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.   

The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes

 

The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes by William Sparks, an autobiographical true story of bravery during World War II. Its an incredible story of raw courage in enemy territory by two British officers William Sparks and Major 'Blondie' Herbert Hasler. They were part of a secret mission sent to jeopardise enemy lines in France. It was an unusual raid, because it was a canoe borne raid. It was a foldable canoe which is why it was called cockleshell. Each canoe carried two marines and there were 5 teams in all. Their plan was to paddle along the Gironde river, sneak into Bordeaux port under cover of darkness and attach mines to the German boats lined up there. Out of the 5 canoes, three canoes were lost either shot or captured. Their ambush was successful as several German ships was destroyed. Sparks and Hassler then abandoned their canoe and walked more than 100 miles across enemy territory in extremely difficult and trying conditions to reach a French village changing locations several times during this rendezvous. They eventually met the Resistance team who took them to Spain for a debriefing. Out of the 10 member squad, only two came alive and successfully, to tell a tale of raw courage. Goodreads 5/5 

Bicycle Thieves

 

Iconic cult classic "Bicycle Thieves" directed by Vittorio de Sica in 1948, an Italian neorealist film ranked as one of the greatest films of all time. The film derives its strength from its beautiful story told in a simple style. Its a post world war II Italy and work is hard to find. Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) gets an employment call to stick posters of an upcoming film, but he must have a bicycle of his own, otherwise he does not get the job. He has pawned his bicycle to meet ends of his family comprising of his wife Maria, son Bruno and a small baby. Maria manages to sell some quilts and get some money to release the bicycle. Antonio is happy with his bicycle and dreams of a big future giving comforts to his family. Unfortunately on the first day of the job itself, some one steals his bicycle and then its a desperate struggle to get it back, because he knows what it means to him and his family. Antonio does not give up the search and enlists the help of his friends to find the bicycle. The police is not of much help and neither he can spot his own bicycle in the second hand bicycle mart. As he gets one rejection after another, Antonio gets frustrated and sometimes angry at his son, for the bad luck that has befallen him. Lamberto has done a brilliant role as the angst ridden Antonio looking for his bicycle. The climax is very poignant. Both Lamberto and Enzo Staoila (Bruno, the boy) were non actors when they played this part. de Sica has used poor neighbourhood to shoot most of his shots and none of his shots were in studio. It was all realist portraying the poverty, grime and unemployment of the city in post war Europe. Many Indian film makers have been influenced by Vittoria de Sica including Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy both of whom showed poverty and angst in their movies.  The film won the Golden Globe for the best foreign language film in 1949. 

Coco

 

Wonderful animation movie Coco (2017) from the Pixar Disney combination, produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney studios. Its a story of a young kid and his love for music but his family forbids from playing any music or even going near a musical instrument, because his great great grand father was a musician and left his family to pursue his musical career and the family to fend for themselves. From then on the family has no music in its household despite having passed through so many generations and having a successful business to boot. Then there is a Mexican festival the Day of the Dead, in which apparently the dead members of the family are remembered by keeping the food that they loved and celebrating with them. The story has beautifully taken off from there into the Land of the Dead where young Miguel goes on to find his great great grand father and seek his blessings to play music. The interplay between the living and the dead has been wonderfully made during this phase with lot of adventure, daring, innovativeness, creativity with a murder plot, a suspense and a reunion thrown in, all around a deep rooted culture and a family life. Pixar's animation has been absolutely magnificent to say the least. Awesome movie to watch for all generations. 

Battleship Potemkin

 

Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 silent era film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It is supposedly one of the greatest films of all time. Its a story of a mutiny on board a battleship Potemkin when the sailors are given poor quality meat and rebel against that. The officers round them up and order the officers to shoot them, but the officers refuse, marking the beginning of the workers' rebellion. One of the sailors Vakulinchuk dies in the melee and when his body is taken to the port of Odessa, the town erupts in anger against the then Tsarist regime. The Cossacks then come down and start randomly shooting many people, including women, children and old people. The battleship Potemkin fires cannons against the Odessa opera house and thereby signals its attention to protect the people of Odessa. Production values for the movie made way back in 1925 is stupendous. Some of the shots especially in the Odessa steps are quite brilliant.  Some of his shots have been copied by other movie directors, such as the baby pram slowly falling down the stairs in "Untouchables", With the orchestral music playing throughout the movie, it must have been a blockbuster movie way back in 1926 when it was released.    

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. 

Last Man in Tower

 

Aravind Adiga's "Last Man in Tower" is a story about desperate people - desperate lower middle class people wanting to go up in society, wanting the riches, dreaming of a rich future and to achieve that they will throw all the scruples to the wind. Its a story of a old middle class metropolitan housing society in a suburb of Mumbai. The building is old, needs urgent repairs, the residents are all middle class with aspirations for more. In comes a corrupt, wealthy, ruthless builder who offers more than the market price for each flat in the society. Everybody agrees but for a couple of residents - old couple Pintos whose children are abroad and a widower Masterji a retired teacher whose only son is residing in a posh swanky flat in South Mumbai. He is a principled man with lots of attachment to the flat because of his late wife and daughter. He digs his heels in and refuses to accept the lucrative offer, the other residents get desperate because of the impending deadline, while the builder is sweating because of the potential loss of his reputation, when other builders are ready to pounce upon the property. The book is too long, but the narrative is quite brilliant. Aravind Adiga has written beautifully, his prose is superb. Towards the later part of the book, it starts getting depressing and the ending is a huge anti climax. Reminded me of the 80s movie "Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho" a sort of similar story about house owners who are unable to vacate their tenants and the matter goes to courts and stays there for decades, while the lawyers start getting rich, the plaintiffs become poorer and poorer by the day.