Un secret

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490234. A man talks about a shocking secret he learned when he was young. But he still loves both his parents and the love each other. 6/10

4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle

I don't even know whether I like liked or disliked this Eric Rohmer episodic movie about a country girl and city girl. I think I enjoyed it. 6/10.

A Wednesday

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280558/. Saw this in theater some time back. The best movie on terrorism in general and bombings-in-city
in particular that I have seen in a long long time. Far far superior to Amir and Khuda Ke Liye and definitely better then Black Friday, because this is fiction. 8.5/10.

Talaye sorkh (2003)

Crimson Gold is the first film I have seen of director Jafar Panahi, but the writer is Abbas Kiarostami. This may be blasphemy, but I might be getting tired of movies-without-stories nature of Iranian movies. The movie is well made and the lead actor Hossain Emadeddin is very good. He is supposed to be a very likable chracter, but I didn't find him particularly so. I am not clear why a frail looking rich guy would invite a BIG pizaa delivery man to inside his palatial apartment to share dinner. Maybe these things happen.

Maybe need for a while to see movies that have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Un été inoubliable

AkA An Unforgettable Summer. A young Romanian army captain's wife is, err, approached, by a senior office during a Ball. Her playful ridicule earns her husband duty at the Bulgarian border. Once there, she tries to make friends with Bulgarians peasants captured. The high command orders their execution, which her husband refuses to comply with.

The same senior office visits the post in person, give a last chance offer to the captain. The captain still refuses, but the executions happen anyway. The army captain is called back to the base and given a hard time.

When the same senior office came to the border, I half expected the wife to offer herself so as to save the peasant's lives. Perhaps the initial scene was there to make audience expect that.

Fairly decent movie. Very pretty woman good acting by both her (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her husband Claudiu Bleont). 6.5/10.

Khuda Ke Liye

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068956. A fairly decent Pakistani movie on religious fanaticism. I thought there were two stories: A musician from wealthy pakistani family goes to Chicago school of music, just before 9/11. He gets picked up, tortured and eventually deported in vegetable condition. The other story is about his brother, who turns jihadi, kidnaps to Afghanistan and marries a cousin from UK at her father's request so she does not marry a "gora" but eventually has to give in because of foreign pressure -- as in apache helicopters. Naseer's role is publicized but he only comes in in the end, as a sensible cleric who speaks on behalf of the woman. 6/10.

Dark Harbor

Now this was a really bad movie. Man gets his boy friend to seduce his wife so they can kill her and live happily ever after. 3/10

La Seconda Moglie

The second wife. A teenage boy's relationship with his father's wife. We recognized Lazar Ristovski, who we saw earlier in Emir Kusturica's Undergroud. Which was surprising, because it is difficult to take your eyes off Maria Grazia Cucinotta.

For an adulterous theme, it is not obnoxious. The subject is, as they say, sensitively handled. And that alone makes it a decent fare. But there's isn't much more going for it. 5/10 for me.

Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand (2004)

Turtles Can Fly. How melancholy can it get? If there is a storyline to the movie, I don't know what it is. Maybe it is the story of the street-smart kid Satellite. Or maybe it's the story of teenage refugee raped and with a child and brother who lost both his arms in a mine blast. Or maybe it is about the boy who could tell future. Anyway, it is such a shock you can't even cry.

But what I would really like to know is how the maker got such great acting out of kids, including a toddler. 7.5/10

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045670/. Saw this last night, story of a happy school teacher. She speaks so much I kept thinking she is going to get on my nerves, but she didn't. Probably because she is so funny. Moral of the story: speak a lot only if you know you are funny. 6/10.

Aamir (2008)

Last night saw first time director Raj Kumar Gupta's thriller-with-a-moral story Aamir. Aamir Ali, doctor returning to India from UK, finds his family is missing on his arrival in India. He gets first a phone and then calls from some guy who blackmails him into immediately participating in some terrorism related activity and later fooled into setting up a bomb.

Does he plant the bomb in the bus or sacrifice his and probably his family's life?

Overall the treatment is nice and the movie is fast paced enough so you can ignore its flaws. 6/10.

Duelle (une quarantaine)

The other day we sat down to see this movie. I am sure it must be a very good movie, but we couldn't quite understand what was going on. I even kept confusing between the characters and wasn't quite able to follow the story line. I am not going to rate it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074443

Baramnan gajok

A Good Lawyer's wife. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372782.

