Saturday, February 19, 2011

The first academy awards!


A function was going on at  'Blossom room Hollywood Roosevelt' hotel in Los Angels, on 16th may 1929!

It was just a simple dinner party attended by about 250 people!

Even the folks in next street didn't know such a function was going on!
No buzz, no media, no hype... Douglas Fairbanks,in his calm voice called out the winners (no secrets... the list was published three months before) and within ten minutes he handed out all the bronze statues!

Every body attended the party returned home,without knowing they had just started a grand movie legacy!
MGM art director Mr.Gibbons paid George Stanley 500 $,to carve out the knight with his sword standing on the film reel!
They called it 'academy award of merit'!
And the most interesting fact was the first recipient of the award,Emil Jannings (mainly for the movie 'The last command') didn't attended the ceremony!
As he preferred to go to his home in Germany,the statue was given to him personally!



Janet Gaynor won the best actress category for the movie 'Seventh heaven' a great romantic movie and also for her roles in 'Street angel' and  'Sunrise'... only time in history an actress won award for roles in different films! (another well titled movie of hers is 'Midnight kiss')
'Wings' won the best movie (and the story is no different from the latest 'pearl harbor'... two army pilots falling for same woman)
Frank Borzage won the best director award mainly for 'seventh heaven' (even 'street angel' is also of his direction')!
And another director shared the award was 'Lewis Milestone' for the movie 'Two Arabian knights... and it was produced by Howard Hughes!
I hope you won't ask who is he.. if u were blessed to watch Leo in 'The Aviator'Posted by Picasa

Friday, February 18, 2011

One flew over cuckoo's nest... a movie revisit!



In the history of Oscars... only three movies hold the honour for making it perfect five... winning all major categories! 

 It happened one night, Silence of the lambs and then this movie...ONE FLEW OVER CUCKOO'S NEST!
I said in one of previous post 'Oscar's Lady'  is Katherine Hepburn... like wise oscar's best friend is JACK NICHOLSON, most nominated actor...
Here he plays the role of a con named McMurphy, who seeks a place in a mental asylum, to escape imprisonment...
Slowly he develops frienship with inmate looneys... and his close one is that tall deaf and dumb(?) Indian, who everybody calls as chief... as to do some good to his new friends... he often breaches the rules of the asylum (at one point, tricking the guards, he takes all the loooneys for fishing in a stolen boat... the most enjoyable scene in the movie)                                                                      
And in no time he becomes the darling of the looneys, but... 
The strict nurse Miltred Ratched (efficiently played by Louise Fletcher) doesn't like it a bit... she wants all the looneys under her thumb's control... but McMurphy proves to be a pain in her ***! 
Not withstanding the hostile environment and those dose of unwanted ECTs (Electro convulsive therapy)  he plans to escape,  before his escape, he gives a great party to the inmates.
and the last few moments of the film is really shocking... transcending the whole movie to be a classic. The casting couldn't be more perfect...especially Christopher Loyd and Danny de Vito excels, playing as lovable looneys!
If you want to see some good realistic acting... catch hold of this DVD!
My Marks: 53 out of 100!

CINEMA PARADISO - a movie revisit


CINEMA PARADISO... Italian movie, my most favorite foreign movie among those won Oscars.
Every true lover of cinema will love this film!

There are two versions available on the DVD.... Original version (118 min) and the recent director's cut version (168 min)
I prefer the latter one... almost the all the extra footage comes at the end... It's far more complete than the original... but irrelevant scenes added, which had no effects except changing the rating of the film from PG to 15+!

The story was told in distinctive three parts.... through the eyes of Salvatore (called fondly as Toto)


The first part says about the young boy Toto (Salvatore Cascio) falling in love with the movies showed in the local village theater called 'Cinema paradiso'... and also his developing friendship with the projectionist Alfredo (Philiphe Noiret)! and the first part is the best part of the movie. To the laborers who were really having a tough time in Italy at 1940... only solace and paradise... was the movie theater! Toto, who had never seen his father, who a soldier gone to Russia, would use every opportunity to slip into the theater without the knowledge of his mother... caught often and beaten often by his mother, he couldn't curb his passion for movies! The boy, with all his wit conquers the heart of Alfredo, who allows the boy to his projection room (against his promises to his mother) and also teaches everything about projectors! one day a fire broke out in the projection room , making Alfredo blind! As no one in the village knows about projectors, little boy Toto gets the job, gets the pay to his mothers pleasure... and gets the life he longed for, always close to his beloved movies!


