The Ballad of Narayama [1983]

Maverick filmmaker Imamurai’s The Ballad of Nayarama, the second interpretation of Shichirō Fukazawa’s novel – Keisuke Kinoshita had adapted it 25 years back – was an allegorical and darkly funny, but mostly tragic, account of a place which is a dystopia masked as a utopia. Located in the middle of nowhere and populated with displays of primeval instincts, the tiny godforsaken village is a closed eco-system and follows a bizarre custom – anyone who reaches the age of 70 is carried to an isolated spot in the mountains and is left there to die. Ironically, instead of this being reviled and feared, the elders look forward to this strange tradition, meant to ease the younger generation’s survival. The film’s first two-thirds provided an account of this place in general, and the family of 69 year-old grandmother Orin (startlingly played by Sumiko Sakamoto who was only 40 then) in particular, who is slated to make the trip with his eldest son (Ken Ogata) in a year, while the final third showed the treacherous journey and the harsh fate of the gaggling lady who’s healthier than many younger people. The first section was filled with the quintessential Imamura elements – people belonging to the society’s underbelly, ribald humour, uninhibited displays of baser instincts, and an underlying streak of ironies and social observations that is difficult to miss, and hence the sharp turn of tone to bleak pessimism and harsh realism in the next created a palpable emotional impact. Imamura used the quirky outline to explore man’s propensity for blind obeisance to even the most grotesque and loathsome traditions; and his entomomania, which every Imamura aficionado would be fully aware of, was never left on doubt here.

Director: Shohei Imamura
Genre: Drama/Rural Drama
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Le Passé (The Past) [2013]

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to the multi-award winner A Separation, Le Passé, is an absorbing and even exhilarating marital drama deftly underscored with myriad deeply resonating emotions. It is, as aptly pointed out by a critic, a ‘loss-of-love triangle’, and powerfully but subtly explored such elements as familial dysfunction, the ensuing angst and identity crisis among the children, and how regret, jealousy and insecurity fill one’s life when past and present relationships get intertwined. Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa), an Iranian man who earlier resided in France, arrives in Paris in order to finalize his divorce with his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo), who is now in a relationship with the younger Samir (Tahar Rahim). However, upon arriving, he realizes that all is not well since Marie’s stunningly beautiful teenage daughter from an earlier marriage, Lucie (Pauline Burlet), is finding it nearly impossible to accept her mom’s new relationship, which in turn is pushing Marie to the edge. Meanwhile Samir’s kid son, too, is at odds with his new parentage. As the kindly Ahmad delves into Lucie’s thought processes upon Marie’s request, a secret starts getting unearthed that might prove tragic for all. There are no good or bad guys here, just flawed and real people. Though, in essence, a gut-wrenching drama about the various complex shades of love and guilt, Farhadi structured it in the form of a domestic mystery, which provided a terrific arc to the sense of tension and made the brilliantly paced human story even more engaging. The acting was especially memorable – Bejo, as the volatile and stressed out mother, and Burlet, as her fragile and conflicted daughter, were just fabulous.

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Psychological Drama/Marriage Drama
Language: French/Persian
Country: France

East of Eden [1955]

The enduring personality cult surrounding James Dean effectively began with East of Eden, the first of only three movies that he starred in before his tragic demise on account of a car accident. Based on John Steinback’s novel, this Elia Kazan film was on the grand ‘Cain & Abel’ theme of an increasingly disillusioned son trying to win the approval of his father who favours his other son, and the vicious circle therein. The fact that the father is an overly religious and self-righteous man with a sharply defined sense of right and wrong, makes the protagonist’s journey that much more complicated. When ageing farmer (Raymond Massey) loses considerable money because of a failed business enterprise, his embittered son Cal (Dean), futilely vying for his father’s love and acceptance, enters into the bean-growing business expecting its price to skyrocket on account of the impending war. This, as expected, earns severe displeasure of his father as he is opposed to making profits out of a war. Two key angles that takes the situation to its flashing point is his increasing antagonism with his conformist brother Aron (Richard Davalos) because of his growing proximity with Aron’s fiancée (Julie Harris), and his discovery of the fact that their supposedly dead mother (Jo Van Fleet) is very much alive and runs a successful brothel – the two brother react divergently to that. The stunning widescreen photography of rural America, with its social prejudices that gets heightened on account of the war, and the simultaneous psychological battles between the various characters, made this an engaging film, even if the treatment seemed tad dated and the reconciliatory finale bordered on the contrived.

Director: Elia Kazan
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Family Drama/Rural Drama/Americana
Language: English
Country: US

Paisan [1946]

The pedigree of Paisan, the second chapter in Rossellini’s ‘War Trilogy’, is nearly as strong, particularly in the context of Italian Neorealism, as Rome, Open City. It employed an episodic structure to present vignettes of life both during and after WWII, and the rather complicated relationship between common Italian folks and American soldiers. Each episode begins with documentary footages of the war-torn country, with a voice, in the form of radio commentary, introducing various events during the invasion. In the 1^st episode, a US soldier tries to overcome the language barrier and have a conversation with an Italian girl who clearly distrusts him; in the 2^nd, a drunken African-American GI befriends a street urchin; in the 3^rd, a streetwalker takes a young soldier to her home, but he keeps reminiscing about the lovely girl he’d met and fallen for, who, ironically, is the same lady beside him; in the 4^th, an American nurse must evade bullets and bombs while frantically looking for her lover who’s a partisan leader; in the 5^th, three American GIs take shelter in a Catholic church, but the priests are deeply troubled that 2 of the men are not of their faith – one is a Protestant while another is a Jew; and in the final segment, OSS men and partisan fighters battles it out behind enemy lines. Understandably, not all the shorts were of uniform quality, and acting and staging were also weak at places. However, the deeply melancholic 3^rd segment and the wryly humorous 5^th, along with the general authenticity of the proceedings – the destruction, desolation and hardships, made this most certainly worth a watch.

Director: Roberto Rossellini

Genre: Drama/War Drama
Language: Italian
Country: Italy

The Great Escape [1963]

The Great Escape, upon its release, was largely panned by the critics – after all it was a big-budget blockbuster from the big bad stable of Hollywood. Yes, it did play to the gallery by glorifying the Allied soldiers’ courage, bravery, honour and so forth. However, with its enduring theme of attempted prison escape by POW’s held captive during WWII, this managed to be an immensely enjoyable ride. Based on actual events, John Sturges brought in a muscular dose of hardened men and male bonding, and chose the dramatic potential of the story over its politics, while making this scintillating, cracking and infectious genre movie. The Germans, in order to make their own lives easier, assemble the most troublesome POWs to Stalag Luft III; however, unwittingly, it ends up becoming a congregation of really smart and resourceful men who put together their diverse skills – ranging from tunnel digging to maps to prison intelligence to making tools to document forgery to stealing and more – for a spectacular escape plan. Even though the actual escape doesn’t end on a happy note for most, the fact that they managed to conceive and then execute such an outrageously improbable plan, and in turn ensured significant diversion of German troops to capture them, imbued a high cinematic quotient to this incredible story, and Sturges turned that into a solid entertainer filled with humour, suspense, camaraderie, adventure and tragedy. Steve McQueen, with his effortless charisma, was the most notable member of the all-star cast which comprised of Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and many others, and his daredevil flight on a motorbike remains its single most memorable sequence.

Director: John Sturges
Genre: War Drama/Thriller/Adventure/Ensemble Film/Prison Film
Language: English/German/French
Country: US