“Summer of Film #18 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
I almost feel like apologizing and explaining myself for adding this film to the list- especially after “Monsieur Ibrahim”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/28/monsieur-ibrahim-2003/ and before “Blue Velvet”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/28/blue-velvet-1986/ , but I won’t. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #17 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Paris in the ’60s. I wasn’t born yet in the ’60s and so I surely wasn’t in Paris then. Neither do I know anyone who was. And yet, I know exactly how it was. The Patricia Franchini “wore a yellow t-shirt”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/ as she sold the New York Herald Tribune. In a small apartment, another American, Paul was having his “last tango in Paris”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2004/07/11/the-last-tango-in-paris-1972/. In another apartment “three teenagers thought their ideas of truth, beauty, sex, love and cinema could change the world”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2004/04/25/the-dreamers-2004/ and maybe they did. Further down the street a lady named “Irma La Douce”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057187/ has an ex-cop in love with her, but that seems to be going nowhere.

Probably on the same street, Rue Bleue, lives a boy named Moses, Momo to his friends. He doesn’t live alone, but he might as well, since his mother left when he was young and his father comes home late in the evening only to complain about the food Momo has cooked. But none of this seems to bother him much; probably because he is sixteen and the prostitutes who line up across the street and the pretty girl next door interest him more. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #16 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Paul Thomas Anderson is a genius and Boogie Nights is his the only ticket to greatness he needs. That he followed it up with two of my favorite films of the last decade- Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love is only icing on the cake.

Boogie Nights is the Scorsese-movie, the Godfather, the Goodfellas, the Casino– the one epic that defines a time, place and a parallel society forever. Scorsese did it for old Vegas in The Casino; Copolla did it for the mafia for eternity with The Godfather and now PTA has done it for the 70s porn industry in one sweeping gesture. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #15 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Did somebody at New Line actually watch Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners and say- “I think they’re right. Let’s give him $300 million and let him make his Lord of the Rings“. I think so; it’s that good a movie, though not exactly the way the LOTR are. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #14 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins teaches an important lesson in screenwriting. You can rescue a so-so film with a spectacular climax.

For all practical purposes, this is the first Batman movie. It tells the classical superhero origin story in its own reimagined way. While this may not be the best Batman movie ever, this is by far the best Batman of all time. As a character, Batman as played by Christian Bale, is one of the most well developed and well acted superheroes. The problem with previous incarnations was that you did not know about (or care about) Bruce Wayne. For the first time, with Batman Begins, you actually do. More than you do about Batman. Continue reading →