Second part describes about adolescent Toto's(Marco Leonardi) romance with the beautiful Elena(Agnese Nano)... a college student, who initially hesitates to reciprocate his love! Strong willed to win her heart... Toto after finishing his night show job.... would go straight and would wait in front of her window as promised, till the lights went down... this was his ritual for nearly about 100 days... at last on the eve of new year, when the clock strikes 12, he could see the shadow of Elena coming close to window... with heart beats increased, pulse electrified, he closes his eyes in excitement... when he opened them again, he could see her hands closing the window bit more tight... dejected and devastated he would come back to his world, the small projection room and would tear all her memorabillias... only to see at the end, Elena coming straight to him, he could see her hands closing him bit more tight... no better place for a great romance to bloom, than that projection room... which shows all the tender romance possible to the world! but soon he would lose her... she wouldn't turn to the projection room as promised (as told by Alfredo),after her parents ordered her to stop seeing him... gone crazy as he couldn't find her anywhere... Alfred advises him to leave the village and to leave all the nostalgia... for his own good future and never to return back to that place!



Third part describes, Toto returning almost after 30 years to his village, to attend the funeral of Alferedo... and also the funeral of 'Cinema Pardiso' which last all its business after the revolution of the TV!

In the director's cut, GUISEPPE TORNATORE tries to tie all the loose ends of the romance... Toto meets his last love... she explains why she disappeared (a bit of surprise for audience)... and he got overwhelmed to know that she really loved him... which fills the void in him.... and in us, who watched the original version!
I recommend this movie strongly to all cine lovers... this is a rare passionate movie made as a tribute to movies itself, which succeeds to leave its eternal trace on the viewers!!!

My marks: 72 out of 100

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Ode to the movie freedom writers





It was 1994
I imagine myself as a student at room no 203, Woodrow Wilson school, long beach ,California...(there was already enough diversities ... africoamericans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Latinos... an Indian boy will add the spice to the multitude, I think)
As the result of tropical sun burnt skin, I had the permanent black eye due to that white rowdy gang...
At the continuous drill of humiliation, my senses has learnt to close within themselves...
I was just an another inattentive kid, with a vacant stare through the window...
The guy sat next to me always had a pistol inserted next to his cock... and guy at my back had this drooping eyes,may be the cocaine instead of saliva drool from his mouth...
And the gal in front of had this constant grudge that the jail where she were in was lot better than this class room...
And now you know how nice bunch of kids we are...
I hated Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank), at the first sight... with that all white skin, with that all that tidy dressings and with that most irritating.. all white smile!
Like those saintly angelic teachers who jumps from sky in movies to play saviour to the spoilt teen age kids..
"It's not a movie... Erin Gruwell, It's real life... don't play that stupid part of priestly teacher" I wanted to scream at her...
At one point not withstanding our collective indifference and lack of will to heed to any of her words... in an authoritative way she demanded some respect...
"Why I have to respect somebody of whom I don't know a shit about"... some one blurted out, exactly the words I wanted to ask her... she went quiet!
It all started with caricature drawn mocking Sharaud... a black guy who was the main man behind most of the commotions in the class room...
When whole class was giggling at him... nobody expected Erin would jump into his defense...
Caricature like this had lead to the gruesome holocaust.. she said....
Holocaust.... what the damn meant by holocaust?
Only that stupid blond raised his hand, when she asked those in the class who really knows the meaning of holocaust...
she funded and took us a tour to the "Museum of tolerance"...
First time I came to know, the scars all along the history caused by this double edged knife... intolerance!
I was moved... I was moved further when she gave a note book to me and all others in class and asked as to write in it about our lives...
I poured all the staked pains into the papers and submitted it to her...
next time when she addressed me... I could feel she had read every word of mine with utmost sincerity... there at last a soul to take a bit interest in my life...
At that time I didn't know every words we wrote will be published...
She put her own money funding it (to make the end meet she worked in two other part time jobs and the sad part was his husband divorced her as he felt she was no more spending enough time with him)
Now you all know the famous book named The Freedom Writers Diary – How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.
I am a hero now... but who would have thought dumb boy who was aloof constantly staring out of the window detached from all the proceedings from class would end up a hero...
If I say Erin wrote the script for me and 149 other heroes... won't you give her the Oscars blindly for the best original real life screen play ?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ode to the movie Forrest Gump






Idiocy is a relative term....

