Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven by Majid Majidi

Name any movie celebrities, name anyone who has watched this movie they would say that definitely this is one of their all time favorites. This is an Iranian movie. The story is about school children. Narrowing down further this is a story about a brother and a sister who come from a poor family and how they share a single pair of shoes for school. The movie has a lot of interesting incidents. Especially the running race scene where the boy finishes first and asks for second price which is nothing but a pair of canvas shoes. On the whole the movie is deep observation of the life of children.

Rating: 9/10

Changeling

Changeling by Clint Eastwood

I never liked Clint Eastwood in his early stages. But once he started his direction career he has become my favorite. This movie is set in the period of early 20^th century. The art direction was brilliant. They even showed minute detailing of early 20^th century. Regarding the performance, the movie solely depends on Angelina Jolie. She has done the role with utmost care. This is the best performance of Angelina Jolie. She broke all the image barriers around her through this film. She should have got the Oscar, but unfortunately Kate Winslet got it for Reader. The movie is a bit slow but that doesn’t matter when you get involved with it. The movie is based on a true story.

Rating: 7.5/10

It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra

It has one of my most favorite actors. It’s none other than the evergreen Cary Grant. This movie has a same old story about a person who cares a lot about his people than himself and god will take care of those who care for others. But this concept was very new when this movie released because this is a very old movie. This movie had a different type of narration which has not been tried so far. The movie is narrated by God himself. The best part of the movie is that when a savior angel comes to save Cary Grant. The wish he is granted and the way the world spreads in front of him after he gets that wish is completely stunning till date. There are some negatives like the first half is quite slow and boring. But the last thirty minutes balances the negatives of the movie. On the whole the movie is definitely worth watching.

Rating: 7.5/10

Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can by Steven Spielberg

If you see the movie you can’t believe that it’s a true story… But still you have to believe it. This movie is set in 1960’s. The plot is about a 16 year old boy indulging in bank frauds. This character was played by Leonardo Di Caprio. There is also another main character which is a character of a detective who traps this fraud. This character is played by Tom Hanks. When such big names are present in the movie, you don’t have to ask about their performances. Even though Di Caprio was in the initial stages of his career when this movie released his performance is no less than that of Tom Hanks. The movie has lot of interesting moments. The screenplay of the movie is clearly written even though the movie travels back and forth. The climax is something unexpected. I still wonder how this was possible in real life. There are lots of reasons for which you have to watch this movie. But there is one factor for which you should not miss this movie. It’s nothing but Steven Spielberg.

Rating: 8/10

Apu Sansar

Apu Sansar by Satyajit Ray

This the third part of Apu Trilogy. The movie shows his struggle to get a job and the marriage life of Apu. The problems he faces after marriage, death of his wife, birth of his son, the emotional conflicts he undergoes after his wife dies and his hatred towards his son are portrayed brilliantly. The climax where his son hates him for leaving him behind after his wife’s death and the way he convinces his son and takes him back with him was a bit melodramatic. It was not a good climax for a legendary trilogy. But considering this as an independent movie, this really scores.

Rating: 8/10

Aparajito

Aparajito by Satyajit Ray

It’s Ray movie again… This movie is a sequel to Pather Panchali. Personally I feel this is the best of Apu Trilogy. This movie shows the education life of Apu. The struggles he undergoes, the success he tastes, the greatest loss of his life are portrayed with all reality. The movie also portrays the emotional bonding between the mother and the son. The feeling of a mother when his son is in exile is shown very well in this movie. Even though the movie has a tragic end, you will be satisfied at the end of the movie.

Rating: 10/10

Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray

It’s a Ray movie, what else do you need. He is a legendary movie maker ever produced by India. He broke all barriers of usual film making in India. He never had songs even in his first movie. He used it only if it is necessary. Many complain that his movies are slow. But I personally don’t feel so. His movies have a deep and careful study of human race. It’s the same in Pather Panchali. It’s about a poor family and children of that family. The life of children and their feelings are excellently portrayed in this movie. The movie has some excellent performances from the kids and rich visuals. On the whole this movie has the credit of giving a legendary director to India. Ray is the only director who made movies to world standard in his period.

