Movie Week(end)

This was the week, which I can easy call a movie week. Although I saw only two movies but both were rich experiences and worth talking about. This week also qualifies to be movie week, as I bought a DVD player (Philips 642 K). Saturday was full of mood swings. It started with a desire to buy a DVD player, I called one of my friends (specialist in electronic field) and told my desire. We went to buy one at about six in evening. What instantly caught our eye was the one we eventually bought but we wanted a reasonable price (some sort of discount) so we went from shop to shop. We also need to hurry up as I wanted to go 'Cinema Paradiso' to get a membership and rent a DVD (which I thought of in the morning) to see at night. Again membership fee was a bit alarming and yet again when I saw the movie titles there I succumbed to pay it. The drama is not yet over. After having dinner I reached my home to see the movie (needless to say, I was dying to watch it from the morning), but we didn't know about the bigger problem awaiting. Yes, the region thing. My DVD player can play only 'ALL' or '3' regions but the movie I rented was of region '1'. It was very frustuating as it was about 12 at night. We need to wait for tomorrow to resolve it. I thought about the basic Murphy laws of things going wrong. He went and I started watching 'Mission Impossible', just to test my DVD player. I made up mind to get an exchange for my DVD player to something that gives multi-region support. But at 1:30 am , my friend called up to tell that he has found a hack over net to convert it to multi-region. To my surprise, it worked fine and at about 2:00 am, I started watching what I wanted to.

Its a movie by Darren Aronofsky. Its a movie with dynamite performances. Its the movie about addiction of any kind ("Its not only about drug addiction", as Aronofsky puts in an interview). Its a movie which is rich in style and substance, that stays with you long after the brilliantly hard-to-take finale is over. Yes, it is 'Requiem for a Dream'. Its a story about dreams of foursome and journey into 'their' addictions and a grand climax of dreams, told in three seasons Summer, Fall and Winter. Spring never came or it was before Summer, which was never shown on screen. This motion picture becomes harder to take as it moves, it disturbs you to the core, it never-ever has a preachy or pretty tone, it uses hiphop montages to show the effect of addiction and to connect different stories. As you might have heard before too, the last fifteen minutes are hardest to take which may seen as a horrifyingly painful 'Requiem'. About at 4:00 am, I finished the movie. Some might say its 'Nightmare' but that doesn't disqualify it from being a 'Dream'.

The second movie which I saw was at 'Hyderabad Film Club', was pole apart from what I saw on Saturday. Garde a Vue (Police Custody) may not be an exceptionally brilliant movie, when it comes to style and plot, but it excels where few can make it. Its an elegantly restraint cinema. There are no show off, no big sets. Solid performances and thrill sheerly based on dialogues. Its about a a police investigation (rather interrogation) of murder and rape of two 8 year old girls, where the a prime witness becomes prime suspect. The movie is confined to a police station, and mostly to one interrogation room. And there is almost a spark like chemistry between the Inspector and Prime suspect and there exchanges range from the murder, to failed marriages, to divorces, to their general dislike about each other. It too makes a point on police methodology during investigation. Though the prime suspect was not treated badly (as one would expect in India), because he was an influential person, but there was always pressure on him to confess the crime. There was a little 'twist in the tale' at the end but in my opinion what stands out in this movie are strong performances, sheer elegance and intelligent dialouges.

I wish to see more such movies in days to come and I have a huge wish-list.