May be John Lennon is wondering how could this moron occupies the celebrity seat on par with him?
May be he himself doesn't realize about the extent of his idiocy in breaking down the band of the century to satisfy a woman...

Is Forrest Gump an idiot...

May be... then why he still loves that slut , not trying to forget his sweet childhood memories with her...
Then why he ran back to save his superior , risking his own life, against the superior's wish as he wants to die as a war hero then to roam in American streets as a pathetic handicap...
ya... surely he is an idiot... but could anyone resist the sweetness in his idiocies...

Have those high circuited brain containers christened themselves as intelluctuals smiled more than those mentally challenged down syndrome babies?
How about comparing those brainy womanizers who crafted the art of drinking nector without carrying pollens... then those idiotic tender heart lover who smiles at her mirror image in his broken heart?
How about those american brainy moves of encroaching this world... and Indian idiocy of allowing everybody in?
In my idiotic lucid intervals I know the comfort behind it....

If this heart learns to love for no returns... you don't need to flex your brain extra hours to ooze out happiness...

Forrest Gump may have only half an I,Q of you... but you have a lot to learn from him!!!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Ode to the movie A.I



Intelligence could be artificial but what about love?

The little boy locked in the helicopter believes the blue fairy in front of him... and chants his mantra 'I want to become a real boy'
He goes on with his eternal chanting and blue fairy goes on with her eternal smile... cold frozen eternal smile trying meekly to cover up the fact its not possible to give a soul to a robo than a heart!
I have this haunting recurrent dream... moving amidst mist to the home of my creator... to ask him why I am robotic most of the time and where is the manufacturing defect and to ask this question too.."Can i become a real man?"
But I watch Him on work, sculpturing a new man... the appearance of that man pinches the soul in me, hurting hard...
It resembles me in every way...
there is nothing unique about me... I am just an anothet product... a failed model!
I develop a deep hatred for him...
If god fails us where could we turn to...
What should we do with out faith?
I just fall with my bike from the top of a cliff... into the sea below...
I go deep down there...
I could hear the robo boy's divine chanting...
I move towards the helicopter... I knock the door...
Teddy bear opens it for me... I take the next seat to the boy's with the teddy on my lap...
I look straight into the eye of blue fairy in floating in front of me...
She has this smile that kinders a faith... she has this pose that she may grant any wish...
I join the chanting with boy... 'i want to become a real man'
After god failed me... I have no idea what the word 'real' means...
But i want this hope...
I want this fairy's smile...
Let she not grant what i wanted ever...
But whats wrong in faith continuing as long as her smile???


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

THE OSCAR LADY

The Oscar's first lover was Katherine Hepburn!
She is the only woman or person in to whose hands he had fallen most number of times ... four times,without thinking for a second!
She,the Connecticut baby,daughter of a famous urologist,had the most disastrous start to her acting career in the Broadway plays!
she was fired more than once for bad performance!


Her career would have ended tamely,when she was fired from the play 'Art and Mrs.Bottle'... but as the company couldn't find a replacement within stipulated time, they recalled her without any choice!


There came the U turn... the whole town started practicing to sing her praise, after watching her as amazon queen in the play 'The warrior's husband'!
RKO was astounded when she asked 15,000 dollars to take up a part in the Hollywood film 'A Bill of divorcement' (she used to make only about 80 dollars at theater!)... but accepted, highly impressed by her screen test!
There after no stopping for this beauty queen almost an entire century... oops! no one could beat her record!


