frankde-jong
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"Aparajito" (1956) is the second episode of the "Apu trilogy" by Satyajit Ray. Recently I saw the first part "Pather Panchali" (1955) and wrote a review about this film.
In this review I talked about some characteristics of the "Apu trilogy" as a whole of which the most important ones are:
The trilogy has been very important for Indian cinema. It is different either from English directors such as David Lean ("A passage to India", 1984) or Powell and Pressburger ("Black Narcissus", 1947) situating some of their pictures in India but also from Bollywood. In the first instance the director (consciously or unconsciously) looks at India through colonial spectacles. The second example is pure entertainment.
The trilogy (and this is one of its strongest points) has both an Indian flavor but also illustrates universal problems in human relations.
The trilogy is based on two novels. "Aparajito" is based on the last part of the first novel and the first part of the second novel. Added to this are some autobiographical elements from the director. Nevertheless the endings of both "Pather Panchali" as "Aparajito" are both very natural cliffhangers.
In "Pather Panchali" Apu is approximately 5-7 years old, during most of "Aparajiti" he is a student between approximately 16-18 years old.
"Pather Panchali" is situated on the country side, most of "Apparajito" is situated in the big city's of Varanasi / Benares and Calcutta.
There are also similarities between the two films. In "Pather Panchali" there already was a hint about the train stimulating mobility and migration from the countryside to the big city. This hint evolves into the train playing a big symbolic role in "Aparajito".
Another similarity is the suffering of the mother. In "Pather Panchali" she suffers from a rather care free husband failing to bring in enough money to support the family. In "Aparajito" she suffers from an ambitious son. Children "flying out" is of course a universal theme, but in "Aparajito" it leads to a number of heartbreaking scenes. For example the scene in which the mother writes in a letter to her son with between the lines the message that her health is detoriorating. The son is to busy passing exams, reads the letter not carefully enough only to find out too late.
Last but not least the music for both movies was composed by Ravi Shankar. This famous Indian musician would later have a great influence on the pop scenes of the 60s and 70s. In my opinion his score is more prominent in "Aparajito" than in "Pather Panchali". It is very beautiful but on the verge of manipulative in some emotional scenes.
In this review I talked about some characteristics of the "Apu trilogy" as a whole of which the most important ones are:
The trilogy has been very important for Indian cinema. It is different either from English directors such as David Lean ("A passage to India", 1984) or Powell and Pressburger ("Black Narcissus", 1947) situating some of their pictures in India but also from Bollywood. In the first instance the director (consciously or unconsciously) looks at India through colonial spectacles. The second example is pure entertainment.
The trilogy (and this is one of its strongest points) has both an Indian flavor but also illustrates universal problems in human relations.
The trilogy is based on two novels. "Aparajito" is based on the last part of the first novel and the first part of the second novel. Added to this are some autobiographical elements from the director. Nevertheless the endings of both "Pather Panchali" as "Aparajito" are both very natural cliffhangers.
In "Pather Panchali" Apu is approximately 5-7 years old, during most of "Aparajiti" he is a student between approximately 16-18 years old.
"Pather Panchali" is situated on the country side, most of "Apparajito" is situated in the big city's of Varanasi / Benares and Calcutta.
There are also similarities between the two films. In "Pather Panchali" there already was a hint about the train stimulating mobility and migration from the countryside to the big city. This hint evolves into the train playing a big symbolic role in "Aparajito".
Another similarity is the suffering of the mother. In "Pather Panchali" she suffers from a rather care free husband failing to bring in enough money to support the family. In "Aparajito" she suffers from an ambitious son. Children "flying out" is of course a universal theme, but in "Aparajito" it leads to a number of heartbreaking scenes. For example the scene in which the mother writes in a letter to her son with between the lines the message that her health is detoriorating. The son is to busy passing exams, reads the letter not carefully enough only to find out too late.
Last but not least the music for both movies was composed by Ravi Shankar. This famous Indian musician would later have a great influence on the pop scenes of the 60s and 70s. In my opinion his score is more prominent in "Aparajito" than in "Pather Panchali". It is very beautiful but on the verge of manipulative in some emotional scenes.
There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to watch "Handling the undead".
