Programming note
Weeds have begun to sprout in the corners of this blog as I attend to other matters — mostly, other blogging. This "other blogging" I’ve been doing is top-secret
In movie-viewing news, the Bollywood-related project I was working on came a cropper, so I haven’t needed to become an expert in Bollywood musicals after all, although I did set aside three hours or so to view Devdas, a period romance (a sort of Indian Wuthering Heights) starring Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, based on a classic novella which has, apparently, been filmed no less than 11 times, twice in this decade alone. Take that, An Affair to Remember!
I know Devdas was not on any of the lists that my kind and attentive readers sent me — rather, it was the recommendation of my local video-store clerk. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi, do you have a Bollywood section?
Clerk: Um, not really. (To be fair, this particular video store doesn’t have an anything "section," they just have heaps of empty DVD cases sitting around — you kind of have to know what you’re looking for when you go in — an excellent selection, just not at all walk-in friendly.) What are you looking for?
Me: Well, um, I’m not really sure. I just kind of have a need to familiarize myself with the genre.
Clerk: (grabs a DVD of Devdas off the shelf) Well, this was popular.
Me: (scrutinizing DVD) Um, do you have a copy of Sholay? (That is, a movie that was recommended to me by Indian Scriptwriter.)
Clerk: Um, yeah, but, that’s like, old.
Me: Um —
Clerk. I mean, that would be like if you wanted to learn about American movies by watching something like, you know, On the Waterfront.
Me: (the downside of this eludes me) Um, yeah — okay — can I take it anyway?
Clerk: Um, if you want.
Anyway, I have no idea if Devdas is a shining example of Bollywood cinema or not, but it’s certainly a head-turning spectacle. It features what I was expecting from "a Bollywood movie," ie: a slightly giddy style of overacting, beautiful women paired with goofy-looking men, grand emotions set against luxurious, stylized backgrounds and spectacular production numbers with cultural signifiers that feel peculiar to westerners. I had planned to write a whole big thing about my first foray in Bollywood but the project I was doing it for fell apart too quickly for me to articulate my thoughts.
Instead, I have turned to Bergman, viewing not only the aforementioned Thirst but also Persona, Shame and The Passion of Anna, and looking forward to tackling Cries and Whispers in the near future. Persona I intend to dissect scene by scene in a "Favorite Screenplays" piece.
When Hollywood folk ask me what I’ve been doing with myself (that is, when I’m not working on projects for them), and I respond with "I’ve been watching a lot of Bergman," they always look at me with a furrowed brow, as though I might soon require psychiactric care.
Movie Night with Urbaniak: Thirst
The extended Eastwood binge I’ve been on, not to mention the recent Bollywood adventures I’ve had, have, for some reason, given me a hankering for Bergman.
Now, there are the Bergman movies everyone knows (The Seventh Seal, Persona, Wild Strawberries) and then there are the movies that are just as good that nobody ever seems to talk about. 1949’s Thirst is close to the top of my list of my Favorite Bergman Movies Nobody Talks About. (My number 1 Favorite Bergman Movie Nobody Talks About is the flabbergasting masterpiece Shame, which I had never even heard of before I popped it in my DVD player a few years back. It seared off my eyelids.) Honestly, Thirst is just really pretty freaking amazing, and if it weren’t for the fact that Bergman went on to make 20 or 30 movies that happen to be better than it, it would stand as a triumph in just about anyone else’s career.
Movie Night with Urbaniak: Battle of Algiers
urbaniak has been talking about watching Battle of Algiers since we watched Z a year and a half ago. I have always held Z up as my model of authenticity, a political thriller that really makes you feel like you are there watching history unfold. Now I have seen Battle of Algiers, a movie that, in terms of capturing a historical moment, makes Z feel as authentic as Fiddler on the Roof.
Eastwood report: The Enforcer
Harry Callahan is angry again, which is a good thing, but now he’s a little too angry, and his anger is a little too general — he’s not angry at anything in particular, he’s just kind of angry. Situations that used to make him squint and sneer and move on now get him hopping mad. He seethes and grimaces throughout The Enforcer, looking for a target for his free-floating rage.
Apologies
I have crossed over to the other side of the footlights for a few days, shooting some bits and pieces of a new webseries concocted by Mr. James urbaniak and myself. There was not only food, but nudity. The results will soon be found on a computer near you — perhaps even the one right now on your lap! Normal blogging will resume soon.
Recent movies viewed: The Public Enemy, Kung Fu Panda, Eraserhead.
Query
A new project has crossed my desk, one which will require me to familiarize myself with the Bollywood musical, a genre which with I am utterly unfamiliar. And so I turn to you, my hip, multiculturally-saturated readers, to educate me. What are the landmarks of the genre, the key works, the inarguable masterpieces? Who are the undisputed masters, whose filmography is unmissable, which stars express the purest expression of the form? As James Cameron is to action movies, as John Ford is to westerns, as Vincent Minnelli is to musicals, who best represents Bollywood?
I thank you in advance.
Eastwood report: Magnum Force
Magnum Force does the respectable sequel thing and turns the original on its head, or perhaps inside-out. If Dirty Harry is about society’s need to have tarnished knights who look out for the rights of the many, Magnum Force is about society’s need to be protected from those who would circumvent due process in their zeal to punish. In other words, it’s about Harry Callahan confronting the world he helped create in the original movie.
Eastwood report: The Beguiled
I gotta say, The Beguiled took me by surprise. It’s an extreme rarity for Eastwood, a movie that takes his character and puts him in a situation where he’s utterly out of his depth, where his skill set doesn’t serve him, and, most importantly, he doesn’t figure a way out of his troubles.
Natasha Richardson
I am shocked, nay, stricken by the news of the death of Natasha Richardson. Back in the 1980s, she was, all by herself, a good enough reason for me to go see a movie. I loved her as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell’s absolutely stark-raving-mad Gothic, then as Patty Hearst in Paul Schrader’s movie of the same name, then in The Handmaid’s Tale and again with Schrader in The Comfort of Strangers. I knew that if Natasha Richardson was in it, it was bound to be smart, daring and a little bit crazy. I regret not seeing her on stage in New York when I lived there and she doing O’Neill with Liam Neeson. I have nothing else to offer, except my deepest sympathy for her family.
Eastwood report: Coogan’s Bluff
It’s instructive, cinematically speaking, to watch Coogan’s Bluff and Dirty Harry back to back. A star/producer and a director, working in consonance, on modern-day urban police thrillers, three years apart, and yet Dirty Harry still rivets the viewer’s attention while Coogan creaks and groans.