Aguirre, the Wrath of God, considered to be a part of his so-called “Selva Trilogy” (which also comprised of Fitzcerraldo and Cobra Verde), remains the single most famous work of celebrated New German Cinema filmmaker Werner
Herzog, and his first collaboration with Klaus Kinski. It was a
relentlessly disturbing, intense and psychologically arresting portrayal of megalomaniac
ambitions, manic obsessions, man’s propensity for ruthlessness, and the
infiniteness of human folly and lunacy, and a peek into the darkest corners of
human heart. The film is about a group of Spanish explorers who are in an
expedition in the Peruvian forests along the Amazon River in search for El
Dorado, the mythical city of gold. Aguirre (Kinski), the second-in-command,
spectacularly usurps power from the group leader, anoints a dim-witted guy as
the tin-pot emperor of their “kingdom”, and leads the men in a fruitless quest
for infinite riches on a rickety raft. Their journey, which is as much physical
as it is psychological, is plagued by treacherous waters, starvation, diseases,
and the deadly arrows of the aborigines silently trailing them along the banks;
but everything paled in comparison to Aguirre’s penchant for violence and increasing
madness. Kinski gave a tour de force performance – perhaps the
best of his distinguished career – as the psychopathic, malevolent and misanthropic antagonist.
The climax, where the camera keeps revolving around the despot glibly alone in
his raft, surrounded by monkeys and corpses of his former comrades, made for a
chilling finale. The filming process, interestingly, was besieged by
innumerable issues, ranging from the hazards of shooting on
location, to the impossible tantrums thrown by the lead actor.
Director: Werner Herzog
Genre: Psychological Drama/Historical Epic/Adventure
Language: German
Country: Germany
Martin Scorsese captured New York City after
hours with nightmarish effect in TaxiDriver; he did that again in the aptly titled and criminally underrated gem
After Hours. Referred to by one
critic as the “male rendition of Alice in
Wonderland”, this delirious, Kafkaesque comedy about a man trapped in a
hellish, surreal and seemingly inescapable nightmare, was a pungent satire on
urban paranoia, and the life-sucking monotony and emotional bankruptcy of
corporate desk-jobs. The man in question is Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), a bored,
lonely and disenchanted word processor in a large corporation, who takes the
impulsive decision of taking a cab one night, from his upscale Manhattan
residence to SoHo, in order to meet the young woman (Rosanna Arquette) he
chanced upon in a lonely café. What ensues is a series of bizarre developments –
each more demented than the one preceding – which doesn’t just put Paul’s
sedate and morose existence into utter chaos and disarray, it takes him to the
very edge of sanity and human reasoning within the space of a few hours. The
script was gleefully unpredictable – enough to leave the viewers
as exasperated as the hapless protagonist; yet, it was also expertly paced, and
in some ways believable too despite the fantastical developments. The film was
also visually engaging; it memorably began with a spectacular zoom-in of the
protagonist, and ended with an audacious single-take tracking shot within a crowded office floor. Dunne did a fine job at effectively portraying his
character’s unforgettable physical and psychological journey and in getting the audience too emotionally involved in this devilish and incredibly engaging film.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Comedy/Black Comedy/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: US
Le Trou,
the final film of Jacques Becker (he died shortly after its completion), was an
edge-of-the-seat, nerve-racking rendition of an actual daring attempt by five
inmates to escape from the La Sante prison, and ranks among the best from that
sub-genre. While most escape films emphasize on brilliant planning, its focus
was more on the excruciating hard work associated with it even if one has the
perfect plan. Gaspard (Marc Michel), a young man accused of trying to kill his
wife and thus looking at 20 years in prison, upon being transferred to a new
cell, is informed by his four cellmates, after much deliberation, that they are
planning to escape. Hours of uncomprosmising hard work and a fair share of luck
are required, and the five go about carrying their plan with meticulous vigour.
