Sthaniya Sambaad is
a darkly humorous film with loosely bound multiple narratives, post-modernist style
and self-consciously arthouse sensibilities. Made on ultra-low budget with
mostly non-professional actors, the ensemble film is a peek into the seriocomic
lives of first, second and even third generation immigrants of what is now
Bangladesh, residing in a bustling colony located in South Calcutta. Thus,
while two aged and palpably nostalgic men, at odds with the world around them, aimlessly
discuss on unrelated topics all day long, a young Romeo, in love with a
well-off girl who, unbeknownst to him has just suffered a bizarre tragedy,
bares his heart to a sympathetic, insomniac intellectual; unbeknownst to any of
them, two smart-ass hoodlums have in their possession a strange object that
they want to sell to a shady property dealer; meanwhile, a group of jobless
youngsters, like their older counterparts, spend their days fastened to the
same spot observing life in the colony. A host of sociopolitical issues have
been touched upon ranging from memories of partition to real estate politics –
some subtly, while others in an in-your-face manner. But what I found most
interesting about the film was portrayal of the foibles, absurdities and idiosyncrasies
of everyday life with wry, cheeky humour, through seemingly rambling
conversations reminiscent of the films of Jarmusch; the scenes involving the
two aged men and the youths, who are were like temporally shifted mirror images
of one another, were amongst the most memorable moments. The acting, however,
was wildly inconsistent, ranging from effortlessly comical to completely
wooden, while the film itself was disarmingly engaging one moment, and didactic and theatrical the other.
Director: Moinak Biswas & Arjun Gourisaria
Genre: Drama/Social Satire/Ensemble Film
Language: Bengali
Country: India
Loosely adapted from Herman Melville’s Billy Bud, Claire Denis’ military drama Beau Travail is an intriguingly filmed
tale on the age-old themes of jealousy, crime, punishment and redemption. Master
Sergeant Galoup (Denis Levant) is the stern, implacable leader of a group of men
in the French Foreign Legion, stationed in the middle of nowhere in Djibouti.
He and his men lead a life of strict discipline, intense training, and unfailing
routine, only to be given brief respites once in a while. Galoup, however,
starts losing control over his well-set life upon the induction of Sentain
(Michel Subor), a young, soft-spoken orphan in his outfit. Right from the
outset he doesn’t take kindly to the presence of the young gun, and that
changes to vindictiveness when he realizes that his Commanding Officer, who he
hero worships, has started liking the young gun. Told in flashbacks, and
narrated with compelling compulsiveness by the complexly drawn Galoup, the film
was as much a look into the harsh regimentation of the Legion, as it was an
exploration of repressed homoeroticism. Sumptuously photographed in saturated
colours, the vistas of natural beauty and barrenness were spellbinding at times. The juxtaposition of the external with the internal was noticeably a
vital motif for the director.Yet, for all its merits – most notably, a marvelous turn by Levant, the film
was also deliberately artsy which I found distracting and even tad off-putting.
The hyperstylized form often got into the way of the story,
making this a classic example of overt preponderance of style over substance affecting the
potential of a work.
Director: Claire Denis
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Military Drama
Language: French
Country: France
Legendary Westerners Howard Hawks and John Wayne
were so appalled by High Noon – they
allegedly even considered it as “un-American” – that they made Rio Bravo in response. Easily Hawks’
most renowned work, it remains as an unapologetic apotheosis for both classical
Westerns, and the traditional concepts of heroism, valour and machismo. When a
brutish outlaw kills a man in broad daylight, John T. Chance (Wayne), the
lumbering Sheriff of a Texan town, promptly arrests him, in order to hand him
over to the US marshal who is supposed to arrive in six days. However, in the
meantime, the convict’s elder brother, who is a wealthy rancher, has surrounded
the town with hired hands, while Chance has at his disposal a recovering
alcoholic (Dean Martin) with doubtful psychological makeup even if he is a
crackshot, and a cackling and garrulous old man with a pronounced limp (Walter
Brennan). Eventually an outwardly detached young gunner (Ricky Nelson) too
joins his group, while he starts falling for an attractive dancer (Angie
Dickinson). Like his counterpart in the Zinnemann masterpiece, the Sheriff is heavily outnumbered and would love reinforcements, but
unlike him, he’d rather go down alone than beg for help. Filled with Western
archetypes, leisurely paced to allow exquisite mood build-up, comprising of
great character dynamics, superbly performed by Wayne, Martin and Brennan, suffused
with humour and tension, and ending with an explosive gunfight, this is one of
those rare canonical works that also managed to be immensely entertaining. The
film also contained a couple of memorable Country songs, rendered by the
mellifluous voices of the two renowned crooners, viz. Martin and Nelson.
