Avalude Ravukal is Seema's first movie, directed by I.V.Sasi, who'd go on to marry the actress later in real life. This movie had achieved a lot of notoriety with cinema hall owners inserting sleazy porn bits and selling it as a soft porn movie. This film has totally changed my perceptions about I.V.Sasi as a director. Shot in his favorite city, Kozhikode, it is indeed a brave venture with Seema playing the title character who is a prostitute. Her nights(this is the English translation of the movie title) and the men she comes across are the major characters in the movie. Sukumaran, Soman and Ravi Kumar have important roles.
(Pic: Seema and Ravi Kumar in Avalude Ravukal)
Seema looks and acts really well. The legend has it that she was spotted as an extra and it was I.V.Sasi who made her a major actress. Avalude Ravukal also has Meena, Kuthiravattam Pappu, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Bahadur and Mallika(Sukumaran's real life wife and mother of present day actors PrithviRaj and Indrajit) as the supporting cast. A narrative social commentary from the perspective of a teenage prostitute in the late seventies in Kerala, Avalude Ravukal is a classic trend setter.
The American dream gone sour. It tells the story a misfit German man who comes backs to normal life after a long stint in prison, his girl friend for the time and their old neighbor - all three of them immigrate to the United States in search of a better life. The better life they were looking forward to was supposed to unravel at a fictious sleepy backwater called Railroad Flats in Wisconsin.
It is an interesting movie, where the comments of the main character form a narrative twain that holds the movie together. I didn't have much hopes before I saw the film, I am wary of movies which explore the sexuality of characters in intimate detail. But 101 Rejkjavik turned out to be better than expected. It is the story of a 30 year old guy, who lives with his Mom in Rejkjavik and in to their lives lands the Mom's girl friend. The film reiterates two facts that I had already formed about Iceland from my previous encounter with this land on TV and thru' film, 1)Iceland is a beautiful country and 2)Partying is main occupation of Icelanders.
Dogwille started off as a bummer. I was expecting a movie, not televised theater. The entire film takes place on stage with the main street of Dogville drawn out on the floor like an architect's plan.
"What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems split in two; melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land" - Ernesto Che Guevera, Motorcycle Diaries - his memoirs. Thats what you feel after watching the movie, like you've crossed a new frontier.
This Best Foreign Language Oscar Winner of 1976 tells the story of a small mismatched troupe of French expatriates in French Equitorial Africa during WW1 trying to stage a battle with Germans in the same place, to support the war efforts of their country in the real war raging somewhere far off.
An interesting indie from Thomas McCarthy. The protagonist in the movie is a dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, who is a loner with a passion for trains. He moves to a train station in rural New Jersey left to him by his best friend when he dies.
Spike Lee's films are a breath fresh air - usually about 'brothers' with a capital B. An African American director turning his camera on his own community and culture is indeed refreshing in the same way Chris Eyre does through his films for Native Americans.
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