Two things are best remembered of her...
One her witty harsh tongue!(when some reporters showed their ugly faces in her private moment with her husband Mr.Smith {the name she hated a lot} and asked how many children they had, she said smilingly  'Two white and Three colored')
And the second her great romance with co star 'Spencer Tracy'
She won Oscar on the very first year of her acting career, for 'The Morning glory'!
But the Oscar she loved most was for the movie 'Guess who's coming to dinner' (the movie most famous in doctor's community)
The reason was that the Spencer Tracy was her co star in that movie!
Spencer died shortly after the film released (with a failed heart)... as a true catholic he refused to divorce his wife to marry her... even though she loved him most she didn't attended the funeral,as not to offend his family! (Ironically, Katherine Hepurn herself never watched the film 'Guess who is coming to dinner'...as it was his last film)
She won the third Oscar very next year for 'The lion in the winter'
when the world seemed to forget her a bit, she came back strong in the movie 'On the golden pond' in 1981!
Oscar man find it hard not to fall in love with that 74 yrs old woman... skin shrieked,but her eyes illuminating the same charming spirit as ever!
Even when she vanished from this world at the age of 96...
Oscar couldn't control his habit... he fell for her again yesteryear!
Into the hands of Cate Blanchett... who got best supporting actress in the film 'The aviator' for playing the part of KATHERINE HEPBURN!
MMMM.... now do you have any objection about me calling her as 'Oscar lady'

THE romantic comedy... copy cats like most!

 


I was watching a black and white film of 1930s...
It was a simple absorbing romantic comedy!
As the scene unfolds one after another, I am in for some surprises!

Most of the scenes of that film, I had seen in other recent movies... of holly,bolly or kolly!
For instance, if say in which film you come across this scene 'where hero uses all his charms and fails to hitch-hike but the lead lady do the same job with ease ,by just showing a bit of skin above her knee'... I am sure you would come out with dozen movies from various parts of world! (in Tamil you would have seen it in 'apoorva sagotharargal')

And another scene, when the lead lady rejects the offered next seat of hero's, at first in a bus... and returns back to him, finding the co passenger of her preferred seat unbearable...(in Tamil you would have seen it in K.B'S 'Pudhu pudhu arthangal'... you too K.B!!!)

And the scene romantic couple breaching the barrier they made the night before,when they happened to share the same room (again you could have seen this sort of scene in umpteen number of films)

So no doubt this movie is feathered with an unique credit.... its the only romantic comedy that won Oscars for all major categories... actor, actress, director, writer and picture!
After all this movie is a whole sale retailer of entertaining romantic scenes to the authorized copy cats all over the world.. for nearly a century!

Another fun fact was... in 1934 Oscar ceremony, when the host Will Rogers announced the best director award, he just announced " Frank" as the winning director... and following that two men started walking towards the podium to receive the award ,one Frank Lloyd (the real winner for the movie 'cavalcade') and the other nominee Frank Capra!

After a bit of comic commotion Frank Capra returned back to the seat empty handed and a bit embarrassed...
But... oh! my man, he came back strongly the very next year,,, to create a history hard to beat till the date!

The story behind the epic!


I am confused from where should I start the story...

She also was confused from where to start the story...
She had been working on it for about ten years, she had stacks and stacks of chapters... still she couldn't write the opening chapter!
She was a very private person, so nobody except her husband had read her novel!
But she used to talk about it often to her close friend Loise Cole!
Louise was working in Macmillan publications!
Let us start the story from the scene where Mr.Lotham and our private lady having an official luncheon at 'Atlanta athletic club'.
Mr.Latham was sent to Georgia, to hunt for fresh authors, to boost the sales of Macmillan publications!
Knowing about the good writer in shadows through Miss.Cole, he was flattering and cajoling and using all sorts of tricks in his hat ,to get that novel from her!
But she refused, thinking her writing was incomplete and many chapters needed mending and also the papers carrying her words turned into a pathetic yellow in course of time... she was too shy to show it to anybody!
Mr.Latham left disappointed.
And the magic happened when she was returning home along with the writers attended the meeting...
One of the writer poured some harsh words, which meant she was so mild to earn any sort of glory like the writer herself!
With an anguish kindled impulse she collected the mammoth bundle of her works and literally run to the local railway station,to catch Mr.Laham...
Mr.Latham was about to board when he saw our lady... struggling to carry her huge pile of papers.
He had no room in his bag to thrush them...
That great gentleman immediately bought a new suitcase... placed her novel inside... safe enough, so that those great writings would never be said " GONE WITH THE WIND".
When she was waving her hands to Mr.Latham, she never knew her life was going to be turned for ever!
MARGARET MITCHELL was standing in the railway platform... long after the train left, cursing herself for her impulsive action!
(p.s 'Gone with the wind' the movie based on her novel made a record thirteen nominations at oscars)