But, unlike his four cellmates, Gaspard hasn’t been sentenced yet – he’s still
awaiting his trial which hinges completely on the testimony of his wife, and
this turns out to be the sole fallacy that the other four didn’t take into
account while including Gaspard in their team. The degree of intricate
detailing that has been depicted here, made it a worthy companion piece to
Bresson’s masterful A Man Escaped,
while the sketching of the five distinctly different personalities made it an
engaging human story as well. Becker used a cast of mostly non-professional
actors (including, in a cheeky movie, one of those actually involved in the
escape attempt), and shot the film in the form of a documentary which added to
the stark realism of the proceedings.
Director: Jacques Becker
Genre: Thriller/Prison Film/Escape Film/Buddy Film/Docu-Fiction
Language: French
Country: France
Killing Them Softly,
Andrew Dominik’s fine follow-up to the outstanding Western The Assassination of Jesse James…, is a
compelling and grimy crime drama, and, in turn, a powerful indictment on
American politics and economy. The once mythical American Dream is crumbling,
and the repercussions of this seemingly irreversible downslide are felt even by
mobsters and hired killers. Brad Pitt, in another of his fine star turns, has
played the role of Jackie Cogan, a professional enforcer, who has been given the
dirty task of unraveling the robbing of a poker joint. Markie (Ray Liotta), the
manager of that joint, and who had once robbed it successfully, becomes
the easy fall guy despite being innocent. However, it soon becomes apparent
that two young guys were actually behind the audacious deal – and thereon, it becomes a
matter of eliminating the mastermind behind the job. Pitt exuded both urban
cool and a strongly palpable sense of world-weariness, and a highly notable
cameo was put in by Liotta too. The best performance, however, came from James Gandolfini
as Mickey, a once sought after hitman, but now a loquacious, jittery,
unreliable and washed-out man somehow still out of prison, and his veering
conversations with Cogan (reminiscent of Pulp Fiction) provided some of the most memorable moments of this slow-burning
character study and darkly funny political satire. Though a few scenes came out
as tad gimmicky and the director’s political stand was clearly to the right of
the fence, the end product was an astutely directed and brilliantly written end
product filled with caustic sociopolitical commentaries - made more so by Obama's drone-like voice perennially filling the background.
Director: Andrew Dominik
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama/Gangster Film/Political Drama
Language: English
Country: US
Though spoken in the same breath, North by Northwest was a rather
straight-forward mainstream film when compared to Rear Window, Psycho and Vertigo, in terms of thematic exploration
or subversion of the medium. Nevertheless, there’s no denying the sheer viewing
pleasure associated with this rollicking mystery-thriller. Roger Thornhill
(Cary Grant), a suave advertising executive, is having just another day at
office when, through a rather innocuous misunderstanding, he is thrown right
into the middle of an international Cold War espionage ring and conspiracy.
Taken for a spy and with his well-set life crumbling by the minute because of
the bizarre chain of events, he is forced to go on the run from the bad guys. On
the way he meets the seductive blonde Eva Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), an
enigmatic femme fatale who is more than what meets the eyes. Finding himself
charmed by the mysterious Eva, and with nothing to lose, he slowly begins the
process of reversing his spectacular downward spiral and ironic predicament. The
film was an audio-visual spectacle and filled with a number of memorable
moments – the breathtaking sequence where the unsuspecting Thornhill gets
attacked by a crop-dusting place is part of cinematic folklore, while the
cheekily humorous auction sequence was also wonderfully done. The implausible
plot developments, especially the outlandish and over-the-top climax at Mount
Rushmore, and tad unrealistic acting by the cast, were among the weakest
aspects in this otherwise breezy, gloriously photographed entertainer made on
the simple premise of mistaken identity forcing an ordinary man in an
extraordinary situation, and filled with wit, double entendres, and MacGuffins
on the way.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Spy Film/Romantic Thriller
Language: English
Country: US
