My Name Is Khan

Upon release, the film broke opening box office records overseas for an Indian film. It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend overseas and had the highest opening day overseas for a Bollywood film. It is also the second-highest worldwide grosser in its opening weekend, behind 3 Idiots, and the third-highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film. Within four weeks, the film crossed the INR 700 million mark in India and became the first film of 2010 to do so. The film also created a new box office record for a release in the first quarter of a year (January to March), breaking the previous record set by Race. It is also the second highest-grossing film to be released in the first half of the year (January to June), behind Krrish.

Plot
Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair things. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother, all which leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States .

Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) sponsors Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco after the death of their mother. It is at this time that Zakir's wife, Haseena (Sonya Jehan) diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrome. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira (Kajol) and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a previous marriage. Mandira is a hairdresser by profession. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Sameer take Rizwan's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sameer is close to their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a reporter and Sarah (Katie A. Keane) is a friend of Mandira.

The Khan's perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sameer and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is beaten so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandira blames Rizwan for his death stating that Sameer "died only because his name was Khan." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants to be with him. When he asks her what he has to do to be together with Mandira, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist .

Rizwan thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, in order to first meet President George W. Bush and later President-elect Barack Obama. During this quest, he travels to Wilhemina, Georgia and befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. Later, in Los Angeles, he prays in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman (Arif Zakaria). He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush and repeating again and again, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist," Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement.

While in the prison he is tortured as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha (Sheetal Menon) who believes he is innocent. He is later released after a media campaign by some Indian student reporters Raj (Arjun Mathur) and Komal (Sugandha Garg) and Bobby Ahuja (Parvin Dabas), who prove his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he returns to hurricane-hit Wilhemina to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Reese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. She informs Detective Garcia (Benny Nieves) who has been assisting her on the case, and Detective Garcia arrests them.

After they are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, Rizwan survives and meets President-elect Barack Obama (Christopher B. Duncan) who tells him: "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist . "
My Name Is Khan

This is the typical maudlin dramatic farce where unnecessary side stories are woven to get the 161 minutes of film. For example the section where Rizwan is stabbed was necessary for the character development in fact it neither affected the direction of the movie before the incident or afterward and was simply a reset button technique.

At times it seemed the screenwriter had very little knowledge of how things are done in the USA. Take for example the return to hurricane-hit Wilhemina where the first set of reporters and then the whole brigade of volunteers come wading in chest high waters carrying their supplies on their heads with dead bodies floating by. Well we are a civilization that craves its capital and high tech mechanical devices. If the victims (204 according to the story) was not actually airlifted by helicopter they surely would have been rescued by some boat and taken to safety until the water receded. Reminds me of a live news cast where the reporter is in a boat doing his report and a couple of people just happen to walk by with the water actually about knee deep.

I also doubt that any Mosque in the US would be that concerned about Hinduism and so the rant about Hindus was just for the Indian audience-I can assume. The time frame is also strange in the sense that the screenwriter still thinks that violence against Muslims is still an issue and the few reported cases was in the few months afterwards and nearly all died down after a year. Here we are to assume that 9 years later we have rampant animosity is hard to match with reality. Not that it was going to be unbiased to the two Presidents, it seems to paint the former President Bush as not helping the situation and I credit him with lessening the animosity actually.

Overall a fine film although again I am sure my copy was boot-legged...

Prix De Beauté (1930)

The French Prix de Beaute stars cult figure Louise Brooks as a nondescript typist for a Parisian newspaper. On a whim, Brooks submits her photograph to the Miss France Contest. To everyone's amazement--and her boyfriend Andre's (Georges Charlia) displeasure--she wins the contest, and is sucked into a whirlwind of photo ops and interviews at the Miss Europe contest in Spain. Here she is confronted by Andre, who angrily demands that she give up this foolishness and return home. But the lure of fame and fortune is much too strong, and before long Brooks has signed a movie contract. The heart-stopping tragic climax brilliantly juxtaposes the image of the dead Brooks with her "live" screen image. Not as highly regarded as Louise Brooks' German films for G. W. Pabst, Prix de Beaute nonetheless succeeds in terms of visual dynamics and the naturalness of the star's performance. Available in both sound and silent versions, the film never received a formal American release. Augusto Genina replaced the film's original director Rene Clair during the pre-production stages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 88 mins
Prix De Beauté (1930)

Like a lot of movies, the endings sometimes break down from reality. I like the contrast between the dead Brooks and the screen image in the sense that the song was nearly a love song to her husband. He was extremely domineering in the relationship and in the cab ride she asks her if she loved him and she said yes but when she asked in return it was silence...