Director: Howard Hawks
Genre: Western/Buddy Film
Language: English
Country: US
Of the 5 films that Roberto Rosellini made with
Ingrid Bergman between 1950 and 1954, Journey
to Italy’s reputation is second only to Stromboli.
A searing portrait of a marriage in severe crisis, the film was possibly a
reflection of the Italian neorealist’s marriage with the Swedish actress. The
film opens with a wealthy Britisher Alex Joyce (George Sanders), and his
beautiful wife Katherine (Bergman), travelling across the Italian countryside
to a place near Naples, in order to sell a villa that he has inherited. In the
opening sequence itself it becomes clear that all isn’t well between them and
that Katherine is still hopeful of resurrecting their old spark despite Alex’s
deep-set jadedness and ennui. Over the course of the next few days the chasm
widens to a near irreparable state – the cynical and emotionally closed Alex
prefers hanging out with fellow British tourists, while the lonely Katherine, craving
for human connect, is resigned to visit alone to Vesuvius, Pompei and the
museums. The reconciliation between the two in the final sequence, when they
get stuck in a religious procession, seemed too hasty and sudden to be realistic; nonetheless, it was also obvious that the death of their marriage
has only been postponed for now. The emotional disconnect between the two, made
starker on account of them being away from the bustle of city life, was
portrayed with great precision, sharpness and nuance. The scene where
Katherine tries in futility to evoke Alex's empathy by speaking of a former suitor, was quite affecting. The film’s restraint and minimalism,
and usage of locales to complement their disillusionments, were
particularly noteworthy.
Director: Roberto Rosellini
Genre: Drama/Marriage Drama
Language: English/Italian
Country: Italy
Jean Renoir had a feature length film in mind
when he started working on short story by Guy de Maupassant for A Day in the Country, but couldn’t
finish. The result was this 40-minute featurette released 10 years later. The major part of the film is about a day-long picnic
of a Parisian family to an idyllic countryside location by the river. There,
while the mother has a fun fling when her grumpy husband refuses to pamper her,
the young daughter, engaged to a rather neurotic young man, has a more
passionate, albeit brief, affair with a soft-spoken commoner – an affair that
would continue occupying a sizeable portion of their memories. Handled with
velvet gloves, this was a charming look at the foibles and idiosyncrasies of a
typical bourgeois family. Yet, despite the satirical undertones
and the deliberate accentuation of behavioral traits to elicit laughter, the film was neither malicious nor acerbic in its portrayal;
rather, its tone was one of gentleness and warmth. Renoir’s interest lay in
portraying the unfulfilled love across a massive class divide, juxtaposing the
bittersweet remnants of its memory against a dull and conformist life, and
quietly observing life away from the madding crowds.
Given its brief length, the simple, lighthearted and fragmentary
nature, and the melodramatic style that was alternately amusing and corny, it was
difficult to consider it very seriously. Interestingly, the scene where the girl is on a swing with the camera attached to her frame of reference, was recreated by Kurosawa in Ikiru and Ray in Charulata as homage to the master French filmmaker.
Director: Jean Renoir
Genre: Drama/Romantic Drama/Social Satire
Language: French
Country: France
