PM Review

  Two things that had made Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus [1928] very inimitable and grand. First the narrative style and second keeping the film silent in the advent of talkies. Another aspect that is very unusual and still mysterious to me as I have not finished my reading of Chaplin’s Autobiography. It is infamous that The Circus is the only Chaplin’s film which he didn’t mention in his autobiography. It should be researched well resourcefully whether it is that he went through the great turmoil in his private life during its production or it is that he faced an adversary in the professional settings and took the most risky decision not to go with the flow to uphold the aesthetic excellence and integrity of cinema.   All the erstwhile feature films he followed the identical formula for dramatic structure of love triangle. In The Kid [1921], the woman was abandoned by the artist, Millet shot himself after being refused by Marie in The Woman of Paris [1923] and in his third feature, The

  If any cinema expert asks me to name a film which has made a seminal transformation in more than three aspects in cinema history, I will name Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) as one of the top three. Firstly, the spectacular visuals and special effects that made me stunned as soon as I had watched the beginning. Trailing the Chilkoot Pass, Alaska with hundreds of extras as the gold prospectors is an epoch-making scene in the film making history. And the wobbling cabin and hanging from the cliff were also the most ambitious attempts Charlie had taken till then, I think.   Secondly, the harsh weather and the desertion for a prolonged time and their subsequent detrimental consequences like acute starvation, brutal solitude, violent survival mechanisms were filmed and projected as realistic as a human can conceive of had been splendidly executed in the movie. I think, therefore, I doubt- were they really the creation of that era with enough technical innovations and assistance. I assume Th

  If I were the scriptwriter of   Charlie Chaplin’s  A  Woman of Paris (1923), I would have been made an addition as its intertitle,  'a picture of love - and perhaps, of separation, or a story of forgetting – and perhaps, of remembering”, with my yearning heart of nostalgia for The Kid (1921). I think it will be a perfect impersonation and a successful mimic of Charlie’s own intertitle: “A picture with a smile — and perhaps, a tear.” The imitations of realities are the utmost purpose Chaplin was after all of his life. Is there any other movie maker who could go half way through Charlie went.   After knowing Charlie’s audition process and imitation techniques during rehearsal, I have got an ignition of doing acting, broadly speaking, of mimicking everything around me. I have got a bit nostalgic recalling some fragments from my childhood. After watching each movie on Friday once a month or hearing the trailer from the radio, I would take make-up from my sister’s make up kit and make

  When I was reading the heart-wrenching descriptions and narrations from Charlie Chaplin’s  My Autobiography [1964], my eyes just froze at the line, “There  were patches everywhere, on the elbows, trousers, shoes and stockings.” [4] Afterward, While I was watching Chaplin’s “The Kid” (1921), I found a verisimilar costumes and moods & expressions on the faces of the Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) & the Kid (Jackie Coogan) who is the one of the most expressive child artist I have ever seen.   It is beyond doubt that no other filmmakers than Charlie Chaplin could, as far as I know, apply and make art from the autobiographical extractions so elegantly and truthfully. I could barely differentiate the deep feeling of vulnerability a single mother could have when I saw the mother ( Edna Purviance ) who abandoned his newborn baby both being deserted by her man, the artist and being burdened because of child’s identity and economic destitution with Charlie’s mother who had to send Sydne

  Still I can recall the event that I bought Charlie Chaplin 's Autobiography, second hand book from the street book shop infront of Kazi Nazrul Islam's grave yard adjacent to the Dhaka Fine Arts Institution back in my college year. But I couldn't go through it till the last page as I had lost it in the bus. I have only watch fragments of Chaplin's movie. The glimpses of reading books and watching films had enchanted me and mostly given me a big room for thinking about thw life and world and ignite a bit more desire to make film once in a life. After started watching Alan Crosland's movies & being love with the silent era, it has become a law and order for me to watch all of Chaplin's feature films immediately. Though I wished and wanted to start with D.W. Griffith (American) & Sergei Eisenstein (Russian), I felt right to go with Charlie Chaplin (English). Let's start to smile, but not without tears.