Nice little film and enjoyed the opening portions the best. I almost thought the film was going to be similar to Roxanne or Cyrano de Bergerac (1990 film) as the "nerd" showed interest in Brooks and was the more intelligent and caring of the group. I suppose he was included to show the cruelty of Andre. But it does not follow that just because he is cruel to his male friends that he would be just as bad to his girlfriend and then wife. In fact the scenes where she is married she wears such tattered and torn clothes that even in B&W it was so obvious as mere rags on her body which made the lure of stardom that much more attractive. There was clearly no grey areas in this movie.

Let me also include Louise Brooks Movies:

The daughter of a Kansas attorney, Louise Brooks was 15 when she accompanied her mother to New York. A talented if not inspired dancer, Brooks performed with the Denishawn dance troupe, then worked in such annual revues as George White's Scandals and The Ziegfeld Follies. Signed to a Paramount film contract in 1925, she was largely confined to nondescript leading lady roles in such films as W.C. Fields' It's the Old Army Game (1926), directed by her then-husband Eddie Sutherland. Better roles came her way in Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port (1927) and William Wellman's Beggars of Life (1928). With her darkly exotic good looks and distinctively bobbed-and-banged haircut, Brooks gained popularity with filmgoers, but neither critics nor studio executives were particularly impressed with her acting ability. All this changed when she was invited to work in Berlin by director G.W. Pabst. Her haunting, provocative performances in Pabst's Pandora's Box (1928) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) not only established her as a screen personality of the first rank, but also fostered a Louise Brooks "cult" which continued to flourish.
Alas, when the temperamental Brooks refused to return to Hollywood to film sound retakes for her silent picture The Canary Murder Case (1929), she was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood. Despite another brilliant performance in René Clair's Prix de Beaute (1930), Brooks found herself consigned to thankless supporting roles when she returned to America. Soon she was scrounging for work in two-reel comedies and bit roles; her last screen appearance was a demeaning leading lady assignment in the 1938 Three Mesquiteers Western, Overland Stage Raiders, which she accepted because she needed 300 dollars in a hurry. She spent the next two decades in virtual obscurity, occasionally obtaining radio work, but generally limited to clerical and salesgirl jobs. She was rescued in the mid-'50s by a millionaire media executive with whom she'd allegedly had an affair, and who provided her with a modest monthly annuity for the rest of her life. She moved to Rochester where she formed a lasting friendship with film buff/curator James Card of the George Eastman House. It was Card who drew the reclusive Brooks out of her shell with a series of well-received Louise Brooks retrospectives. In her last two decades, she began a whole new career as a writer, producing well-researched and well-balanced articles on movie history. Still, she remained a mercurial personality to the end, alternately attracting and repelling her admirers with her unpredictable behavior. In 1982, Louise Brooks collaborated with Hollis Alpert on her witty, extremely candid autobiography, Lulu in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2003)

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst is a documentary about the short-lived radical political group that caused a media frenzy in the early '70s. Filmmaker Robert Stone incorporates archival footage, news clips, and contemporary interviews with SLA founder Russ Little and member Mike Bortin. Most of the film focuses on their much-publicized act of domestic terrorism: the kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974. The group held the 19-year-old college student hostage, demanding that her father, William Randolph Hearst, give millions of dollars to the poor. Later, the girl was said to have joined the group on a crime spree throughout the West Coast. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst was shown was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival as part of the documentary competition (under the working title Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese LIberation Army), and later aired on the PBS documentary series American Experience. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 89 mins
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2003)

Although it was not explicitly stated all possible tie-ins between The Weather Underground and the ALS but it does cover the basic atmosphere of the "rhizome" groups that rose up in the Berkeley radical centers. So for me it filled in more of the background information about the other groups. Just like the Weather Underground, they had most of their tapes played on KPFA in Berkeley and one of the communiqués was the same voice used in the broadcast of the WU ones also which must have been by a radio announcer at the time.

One of the special features was the director, Robert Stone, providing the commentator tract. A very insightful special feature that showed that he studied the ALS in depth including he noted that after them going underground they became more cult like than a movement for change. He compared them to the Jim Jones cult and upon reflection that is exactly the outcome of the WU "sect" also, IMHO. They also in essence became media whores as they relished the limelight more than the glorious revolution.

The director said he limited the number that were interviewed so that he felt it avoided a bias film as well as falling into a he said, she said scenario. He did not even interview Patty Hearst and only included a small interview that was publicly aired aside from the audio tapes when she was part of the gang.

They also included the camera recordings of the bank robberies. The most unsettling special feature was when Bill Harris directly spoke to John {?} Opsahl without remorse and more like excusing himself. I did not watch it all because it was so condescending. When John had his turn, I would have used his words against him when he had the chance.