Rating: 10/10

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa – The Godfather of Cinema

Kurosawa was a visionary. His part in world cinema is prominent. His influence is spread all over the world. His works have been remade by Hollywood several times. The movies like “A Fistful of Dollars”, “Magnificent Seven” and “The Outrage” have been remade from his classic movies like “Yojimbo”, “Seven Samurai” and “Rashomon” respectively.

According to me, he was the first to provide a riveting and brilliant screenplay to the audience. He made this attempt through his movie “Rashomon”. This way of story telling still inspires many filmmakers. The screenplay is etched in a way that the same story is told in four different perceptions. No one in this world would have expected that a story can also be told in this way, that too in 1950. This movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West.

Kurosawa is a trained painter. He used to do story boards for his films. He was one of the few directors who followed the storyboard method. He used to define every single detail of the shot in his storyboard. His films always had an aesthetic flavor. He always wanted his films to be aesthetic than realistic. This is because of his talent of making storyboards. He was finally awarded the lifetime achievement academy award in the year 1990.

Several directors in the west worship Kurosawa. Directors like Francis Ford Coppola (directed “The Godfather series”) and George Lucas (directed “Star war series”) are greatest fans of Kurosawa. They even produced Kurosawa’s film Kagemusha (1980). Many other directors have been inspired by Akira Kurosawa. Sir Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg have been heavily inspired by Kurosawa. Ridley Scott even used red filters in his shots for the sake Kurosawa used in his films. This clearly shows the love they had for Kurosawa. In India he has been an inspiration for several directors. Mani Ratnam, Myshkin and Kamal Haasan are inspired by Kurosawa.

Almost all films in his career are influential. To be more specific, films like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Red beard, Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress, Ran, Dreams, High and low, Kagemusha, Dersu Uzala and Throne of blood. The maximum period he took for a film is five years. It’s for the movie Ran (1985). He worked on this film for five years designing sets and storyboards for each and every shot. This movie is Japanese version of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Kurosawa is a great fan of authors like Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky. There is another movie Throne of blood which is based Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Although he received an Honorary Award in 1990 "For cinematic accomplishments that have inspired, delighted, enriched and entertained worldwide audiences and influenced filmmakers throughout the world," Akira Kurosawa was only nominated once for a Best Director Oscar for Ran (1985). Also, his only film to have ever received the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was for Dersu Uzala (1975)…his only film not done in Japanese (it was in Russian)

He is one of the few legends whom the world must never forget. He must be worshipped by every one who is in this field of artistic brilliance.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick – The Godfather of cinema

I’d call Stanley Kubrick as father of modern cinema. Kubrick chose very diverse subjects for directing. He almost tried all genres in his career. Be it historical Spartacus, violent Clockwork Orange, humorous Strangelove, sensual Lolita, horrific Shining, Sci-Fi Space Odyssey, he has his trademark in all his films. He always wanted to try something new. He did not want to try something which has already been done. He has been in the field for about 48 years and has one only 16 films. He is the least prolific director in history.

Stanley never like his film “Fear and desire”. So he went out of his way to buy all the prints of it so no one else could see it. He always wanted to give the best to audience. Some of his genres are yet to be revisited. No one dared to make a film like “A Clockwork Orange” after he made it. This movie portrayed extreme violence and sex. He won the academy award for his Sci-Fi movie “2001-Space Odyssey” in Best Special Effects category. He did that film with maximum technology that was available at that time with lot of computer graphics. Seven of his last nine films were nominated for Oscars. He was nominated for Best Director four consecutive times, for his pictures starting with Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and ending with Barry Lyndon (1975).

According to Stanley his last film was his best made film. His last film was “Eyes wide shut” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. This movie won Golden Globe award for best original score. This movie was directed after a long gap of 12 years. His fifteenth film was a war movie “Full Metal Jacket” This movie also portrayed darker side of human emotions. Stanley was a great fan of Beethoven. He used lot of Beethoven symphonies in his movie “A Clockwork Orange”. He was ranked 4 by Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” in 2005.

One of my favorite films of Stanley is “Dr. Strangelove”. This movie according to be is the best dark comedy made ever in the history of world cinema. This movie stars the legendary Peter Sellers. Stanley never wanted any improvisations in dialogues by anyone. He never wanted to change a word once it is scripted. The only exception is Peter Sellers.