 Lights of New York (1928)  Bryan Foy English, USA. The first feature film with full talking produced by Warners Bros. in the history of cinema. I haven't found any copy in any medium in the digital archive. And I have felt very sad and become disappointed about it. I mean it. Hoping that I will get it somewhere someday.

Before pressing the play button of  Roy William Neill's The Viking (1928) on YouTube, I was so excited as if I were going to the studio for my first directing a film.  The Viking (1928) was a first feature film where both technicolor (3 color process) instead of kinemacolor (2 color process) and movietone (sound-on-film) insted of vitaphone  (sound-on-disc) are used that had changed the pathways of cinema making forever. I was pondering over some aspect of film making when I was watching this movie. It's about hunan creative skills and depth. If I put aside the technical aspects then I was  amazed by the  scriptwriting, production designing, musical scoring, costume designing and make up, cinematic composing, acting and not last but greatest two factors the directing and producing are under the full control and courage. These are more or less similar now and then. Though ultra modern technologies in sounds, colors, visuals and all the other accessories and kits have just been i

I sat with my Lenovo Chromo laptop to watch my favorite Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer (1927 ), groundbreaking cinema that used lip-synchronized songs and dialogues;  but I was so much immersed with the narrative and acting that I almost forget to hear the first dialogue in the cinema history. I thought only song synchronization had been added, there might be no real dialogue in the Lights of New York (1928). When Jackie/Jack was singing a song in cabaret and all of a sudden he uttered, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet, do you wanna hear Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)". I startled as if I are listening a human speaking first time in the movie. Following that I got the dialogue as one of the most symbolic dialogues in films. It's true we ain't hear anything like before. Alan Crosland, Warner Bros. and Vitaphone Crop. bid the goo' bye to silent era. I am grieving in remembrance of Crosland death only when he was just 41 years

I started watching Alan Crosland's Don Juan (1926) in order to inspect what it feels to hear the musical scores and sound effects synchronized on disc first time used in any feature film. The technology of sound printed on disc  is called vitaphone instead of photophone where sounds are printed on film directly. But I ended my experience in complete astonishment with Bess Meredyth's adaptation skills from Lord Byron's Don Juan (1819), Byron Haskin’s sublim and dazzling direction on photography, John Barrymore's theatrical acting quality and last but not the least Alan Crosland's cinematic authorship is subtle and a lurid creation in the world cinema. Apart from soundtracks of William Axt, David Mendoza & Major Bowes, the sound effects of door knocking, bell ringings and sowrd fighting must be a mindblowing experience and enjoyment to the audiences then. I will desperately be waiting to watch The Jezz Singer (1927) a epoch making film where an occasional and frag

  It's always a wonder for me in thinking about development of cinema from black-and-white to color & from silence to talkies. At last I'm gonna enjoy the narrative feature films that pioneered in sounds & colors. 🎬First Feature Film  [Tecnicolor] The Gulf Between (1917) Wray Physioc USA ⚫⚪🔴🔵 🎬First Feature Film [Sound without Dialogue ] Don Juan (1926 ) Alan Crosland, USA 🎼🙊🎼 🎬First Feature Film [ Sound with Dialogue] The Jazz Singer (1927 ) Alan Crosland, USA 🎼🗣🎼 🎬First Feature Film [Sound & Color] The Viking (1928) Roy William Neill, USA 🔴🎼🗣🎼🔵 🎬First Feature Film [ Full Talking] Lights of New York (1928) Bryan Foy, USA 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

On a first impression I thought  Kaurismäki's The Other Side of Hope [ 2017 is movie about wrecked civil war in Syria and it's refugee crisis all over the Europe. Afterwards I got a strange sense of existential experiences not only about Syrian refuse life but also about Finnish life and their shared journey through the film. It's a bit bizarre to think that Khaled can't believe Syria his home country any more. He can't explain what is his religious belief as he proclaimed to agent in asylum centre that he buried the religion with his family under the graves in Syria and he is not athiest either.  He can't clearly say his gender identity as male, female or other instead he claims himself as just human being to the boy who was making a false ID card. The khaled part has made a room for rethinking about the idea of home, country, religious belief and gender identity. On the other side, Wikström, the Finnish businessman has to face same degree of hardship to sustai

