A Bomb was Stolen (1961) - Ion Popescu-Gopo

A delightful comedy about the absurdities of war, weapons and the quest thereof. The obvious association is with the Kubrick classic 'Dr. Strangelove', Jacques Tati and of course the Marx Brothers. It's a shame that just because a film comes from Romania, it is now forgotten, despite having been nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes once. Thanks to the web, I found someone else with similar feelings: The Forgotten: The Dumb Bomb Would love to get hold of some of his animated films from the 'Homo Sapiens series'. See a sample below:

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Tim Burton

An interesting script gone askew in execution. The idea of having a grown-up Alice with an existential dilemma about - what else but the Austenian conundrum of whom to get married to - sounded like a promising start. The post-modern question 'Is this really Alice?' or 'What is the real Alice like?' seemed to go in the right direction, too - as did Alice's refusal to sleigh anyone even if her life depended on it, just because the script demanded it. I was willing to condone Alice for falling in love with the mad hatter, but the repeated maxim 'All the best people are mad' sounds kitschy in 2010, I must confess. The Bandersnatch turning out not as evil as it seems (well, at least for the heroine!) seems right out of the Harry Potter territory of plot twists just to keep the story going ahead, with a veneer of 'everyone who looks evil is not so' to keep the moralists happy, but without even the simple balancing act of a conventionally good-looking character turning out evil. At the end, when Alice takes charge of her life by refusing to marry a twit, what does she do? Go off to build an empire in China, in full colonial style. Political correctness, anyone? If this is what Tim Burton can produce (with Disney's money) in 2010, I can't help feeling sorry for the poor lad. I would prefer 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' any day. As for post-apocalyptic vision, you can't beat the 'Blade Runner', dear old chap! In short, 'You used to be much more...muchier. You've lost your muchness, Tim!'

Sideways (2004) - Alexander Payne

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/

I have a horror of Americans talking about food and wine. However, this turned out to be a delightful film. If you like Woody Allen, Paul Giamatti will probably grow on you.

Quotes: 
If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot! 


Jack: Pinot noir?
Miles: Mmm-hmm.
Jack: Then how come it's white? 

Did you drink and dial?

Avatar (2009) - James Cameron

Just when you had enough of mythological heroes of the Joseph Campbell type from the Hollywood churn, here comes another one that is apparently breaking all records not just with its faux-pacifist message, but also with its revolutionary visuals. Trivia about the film reveals that the crew spent some time in Hawaai living according to (their idea of) tribals during the day, spending the night at a posh hotel. I found this more revealing about the quality of this film than any amount of crap about CGI.

Of course, when Roger Dean is your model, it should not surprise anyone that the visuals are so kitschy. Wishing that someone in Hollywood would take Douanier Rousseau, or Klimt landscapes as their model can qualify only as wishful thinking. When it comes to Kitsch, though, I prefer the intentional, ironic campy art of Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns to this unintentional crap that people actually seem to find beautiful! Considering that it was mostly Americans who gave us pop art in the first place, one can't help lamenting that period as some sort of a golden age in American art. When I further consider that  Hollywood's B grade movies and American pop art inspired directors like Godard to make films like Pierrot le Fou, the mind just boggles at how Hollywood has devolved since then.

Just in protest, this post will have no images from Avatar, but a few pop art images...

Jasper Johns, Map, 1961. Museum of Modern Art New York City.

 

Robert Rauschenberg, Riding Bikes, Berlin, Germany, 1998.

  

Roy Lichtenstein, The Head (1992), Barcelona.

 

Jim Dine, 'Study for This Sovereign Life', 1985

And a few images from cinema's use of kitsch...

 Jean Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou (1965).

'Kika' - Pedro Almodóvar (1993) poster

 

The Criterion DVD cover for Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000)

The Danube waves (1959) - Liviu Ciulei

IMDB Link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053404/

A typical war film, but well-executed in an old fashioned way. Romania is under Nazi occupation. A ship is carrying German ammunition through a mined Danube. A communist is on board as the captain's mate. The newly married captain's wife is also there. Knife in the Water? No, this film was made in communist Romania , probably as a propaganda film. Wages of fear? Heavy influence of. With a big difference, though - finally, the communist defeat of the Nazis must come through.

Green Water (2009) - Mariano De Rosa

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353785/

Mid-life crisis becomes inevitable as a man cannot handle a stranger's attraction to his daughter. A psychologist wife who takes it in her stride and a son who may grow up to be gay make the problem even more acute. Not just another mid-life crisis film, but an extremely well-made one.

Ishqiya (2009) - Abhishek Chaubey

An interesting idea gone kaput in the implementation. The basic premise is nothing new - that people end up doing crazy things when bitten by the love bug. As a James Hadley Chase novel, this could still have been great stuff. Two thieves, having stolen a lot of money from a third thief, are running away; they seek shelter with a fourth thief. The thief is missing, but his wife gives them shelter. Then the money goes missing ; then the wife comes up with a foolproof scheme to earn some fast money. The two thieves fall for the girl, and hence for the scheme. However, the golden rules of James Hadley Chase say: there is never any fast money, no scheme is foolproof, and women are dangerous. This is classic stuff. The only thing you need to manage well is to make the characters and the milieu colourful, funny and crazy enough; and yet there has to be an internal logic to who they are and why they behave the way they do (which is supposed to be love in this case).  The film fails to deliver on these very premises. Some jokes are good, but the character development just isn't there. What a waste of an interesting idea!