Another glorious revolution that ended in some senseless murders...

PS: The movie time-line ended with the convictions so Wiki can fill in some details at Symbionese Liberation Army.

Queen Kelly (1929)

Though filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim's notorious profligacy had made him virtually unhirable in the US by 1929, screen-star Gloria Swanson still had faith in him. She poured a great deal of her own money in Von Stroheim's last silent film, Queen Kelly, and agreed to play the leading role to insure box-office success. When production began, Stroheim had not quite completed his script: all he had was the premise of a young Irish convent girl named Kitty Kelly (Gloria Swanson) being seduced by a German nobleman (Walter Byron) who was slated to marry the mad Queen (Seena Owen) of a tiny European principality. Brandishing a whip, the loony Queen drives the hapless Kitty from the palace. It was after shooting had started that Von Stroheim filled Swanson in on the rest of the plot: Kitty was to inherit all the worldly possessions of her aunt in German East Africa. Arriving to take charge of the estate, Kitty would learn that she was proud possessor of a string of brothels. Realizing that such a plot device would never get past the American censors, Swanson reacted in horror; she frantically called her money men in America and screamed "There's a madman in charge!" In the final release version of Queen Kelly, hastily completed by Swanson to recoup her losses and ultimately released in Europe, Kitty Kelly was forced into a marriage with brothel manager Tully Marshall, a tobacco-juiced stained degenerate. She ultimately returns to the nobleman who'd seduced her, is driven from the palace by Queen Owen, and commits suicide. This version contained dialogue sequences, and one musical interlude, sung by star Swanson. Despite its tawdry plot, Queen Kelly was beautifully photographed; its most famous shot, of Swanson praying in church, her face framed by flickering candles, was excerpted in the actress' much-later talkie Sunset Boulevard. The currently available restored version of Queen Kelly uses still pictures and explanatory titles to fill in the footage that has decomposed over the years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 101 mins
Queen Kelly (1929)

Strangely, could not get the commentator track to work. The "Outtake footage" did not have sound and most of it was just repeated scenes from already shot scenes. As noted above, the ending was mostly a few stills and some insert dialogue. It also had the "Swanson Ending" ended like Romeo and Juliet as the prince takes out his sword as he is above Kelly lying in the Church dead, which I assumed she died from throwing herself in the river.
'Gloria Swanson Remembers' was an interview of almost 20 minutes. She talks in three segments meant for the beginning of the film the Epilogue and the ending. In the end piece she talks more about her relationship with Erich Von Stroheim. Although there was a lot of animosity between the two he did agree to play her butler in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She was definitely right about censorship not being a problem later on in the films especially when the ratings systems came out.

It would have been a much greater film if the film was complete, the ending was just a summary and not a complete story thus only 2.5/5 rating.

Autumn Sonata (1978)

Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish expatriate who became one of Hollywood's greatest stars, and Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most acclaimed filmmakers and Sweden's most honored director, worked together for the first and only time in this intensely personal drama about the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) is an acclaimed concert pianist who is visiting her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), the wife of a parson in a rural community, for the first time in seven years. While Charlotte and Eva struggle to be civil, there is a deep emotional gulf between them. Eva resents her mother for not caring enough for her as a child, feeling that Charlotte was more interested in her career and her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who is severely handicapped and can only communicate through inarticulate noises. Charlotte, on the other hand, is uncomfortable with the fact that Helena now lives with Eva, and she is still coming to terms with the emotional devastation of her husband's recent death. Herbstsonate, released in America as Autumn Sonata, earned Ingrid Bergman some of the most enthusiastic acclaim of her career; she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she won the same honor from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. It was also her last theatrical release; she would appear in only one more project, a TV movie about the life of Golda Meir, before her death in 1982. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 92 mins
Autumn Sonata (1978)

The film started out so slow with almost no direction. It was not until the underlying problems in the relationship between the two daughters and the mother that it became more interesting. Although the above review gives that the handicapped daughter got more love and attention, I did not see that and even near the end Helena calls out to the mother and gets no response or care in return. Thus signifying to me that the estrangement had already been well established long before then. A portion of the text that I found most interesting:

-Mother: Leonardo once said, how did he say it now? "A sense of reality is a matter of talent. Most people lack that talent and maybe it's just as well." Do you know what that meant?
-Daughter: Yes, I do.
-M: How very strange?
-D: Strange?
-M: I've always been afraid of you.
-D: I can't understand that.
-M: I think I wanted you to take care of me. To put your arms around me and comfort me.
-D: I was a child.
-M: Does that matter?
-D: No.

I did not even get the name of the historian that did the commentator but what small portion I listened to, he seemed quite knowledgeable and with more time, I would have loved to watch it again with the comments on.

