La Strada
was one of Fellini’s most celebrated movies and a seminal work of Italian
Neo-Realism even if Leftist film critics attacked it for abandonment of classic
neo-realist aesthetics. Wrought with innumerable production challenges and
roadblocks, it was, like all his major works, imbued with deeply personal
touches on account of his experiences with the circus. His affinity towards a
carnivalesque, deliberately overdone and highly subjective style, which reached
gargantuan proportions in his subsequent masterworks, can be traced back to the
serio-comic, bittersweet, “realistic” and comparatively sedate earlier efforts
like I Vitelloni and this. And, in
its Chaplinesque protagonist played by his actress-wife Giulietta Masina, we
had one of the most unforgettably expressive faces. It begins with Gelsomina
(Masina), a naïve, gullible, dim-witted and soft-natured young woman being
married off to the gruff and brutish circus strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn)
by her impoverished family. Zampano’s life is on the road, and she becomes his
fellow-traveller as he moves around the country to display his strength. On the
course of their lives as vagabonds, she meets the clownish high-wire artist “il
Matto” (Richard Basehart) who loves playing a beautiful tune on his miniature
violin which affects her profoundly. It deftly portrayed the lonely, lovable
protagonist’s pathos, heartbreaks, craving for love and acceptance, and the few
moments of joy in between, and what emerged was a movie filled with humanism,
religious symbolism, spiritual crisis and poetic imagery, with the recurring
and haunting theme music composed by Nino Rota forming the leitmotif for her tragic
coming-of-age journey.
Director: Federico Fellini
Genre: Drama/Road Movie
Language: Italian
Country: Italy
Boyfriends and Girlfriends (aka My
Boyfriend’s Girlfriend), the final entry in Rohmer’s 6-film ‘Comédies et Proverbes’ series, his charming and
melancholic examinations of matters of the heart and male-female equation among
the urban French and the associated moral subtexts, quite easily had the most
unconditionally optimistic ending of the lot. Nevertheless, the protagonist
did have to traverse the quintessentially Rohmeresque path of craving,
confusion, heartbreak and ultimately reconciliation with oneself, and was set
against the backdrop of an ultra-modern Parisian suburb that subtly emphasized
on the age-old nature of what the protagonist experiences and realizes. Blanche
(Emmanuelle Chaulet) is a shy and emotional young lady working at the Ministry
of Cultural Affairs and resigned to a life of loneliness. Her chance meeting
with and befriending of Lea (Sophie Renoir), a vivacious young student, both
heightens and resolves her crisis. Lea is in a relationship with Fabien (Eric Viellard),
who has a conservative and serious disposition, while Blanche becomes
infatuated with Alexandre (François-Eric Gendron), a dashing Don Juan. Blanche’s
cute looks, boyish figure and introverted nature formed a striking contrast
with Lea’s sensuous looks, svelte figure and bohemian lifestyle, thus making
their seemingly preferred pairings bound to fail which in turn increased their
dissatisfaction and inner complications; the gently swaying but essentially
straightforward storyline thus told how they come to realize that they’re on the wrong
boat and how circumstances lead them to switch places, thus leading the film to
a logically understandable even if decidedly pre-determined finale. The final
scene, where each briefly misunderstands the other before the convenient
resolution, cheekily drove home the ironies that they had gone through.
