Movie of the Month : INTO THE WILD (2007)

WHO AMONG US hasn't, at one time or another, dreamed of one day chucking the whole "corporate rat race/adult responsibility" thing and moving to an isolated cabin in the woods where we would be free to get in touch with our inner selves and become one with nature? Yet, even though many of us have fantasized about doing such a thing, few of us have had the intestinal fortitude or psychological toughness to actually go out and do it. Well, Christopher McCandless actually did go out and do it.‘Into the Wild' celebrates Christopher McCandless, for everything he stood for and everything he did.

Synopsis:

Based upon the true story about top student and athlete Christopher McCandless who after graduating from Emory University in 1992 gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, abandoned his life of spoiled privilege and comfort from his wealthy and sheltered parents by making a cross country journey to discover freedom of life on the road that's full of adventures, meeting new people and most of all having new joys and being happy. All along the main goal of Chris is to reach and settle down in the Alaskan wilderness.

Review:

Christopher's journey, which is carried out with just the basic resources one needs to survive (no cell phone or other gadgets), is a modern odyssey of sorts, a quest for something that was lost forever and won't be found in the near future. In a world like ours, where technology rules all, a choice like Christopher's would be met with disbelief. That only heightens the intensity of the character's message, which is also what the director aims to tell us: we need to rediscover ourselves before it's too late. It doesn't matter whether we are young or old; the important thing is we give it a serious try.

It's genuinely touching how much of an impact Chris has on the lives of myriad people he meets along his away as he passes through. In particular, Catherine Keener plays an aging hippie whose love for her soul mate has begun to fade; the mere presence of the Christ-like Chris magically changes that, for the better. But the best thing about "Into the Wild" is Hal Holbrook, the venerable actor as a solitary old man who befriends Chris McCandless on his way to the Alaskan wilderness and offers to adopt him as his grandson, having lost his wife and only child in a head-on collision with a drunk. I've never seen a more heartfelt or touching performance in so long. If you don't shed a tear for him then you have no soul.

The debate over whether Chris was a highly evolved truth seeker or a vengeful and self destructive personality is not answered in the film. In spite of Chris' ultimate discovery about the true nature of happiness, into the Wild is not a message film but a voyage of discovery in which a headstrong young man gradually acquires the wisdom to reach out to others, even to his parents in a fevered dream. More than a story about a return to nature, or a white middle class youth's protest against his parent's values, it is a search for authenticity in a world that has forgotten what truth looks and feels like.

Emile Hirsch as Chris is outstanding in the lead role. We like him and find ourselves pulling for him. It is fascinating to travel with him as he truly gets naked to the world. Supporting cast is fine, though Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt are given little to do. Always nice to see Jena Malone on screen (here as Chris' sister). Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker are a nice touch as the hippie couple. Vince Vaughn has a brief role as a good natured farmer. Kristen Stewart plays a 16 yr old with a nice voice, and a crush on Chris. As I have earlier mentioned, the best supporting role goes to the great Hal Holbrook as the lonely guy who teaches and learns in his stint with Chris.

Director Sean Penn has well matured his skill as a screenplay writer and director (apart from acting) since his first venture The Indian Runner in 1991. He pours his heart and soul into making the movie a wonderful experience of film making. He scores top in weaving the story with flashbacks and not letting the interest drop for a single second till the very end. The cinematography by Eric Gautier is breathtaking. The musical soundtrack written by Eddie Veder is also fantastic.

Into the Wild isn't an "easy" film: it will leave you very affected, possibly devastated, but also as enriched as one can ever be after seeing a genuine masterwork. It will ignite real thoughts about life instead of the phony reflections so many "issue movies" try to induce. It will hit the gut, the heart and the mind in equal measure, and once the initial wave of emotional overflow has passed you will feel immensely rewarded. Into the Wild does this because it isn't merely a motion picture: it is art, life, freedom and nature, all together in a mesmerizing piece of visual poetry.

Title : Into the wild

Director: Sean Penn

Cast :Emile Hirsch,Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt ,Jena Malone ,Catherine Keener, VinceVaughn ,Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook

Rated R for nudity

Country :USA
Language:English

DVD Features: interviews with actors

making of “into the wild”

Trailer Link :www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek

Torrent file name :Into The Wild[2007]DvDrip[Eng]-aXXo

Festival Coverage : 66th VENICE Film Festival (2009)

The 66th annual Venice Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, was opened on September 2, 2009 and culminated on September 12, 2009 .International competition jury was led by Ang Lee and Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap .The winners for the 2009 66th Venice Film Festival are:

1.Golden Lion Award:

"Lebanon" by Samuel Maoz

Country :Israel


Synopsis : During the First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. The conflict is seen through the binocular-aided eyes of those inside a tank, with their cramped quarters lending an anxious sense of claustrophobia to their viewpoint.Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war.


2. Silver Lion Award :

"Zanan Bedoone Mardan"(Women Without Men) by Shirin Neshat

Country :Iran
.
Synopsis : Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran’s 1953 CIA-backed coup d’état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard garden, where they find independence, solace and companionship. Shirin Neshat makes her directorial debut with this incisive reflection on the pivotal moment in history that directly led to the Islamic revolution and the Iran we know today.


3. Special Jury Prize

"Soul Kitchen" by Fatih Akin

Country :Germany

Synopsis : Zinos owns and caters a warehouse restaurant in the Hamburg where the working-class clientele like deep-fried burgers with their beer. Always running behind the eight-ball, Zinos even arrives late for the farewell dinner of his better-off Nadine who's leaving for a job in Shanghai.When Zinos' larcenous younger brother, Illias , is let out of jail on day release, he asks Zinos to give him a fake job so he can get out more often.With a tax inspector and health officer on his back, Nadine nagging himlong-distance to join her, and a real estate shark trying to force him to sell the place , Zinos is in deep trouble .



