Movie of the Month ;HEAD ON (2004)

YOU HAVE those movies that immediately have all your attention from the start. This movie is one of them. A really great opening that set high expectation that gets delivered!A completely original love story that shames conventional Hollywood romantic comedies with its fresh take on love and loss .The characters felt authentic and possessed believable strengths and weaknesses. The actors turned in powerful performances and I find myself, the day after I saw the film, still thinking about the plot but mostly remembering the expressions on the actors' faces.

SYNOPSIS:

Alcoholic, drugged and hopeless German with Turkish roots Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünen) lives like a pig in a small dirty apartment and survives collecting empty bottles in the night-club. One night, he gives up living, and hits his car against a wall. However, he survives the crash and is sent to a clinic, where he meets Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli), a younger German Turk, with suicidal tendencies. Sibel is the younger daughter of a conservative Turkish family, and proposes a fake marriage to Cahit, in order to permit her to leave her family; in return, she would share the rent of the flat, and she would cook and clean the place, and they could have independent lives. Cahit accepts, but while living with Sibel, he falls in love for her, until a tragedy happens.

REVIEW:

Winner of the top prize "Golden Bear" at the 2004 Berlin Festival, this German/Turkish co-production sets its tale of an impossible love against the backdrop of two clashing cultures. Though they are certainly both products of Eastern society, Cahit and Sibel have clearly adopted many of the ways of the democratized West. Cahit often scoffs at his Turkish upbringing and Sibel does just about everything she can to not be a model daughter and sister for her stultified family. The relationship between Cahit and Sibel is an amazingly complex and volatile one; on the one hand, they seem to be genuinely drawn to one another out of a sense of love and commitment, while, on the other, they are co-dependent in ways that wind up bringing harm to them both as individuals and as a couple. Yet, for all their problems together, we do sense that Sibel really does bring meaning to Cahit's existence.

What "HEAD ON" also does very well is the depiction of the clash of cultures between liberal, hedonistic Germans and conservative Turkish immigrants. This highlights a very important truth about some Turkish families who try to 'protect' their children so much that they end up suffocating them and driving the children into hating their lives. Like many girls, Sibil just wants to have a good time (which translates roughly to the traditional "sex, drugs and rock & roll"), but she is completely misunderstood by her traditional father, who values family honor above everything: after Sibil attempts suicide, her family is angry with her instead of concerned, and later she is even thrown completely out of the family for something she didn't even control. Things become even more dramatic when Sibel ends up in Turkey, where women aren't nearly as free as in Germany, and Sibel's liberal lifestyle gets her into serious trouble.

The movie's real power lies with the fact that the characters are truly multidimensional and complex, they experience conflicting emotions and desires and ultimately it is their incapacity to understand what is happening to them which leads to their downfall. They are so used to suffering and struggling and to using people and being used that when suddenly they fall in love, they can't even recognize what is happening to them until it is too late.

The two central performances are bloody amazing and a reminder of what real acting (and characterisation) is all about . Birol Ünel is one of the most interesting actors of today.He has the intelligence, charm and coolness that Mickey Rourke had in the '80s; his range as an actor is very wide,and he constantly offers an intensity of acting seldom seen in the movies.Also his ravaged good looks make him irresistibly watchable. Sibel Kekilli also turned in a great performance of a girl who is equal parts willful, vulnerable, naive and resilient. The direction is profound. Cinematographically this is a very beautiful movie. It's beautifully shot, and the combination of western and Turkish music fits the images very well and adds tremendously to the atmosphere. There are even some interludes of a Turkish orchestra, playing on the shores of the River Bosporus with the Aya Sofia mosque in the background. It's all very beautiful and very atmospheric.

The movie is just mainly above all a very realistic one. It's not afraid to show the dark, depressing, imperfect side of men. It's unlike any other film you've seen before. The storytelling is wonderful and makes this movie so much more than just a romantic movie, which in the end it really is. The drama/romance is mixed in a heavy way and it makes "HEAD ON " not always an easy one to watch but certainly an experience that you'll not easily forget.