Director: Eric Rohmer
Genre: Drama/Romantic Comedy/Psychological Drama
Language: French
Country: France
Germany, Year Zero,
the concluding chapter in Rossellini’s renowned ‘War Trilogy’, was possibly the bleakest of the lot, and that’s
saying something given that neither Rome, Open City nor Paisan were
remotely optimistic or uplifting. Despite its crisp length, it succeeded in
painting a harrowing and disconsolate picture of the devastating social and
human damage caused by WWII. Set in war ravaged Berlin, as opposed to Italy in
the preceding 2 films, it focused on the last few days in the tragic life of mature-beyond-his-years
12-year old Edmund (Edmund Moeschke) and the kind of choices that the prevalent
environs force him to make. Faced with unprecedented destitution, unemployment,
uncertainty and crisis of essential items, he lives in a cramped and dingy room
with his ailing but righteous father (Ernst Pittschau), his elder sister (Ingetraud
Hinze) who is on the verge of becoming a streetwalker, and his elder brother (Franz
Kruger), a former Nazi soldier who hides all the time in fear of prosecution,
and wanders around the city in the hope of collecting whatever money and food
he can without fear of law and social embarrassment. During one such sojourn he
bumps into his former teacher, Nazi indoctrinator, currently black marketer and
possible pedophile (Eric Guehne), who quite literally represents the
netherworld, and that hastens his irrevocable downward spiral. Rossellini made haunting
use of harsh documentary realism, amateur actors and such neorealist
archetypes, as his young protagonist became an embodiment for the country’s
economic plight, moral plunge, guilt, scarred existence, human corruption
and lost innocence.
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Genre: Drama/War Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: German
Country: Italy
In Before
Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) were youngsters
filled with hope and idealism; in Before Sunset, when they bumped into each other 9 years later, cynicism and maturity
had set in; and now 9 years later in Before
Midnight, we find that their connect has taken the logical course towards matrimony.
Linklater, in a masterstroke, divided the film into diametrically opposite
halves from tonal standpoints – a ‘happy’ first half, and a ‘bitter’ second –
and in the process brilliantly portrayed the complex relationship between love
and marriage. In Greece on vacation, we see the couple enjoying a lovely
light-hearted day with friends, and, having closely followed their journeys, we
feel that these two independent minded people, who had displayed such instant
chemistry in the earlier films, are in a state of conjugal bliss. However, as
soon as they are alone in a hotel, things start going south, the indications of
which had been actually provided earlier, albeit subtly. Her indecision about a
job prospect and his guilt conscience on account of missing out on his teenage son’s
growing up lead them towards increasingly ugly and vitriolic arguments. Even
though the film ended on a heartwarming note we realize that their marriage has
possibly reached its expiry date. Both Delpy and Hawke hit all the right notes
as her emotional vulnerability and deep-rooted insecurity, and his coldly logical nature and regret
for past failures, reach blistering loggerheads. The superbly written script
imbued the protagonists and their interactions with profound and tragic depth
that was deeply affecting. I sincerely hope that the incredibly ambitious and memorable ‘Before Series’ gets a final chapter 9
years later.
Director: Richard Linklater
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Marriage Drama
Language: English/French
Country: US
Farhadi’s ongoing fascination with the various
interlinked facets associated with troubled and crumbling marriages,
particularly among the upper and upper-middle classes, can possibly be dated
back to his third film Fireworks
Wednesday. Most interestingly, the film was set on the day of Persian New
Year, in order to contrast the celebrations outside with the characters’
conflicts, as well as to subtly stress upon the truism that life simply goes
on. Further, anyone who’s moderately acquainted with the Iranian filmmaker’s
style would be aware that he prefers infusing elements of mystery in the form
of surprising revelations and even twists rather than having a simple, linear
narrative. Roohi (Taraneh Alidoosti), a sweet and naïve would-be bride
belonging to the society’s lower economic status, takes a housecleaning job at
the high-end apartment of a bickering upscale Teheran-based couple (played by Hamid
Farokhnezhad and Hedye Tehrani). The seemingly paranoid wife suspects the
husband, who appears to be the more practical kind, of cheating on her with
their divorced neighbor, and the young lady finds herself in the middle of
intensely heated and ugly arguments that they engage in leave the, and even
ends up becoming an unwitting participant in them. By the time the day ends,
Roohi is a much more matured person. In a smart storytelling choice, the
narrative’s focus kept shifting between the three characters, thus allowing us
to be apprised of the day’s proceedings through each of their points of view. And
hence, with conclusion of each sequence, we knew more than what they
collectively know, and our perceptions kept evolving. The matter-of-fact,
non-judgmental tone and naturalistic performances were also worth noting.
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Genre: Drama/Marriage Drama
Language: Persian
Country: Iran