In the first place the land of origin being Norway. In stead of other Scandinavian countries like Sweden or Denmark, Norway does not really have a film culture. For a long time "Insomnia" (1997, Erik Skjoldbjærg) was the only film from a Norwegian director I had seen. The last couple of years Joachim Trier has put Norwegian film on the map but the female debutant Thea Hvistendahl is nevertheless a more than welcome addition.
Secondly the film is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. In the past I had already seen two films based on his writings ("Let the right one in" , 2008, Tomas Alfredson and "Gräns", 2018, Ali Abbasi). They were both strange but also very good.
Thirdly I would like to mention (one of the) lead actresses. Renate Reinsve was the star in "The worst person in the world" (2021, Joachim Trier) but didn't succumb to the temptations of Hollywood (until now).
Last but not least are the very different opinions in reviews, ranging from brilliant to this debutant director has a lot to learn. Good reviews are a recommendation but vastly differing reviews are in my opinion an even greater recommendation. They promise an interesting and controversial movie.
"Handling the undead" indeed is an interesting movie. It is classified as "horror", more specifically "zombie horror". Thinking of the films of George Romero (for example "Night of the living dead" , 1968) is however totally misleading (although in a few scenes it is evident that the director was inspired by Romero). The undead in "Handling the undead" are neither anonymously nor agressive (at least at first). They are instead recently deceased loved ones of the main characters (a child, a partner, a mother).
"Handling the undead" is more a film about mourning than a real horror movie. The comparison with movies such as "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017, Martin McDonagh) and "Departures" (2008, Yojiro Takita) is just as legitimate as a comparison with Romero.
"Handling the undead" is a film with very sparce dialogue. The undead don't talk at all and their relatives talk little because there is no one to talk to.
The ending is very beautiful. Coming to the conclusion that the undead isn't the person she once knew the mother realizes that she has to let go in order to continue with her own life.
In the first place the land of origin being Norway. In stead of other Scandinavian countries like Sweden or Denmark, Norway does not really have a film culture. For a long time "Insomnia" (1997, Erik Skjoldbjærg) was the only film from a Norwegian director I had seen. The last couple of years Joachim Trier has put Norwegian film on the map but the female debutant Thea Hvistendahl is nevertheless a more than welcome addition.
Secondly the film is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. In the past I had already seen two films based on his writings ("Let the right one in" , 2008, Tomas Alfredson and "Gräns", 2018, Ali Abbasi). They were both strange but also very good.
Thirdly I would like to mention (one of the) lead actresses. Renate Reinsve was the star in "The worst person in the world" (2021, Joachim Trier) but didn't succumb to the temptations of Hollywood (until now).
Last but not least are the very different opinions in reviews, ranging from brilliant to this debutant director has a lot to learn. Good reviews are a recommendation but vastly differing reviews are in my opinion an even greater recommendation. They promise an interesting and controversial movie.
"Handling the undead" indeed is an interesting movie. It is classified as "horror", more specifically "zombie horror". Thinking of the films of George Romero (for example "Night of the living dead" , 1968) is however totally misleading (although in a few scenes it is evident that the director was inspired by Romero). The undead in "Handling the undead" are neither anonymously nor agressive (at least at first). They are instead recently deceased loved ones of the main characters (a child, a partner, a mother).
"Handling the undead" is more a film about mourning than a real horror movie. The comparison with movies such as "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017, Martin McDonagh) and "Departures" (2008, Yojiro Takita) is just as legitimate as a comparison with Romero.
"Handling the undead" is a film with very sparce dialogue. The undead don't talk at all and their relatives talk little because there is no one to talk to.
The ending is very beautiful. Coming to the conclusion that the undead isn't the person she once knew the mother realizes that she has to let go in order to continue with her own life.
"Everybody's fine" is about a father from Sicily (Marcello Mastroianni) with 5 children living on the Italian mainland. Normally the children visit their father on Sicily, but in the film the father goes on a railtrip to Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan and Turin to visit his children. During this railtrip many illusions are shattered.
"Everybody's fine" has approximately the same theme as "Tokyo story" (1953, Yasujiro Ozu), but there are important nuances. In "Tokyo story" the children are primarily to busy to receive their parents and the disappointment of the father about their careers comes in second place.
