Old Enough

 

Winner at Sundance Film Festival in 1984, Old Enough is a coming of age story of two young girls from contrasting backgrounds. Karen (Rainbow Harvest) from a struggling neighbourhood with a somewhat abusive father to boot, and Lonnie (Sarah Boyd) from a rich upper class society with all the comforts that her parents can give her. They meet and become friends and hang out together, Lonnie experiencing lot of things that she could never get with her rich upbringing and Karen overawed at the comforts and extravaganza of Lonnie household. Karen has a moral streak though, going to church, confessing and all that stuff   but she also has a knack of lifting things from a shopping mall. Karen's brother Johny (Neill Barry) about the same age and showing some interest in Lonnie and she getting slightly infatuated with him and all that stuff. Johny in turn becomes infatuated with a new neighbour in their building. It all happens one summer. The kids discovering new things as they grow up and their friendship with each other coming as they are from different backgrounds, that is the sum of the movie. 

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter, a 1946 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and directed by David Lean. It got Celia Johnson her nomination for the Oscars. An interesting story of two middle aged, married individuals falling in love unexpectedly and not able to do anything about it. It just happened just like that. Laura (Celia Johnson) is a happily married woman with two kids and a doting husband, and she always goes every Thursday to the townside by train and then she shops, changes her books in the library and goes to watch a movie, almost solo, and almost ritual like. She unexpectedly runs into Dr. Alec (Trevor Howard) who is a general practitioner and who also comes into town every Thursday to visit the hospital and relieve his friend of his duties. When Laura is standing too close to the tracks and one train passes by, some girt goes into her eyes, and Dr. comes to the rescue. One thing leads to another and in no time, their Thursday ritual gets more deeper and meaningful and they both realise that are in love with each other. Both also suffer from guilt because both have families to look forward to. Its a nice soft movie, not much of preaching going on, something that happened to two individuals without any hidden motive or malice behind it. Production values were quite good for that era. The background music by Sergei Rachmaninoff was quite exceptional.  

 

The Song of Bernadette

 

Brilliantly made film on the life of Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) a girl who sees a vision in a grotto in Lourdes in France. Bernadette played by Jennifer Jones in an absolutely magnificent role befitting the Oscars for Best Actress given to her as well as the Golden Globe awards for that year. The Song of Bernadette (1943) directed by Henry King remains true to the story of Bernadette Soubirous. The film is beautifully made with superb camera work and cinematography, outstanding for that era. Bernadette sees a vision of a lady in white, while going to fetch wood for her family. Only she can see the apparition, nobody else and she communicates with the lady. Initially even her family doubts her story and so do the other villagers of Lourdes, but eventually one miracle occurs when a spring appears where there were only rock and stones and shrub, and the waters from that spring starts curing people of their illnesses. The church was initially against her, but the Dean of Lourdes starts believing her even as the higher authorities in Rome impose one commission after another to ferret out the real truth. The bureaucrats of Lourdes are totally against her and even want to arrest her on some old 1789 law. Jennifer Jones has done a splendid role, doing full justice to the character.  Eventually Bernadette is sent to become a sister. The climax of the movie is quite beautiful and sad and poignant. Worth watching for the acting of Jennifer Jones, the beautiful cinematography and camera work.   

Danton

 

A dense historical fiction movie "Danton" directed by Polish director, Andrzej Wajda in a French Polish joint production. It won the Bafta in 1983. The story takes place in 1794 during the Reign of Terror in France with Maximilien Robespierre pitted against Georges Danton. Robespierre is the fiercest advocate of the liberty of people but he has apparently turned to be a dictator. Danton is a popular figure of those times and the people are with him. Both sides have their own set of supporters. The story details that part when Danton and his friends are accused of plotting against the Republic and made to stand trial. The trial in those days were more farcical than today's which says a lot. Basically Danton is accused of sedition in today's times. But he says i conspired for peace and amnesty for the people. Some gems from the movie "The final safeguard against despotism is a free press". The press guys are not allowed inside the court room and take notes. "A defendant's right to be heard is not a privilege, it is simply justice". This is uttered by one of his party members in a kind of Parliament of those days, called the Committee. "Politics has nothing to do with justice" which sadly we are witnessing in today's times as well. "We send you Republic's enemies, your duty is not to judge them but to eliminate them" this is uttered by Robespierre to the judge, shades of what we are seeing today as well. Wojciech Pszoniak as Robespierre has done a brilliant job and Gerard Depardieu as Danton with his usual theatrics. There is not many female interests in the movie. 

The Traveler Mosafer

Iranian movie (2017) made & written by Ali Hatef and starring him also in the lead role alongwith Maryan Vayghan as Mariam. Shot entirely in Los Angeles or neighbourhood Mariam comes to the US in search of her husband who is absconding after marrying her in Iran. Typical problem faced by South Asian girls also when the US groom vanishes after taking advantage of home grown girls. There is nothing much in the movie. They i.e. Ali who is a car driver and Mariam go on searching for that man. There are few Persian words which are common with Hindi like choi for tea, hazaar for thousand, do for two etc. Fascinating to hear the language spoken, otherwise there is nothing in the movie to recommend.

Bowling for Columbine

Brilliant hard hitting documentary film (2002) by Michael Moore about the gun culture and what is wrong with that. The film starts with Michael opening a bank account in  a small town and getting a free gun in exchange. Strangely everything wrong with that - guns being given free in exchange for opening a bank account. Then it goes on to the Oklahoma bombings and the Columbine school massacre and various other school shootings including a 6 year old kid shooting another 6 year old kid. Moore delves into what is wrong with American culture, the fear of everybody by Americans, their supposedly violent history which he contradicts by saying that other countries have had much more violent historical past. At one point, he also refers to Gandhi who overthrew an entire British empire without shooting a gun. The film explores everything that is wrong with America today including their racism, their fear, their violence on the telly, the non stop 24/7 TV coverage of events, their leaders' penchant for destroying other countries. He then goes to Canada and does an analysis of why there are'nt so many shootings in Canada compared to US. In the end he has an interview with Charles Heston, the film actor (of western roles) cum President of the National Rifle Association, who could not give any satisfactory replies to Moore. Brilliant documentary for anybody to watch.