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Dead Man (1995)
Review of Dead Man
A man (Johnny Depp) is going from one place to another by a train run by steam engine. The destination is not specified yet; neither the beginning. The man is well dressed, at least, compared to the other travelers on the train.
It seems to be a long journey. The man sometimes sleeps, plays cards alone as the camera periodically cuts to the steam driven metal wheels of the train. The man sometimes looks at the outside terrains which seem to be rapidly changing its style from forest (I guess so) to desert.
The foreman of the train comes and talks to him; and we learn that the man is Bill Blake and he is an accountant going from Cleveland to some town of machine of western province for the purpose of joining a job. The foreman seems to be at loss to decipher the reason of the man's journey "to the hell".
At the end of the journey the man at last reaches the metal town and starts finding, through the muddy and very western-movie-like-town, the office of the company he is about to join.
This opening scene of "Dead Man" (1995) by Jim Jarmusch thus masterfully sums up the idea behind the movie. The train journey depicts whole mankind's journey through the advancement of civilization to a vastly over-industrialized current world. The current metal world is considered by the foreman and in turn Jim Jarmusch as a "hell".
In the metal town Bill Blake miraculously survives (or should I say "unfortunately shot by"?) a shot from pistol and the metal bullet enters his body and stays within the body just beside the heart. The bullet has entered so much within that it cannot be cut out by a knife; otherwise the knife would penetrate his heart.
In a very ironical dialog a Red Indian (Gary Farmer) asks Bill "Did you kill the white man who killed you?"
Bill does not understand the actual meaning and he replied that he is not dead yet.
The rest of the movie is actually Bill's journey through the western America.
Jarmusch wanted the story to be a wrapped by some genre and he unmistakably chose Western. Situated in 19th century wild wild West, the movie though does not completely surrender to the Western genre. Jarmusch only took some elements of this genre and made this film which is somewhat a parody of Western genre.
In his movies Jarmusch mainly deals with cultural clash between American culture and some other cultures. In "Dead Man" this idea as one of the two main themes is present. The Native American culture here clashes with the culture of the "white men". The Red Indian called "Nobody", the constant reference of Tobacco play vital role in this theme.
The film was shot in Black & White like many of his movies. It is Jarmusch's most expensive movie as good cinematography was very much necessary. And it duly gives the movie its western look. Johnny Depp as William Blake is good as always.
To summarize, Jim Jarmusch's movies are not everyone's cup of tea. "Dead Man" is not an exception. But serious movie-goers will find basketful of foods for thought in his movies. For them "Dead Man" is an ESSENTIAL.
Vertigo (1958)
It is the viewers' attachment with the film that makes "Vertigo" a true masterpiece...
Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be one of the best directors ever put footsteps on the earth. His one of most notable film "Vertigo" (1958) is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Many of the critics keep Vertigo at the top of their list. At the time of 1st release the movie got mixed review comments (like most of the Hitchcock movies) and never got any significant awards (naturally). Later it has been re-evaluated and unanimously loved by all. The movie is about a private detective (Scottie – played by James Stewart) who will be hired by one of his old friends to follow the friend's wife (Madeleine – played by Kim Novak). No, she is not cheating her husband. But everyday she used to take her husband's car and roams about the city randomly; but it seems she could not recall it - she don't even know about it. So Scottie's (our hero) job is to see what she does throughout the day. Hitchcock had an awesome ability to attract all sort of viewers. No one else could have been able to keep suspense throughout the film like him. It is probably because he could make the viewers to be a character of his film. In this film also we, the viewers, takes the place of Scottie when he follows her by car, keep a close eye on what she is doing. Thus Hitchcock made the viewers to become a part of "Vertigo". Viewers become active characters of the movie. Scottie has vertigo. If you search dictionary you will get the meaning: "A sensation of whirling or falling". But Salman Rushdie once told that "Vertigo is the conflict between the fear of falling and the desire to fall". This definition probably fits better in context of this movie. A fellow policeman of Scottie died falling from a roof while they were chasing a criminal. That policeman actually was trying to save Scottie's life. Since then Scottie had developed his acrophobia. The movie starts with that incident. After that he has been hired by his friend, he saves life of Madeleine once and in unavoidable circumstances