Kaun (1999)

Kaun (Hindi: कौन, English: Who's There) is a 1999 Hindi suspense thriller directed by Ram Gopal Verma, written by Anurag Kashyap, and starring Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai and Sushant Singh. Other titles for the film were Evaru (Telugu title) and Thriller (English title).

The film features a man claiming to be a white collar worker (Bajpai) and another man claiming to be a police inspector (Singh), both attempting to get into the house of a young woman (Matondkar). Kaun was an inventively minimalistic film using only one set and a cast of three actors (excluding a dead body and a brief appearance of a room full of silent, motionless extras). The only costume change occurs in the film's final scene when Matondkar reappears the following morning.
Kaun (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was the usual plot twists and I was surprised by the ending especially from Bollywood. At times this seemed to border on the horror genre, which would make this the first Bollywood slasher film I have seen. The dead phone seemed obvious but not sure why each individual character decided to lie about it.

Baijpai did play the part well in creating a character that would get on anyone's nerve. The cat was not harmed in the making of the film. If you look closely at the cat with the blood around it, you can see his chest rising and falling. Must have drugged it to stay put in a puddle of water though.

I would love to Satya also but the members at Blockbuster said the sound quality is bad and most just returned the video to the store.

Kaun (1999)

Battle for Haditha

The fate of two cultures becomes locked on a tragic collision course in director Nick Broomfield's dramatization of the events that led to the massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children by American Marines. A squadron of American soldiers goes speeding across the Iraqi desert in a convoy of armored Humvees, eventually stopping at a local store where the soldiers jump out to stretch and browse the DVD selection. Meanwhile, as the Marines strike up a conversation with the young male clerk behind the counter, two Iraqi men climb into the back of a pick-up truck to get a crash course in IED mechanics. Both the Marines and the Iraqis are simply going about their daily business as usual, just doing their best to survive in a land where war is just another fact of life. For the Marines it's all about patrolling the desert and waiting for the next bomb to go off. When a roadside IED kills one Marine and wounds two others, the vengeance with which the American soldiers strike back at the locals may cause even the most hard-line warhawks to take pause and consider the true cost of a war which has no end in sight. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie
Battle for Haditha (2007)

Although the movie is quite balanced overall of the motives in the movie, it does not tell of the large number of civilians killed by terrorists. The reactions by the locals to noticing the bombs being placed feels real and gives the balance to the story that I was pleasantly surprised by. Others of course can wonder about the brutality of the marines but since they were mostly acquitted and standard procedure is to plant false flags by Al-Qaeda then not likely we will ever know the real story of those tragic deaths of civilians.

This film is a good companion with the "Hurt Locker" as showing the tensions and anguish of events before the marines supposedly went off the ranch. I found the Hurt Locker to be much more realistic in the actions of the Marines and Army. For example after the IED exploded and killed one, they just seem to stand around in the open thinking about what to do and when they do decide to attack it forgets about back alleys that the true killers were retreating from. The one portion that seems to be true is that the killing of the civilians in the vehicle had no justification and was most definitely the work of the Marines from my reading of the news reports.

Battle for Haditha (film) From Wikipedia

3 Idiots

3 Idiots (Hindi: थ्री इडीयट्स) is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

3 Idiots has become the "highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time."[3] The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 400 crore (US$ 86 million) worldwide.[4] It is expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres.[5] The film also went on to win many awards, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, and ten Star Screen Awards.

The film also uses real inventions by little known people in India's backyards. The brains behind the innovations were Remya Jose, a student from Kerala, who created the exercise-bicycle-cum-washing-machine, Mohammad Idris, a barber from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, who invented a bicycle-powered horse clipper, and Jahangir Painter, a painter from Maharashtra, who made the scooter-powered flour mill
3 Idiots

Completely an hilarious film, BUT the translation was not complete in the subtitles and thus some of the film is lost in translation for lack of proper subtitles. Like most Hindi films it does have a lot of English dialogue so with that and the subtitles, I could understand the film. The one part that my wife found much more hilarious was the part of the speech with the translation of "magic" is replaced with "rape". Chamatkar was replaced by balatkar in the text of the unsuspecting student that while he could pronounce perfectly, he did not understand the words.

Education is a strong theme in many Hindi movies and not trivial matters like US films that focus on recess and after hours activities. For example they have a scene just on what the definition of a "motor" is that was a good 5 minutes of the film. The tyrannical authoritarian principal is also played out in several other Indian films like {well can't remember the names-lol}... Since some of the classes are quite large the older students advised one smart put very poor kid to put on a uniform and attend classes. If found out just change uniforms the next day.