Title : Gegen Die Wand

Director: Fatih Akin

Cast ; Birol Ünel ,Sibel Kekilli

Rated R for Sexuality ,Violence

Country : Turkey

Language : Turkish

DVD Features :Interview with director Fatih Akin

The Making of Gegen Die Wand

Cast and Director's Bios

Deleted Scenes with director's commentary

Trailer Links : www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Za3bFBtMdo

Torrent File Name :Gegen die Wand _ Head-On (2004) - Fatih Akin

Movie of the Month :THE RETURN (2003)

FROM THE LAND that gave us some of the finest filmmakers of the century--Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Eisenstein and Grigory Kozintsev .Debutant director Andrei Zvyagintsev follows in the footsteps of these giants. The opening shot from under the sea showing a bunch of teenagers jumping into the cold water from a wooden tower remind you of Tarkovsky and the bleak, barren look at the bizarre yet amazing beauty of the Russian landscapes remind you of Kozintsev. Yet "The Return" with all its finesse and depth of subject matter does not hold a candle to the works of the aforementioned Soviet filmmakers.

SYNOPSIS:

The film tells the tale of two brothers, Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov) and Andrei (Vladimir Garin) who live with their mother and grandmother in a small coastal village in Russia. They find this dynamic changed when their father turns up after 12 years absence. While Andrei seems happy with this and keen to try and bond with his father, the younger Ivan is much more stubborn and reluctant – being suspicious of this man's motives. In an effort to make up for lost time, the dad decides to take his sons on a fishing trip, but, almost immediately, he begins to demonstrate disturbing tendencies towards domination and abuse .He also appears to be up to some sort of nefarious business operations to which neither we nor the boys are entirely privy.

REVIEW:

Every single moment of this film is a revelation. Zvyagintsev beautifully captures the opposite ways in which the boys react to and interact with their father. Andrei, the oldest, is so desperate for a father figure in his life that he is willing to overlook the often inexplicable, bizarre and possibly even dangerous behavior that this particular father exhibits. Ivan, on the other hand, embittered by years of absence and neglect, seethes with barely disguised rage at the man who now presumes to enter into their once happy lives and assert his authority. Through this intense interaction, the film emerges as a complex and profound study of what father and son relationships are really all about.

At the most easy level, the film can be interpreted as a chronicle of two children chronicling (with a help of a diary written by two male siblings) the events of a week with their father that facilitates their transformation from childhood to manhood metaphorically. At a more complex level, the film can also be interpreted as a political film--with the father figure representing the strong Communist USSR and the death of that state. The two sons can be interpreted as one representing the section that accepted subjugation by the state and the other that rebelled against the state and demanded freedom and democracy. At yet another level, the film provides the option of being interpreted in religious terms. Is the father figure any different from Christ coming to the world to help the world, and die in the process to be accepted by those who believe and don't believe. The film is scattered with clues that afford this interpretation.

The film's writers deserve special recognition for not allowing the plot to overwhelm the characters. For this is, first and foremost, a great character study. The scenarists have intentionally left the background of the father vague and sketchy, the better to enhance the sense of mystery and danger he represents. We never find out what nefarious activities he is involved with since that is of virtually no importance either to the children or to us. We are too engrossed in the relationships of the characters to care. In fact, there are a few hints towards the end of the film that this seemingly cold, uncaring man, for all his myriad faults, might actually just love his sons in his own strange way. The film leaves us with no easy answers or pat resolutions at the end.

Among other things, "The Return" represents one of the most impressive directorial debuts since Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows." Zvyagintsev's ability to draw great performances from his actors is only one of his many talents on display here. Zvyagintsev prefers long shots, with small camera movements, which allows us enough time to analyze the relationship between the father and the children. Light is filtered in metallic nuances, and gray, blue and green seem to be the only colors in Andrei Zvyagintsev's universe. His lyrical use of composition, as well as the way in which he makes nature and weather an integral part of his drama help to draw us so deeply into this world that it takes the viewer literally hours to get fully back to his own existence again once the movie has ended.

It is virtually impossible to put into words just how brilliantly the two young actors use their facial expressions to convey a wealth of meaning and emotion. If I could give an award for the best performance by a child actor in movie history, these two youngsters would be high on my list of candidates. They are that amazing. Tragically, young Garin drowned two months prior to the release of the film, leaving his indelible mark behind in a performance that will never be forgotten by anyone privileged enough to witness it. Konstantin Lavronenko is equally impressive as the boys’ mysterious father, beautifully underplaying the part of a man who can appear sane and rational on the surface but who is a seething cauldron of untapped emotions beneath.

The Return is a film that stays with you, it comes under your skin and you think about it a lot. Maybe it's for the best to become aware of its brilliance only later (not right after seeing it). I've seen this film some days ago and only by a day or two later, I got to fully comprehend it. It's so powerful and the images haunt you. a true work of art and one of the outstanding films of the decade so far. It really deserves all the credit. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (2003).