yes, he falls in love with her. ("Falls" in love! How appropriate is the expression in this movie!!!) I will not spoil your viewing by telling more. In the middle there is a twist. Near the end of the movie we see Scottie has overcome his vertigo. But that incident is followed by another one – very similar to the 1st scene of the movie – someone falls from the top and dies. The 1st incident creates the vertigo of Scottie; the 2nd incident is closely related with the way he has overcome his vertigo. Will the 2nd incident create another vertigo in Scottie's head? Hitchcock did not provide us the answer. The whole movie is like an endless spiral staircase. As the movie progresses we fall more and more into the spiral. We see 3 people die in the movie – all of them by falling from top. I have told that the 1st and last one is thematically very similar. So are the 2nd and last one. Scottie believes he is responsible (which he is not) for the 2nd death; so he tried to overcome that guilty feeling. That only brings in the 3rd death – this time he is the responsible person. When the movie credits are being shown camera zooms into an eye of Madeleine. After we (mind it, we – the viewers – the characters of Hitchcock's movie) enter the eye of Madeleine we see spirals of different colors. The credits roll on. And at the end of the credit camera zooms out the eye. But will Scottie be ever able to leave the spiral puzzle within his head? Can he forget Madeleine, her eyes, her blonde hair (another Hitchcockian theme), her dress, her necklace, and the way she used to decorate her hair? May be not. And so do us. If we try to uncover vertigo, the film, we will only push ourselves further into the dark dungeon. We may see a light in front of us. We may start thinking that we have uncovered vertigo. But only till we understand the light is only the beginning of another dungeon. It is the viewers' attachment with the film that makes "Vertigo" so fascinating, so captive, so provocative and a true masterpiece. "Vertigo" will also be remembered for a unique technique – "Dolly Zoom". In this technique "the camera is pulled away from a subject whilst the lens zooms in, or vice-versa. Thus, during the zoom, there is a continuous perspective distortion, the most directly noticeable feature being that the background appears to change size relative to the subject" (excerpts from Wikipedia). This technique is also known as "Vertigo Zoom" or "Vertigo Effect". Many film directors have used this technique since then. It has become quite a cliché now. And don't forget the character of Midge. She is just opposite to what Madeleine is. She is not-so-good looking, single and unfortunately in love with Scottie. She is the 1st step of the ladder which Scottie can easily climb without any problem. But Madeleine is at 3 or 4 steps up the ladder. And as the definition of vertigo goes ("the desire to fall") Scottie wants Madeleine only. I have a theory that the 2nd part of the film is all within Scottie's head; it is in his dream; it is not real. It is only because the 2nd half starts so abruptly and Midge is surprisingly absent in the 2nd half. Another scene of the movie really captivates me. It is the scene when Scottie and Madeleine go to see the coastal redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument. There is something special about the scene which I cannot explain. Or there may be nothing like that. It is only in my mind! Probably it is the effect of vertigo! Man! I should stop thinking about the film now!!!
Kalpurush (2005)
Memories in the Mist
The English Title of the movie is "Memories in the Mist". Truly this is a movie about memories and fantasies.
This movie is about Sumanta, his father (Ashwini) and their wives. All of them are haunted by their memories and fantasies – Sumanta about his father and the childhood days he spent in their native village, his mother about his father, Ashwini dreams about 'Kushumpur' his imaginary dreamland. Sumanta's wife dreams about going to America, her notion of dreamland.
At the beginning of the movie we see Sumanta and Ashwini are walking on two parallel footpaths. In the movie also lives of Ashwini and Sumanta have been shown in parallel, interwoven. And how masterfully it has been shown by the director! We see Sumanta, as a boy, roaming about his native village, watching theater on 'Ramayana', listening to folk music in flute, following on bicycle his father's old fashioned car. Parallelly we see Sumanta's son wanders about the same village, watches the folks of some theater group (performing Ramayana again), and takes pictures from his grandfather's old camera.
Ashwini never escaped from his fantasy, 'Kusumpur'. In one scene we see Ashwini seating in front of a valley. The picturesque valley is certainly reminiscent to 'Kusumpur'. Ashwini looks behind; we see his old fashioned car and a troop of theater group. He leaves them all behind; he doesn't stop and let his car drop from the hilly road to the valley. The sound of explosion is overlapped with the sound of celebration of Dassera as the scene cuts into the scene of setting fire on Ravana.
Sumanta's mother, Putul, will probably live remains of her life with the memory of her husband. We see Putul stopping her son, Sumanta, to close the window of her room. Because she thinks she can see her husband outside the window and she has only one window in her room.
Sumanta's wife daydreams about America. That's her 'Kushumpur'. One day, in a surreal scene, she disappears into her fantasy.
Sumanta also thinks about his native village. The melodious tune in flute often haunts him. But he never gives up to his memory. He remains what he is. The movie starts with a view of sky; not a clear view; the wires over the tram line create an allusion of spider's web. The movie ends with another view of sky as Sumanta, playing with his children on seashore, throws a ball upward; the camera follows the ball and freezes there. We can see a clear sky this time.
Buddhadeb Dasgupta has made a gem of a cinema – his masterpiece. The camera movement, direction, mise en scene are absolutely of top class. Mithun Chakroborty as Ashwini and Rahul Bose as Sumanta are, as always, very good. I haven't seen any other of his. I certainly am looking forward to it.