I was in great distressed after watching Catherine Breillat's philosophical erotic drama "Romance" (1999), not because it showed explicitly graphic copulation and brutal sex scenes but because I was struggling to reach a comprehension that could one differ the merging layer of pornographically acted film with narratively featured film. However, as  I am writing short review on it then it's evidently clear that I got a clearance green signal on that there are no other possible way to filming the narrative which deals with such issues like feminine sexuality being rejected by male impotency and medical examination by male docotrs and masculine aggressive sexual attitude being exploited by superior men and brutally raped by pervarted strangers ; on the other hand ploygamy and adultery with love or lust  which are open secret to all. The question is if film as an art is an aesthetic reflection of reality then the narrative forms and cinematic styles of Romance is a full d

  Families in Moretti's Three Floors (2021) are great base of seeking resorts in life. In the other side, They are also the epicenters of dysfunctional behaviors.  Dora, a mother who is obsessively forgiving to her son, Andrea. Vittorio, the father is reasonably unforgiving to his son. The son is a epitome of recklessness of a establishment and moral degression that he assulted his own father.  Lucio, the father who is obsessively protective to his daughter, Francessca. Sara is a compassionate wife who stood by her husband in the ultimate crisis moment of partner's adultery with Charlotte.  Monica, the wife and mother who is suffering post natal depressions after giving birth of Beatrice, and went through existential crisis seeing a crow recurrently, couldn't fixed her love for both Roberto and Giorgio, and left the family without any trace.  Renato, the husband of Giovanna was suffering from demnatia, was under constant suspicion of Lucio. Charlotte, the grand daughter of

  Are French films getting realistic gradually putting aside every cinematic asymmetry and tonal variations far. Though they are bringing diverse and gritty narrative themes in the world. The production designs and props arrangements are in a natural modes. Things are as they are in per scene. They are as human eyes see them without assistant and modifications. But I have opposite impression against it. In film I want, if possible will make, to add the cinematic effects that will make the film a piece of art. But in most case they call this style an art film! I think there is nothing in the world one can call an art film. By doing that one leave other film just mere production. Filming is itself an art. Either one is doing it in a good and beautiful way or one is make a diversion, doing it less skillfully or lack of aesthetic sensibility. Justine Triet in her film Victoria [2016], arises a seminal normative moral questtions and in the end it ends with question of moral agency of animal

Very few films have dealt with and summarised the whole of world  like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desires (1987). Terrence Malick has also made such film with high care and grace.  I find the film quite analogous in relations to Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) with all of point of view shots, ariel and arc angled camera movements and especially pan zooming marvelous. The tones and filters of switching from black and white to colors are also significantly meaningful to the narratives. I was surprised in thinking that the narrative form using magic realism in film in  1987 in collaboration with Peter Handke ( Nobel Laureate in literature in 2019) whereas Salman Rushdie had concurrently been writing The Satanic Verses (1988) in literature. Both of them had sourced their inspiration from biblical narratives. Angeles' point of views of explicating the validity of external realities and understanding of human perceptions. Wings of Desire is full of metaphysical and epistemological in

  I couldn't follow any cinematic aspects but only stick to the gravitational pulling of the narrative line of  Karim Aïnouz's The Invisible Life. If one have a unflinching and gritty story to tell and the actors caged in the characters with  fine balance then the movie will be a real conqueror of the audiences. Loss and hope are the sides of a coin. One can't flip it and get the right side by choice. Life doesn't give the damn chance. Guida's slumbering that Euridce celebrated pianist in Austria. Similarly Euridce was in fever dream thinking Guida in Greece. Both were living in the same city and try to swip their country.  I was in pensive mood that it's realy a true thing we can't think over or even notice that how much parts of the life of my next door person I know? My life is invisible to them. Their lives are disappeared to me. Then think about the whole world at once. You will find that we are truely living a vanished lives to each other.  As per my k

  Glazer's Under the Skin (2013) is another master piece from pages to screen originally written by Michel Faber. I have no great expectation to this adaptation but it pulled my nerve string byond imagination. Explicitly it's a film on foreigness in a sense of alien body. I wonder when the foreign spirit skinned out as a tar black human body but with gender neutrality as it wasn't revealed. I am consistently wandering at a large scale that why writers can't think about alien organic body beyond anthropocentric. The world rounds the humans instead of the sun. The other living planet should be left out for non-anthropocentric forms, I suppose. Implicitly the same otherness illustrated over so many gradual issues with the world is conflicted now. The prime thing is identifying the self and defining the personhood. When the girl saw herself in the mirror she being shocked by the beauty of her appearance. First time she failed to deliver her victim, the deformed facing man w