Stanley, after completing “Full Metal Jacket” started working on a movie called “Artificial Intelligence”. Stanley didn’t want to start AI. He wanted the technology to improve to his imagination. In the meanwhile he started working on a film of Napoleon. He almost read hundred odd books on the French emperor. He finally drafted a script. But the film did not take off due to financial problems. He also worked on a film called “Wartime Lies”. But after Steven Spielberg started working on Schindler’s list, Stanley dropped his project because it covered much of the same material. At last Stanley made “Eyes Wide Shut”. Special effects technology had matured rapidly in the meantime, and Kubrick immediately began active work on Artificial Intelligence, but tragically suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep on March 7th, 1999. After his death Steven Spielberg took over his dream project and completed, dedicating to the memory of “Stanley Kubrick”.

Stanley has been an inspiration for all young directors. He always had an urge to try something new every time. It’s bad that even academy awards did not recognize him properly. For all those who want to try something new Stanley is a major source of inspiration.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock – The Godfather of Cinema

Man of mystery, King of Suspense, Master in the genre of thriller, Man of visual intelligence…All these titles goes to only one man. He is none other than the technically brilliant Alfred Hitchcock. He has never tried any other genres in his lifetime other than thrillers. He has almost tried all subgenres in thriller like Psychological thrillers, Detective thrillers and so on…

Hitchcock always tried some new technically. All his shots were technically brilliant. The helicopter scene in his movie “North by Northwest” is the inspiration for a scene in James Bond movie “From Russia with Love”. Another example of his technical brilliance is his mastery in car chase scene. They would typically alternate between the character’s point of view while driving and a close-up shot of those inside car from opposite direction. This technique kept the viewer ‘inside’ the car and made any danger encountered more richly felt.

All his life he never tried his hand in screenwriting or story. He just concentrated on selection of story and screenplay. All he wanted is a good script. If he gets it nothing can stop him. He never experimented onscreen. He always experimented on the script. He also wanted the students to learn how to visualize the script. “To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.”- Alfred Hitchcock.

There are several movies where he showed his brilliance of directing a hardcore thriller. Some of my favorite movies are “Rear Window”, “Dial M for Murder”, “Notorious”, “Vertigo”, “Rope”, “Psycho”, “North by Northwest” and “Rebecca”. One very good example of his technical brilliance is the movie “Rear Window”. This movie you see is what the lead character sees. You cannot see anything other what the lead character sees. The lead character sits in his rear window with his leg broken. The story spreads through the rear window and ends within the frame. Doesn’t it sound interesting?

There is another movie called “Rope”. Normally in a thriller, audiences as well as the characters in the movie don’t know the suspense and the story will be gripping till the end. But in the movie “Rope” it is quite interesting. The audiences know the culprit of the story. But the lead characters don’t. Normally this will make audiences lose interest in the movie. But this movie didn’t do that. I bet you this movie will be more gripping than any other suspense thriller. Even though he made movie which frightened people, he was afraid of eggs (Ovophobia). He never had an egg in his lifetime

His movie “Notorious” cheated the censor board. In those days there must not be a lip lock scene for more 3 or 4 seconds continuously. But the movie “Notorious” needed a longer lip lock scene to show the love they had for each other. Hitchcock followed the rules of the censor board and also made the scene longer to about one minute. He made the lead characters kiss each other for about 3-4 seconds and gave them sensual or comical phrases for every 3-4 seconds. The censor board was not able to do anything. That’s the brilliance of Hitchcock.

Like Kurosawa, Hitchcock also made story boards for his movies. The visualization of Hitchcock was so aesthetic and brilliant that the cinematographers have to work very hard to bring the visuals live. One such movie is “North by Northwest”.

Though he was Oscar-nominated 5 times as Best Director, DGA-nominated 6 times as Best Director, and received 3 nominations from Cannes, he has never won in any of these competitive categories, a fact that surprises fans and film critics to this day. He delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar history while accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars, he simply said “Thank you”. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

Guys, if you want to feel the adrenaline rush in your stomach, go for Hitchcock movies. You will definitely feel the same which I already felt.