A lawyer's wife, herself a dancer, bored with life, first notices a teenage neighbor peeping on her and subsequently has an affair with him. The husband is a busy man but not too busy to have his own affair on the sly.

Overall an interesting movie. But some parts grossed me out, like the adopted son's killing.
5/10.

Throne of Blood (1957)

Kurosawa's Kumonosu jô, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050613. I definitely didn't like it as much as other movies of the master. Seemed very monotonous to me. 6/10 for me (but what do I know).

Matrimonio all'italiana

AKA Marriage Italian-Style. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058335. For a Vittorio De Sica movie I found it barely ok. Sophia Loren is of course as good as ever and just impossible to take eyes off but I really didn't think it was all that funny. 5.5/10 for me.

The Hours (2002)

Pretty good movie combining three stories, I am sure you can read all about that at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274558/. Great acting by Nicole Kidman and Merys Streep. But I really liked Julianne Moore most. 6.5/10.

Rescue Dawn (2006)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462504/.

Herzog goes to Hollywood? Not quite, though definitely not one of his best. To me Herzog is rain-forests and significant in the protagonist's character, as he takes on the...mountain, jungle, river, whatever. This movie has both. 7.50/10 for me.

Evening (2007)

Story of a woman on her death-bed as she remembers about a "mistake" committed in past, long long time ago. Long long time ago she went to one of her best friend's wedding, whose younger brother had a crush on her. She did not, and ended up sleeping with this guy who both her best friend and her younger brother had a crush on. And the brother died in a hit and run. While she was in bed with this guy, or so she thinks.

Some think its mesmerizing, others find it boring. I find it somewhere in the middle. Good acting by Venssa Redgrave and others. 5.5/10.

Zir-e noor-e maah (2001)

In what I am now discovering to be a typical Iranian style (if it is a formula it is a rather complex one) Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi's Under the Moonlight starts with a simple trigger and goes on to take serious shape. A madarada student doesn't really want to become a priest and go to back to village finally decides to do it for his father's sake. He buys cloth and shoes for the ceremony, which is stolen by an urchin on the train. The rest of the movie is this guys hunt for the stolen goods, his meeting "people under the bridge" where the urchin hangs out and discovering things more important then ceremonies. Perhaps a little naive, black and white; the poor are essentially nice people suffering for no fault of theirs. Still, very touching. 7/10.

I have seen now a few "hunting for stolen goods" movies. From best southwards, I would order them Nora Inu, Blue Umbrella and then this, Under the Moonlight.

Se, jie (2007)

Completed Ang Lee's much hyped thriller set in WWII China. Definitely very enjoyable but far from a classic. 6/10

Gandhi, My Father (2007)

The subject is close to heart so obviously enjoyed a lot. The making is quite decent. Excellent performances by all four leading actors. But somewhere I felt the movie was unfair to Harilal Gandhi. He keeps saying his parents are responsible for his failures but the movie itself does not demonstrate that, nor does it assert that Harilal is wrong.

Khoya Khoya Chand (2007)

Translation: Lost Moon. Story of a woman lost in the world of 70s (and earlier) Hindi Film Industry. Problem is, so is the movie, lost in the world of the aforementioned. While the same aforementioned is portrayed very well, it is at the cost of story telling. I had a hard time keeping track of the story. Comparing to the other Actress in dirty industry with wolves all around movie, Bhumika, this one can't hold a candle at it.

Sudhir Mishra is a good film maker, but I sincerely did not enjoy this on. Soha Ali Khan is a fine actress, but then I became her fan when I saw her on Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa a few weeks back.

5.5/10.

Khamosh Pani (2003)

AKA Silent Waters. Story of a the emotional trauma of a mother as she sees her son -- and a country -- descend into fundamentalism. The subject of partition is close to heart and therefore appealing. The movie is also well made and we enjoyed watching it. But I think the subject and events are lot more powerful then the making.

The one I watched has a short interview of the lead actress Kirron Kher in the beginning where she says the director Sabiha Sumar is a Pakistani, married to Sri-Lankan, living in Delhi. Talk about regional integration.

The story reminds one of Pinjar, Punjabi girl left behind in Pakistan during partition marries a Muslim and converts to Islam. But the stress is on the woman's emotions in Pinjar while the political implication in Khamosh Pani. Though the making is better here too, I think I enjoyed Pinjar a lot more, probably because I was hearing Amrita Pritam's writing instead of the Dwivedi guy's making.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357283/. 6/10