MAMMY!



All the cartoons are some what based on real characters.

Do you know the character 'Mammy' of the 'Tom and jerry'... the lady who owns Tom, often shouting at him in bad temper... was based on which real person?
While you are thinking about the answer... I want to tell you about this lady!
200 pounds in weight, round friendly face, golden voice (which was the prime thing that brought her into lime light)... more Knowledgeous maid who really worries for the foolish and beautiful scarlett o 'Hara in 'gone with the wind'.
They released a stamp bearing her plump and pretty face some years back ... a 39 cents stamp in U.S!
Then she surely might have been a great lady.
But if you ask why they gave only the role of house maids in the movies!
MMMM... her skin had bit more melanin... white washing the weightage of that bit more grey cells in her brain, compared to her some fairer counter parts!
She didn't attended the premiere of 'Gone with the wind' at Atlanta, because at that time afro Americans were not allowed in the premieres.
The producer of the movie was already informed he shouldn't bring that black woman to premiere.
He was highly embarrassed about how to say it to her... our lady saved him , by informing her inability to attend the show due to personal reasons!!!
Clark Gable, the hero of the movie and great friend of hers, could only clench his fist in anger... mmmm... in the ugly real life where racism was at its peak what could the reel hero could do!
Many were surprised.. when this lady was nominated for oscars for that movie in 1940!
And even more surprised when she won it.
First afroamerican lady nominated and won an Oscar!
In 1940 Oscar ceremony.. in her sky blue dress... she was beaming with pride with Oscar in his hand, for best supporting actress... yah.. the same blue dress she is wearing in the stamps.
But.. after that she got only very mean and lean roles.. so she had to earn her living through radio shows!!
Oscar is only a statue... we couldn't expect a fairy tale and could say she lived happily ever after.. all her tough times came only after receiving the award!
She willed her Oscar statue to the Howard university!
But do you know where is her oscars now?
Nobody knows...
It just vanished after a riot at the university... triggered by racial issue!!!
May be she was the first afroamerican buried in the Los Angels Rosedale cemetery... but i  have doubt whether she is pleased with these racial riots continuing till date!
But don't worry mam...
world is full of silly people...
So don't think about them... you had done your part in your movies and in life to perfection...
So rest in peace... dear HATTIE MCDANIEL!

Passionate Producer



Who was the man who won the oscars back to back for the first time?
who was the man who brought Katherine Hepburn to lime light through the film 'A Bill of divorcement'?
who was the man who brought Vivien Leigh to lime light through the movie 'Gone with the wind'?
who was the man who brought 'the master of suspense' Mr.  Alfred Hitchcock to Hollywood through the award winning movie 'Rebecca'?
Answer to all the questions above.... David O Selznick!
He has the great passion for producing film and great brain in judging the perfect casting and director for a particular story!
He was the youngest producer in his times... he was just 38 when he won Oscar for the 'Gone with the wind'
Everybody thought he had gone crazy, when he was arranging for the first scene, that was shot for the Gone With The Wind... 'burning of Atlanta depot'... burning all the old sets available at the studio MGM (including that most famous  'great gate' set of king kong) at total cost amounting to 25,000 $ and he had not yet announced the lady who would be playing the lead role 'Scarlett O Hara'!
But nobody knew he had chosen the lady even two years before...
And he ran a contest too named 'who will be scarlett'
only 2% named Vivien Leigh....
But a man of pure judgment... he surprised the world by showing her to the press, when she was entering the studio with her lover Laurence Oliver, with the glow of the tall flames from burning sets reflecting on her sparkling eyes.
David said... 'This is the Scarlette you are looking for'
She turned out to be a great sensation... winning the oscar with no real competition!
To be a successful producer... you need buck... you need luck... and more important the right pick!
David was so good at it... he always picked the best!