4. Coppa Volpi for Best Actor

Colin Firth for the film "A Single Man"

Dir: Tom FORD

Country :USA




Synopsis : A Single Man is based on 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood.Set in Southern California during 1962, it depicts one day in the life of George, a middle-aged gay Englishman
who works as a college professor in Los Angeles and whose lover, Jim, has recently died.










5. Coppa Volpi for Best Actress:

Ksenia Rappoport for the film "La doppia ora" (The Double Hour )

Dir : Giuseppe Capotondi

Country :Italy

Synopsis : Sonia is a Slovenian woman who works as a chambermaid in a Turin hotel. There’s something going on behind her rather wary expression and hesitant manner, but we assume at first that it may just be shyness, and root for her when she meets Guido , an awkward, reticent but romantic former policeman, at a speed-dating session.But about 20
minutes in, the lovebirds find themselves held at gunpoint during a burglary, and shots are fired.
Remaining 75 minutes detail the bumpy road to Sonia's understanding of what really happened, with Capotondi and the screenwriters going through different genres -- horror, mystery, psychodrama -- and their required elements in rapid succession.


6. Osella Award for Best Screenplay

Todd Solondz for the film "Life during Wartime"

Country :USA

Synopsis : the film tells the story of a dysfunctional family, we follow 3 separate stories. The father, who was just released from prison after some paedophilia charges tries to find his son, to make sure he doesn't turn out like him. The son is in college, he has two siblings, a younger brother who is turning 13 and a younger sister who is a karaoke singer. The wife/mother is looking for a new lover in her life and finds this other man . Finally the sister of the mother ,who mixes romance and her work. The problem is that death follows her wherever she goes and it has kind of driven her crazy.

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Movie of the Month : OFFSIDE (2006)

“ This Internationally acclaimed award-winning film casually and sometimes caustically uncovers what binds us and blinds us to the differences between our ways of life in the West with modern day Iran. Fascinating funny and tragic it s a gem of comic action that explores the ambiguity between the sexes" - The Hollywood Reporter-

SYNOPSIS:

Several young Iranian women dress as boys and try to get into a World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. When they're caught, they're penned in an area where the match remains within earshot, but out of sight.The women soccer enthusiasts cheer for Iran's victory but this does not deter the soldiers from detaining them while they wait for the girls to be transported to the Vice Squad and an uncertain future.

REVIEW:

Iranian cinema is rarely big on plot, preferring to concentrate on character and situation, something it often excels at. Offside is no exception, with the bulk of the film focussed on the argumentative relationship that develops between the girls and the young soldiers guarding them. This is smartly and sometimes delightfully handled, the soldiers' initial position of authority increasingly shaken with the arrival of a fiercely defiant and confrontational girl who challenges her captors on just about every point they make, and another who has cheerfully dressed up in a soldier's uniform and gained entry to the match, but whose over-confidence got her nicked when she sat in the seat reserved for the Chief of Police.

The humour arises largely from the absurdity of the situation the girls find themselves in. When the conversation inevitably moves to the reasons for excluding women from the ground, for example, the soldiers claim that it is because they should not be subjected to the swearing that takes place when men watch the game. In the most bizarrely funny scene, one of the girls is escorted to a male toilet wearing a life-sized poster of a football player's face as a mask in order to disguise her gender, then told to cover her eyes so she will not be corrupted by the graffiti on the toilet walls.

If the film's primary concern is the unequal status of women in their own society, then it is also very much about the unifying nature of the beautiful game. And you really don't have to be a football fan to appreciate this - the sheer passion expressed by both the characters and the film itself for the game is remarkably infectious, leading to a final ten minutes consisting largely of the celebratory joy of victory, and the thrilling sense of community and equality that results. Rarely, if ever, has an Iranian film with serious political concerns ended on a note of such euphoric optimism.

Naturalistically performed and documentary-like in approach, there is a compelling sense that we are watching events very much as they happen, but the narrative is so well structured and individual scenes so effectively executed that you just know this was planned to perfection. It's hard to tell just how much of the dialogue is scripted and how much of it is improvisation, but, in either case, the actors, with their marvelously expressive faces, do a magnificent job making each moment seem utterly real and convincing. Mohammad Kheir-abadi and Shayesteh Irani are notable standouts in a uniformly excellent cast. The structure of the film is also very loose and freeform, as writer/director Jafar Panahi and co-writer Shadmehr Rastin focus for a few brief moments on one or two of the characters, then move smoothly and effortlessly onto others. With this documentary-type approach, we come to feel as if we are witnessing an actual event unfolding in "real time." Very often, it's quite easy for us to forget we're actually watching a movie.

Winner of the Silver Bear Award at Berlin Film Festival "Offside" is obviously a cry for justice, but it is one that is made all the more effective by its refusal to make of its story a heavy-breathing tragedy. Instead, it realizes that nothing breaks down social barriers quite as efficiently as humor and an appeal to the audience's common humanity. And isn't that what true art is supposed to be all about?

Title :Offside

Director :Jafar Panahi

Rated PG for some mature elements

Country:Iran

Language ;Persian

Subtitles; English

DVD features: Interview with Director
photo gallery

Trailer Link: www.metacafe.com/watch/450701/offside_trailer

Torrent File Name; Offside 2006 LIMITED DVDRip XviD-MESS *** www.NewTorrents.info ***