Film based on real life is always a big fatal attraction for me. But I don't have any aversion or reluctance to the real life adaptation as I have many strains of selections of fiction adaptations. Almost every south Asian movie is a mixed genre or a crossed theme like  all in one. The first mafia centered movie I watched back in 2003 is Coppola's The God Father (1972). I assume the cinema directors from every part of the world could not get rid of from the Godfathe fever and it's techniques, styles, moods and weather till now.  But Bellocchio's The Traitor (2019) is polar opposite in regards of its narrative structure and purpose. Betrayal and violence are ever present in this genre but moral crisis on evil decisions and repentance over wrong doings make "The Traitor" a real deviation. Pierfrancesco Favino as Tommaso Buscetta, a Sicilian Mafia boss, has pulled my full attention because of his magnetic acting skills and charismatic facial expressions. Previous

I have a little bit aversion to watch movie based on books which I have already read, like Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust (1983) by James Ivory. I have a bit more reluctance to go for a movie based on classic which I haven't read yet, like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (2012) by Joe Wright or Hugo's Les Misérables (2012) by Tom Hooper. But I am interested at most to watch a movies adapted from books that I have zero chances to read though I keen to read & the original story is improvised during screenplay adaptation, like Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) by Edward Berger. Murakimi's Norwegian Wood (2010) by Tran Anh Hung doesn't fit into any of these above stream, but I've watched it to have taste of Hung's works as a good representation.   And, as I am on the long road to be a filmmaker once in my lifetime, I think it's time for no more streams divisions on screen adaptations from books. I  have to taste every possible adapta

    Will artificial beings suppress the living being is the ubiquitous question buzzing around the world now. But machine intelligence is conditional to human intelligence. Machines are not made for machines but for the pragmatic usage of man. What if modified creativity surpasses human creativity? “Little Joe” [2019],  directed by Jessica Hausner, seemed to me a bit alarming. If such a situation arises, humans will be suffered more by humans than by human’s creations, because it's human’s free will and moral sense that direct the machine.  Mutation makes all the characters happy at last but in exchange for their compromised sacrifice of the natural essence of love, compassion and trust. I recalled the contemplation of Nihal for Aydin in Ceylan’s Winter Sleep [2013], saying that Aydin’s intelligence and virtues are applied more for demeaning others whether they are in favor of or against.  Hausner’s sense of minimal color pallets and symmetrical compositions resonate with W

  I was expecting a different story in The Grand Budapest Hotel but what I have to accept is a grand human bonding in the end. It’s about how far a person can go forward to risk one’s life to respect the essence of human bonding. It’s also the opposite of how cunning, greedy and violent a person can be. That is enough to make a family broken and insult the value of human shared lives. Wes Anderson is a unique motion painter not a film maker who can make a film only using camera angles and movements, and can create a parallel world which we are searching into outer space.   The Grand Budapest Hotel [2015] Wes Anderson English, USA. PS: I watched " The Grand Budapest Hotel " to have a taste of the representative film from each nominated director of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. 

  [ I ] Carol is not about what your body demands, is about what your mind desires. A body is capable of arresting a body only but a mind is so powerful to take over everything in a body and a mind's possession.  [ II ] Therese is not about a mere lust from a person to another person. It's about a journey of love with all its suffering and happiness. Lust is aged, erased in the course of sculpting in time. Love is ageless, spreading its roots toward eternity.  [ III ] Harge is not about a list of responsibilities toward a family fixed by the principles. It's about compromised bonding that grows upon shared lives that cannot be released. [ IV ] Haynes is an ultimate dexter in dealing such a delicate theme with high compassion, sensibility and understanding. Carol & Haynes are beyond comparison.     Carol [2015] Todd Haynes English, USA. PS: I watched " Carol " to have a taste of the representative film from each nominated director of the 202