ExpertDabbler

I watch movies in theatres at the rate of three per annum if and only if sponsored by friends. I watched ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ couple of weeks back, and thought maybe I should watch only one film every four years. What a tragedy!

I hardly watch television at home, leave alone movies. Half an hour is my maximum attention span. Either I find myself in the loo or mom finds me snoring in bed. My better half on the other hand is an ardent film buff. She would talk for hours about Pedro Almadovar when I clearly struggle to get past K Bhagyaraj. So I am hardly a match for her among a lot other things. My brother-in-law is a N- IMDB*. I think he watches movies full-time and writes code only when he is free and so should be paid accordingly. I am not sure if he carries tooth brush when he is traveling, but he sure carries his mini-suitcase like hard-drive full of movies. Making me watch Inglourious Basterds was part of a long term strategy by brother and sister to convert me into a tolerable movie watcher.

As if this duo was not enough, my buddy at office, who is a N-IMDB in his own right, did effective word of mouth marketing for the movie during lunch, tea breaks. That is the second plot just like it is in the movie. The result, I watched Inglorious Basterds yesterday night.

My first rendevous with Quentin Tarantino was during a sleepless night in San Jose. I was still coming to terms with Pacific Standard Time, and my colleague offered Kill Bill parts I and II. For a guy who snores before 30 minutes into any movie if watching alone, I watched Kill Bill Part I and Part II back to back well into the night and ended up going to office the next day noon.

Lengthy conversations, slow camera pan, long shots, sometimes the camera waits for the subjects to approach it, and multiple parts within the movie. They do not sound like the ingredients of a thriller, do they? Try Tarantino.

A Nazi Colonel Landa, known as a jew hunter, visits a small village to hunt down the last jew family. The neighborhood farmer tries to protect, in vain. The daughter of the Jew family somehow manages to run in a shot very reminiscent of the way the young Shaktivelu runs with the train whistle in the background in Nayagan. How long will you take to show this on screen? Tarantino takes a cool twenty minutes, and in the process majestically establishes Col. Landa’s character and sets the stage for the film. It is a handful of scenes like this that catapults the film to a different level.

Another thing I noticed about Tarantino, he does not attempt to explain everything. For e.g. He will not tell you how a gang of five, evidently alien, can casually enter the movie hall where the Fuhrer himself is coming to watch the film. Afterall the Fuhrer is no Goundamani. QT doesn’t care. Instead he will choose to start the scene with Col. Landa and take it from there. But what he does choose to explain, he does so with deadly effect leaving the audience stunned in their seats.

And that Col. Landa played by a guy called Christopher Waltz, this is HIS film.

On the down side, as is always the case with QT, there is loads of violence.

I am not qualified to say if Inglorious Basterds is great cinema or deserves a place in the IMDB all-time 50 rankings, etc. I never got a rank in high-school. I was told i need to pass all papers which never happened except in the finals. So me never liked ranking business. I leave that to N-IMDBs*. But as a below average movie rasigan, I watched the movie with suspense, and interest not knowing what will happen next. That to me is pure entertainment, pure cinema. The director as the designer of the film, should give a character to the film. And for that the director should have spunk and character himself. Tarantino, I think does that job quiet well. That is why he can make even the one millionth film on ‘pazhi vangum’ theme with punch.

And those aspiring to be great writers and directors, should watch the intro scene and the basement scene again and again and again. Those are Tarantino master class on screen writing and execution.

N-IMDB = Nadamaadum IMDB.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 11:21 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.