I hope to see it again but not rented from a hole in the wall Indian Grocery store...lol

Mondays in the Sun (2002)

Set in the Spanish port city of Vigo, Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun is a touching drama about a group of working-class men who find themselves suddenly unemployed and unwanted in their middle age. Laid off from the local shipyard, the men spend their days at the town bar, where they reminisce, philosophize, and commiserate about their current state. Gruff Santa (a bearded Javier Bardem) puts up a tough front, refusing to sink into self-pity, and occasionally pricking his friends' hopes. Morose José (Luis Tosar) openly worries about his wife, whom he fears might leave him. That seems to have been the fate of Amador (Celso Bugallo), the oldest of the bunch, who keeps reassuring everyone that his wife will be back any day now from her trip. Meanwhile, Lino (José Ángel Egido) refuses to give up hope of employment, going to interview after interview for jobs being offered to applicants half his age. Presiding over the glum bunch is Rico (Joaquín Climent), the bar owner and the men's co-worker from the shipyard days. Despite its depressing subject and downbeat mood, Mondays in the Sun was a big winner at the 2003 Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Bardem. The film was also Spain's surprise representative for the 2003 Oscars' Foreign Language film category, nabbing the distinction over Pedro Almodóvar's critically lauded Talk to Her. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 113 mins
Mondays in the Sun (2002)

I found it dull, boring and insipid. The characters could have been interesting enough especially Gruff the gruff one but nothing really sticks out as nothing more than losers complaining about how bad they have it. But at least one person seems to have gotten into the movie at: "Full of sympathy for the worker's plight." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz.

Jose's wife Ana (Nieve de Medina) works the night shift of an assembly line at a fish processing plant that pays little and exploits the workers with poor working conditions, but she's the family breadwinner just waiting for the day when she can tell the bosses to go fuck themselves and she can come home without having to deodorize herself from the fish smell. But she seems tired of her husband's despair and low self-esteem, and their marriage is becoming strained as Jose is becoming a shell of a man unable to even communicate with her.

I unfortunately missed that idea about the fish smell when she spent inordinate amounts of time using the spray deodorant.

The scene with the rich parents kids away and the four men hanging out drinking was quite creepy as well as the flirts between Gruff and Nata (Aida Folch) the 15 year old daughter of the bartender. He even does it openly at the bar but ultimately when given a chance for a rendezvous at his apartment he sneaks out. But at other times Nata is distant to Gruff as they meet outside the young boys house to discuss the transaction for babysitting which is just an excuse for the four men to drink at the "man's" house.

Overall not worth the effort to read...

The Man Without a Past (2002)

Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past opens with the title character (Markku Peltola) being savagely beaten. At the hospital he is declared dead, but he sits up and walks out on his own power. He is taken in by a mother and her two sons, discovers an old jukebox that inspires local musicians, and discovers he has skills as a welder. When he becomes unwittingly involved in a bank robbery, and the man is unable to give the police his name, the cops send out feelers trying to figure out the man's identity. Soon his wife appears. The Man Without a Past was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Prix, the most storied prize after the Palme D'Or. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide


Theatrical Feature Running Time: 97 mins
The Man Without a Past (2002)

Although another foreign film that is quite slow in the development of the story line, I found the character of "M" to be very interesting and a certain curiosity about him in the movie. While we do get some background on him from the time he meets his wife, there is just so many unanswered questions that still create the tense feelings in the movie dialogue. In the end we do not need to know what his past is since he changed after the mugging. He even confronts his attackers later but the plot does not indicate that he remembered them also as the kids also show no remorse for their thug actions.

I am sure to also put Lights in the Dusk (2006) on my movie queue.

The Man Without a Past From Wikipedia

The film begins with an unnamed man arriving by train to Helsinki. After falling asleep in a park, he is mugged and beaten by hoodlums and is severely injured in the head, losing consciousness. He awakes and wanders back to the train station and collapses in its bathroom. He awakes the second time in a hospital and finds that he has lost his memory. He starts his life from scratch, living in container dwellings, finding clothes with help from the Salvation Army and making friends with the poor.

Russian Ark (2002)

Modern Intellectual 1: For us, detail is more interesting.
Look closely here.
A chicken and a cat are in the foreground.
They are symbolic figures.
The chicken represents greed, avarice...
the cat, cynicism and cruelty.
Cynicism and Cruelty... The cat...
They are both calmed by the birth of John.
French Marquis: Interesting.

Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov broke boundaries with his dreamlike vision of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russian Ark. It's the first feature-length narrative film shot in a single take (on digital video, using a specially designed disc instead of tape). Russian Ark is shot from the point-of-view of an unseen narrator, as he explores the museum and travels through Russian history. The audience sees through his eyes as he witnesses Peter the Great (Maksim Sergeyev) abusing one of his generals; Catherine the Great (Maria Kuznetsova) desperately searching for a bathroom; and, in the grand finale, the sumptuous Great Royal Ball of 1913. The narrator is eventually joined by a sarcastic and eccentric 19th century French Marquis (Sergey Dreiden), who travels with him throughout the huge grounds, encountering various historical figures and viewing the legendary artworks on display. While the narrator only interacts with the Marquis (he seems to be invisible to all the other inhabitants), the Marquis occasionally interacts with visitors and former residents of the museum. The film was obviously shot in one day, but the cast and crew rehearsed for months to time their movements precisely with the flow of the camera while capturing the complex narrative, with elaborate costumes from different periods, and several trips out to the exterior of the museum. Tilman Büttner, the director of photography, was responsible for capturing it all in one single Steadicam shot. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 96 mins
Russian Ark (2002)

A truly beautiful picture, and well worth watching it with the commentary also afterwards, and that is not the drugs talking {cold}.

It was not an historical documentary but a fantasy of what the French Marquis might have said if he got to visit the museum that spanned throughout 300 years of Russian History. I like the subtlety of the French Marquis references to some of the historical events did not make it any easier. But luckily, I don't know any Frenchmen so the can go ----. Bullox!

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Road Prison 36:
Yeah, well. Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.

Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to "get their mind right," it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to kowtow to anybody. When challenged to a fistfight by fellow inmate Dragline (George Kennedy), Luke simply refuses to give up, even though he's brutally beaten. Luke knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. Luke also figures out a way for the men to get their work done in half the usual time, giving them the afternoon off. Finally, when Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he's caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out to the guards and the captain. Along with stellar performances by Newman, Kennedy, and Martin, Cool Hand Luke features a superb supporting cast, including Ralph Waite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, and Joe Don Baker as members of the chain gang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 126 mins
Cool Hand Luke (1967)

What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate From Wikipedia

What we have here is basically a narcissistic little brat that was only concerned about himself. It was a movie about "I". One of the aspects that came out was how alone Luke was. Even when he destroyed public property he had no one to share with, and when he was on the run he again left his only friend. When he had competition to prove his worth, it was in boxing and eating eggs. The only team competition that he engaged in was the street scene but again it was more of an emphasis on the two team leaders and not the cooperative aspects of the teams.

While the Liberals may look up to such a man, he was a selfish little man that instead of being with his mother as she passed away, he felt destruction of public property that served no purpose-I can see. What good was it to cut the heads off parking meters? Was he against the government dictating payments? The film clearly leaves more questions than it answers as to WHY?

After rejecting friends and family, society finally had enough and he was just quietly disposed of. Basically a case of Into the Wild (2007) without the wilderness destroying the man. Both were of men seeking suicide through acceptable means.

Noting brave or especially noble about the character of Luke. Even the phrase, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate", is really not that interesting.

The Mirror (1997)

The story is rather thin, but the neat twists make this Iranian drama, of a feisty little girl trying to find her way home, interesting. The girl's journey begins when she exits school and discovers that her mother is not outside awaiting her. Worried, the child, garbed in traditional clothes and sporting a cast, calls home, but no one answers. Though she doesn't know her own address, she is pretty sure she can find her way and so boards what looks like the correct bus. During the journey she watches the people around her. When they finally arrive at the terminus, she realizes that she has gone the wrong way. A friendly driver puts matters to rights, but by this time the child has become petulant and it is at this time that the course of the film surprisingly transcends itself to become a film about making a film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Mirror (1997)

The film at that time loses much of its refinement in editing as the little girl basically walks off the set and continues her "journey" home including dropping off the microphone to the gentleman that had hired her and at which time the sound then is lost and there is some back and forth at her house where we only get the sound from the outside of the house.

Interesting film and the young girl made the film enjoyable. Back-dropped against the repressive regime of Iran, I have to wonder what will happen to this girl as she becomes an adult. This also is another perspective of the lives of women in Iran as compared to the other fine films to come out of Iran lately.

Barsaat (1949)

Raj Kapoor directs this meditation on love. Pran (Kapoor), a wealthy lad with a poetic soul, is passionately in love with impoverished country lass Reshma (Nargis). When she attempts to run away with Pran -- over the objections of her traditionalist father -- she slips and falls into a river, and apparently drowns. As Pran and his womanizing buddy Gopal (Premnath), who just cruelly dumped another girl, Neela (Nimmi), are driving through the country, they are more than a little surprised to see Reshma about to be married to a fisherman (K.N. Singh). Pran runs off the road and wrecks his car, halting the wedding, and eventually marries Reshma. Gopal is crushed and penitent when he learns that Neela committed suicide. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Barsaat (1949)

Yes, in the very Indian tradition of tragic love stories. Neela death was nearly gratuitous since most of the problems faced by the heroes had been overcome and that only this one last loose end was not tied to join the last couple together even as the potential groom was willing to give up everything for her. But it was expected at least one death had to occur and I so expected that it was going to end as Romeo and Juliet when one person had died or appeared to be dead and the remaining one was overcome by grief.

