|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Entertainment
Browsing through my spiral notebooks for past films (the titles are on the last page) is a pleasant pastime because time often dulls memory and titles may seem familiar but one often gets deceived. Often one ticks the good ones, but not always. Hence there's always a surprise. With a title like A Place Beyond the Pines, one would imagine a soothing, peaceful place. But no. It refers to Shenetaly, located beyond New York, and yes Shenetaly in Mohawk dialect means "a place beyond the pines". But this film covers more than one generation like The Forsythe Saga and works on many levels --- social and psychological. And with director Derek Ciafrance also co-scripting the film, he exercises complete control on the varying locations and changing moods. It all begins with motorcycle maniac Luke Glinton (Ryan Gosling) performing daredevil feats in a small town till the arrival of his former lover Romina (Eva Mendes) with the news that she had given birth to his son and is now living with another man.
Luke, therefore, decides to move away from Romina to be near his son. He catches up with garage mechanic Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) and they decide to rob banks. Shades of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but this doesn’t last long with Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) nabbing them. But the arrest has a depressing effect on Cross. In the meanwhile, Luke’s son Jason (Dave DeHaan) is into drugs. Then, there is corruption among the cops. All these issues have a way of catching up but director Cianfrance imbues the action with a cutting edge and is supported by talented players in Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes. May be Eva Mendes could have been given more footage but Ray Liotta is totally wasted. Despite its 140-minute duration A Place Beyond the Pines is not a minute too long. A rare experience indeed but don’t see it after a hard day’s work. The Hunger Games is based on a good concept of blood and thunder (remember throwing Christians to the lions in those Roman times?) but is set 100 years into the future. Based on legend, the 12 districts participate in the games to ward off any impending evil. A boy and girl (between 12 and 18) from each of the 12 districts are chosen and the rules keep changing according to the whims and fancies of its President Coriolanus Show (Donald Sutherland) and his deputy Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci). Enter Katriss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a tomboyish girl who is partnered by Peeta Mellard (Josh Henderson). Actually Katriss takes the place of her younger sister Effie and is known to hunt even beyond the noted boundaries with her coach Heymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth).The aura of a sinister plot is set and expectations run high. So far, so good. But it’s after this that director Garry Rose loses his way around. The film is based on a story by Suzanne Collins, and is part of a trilogy but for me it is the performance of the then newcomer and sultry Jennifer Lawrence that stands out. That she is now one of Hollywood’s leading stars is not at all surprising. The supporting cast includes Woody Harrelson and Liam Hemsworth, plus cameos by Donald Sutherland and Stanley Tucci but it flatters only to deceive. The hunger remains. Now from the spiral notebooks to the daily newspapers where an item of a TV serial on Rosemary’s Baby is being made by Polish director Agneszka Holland with Zoe Saldanha of Avatar fame plays the lead. Hollywood is known to regurgitate subjects and I remember most eerily Roman Polanski’s 1968 film of the same name with Mia Farrow in the lead role and what a weird Satanic subject it was. That Polanski is also a Pole is coincidental but his body of work is enormous, to mention only two of them Bitter Moon and Tess. Polanski was later extradited from the United States for raping a minor and still cannot visit the country. But the shot of the Satanic child in Polanski’s version still draws goosebumps. It was and is still a new high in cinema. Polanski is a real genius as a filmmaker and I’ve long since learned not to mix the two. Mia Farrow was one of the major stars in those decades and another memorable film was The Great Gatsby, alongside Robert Redford. In Rosemary’s Baby, it is John Casavettes who plays Guy, her husband. This writer met him at the Berlin film festival where he and his wife Gena Rowlands were there at the inauguration. May be distance lends enchantment to view but they surely took more pains in those distant days and the percentage of good films was much higher. Today Hollywood is scraping the bottom of the barrel (not even three good films in 10) with near-assembly line productions.
|
||||
|
|
||||
