Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Swimming Pool
Directed by Francois Ozon
Whale Rider
Directed by Niki Caro
The Crowd
Directed by King Vidor
The intricate fine details and almost painstakingly slow rhythm of Swimming Pool might deter the average movie-goer but the causality of events with subtle and underlying tension unfolds and paces with much delicacy that transcends Swimming Pool as a conventional genre thriller.
Charlotte Rampling as Sarah Morton is a famous British mystery author whose writer block forces her to flee to a quiet French villa owned by her possibly romantically linked white haired publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance).
An unexpected visit from John’s daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), took a turn for the worse as the latter disrupts her solitude with nightly male guests whom she brings home indiscriminately for sex.
As the plot progresses, their inamicable relationship degenerated and one is hazard to guess a murder is going to occur out of hand. However, Ozon does not play neatly into the minds of the audience and further tricks us with nuances.
Rampling’s deliberate and concise performance augured well with the character of Sarah Morton, a tight up detective writer. Sagnier is convincingly sly when she realised what Sarah has been doing behind her back and tries to react with cunning vehemence.
Reviewers fail to mention Julie’s mother, often talked about in the women’s conversation; and a link to both of them. She is the ghost that intensify the clout of the Swimming Pool mystery.
The New Zealand film which won multiple awards at film festival revolving the story of a Maori girl who tries to gain acceptance from her grandfather is the moving Whale Rider.
Pai is the female twin who survives the death of her mother and brother during childbirth. Her father, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis) leaves home and pursue an art career in Europe, leaving the girl under the guardian of his father and mother, Koro (Rawiri Paratene) and Nanny Flowers (Vicky Haughton).
Though Koro clearly loves the orphaned girl and fetches her everyday from school in his bicycle, he is reluctant to let her carry on with the traditions of a chieftain because she is female.
The synopsis of Whale Rider might appear on paper to be a youth movie but its themes of heritage alienation and loss of tradition to modernity is plotted alongside an individual’s struggle for acceptance that makes it doubly hard not to be affected.
King Vidor’s silent masterpiece, The Crowd, is the quintessential American voyage of an individual who dreams of becoming somebody. Our protagonist is Johnny Sims (James Murray) whose big eyes and happy go lucky personality keeps him satisfied with his 8 to 5 job. Liek other young men, he soon married a pretty girl, played by Eleanor Boardman, coincidentally his real wife. Like all marriages, they were characterised by quarrels and unexpected turns and twists of events.
The Crowd might not have the majestic operatic and costume twirl of Intolerance or the revolutionary appeal of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin but it still makes for a memorable silent piece to just sit back, watch and relax.
Directed by Francois Ozon
Whale Rider
Directed by Niki Caro
The Crowd
Directed by King Vidor
The intricate fine details and almost painstakingly slow rhythm of Swimming Pool might deter the average movie-goer but the causality of events with subtle and underlying tension unfolds and paces with much delicacy that transcends Swimming Pool as a conventional genre thriller.
Charlotte Rampling as Sarah Morton is a famous British mystery author whose writer block forces her to flee to a quiet French villa owned by her possibly romantically linked white haired publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance).
An unexpected visit from John’s daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), took a turn for the worse as the latter disrupts her solitude with nightly male guests whom she brings home indiscriminately for sex.
As the plot progresses, their inamicable relationship degenerated and one is hazard to guess a murder is going to occur out of hand. However, Ozon does not play neatly into the minds of the audience and further tricks us with nuances.
Rampling’s deliberate and concise performance augured well with the character of Sarah Morton, a tight up detective writer. Sagnier is convincingly sly when she realised what Sarah has been doing behind her back and tries to react with cunning vehemence.
Reviewers fail to mention Julie’s mother, often talked about in the women’s conversation; and a link to both of them. She is the ghost that intensify the clout of the Swimming Pool mystery.
The New Zealand film which won multiple awards at film festival revolving the story of a Maori girl who tries to gain acceptance from her grandfather is the moving Whale Rider.
Pai is the female twin who survives the death of her mother and brother during childbirth. Her father, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis) leaves home and pursue an art career in Europe, leaving the girl under the guardian of his father and mother, Koro (Rawiri Paratene) and Nanny Flowers (Vicky Haughton).
Though Koro clearly loves the orphaned girl and fetches her everyday from school in his bicycle, he is reluctant to let her carry on with the traditions of a chieftain because she is female.
The synopsis of Whale Rider might appear on paper to be a youth movie but its themes of heritage alienation and loss of tradition to modernity is plotted alongside an individual’s struggle for acceptance that makes it doubly hard not to be affected.
King Vidor’s silent masterpiece, The Crowd, is the quintessential American voyage of an individual who dreams of becoming somebody. Our protagonist is Johnny Sims (James Murray) whose big eyes and happy go lucky personality keeps him satisfied with his 8 to 5 job. Liek other young men, he soon married a pretty girl, played by Eleanor Boardman, coincidentally his real wife. Like all marriages, they were characterised by quarrels and unexpected turns and twists of events.
The Crowd might not have the majestic operatic and costume twirl of Intolerance or the revolutionary appeal of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin but it still makes for a memorable silent piece to just sit back, watch and relax.
