The End of Violence

A take on how Hollywood style brashness meets its fate in the modern new age world of technology and paranoia. Deals with the question of greed vs humility; of style vs humanity; of trust vs betrayal. Deals with many things - which are left open, I suppose, intentionally. Wim Wenders and his trusted buddy Ry Cooder bring this story together in traditional style.

Bill Pullman plays this top shot Hollywood director who doesn't for a moment think about anything else but making action movies. His wife leaves him, he chuckles. But then he gets mugged and slips into another world. Gabriel Bryne plays an secret agent working on a top secret government project, who finds himself slipping away too from the reality of the situation. At the end of all of it, I felt no closer to the truth but quite enjoyed it.

Rating: * * +

Paris, Texas

Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wanders around trying to find the tendrils of what was once his life. Sometimes even when you find it, it's best left alone. A film about a straight lines between people and why they are erased. Sparse and gentle in movement with a beat that follows the recovering mind of Travis. Wim Wenders directs and Ry Cooder slides his way through the flick.

Rating: * * +

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar-wai's first English feature burns, splutters and slowly dies out. With his regular ingredients of leading men who smoke, mysterious women, fractured relationships, blossoming love and cops; the featured strained to be ethereal, beautiful and melancholic but something was lost in translation.

The casting was poor and the acting was abysmal other than for David Strathairn. The music was listless in spite of the presence of Ry Cooder or rather his absence. But what was missed the most were the saturated hues of Christopher Doyle and that melancholic streak which usually graces all of Kar-wai's flicks.

Rating: * +

Buena Vista Social Club

I've been waiting for this : a * * * * star film.

My second viewing; brought about by this nasty concoction of gaseous, liquid and solid matters of existence. It was different this time - seemed as though Ibrahim Ferrer walked straight out of the CD cover.

Outstanding footage of a land not seen too much by the outside world. A cast as varied as it could get and as full of character as any fictional script could possibly be.

Humility appears to be the cornerstone of these characters as fate brings them together after having given up hope. As well as in the music := full of hope.

The heart of the movie lies in the music ofcourse. But as I watched the movie for the second time, the music came across as new and fresh as ever. Which boils down to the connection with the camera that these artists achieve.

Ofcourse, none of this would have happened if not for an opportunist : who realised before any one else, that herein lies an opportunity to take this music out of a smoky bar, in a colonial building, in a rundown corner of Havana, to the outside unsuspecting world. This wasnt the first effort in making public an unknown artist to the western world, but this was the most popular one todate; Ry Cooder.
Was a pleasant surprise to discover that Ry Cooder had collabrated with one Wim Wenders to make the movie. Also realised that it was the same combination of musician - director who put together Paris, Texas - a depressingly stellar film.

A true classic this one is though.

Rating: * * * *