In "Everybody's fine" the children put a lot of effort in the visit of their father, but this effort mainly goes into keeping up appearances. A lingerie model pretends she is an actress and the ex partner of a divorced daughter temporarily moves in again. As these examples illustrate the disappointment of the father is not restricted to the careers of his children.
"Everybody's fine" in his turn generated a couple of remakes, most notably an American one (2009, Kirk Jones) with Robert de Niro as the main character. Robert de Niro is of course a great actor but,as Roger Ebert remarks: "There are many things he does better than anyone else alive, but playing nice isn't one of them.". Marcello Mastroianni in a late role is a more convincing nice old man.
There is also a Chinese remake (2016, Zhang Meng). An interesting question relating to these different versions made in different countries is to what extent a film like "Everybody's fine" depends on the country's culture having extended families.
Not a remake but nevertheless an interesting comparisson to make is with "Eight grade" (2018, Bo Burnham), a film I wrote a review about recently. "Eight grade" is also a film about keeping up appearances, but this time in social media and not by means of a white lie.
The success of "Everybody's fine" was not as great as director Giuseppe Tornatore had two years earlier with "Cinema Paradiso". In a very good review at You tube they tried to guess the reason why. The only answer they could find was the absence of a happy ending, because otherwise "Everybody's fine" is a very good movie. A few examples.
In the scenes when the father goes to the next child by train, the child just visited puts off his mask, tired of keeping up appearances.
The dream sequences when the father sees the child he is going to visit as a toddler. Towards the end of the film there is a (spooky) sequence when the father sees all his children as toddlers, telling him the things the adult versions have tried to hide for him with so much effort.
The scene when the father is in hospital after a haert attack and all his children are around his bed. He remarks : "Finally I managed to get you all together".
His advise to his grandson whose girlfriend is pregnant to raise the child as a normal person and not as person who should become important.
Best of all is however the very end when the father is back in Sicily and reports his finding at the grave of his wife. He also tells white lies. Hypocrisy or progressive Insight?
"Everybody's fine" has approximately the same theme as "Tokyo story" (1953, Yasujiro Ozu), but there are important nuances. In "Tokyo story" the children are primarily to busy to receive their parents and the disappointment of the father about their careers comes in second place.
In "Everybody's fine" the children put a lot of effort in the visit of their father, but this effort mainly goes into keeping up appearances. A lingerie model pretends she is an actress and the ex partner of a divorced daughter temporarily moves in again. As these examples illustrate the disappointment of the father is not restricted to the careers of his children.
"Everybody's fine" in his turn generated a couple of remakes, most notably an American one (2009, Kirk Jones) with Robert de Niro as the main character. Robert de Niro is of course a great actor but,as Roger Ebert remarks: "There are many things he does better than anyone else alive, but playing nice isn't one of them.". Marcello Mastroianni in a late role is a more convincing nice old man.
There is also a Chinese remake (2016, Zhang Meng). An interesting question relating to these different versions made in different countries is to what extent a film like "Everybody's fine" depends on the country's culture having extended families.
Not a remake but nevertheless an interesting comparisson to make is with "Eight grade" (2018, Bo Burnham), a film I wrote a review about recently. "Eight grade" is also a film about keeping up appearances, but this time in social media and not by means of a white lie.
The success of "Everybody's fine" was not as great as director Giuseppe Tornatore had two years earlier with "Cinema Paradiso". In a very good review at You tube they tried to guess the reason why. The only answer they could find was the absence of a happy ending, because otherwise "Everybody's fine" is a very good movie. A few examples.
In the scenes when the father goes to the next child by train, the child just visited puts off his mask, tired of keeping up appearances.
The dream sequences when the father sees the child he is going to visit as a toddler. Towards the end of the film there is a (spooky) sequence when the father sees all his children as toddlers, telling him the things the adult versions have tried to hide for him with so much effort.
The scene when the father is in hospital after a haert attack and all his children are around his bed. He remarks : "Finally I managed to get you all together".
His advise to his grandson whose girlfriend is pregnant to raise the child as a normal person and not as person who should become important.
Best of all is however the very end when the father is back in Sicily and reports his finding at the grave of his wife. He also tells white lies. Hypocrisy or progressive Insight?