Film Journal:Children of Heaven

October had been a good movie month for me-I got many giants underway-Requiem for a dream(Darren Aronofsky),Trainspotting(Danny Boyle-hard to believe the same guy made Slumdog Millionaire,ugh),Diving bell and the butterfly(Julian Schnabel),Melissa P.(Luca Guadagnino),Sunshine(Danny Boyle again)-and I'm glad I started off November with something to reckon with.

credit-google images

Majid-Majidi's Children of Heaven is my virgin foray into the delectable territory of Iranian cinema.This is the story of a delicately concrete relationship between an impoverished brother and sisterAli- and Zahra.Ali on the way back from his errands loses his sisters only pair of shoes  that is shown to be mended in an engaging clockwork of detail in the very first scene.The boy knows that his father would only have enough to cough up the rent and provide for the family when the month ends and another one begins.There would be no magic beans in a pot-and so the children work out a routine that seemed shakily convenient-Zahra,wears Ali's overlarge sneakers to her morning school and mid way back home she exchanges it with her brother who then,for the life of him runs to class.I've never had the luxury of inadequacy to teach me things-turns out when you have the gift of innocence-you need not cross that river.Majidi does not glorify childhood-he presents it as is-with it's little glories and predicaments.For me it was a savoury trip back to the good ol' days when a shiny new pen,blowing the perfect bubble lights up your world and the worry lines that form on your too-young forehead when the sneakers get wet and dirty before school knocks your knees together.
Majidi cups innocence in his hands and holds it out to us and peace is thus a shoal of fish scuffling away at the sores on your feet.He lets baroque take a backseat and lets the candor of expressions speak volumes-much like letting a jalebi drift in hot oil-you know where it'll go,it knows where to go.Simply put,the simplicity of the whole movie blew me away.Definitely worth a watch.

Cinema workshop

"Is cinema a language?" the visiting professor asked.I nodded my head vehemently in the dark,numerous thoughts spreading their limbs and making an effort to escape the vortex of my sleepy mind.Of course he didn't see.I didn't mean him to,and before long the mic was passed to somebody else who boomed a negative into it.

I will not google the definition of language nor its use,my fragmented conceptions serve me a generous dollop of understanding of it's use and purpose.To express.To emote.To say what whatever the fuck we want to say.Take a meandering route-to grow.Cinema is thus a medium and hence a language for those who mean it to be,for those who are more of a story-teller than a cash-register ringer.Cinema entertains.Educates.Sometimes it's not meant to be liked,just understood.
Some to make you cry.



Some to drive you nuts.

.Some others to mesmerize whether you understand what the moving pictures mean or not.

Based on The Tyger by William Blake.
Some people are born to be boring and the harmless little professor who no doubt scales the heights of erudition was quite so-boring.Droning.A lullybying effect.His voice was A Cradle Song and all of us snored peacefully or slept in snatches-snug in the A/c happy to escape the Indian heat,mostly terribly hungry.
I don't think we would have learned much even if we were awake since he was neither audible nor articulate even with a mic.Poor,dear old man.What I did get a hint of was the way a text is adapted into a film-with its various anomalies,dimensions and the directer's license-not enough to mould a career out of it,but enough to pen an experience.

based on the short story by Ambrose Pierce.

There are no deferrals Tommy:Never Let me Go

Starring :Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield IMDB Rating:7.3/10

We are born to do a lot of things,but firstly,and mostly we are born to die.We can change the order of things pour the sugar first and then the coffee maybe.But,after you drink it,the cup is always empty.I'll be honest-it took me a while to figure out what was going on in the movie-not plot-wise,just background wise.There were no whirring machines,or steel plates breaking out of muscles, yet there were beeping bracelets that you kept on as if you were a rabid dog-the only give away.Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name,Never let me go is an intense British romance of many layers.The main characters of the novel Kathy,Ruth and Tommy are born in a petri dish as are all the students in Hailsham,east Sussex,raised only to give away what gives life to them.Their life,though meant to be,are not as clinical as their birth.They are born neither of love,lust or mistakes,but of perfectly concocted chemical precision-yet they do love,care,lust and make an occasional mistake.