Oscar of Oscars


They are giving award named 'Booker of bookers'.


why can't the same be followed in Oscar awards?
If they do... here are my recommendations....
Best Movie: Schindler's list





Best Director:  Francis Ford Coppola (Godfather part 2)




Best Actor:  Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump)



Best Actress:  Vivien Leigh (Gone with the wind)



Best Cinematography:  Geoffrey Unsworth (Cabaret)



Best Original Screenplay:  Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth (Eternal Sunshine of spotless mind)



Best Original Music score;  James Horner (Titanic)



Best Supporting actor:  Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)







Best supporting actress: Angelina Jolie (Girl Interrupted)



Thursday, February 3, 2011

Rachel weisz!



George was a famous Hungarian scientist. Of his many invention's three inventions are extremely popular.
One ,the respirators used in the emergency rooms of hospitals, which could adjust themselves the flow of oxygen and second, a machine which sniffs out the land mines... both are extremly useful and life saving!
And his third invention is mind blowing...
And its name is Rachel Weisz!
ya... George is no one else but the beloved father of Rachel Weisz!
And she is a favourite of doctors too. Royal college of radiologists made her as patron of The X appeal, a charity organization!
As most of us Indians, I had my first glimpse of her in the subcontinenetal super duper hit 'Mummy',as that silly liberarian ,who succusfully pulls down all the book racks of the liberary!
She collected the oscar for supporting actress, for her role as social activist named 'Tessa Quayle' in the movie 'The constant gardener'!
After seeing this buxom lady's cerebral acting in the constant garden, we couldnt stop cursing her for choosing dumb films like 'constantine' earlier.
In the company of the handsome oscar,let us believe,in future she could get fine characters to portray her caliber.
My favourite Rachel Weisz flicks are 'Enemy at the gates' and 'The constant gardener', former with Joseph and later with Ralph... the Fiennes brothers! 

Hollywood,Me and the romance!




It all started in a late spring of 1987, a Saturday!


As a small town 8 year old kid, I haven't much to do at weekends, except to feed the Chidambaram Natarajar temple tank fish , with 'pori' or if lucky to tune into a radio station for the hardly understandable hindi live commentry of some cricket match!
My father, for a change, took me to the chidambaram 'Vaduganathan ' theatre showing an english movie called 'Two policemen',an out and out comedy(I searched the whole net to collect data about this movie,but in vain.. It seems this movie has just disappeared from the records)
They use to show english movies ,only at weekends and only in the morning shows...
Anyway, it's  a love at second sight!
After a while,I accompanied my dad to another movie named 'King solomen mines'... to my kid's eyes, that movie seemed to be a magnonimous magic,in every way (it's hard to digest the harsh reviews at IMDB on my first love)!
I was as curious as that lion watching 'Richard Chamberlain' kissing 'Sharon Stone',inside that huge tumbled canniabal's pot!
I had fallen in love with my head over my heal, my heal over my hand ,and my hand over my head... with Hollywood!
Then I used to nudge my dad at weekends,as I am my dad's apple in the eye he had no other choice to heed to his darling son!
Great movies back to back...'The protector'(later I learned it was jackie chan's first hollywood film),'The legend of Bruce Lee',etc
But my romance then was too brief...
As usual I went with my dad to the movie 'The Ghost busters'... but it had some scenes not appropriate to my age, and the also showed the trailer of forth coming movie 'Gremlins' which again not suitable to a pure good kid, like me(?)!
I remember still... I was crying, stamping,protesting the next saturday, but my father adamantly refused to take me to that movie!
I thrown all my kiddish curses on my dad... as a reward for my great behaviour, he stopped taking me to movies then!
And 10 years latter, I took my father to a movie called 'Titanic' at Maruthi theatre,coimbatore!
Rose wanted Jack to paint her with the diamond... with the diamond only!
I wanted to say to my dad,"Iam a man now, dad... and no reason to stop my romance here after"