'The Return' stands out above the multitude of today's cinema, which is so often potholed by its lackluster plot lines, unrealistic human behavior and rhetorical messages”

Original Title : VOZVRASHCHENIYE

Director ; Andrei Zvyagintsev

Cast :Ivan Dobronravov, Vladimir Garin , Konstantin Lavronenko

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing images and Violence

Country : Russia

Language : Russian

DVD Features : Deleted Scenes
Behind The Scenes Footage
Alternate Takes
Documentary : THE Return - A Film About the Film
Still Galleries

Trailer Link : www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNR4ER9tC6A

Movie of the Month :THE MACHINIST (2004)

IN AN ERA where 'feel good' films seem to be the only stuff getting any attention (maybe because the state of global politics is forcing us all into deep states of denial), it should be no surprise that this spell-binding odyssey of psychological terror slipped by with little fanfare. Dark, thoughtful, disturbing and beautifully shot, this movie and particularly Christian Bale's performance takes you down an alley, beats the hell out of you, and makes you want to come back for more.

SYNOPSIS:

Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik, he has not slept for a year and he is ravaged by exhaustion, his body is little more than bones and his weary mind is playing tricks on him. After a serious accident where his neglect sees a co-worker lose an arm, he becomes haunted by his guilt and he begins to find cryptic notes on his refrigerator, saying 'who are you? , while he is stalked by man, wherever he goes. Reznik's only solace is in the company he shares with a well-meaning lovely waitress at the airport diner and a hooker with whom he tries to express his thoughts and odd happenings.

REVIEW:

The set up is perfect. It's adorable how the movie constantly establishes new plot points without ever getting tedious. Director Brad Anderson creates tension and unease at places you wouldn't think it was possible. As the story goes on it has more than enough surprises in it and you never fully understand what is happening to the main character. You know that it can't be some sort of large scale conspiracy plot against the main character, as the main character himself thinks. It's too complex and too many unusual things are going on for that. But what exactly is going on and why, remains largely a surprise till the end. The beautiful thing, however, is that there's an explanation to the surprise ending twist that really adds a lot to the concept. To me the biggest achievement of the movie in retrospective is that it's never creepy just for the sake of freaking the audience out. Every scene has its purpose and that is not often the case in horror and mystery movies.

One thing that does stand out is how reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock this film plays. Almost everything about the film screams Hitchcock, from the editing of certain scenes to the Bernard Herrmann-esquire score, the lack of fully-exploring/revealing some of the creepier points of the film, and the washed out photography which is extremely desaturated--almost approaching black and white at times. If you want to see what a film would look like if Hitchcock were alive to film it today, this is the closest thing you could probably come across. And if that was part of Brad Anderson's intention in directing this, I have to commend him on the execution because it is uncanny.

The stand outs of the film are Christian Bale and Brad Anderson, the star and director.Brad Anderson creates and sustains a very creepy and dark aura throughout the film; filling it with haunting imagery and clever camera work. Christian Bale really steals the show. Having seen him in his previous films it's hard to be prepared for what he looks like here. For this film he has turned himself into a walking skeleton, a run-down shadow of a man. He not only physically inhabits Reznik with his skeletal appearance; he also mentally nurtures all the nuances of fear, pain, pleasure and madness. The entire cast is superb but special kudos goes to Jennifer Jason Leigh who finally has a role that allows her to demonstrate the spectrum of skill she possesses as an actress.

There are very few times when I will look over my shoulder before leaving a dark room, or check the back seat of my car before starting on a trip. In other words I rarely get creeped. But to get genuinely spooked from a film is a rare event these days. So, when it happens one must cherish the moment. And that's what 'The Machinist' has done to me...spooked me to the core! Every second of the film kept me glued to the screen, and I found myself dreading the haunting ending more than Trevor Reznik. I wish I could say more about this gem, but I want everyone to see this beautiful masterpiece for themselves. It will haunt you for a long time !

Title : The Machinist

Director ; Brad Anderson

Cast ; Christian Bale ,Jennifer Jason Leigh

Rated R for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language.

Country: Spain

Language : English

DVD Features : Commentary with Director Brad Anderson
Deleted Scenes
Making of featurette

Trailer Link :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fuHY4U1UA

Torrent File Name :

The Machinist [2004] [Eng]DVDRip-woodster