Thursday, March 08, 2007

Movies that I am dying to see.

I think this post will be edited and re-edited for many days to come. For some days I have been thinking of making a list of movies which are rated high on imdb(greater than or equal to 8) or which are criticall acclaimed with a great plot and are not in imdb top 250. Most of these films are foreign.

Another subset of this list would really be the movies I am dying to see,dying because I am not downloading and can't do that for atleast 2 months now. Also there is no sweet bastard in this world who would do that for me. Third and may be the foremost reason is that I have ample of time courtesy Daler Mehndi,who is going to sing in my college;my lack of ambition and bad career prospects( I am surely joining IT now).

ok,Lets start with the list,as I said this post might remain at the top for some days to come as I don't think its feasible for me to finish the list in one go. Secondly I am not giving any links and some foreign titles have been translated into English. Films which are there in top 250 have a star against them and lastly the list random and not sorted. The serial numbers do not signify any kind of rating.


1. La Dolce vita
2. La Strada
3. Nights Of Cabiria *
4. Hidden Fortress *
5. Dersu Uzala
6. Yojimbo *
7. The Deer hunter *
8. Raging Bull *
9. Chungking Express
10. Fanny and Alexander
11. Through a glass darkly
12. The sea Inside
13. A man for all seasons
14. Ulysses' Gaze
15. Band of Outsiders
16. Breathless
17. Farewell My Concubine
18. Wild Strawberries *
19. Barry Lydon
20. Singing in the Rain *
21. The Bicycle Thief
22. The virgin Spring
23. Meghe Dhaka Tara
24. Children Of Heaven
25. Day for Night( God French new wave)
26.The Exterminating Angel( Surrealistic cinema,when?)
27.Aguirre: The Wrath of God
28.Phantom of Liberty
29. Katha( I have seen parts of this movie,want to see it again)


Thats it I am tired as of now,more later.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Sophie Scholl- The Final Days

I just saw Sophie Scholl- The Final Days. Throughout the movie I just found myself saying two things; What grit and what clarity of thought.She was of my age(21) when she was executed;I wish I could have that clarity of thought.

Two things come to my mind,one related to something I read in a review at Imdb. I can't site the source but the comment goes as follows.
True heroism, like martyrdom, must be imposed by fate, not sought.


I don't know about heroism but true martyrdom should be imposed and not sought for personal glory.

The last rebel movie I saw was 'The motorcycle Diaries". Although it was a good movie,but I didn't like it much because I can't convince myself to follow the cult of Che` Guevera. True revolution,I believe, always seeks peace and never violence. Sophie Scholl I guess would now stand as the best rebel movie for me till I come across a better one.

This quote truly sums up the reason why I revere her. Source [wikipedia]

Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag stated in Newsday on February 22nd, 1993 that "It is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th Century... The fact that five little kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me. I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I don't know why."
I also wanted to draw a comparison between a scene at the end of the movie and a scene at the end of an Indian movie called 'The legend of Bhagat Singh',based on life of Bhagat Singh,but I after I had written most of the post,my gem of a pc restarted and I had to write from the last auto draft position.

Anyways to sum up Sophie Scholl is much more humane and less melodramatic. It focuses more on Sophie's believe in her ideas and her conscience.