.

This powerful vilification was published under the pseudonym 'Chanakya', after an ancient political philosopher, and caused great outrage among Nehru's followers. What they did not realise was that 'Chanakya' was actually Jawaharlal Nehru himself. Introspection, honesty, wit and mischief: few other politicians in history could have written such a lucid essay in self-deconstruction. "

1947 August:

From the outset, Indian women would earn equal pay for equal work - a right not conferred upon British women until the 1970s....
But behind this image of feminist progress, lay a long, dark shadow of feminist despair. At Calcutta in 1946, and subsequently, the vengeance of the rioters had been wreaked deliberately on women. As the great migration and great slaughters following partition got underway, so too did a sustained and brutal campaign of sexual persecution. The use of rape as a weapon of war was conscious and emphatic. On every side, proud tales were told of the degradation of enemy women. Thousands of women were abducted, forcibly married to their assailants, and bundled away to the other side of the border. Many never saw their families again. Thousands more were simply used and thrown back into their villages. There were accounts of women who had been held down while their breasts and arms were cut, tattooed or branded with their rapists' names and the dates of their attacks.





- Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann

Fantastic book. Brazen and factual. Boring in parts but enjoyable nonetheless.