This one has the typical villains with the man that while saves Reshma he decides to make her his bride and holds her captive as a slave for his personal pleasures. The father also plays the part of the bad father that is willing to kill his daughter rather than let her marry the man of her choice.

Not sure why the rating at Blockbuster was so low at 2 stars but I think it deserved 3.5 stars.

Choker Bali

Chokher Bali (literally translated to "sand in the eye", figuratively to "constant irritant") (Bengali: চোখের বালি) is a Bengali film based on the novel Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore. It was directed by Rituparno Ghosh in 2003 and stars Prasenjit as Mahendra, Aishwarya Rai as Binodini and Raima Sen as Ashalata. Ashalata and Binodini refer to each other as Chokher Bali. The other major characters are played by Lily Chakravarty (as Rajlakshmi, Mahendra's mother) and Tota Roy Chowdhury (as Behari, Rajlakshmi's adopted son). The film was later dubbed into Hindi and was released internationally under that language.

Chokher Bali (film) From Wikipedia

Some of the songs were still in Begali we presume since my wife could not understand the language of them. It does mention the language Bengali when the petition is stated in English under the time of British rule.

The strange thing for me was the character of Binodini which is played by Aishwarya Rai. She has played in numerous roles and is an overall good actor but in this part she hysterically laughs at times which seems inappropriate at best and tasteless in the social settings she was in. I am sure it was written like that but made her character look so narcissistic and petty which is not in the least her normal role. Other times she played the part of the contrite widow. Which the film also did not let us forget including bringing up the funeral pyre of widows and their second class status in society. Close to the end she gets some jewelry and tries to seduce the brother but he rejects her. I do not notice how the film rectified that she claimed she was penniless widow and then have the jewelry near the end of the movie.

For the above reasons I only gave this a rating of 2.5/5
But no one died as both me and my wife assumed would happen...
Choker Bali

Aaj-Ke-Sholey

Very much in the genre of young superhero action figures with almost cartoonish stereotype heroes. There is one death which for Indian films is expected even if just for younger audiences. The strongest of the young guests is chiseled as much as Bruce Lee with many of the same moves used.

When the young guest of honor is kidnapped from a birthday party, five courageous kids risk everything to rescue their friend. Along the way, they learn that the kidnapper, Balbir Gupta, is an old partner of the abducted child's father, recently released from prison and looking to settle a score. Directed by S.V. Rajendra Singh, this action adventure stars Amrish Puri, Sundar Krishna Urs, M.B. Shetty, Jayanthi and Manjula.
Starring: Jayanthi, Manjula
Director: S.V. Rajendra Singh
Genre: Foreign
Format: Full Screen ...
Language: Hindi
Subtitles: English

Aaj Ke Sholey (1985)

It ends on a near comical fight out with the evil Gupta and his many henchmen and some film actors along with the young children.

Overall an enjoyable film even if slightly juvenile.

No information at Blockbuser: Aaj-Ke-Sholey.

Salaam Namaste (2005)

A couple navigates the ups and downs of romance and imminent parenthood while setting up house in a new land in this Bollywood romantic comedy. Nikhil Arora (Saif Ali Khan), known to most of his friends as Nick, is a successful chef who has become something of a celebrity, with a following in Australia. Nick agrees to appear on a radio show hosted by Ambar Malhotra (Preity Zinta), an attractive woman who is finishing up her college degree, but working out the arrangements proves difficult, and by the time they meet face to face, Nick and Ambar have already exchanged a number of harsh words. When the two actually walk into the studio together, they feel a strong mutual attraction, but given their history, neither is sure if they should trust their feelings. After several dates, Nick makes a proposal -- he is going to Melbourne for a year, and if Ambar wants to join him, they can see if they could get along living under the same roof. Ambar agrees, but before long she has some surprising news for Nick -- she's pregnant with his baby, a prospect that does not make him happy. As the two face the reality of their situation as parents-to-be, Nick wonders if he's ready to give up the bachelor's life he's long enjoyed, and Ambar struggles to adjust to life down under. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Salaam Namaste (2005)

Definitely a nice romantic comedy worth watching. There is quite a community of Indians in Melbourne as the film shows including one character that has a white woman as his girlfriend. The funny thing about his character is that he speaks Hindi with an Australian accent.

Nick also has issues with his Indian name and thus partially his heritage at least according to Ambar. Ambar's pregnancy also brings up the abortion issue as Nick wants an abortion immediately while Ambar is not willing to compromise her morality. Again well worth watching it.

Leaves from Satan's Book (1919)

A well directed and wrote silent film trying to show the atrocities caused by Satan but have to wonder about the inclusion of the French Revolution. I know that this "Glorious Revolution" caused many deaths and is still held in high regards from the Left, but I do wonder about their inclusion in this film.

It was also unusual that Satan had bouts of remorse and that it was God that directed him to go out and create evil. Especially the scene where Satan feels guilty for his part in killing the Son of God. But God just sends him out to cause more pain to humans. He is even given an incentive with 1000 years less of torture for every man he helps and 100 years more for every man he destroys.

The Danish Leaves From Satan's Book (Blad af Satans Bog) was the "breakthrough" picture for filmmaker Carl Thedor Dreyer, who was elevated from a local talent to a director of international renown. The content of the film is implicit in the title: we are witness to the power of Evil through the ages, linked together by images of turning pages. In its multi-storied construction, the film is obviously beholden to D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Some of the vignettes, especially the Spanish Inquisition scenes, are both beautiful and repulsive; we marvel at Dreyer's brilliant visual sense, even as we have the impulse to avert our eyes. Though a worldwide success, Leaves From Satan's Book cost too much to suit the tastes of the parsimonious Danish film industry, compelling Dreyer to work in other countries throughout most of the silent era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 121 mins
Leaves from Satan's Book (1919)

Aag Aur Shola

Another long Indian movie with lots of songs and dancing with over 227 minutes of running time according to my DVD clock. Lots of beautiful saris including a gold and purple that are colors of my Middle School. LOL.

Aag Aur Shola (1986)NetflixLivid when his sister Usha chooses impoverished Raju as her suitor, Bombay thug Nagesh tracks down her beau, thrashes him and leaves him for dead in this potent yarn about sweet revenge. Surviving the vicious attack and undeterred by it, Raju seeks help from the reclusive Vishal, hatching a scheme that will even the score and put Usha back in Raju's arms. The film's cast includes Jeetendra, Mandakini and Shakti Kapoor.

Yes, the comical versions of fight scenes reminiscent of the 1970s in the USA.

Aag Aur Shola From Wikipedia
Whenever Inspector Ram, incharge of police station in Bombay, try to arrest some criminal a gangster named Nagesh help these arrested criminals. Nagesh has political influence. Nagesh's sister Usha is in love with Raju. When Nagesh learn this, he beats up Raju. Raju survives. He and his mother approach Vishal for help.

A side story involves Vishal and his love with him promising to protect lovers as his lover dies in his hands. Ultimately he sacrfices his life for the friendship of Usha and Raju.

No special features except Songs listed. This film like a couple of others have like a dozen lead in previews and advertisements even when choosing the subtitles it goes back through the previews again. Quite Distracting...
"Put vermilion on the bride's head."

Aag Aur Shola{Blockbuster}

Aag Aur Shola

Baazigar (1993)

In addition to the following entry, Wiki gives complete details about the plot of the movie:

Baazigar (Hindi (Devanagari): बाज़ीगर, Urdu/Farsi (Nastaliq): بازیگر, English: Gambler) is a 1993 Indian Hindi film directed by Abbas-Mustan. It is a contemporary thriller about a young man who stops at nothing to get revenge. The film shocked its Indian audience with an unexpected violation of the standard Bollywood formula: The hero murders the innocent heroine. However, this film with an ambiguous hero did well at the box office. This was Shahrukh Khan's first movie as the sole lead and also Shilpa Shetty's debut film. Although Akshay Kumar was initially offered the lead role of Baazigar, he turned it down because of its negative shades.
This film is loosely based on the Hollywood film A Kiss Before Dying (1991).
Baazigar

Yes definitely a more vicious villain than most Indian films. We do not get to know the reasons for the murder of innocent lives until later in the movie as flashbacks fill in the background information slowly. Still we can see his hatred for wanting to take revenge over the past sins of others leads to the killing of innocent lives. Even if your sister and mother deaths was caused by another gives no right to extract that same punishment on other innocent lives.

Vicky then goes on to kill two more innocent lives to cover up his first killing. Thus he becomes a sociopathic killer of the worst kind. But overall has some of the same tragic life stories of many Indian films but just more cruelty in how the punishments are handed out. I gave it a rating of 3.5/5 which was below Blockbuster customer ratings of 4/5.

Baazigar (1993)