Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Kill Bill Grandeur

This is a very happy period for me. I am getting to experience one cinematic art after another. Yes 'experience' it is rather than just watching. Quentin Tarantino has displayed sheer class in the Kill Bill volumes. Cinematic art at its best. The two movies are so delicately intertwined that its injustice to view/review them individually. A layman will view the movies as ones with gross violence and dirty tricks. But if you keenly pay attention to the level of meticulous detail in all dialogues and scenes, you will know that these are works of a master filmmaker. QT rocks.

Uma Thurman was created only to act in this movie. I don't see any other Hollywood actress in her place. Beauty, anger, wrath, frustration all adorn her face and personality equally effectively. Insequential editing, a QT trademark spices up the proceedings. The editing chronology is disturbed not only in each volume but the whole two volume set as well. Not once do you forget what happened in Vol. 1 when you're watching the sequel. Use of foot-tapping background soundtracks during serious fights scenes can only come through the mind of QT. The movies look authentic. They are a blast.

The Village (Weirdness Wins)

M. Night Shyamalan has always impressed me. So prior to my comment on The Village, I would pen something for this great Indian American director. MNS's films always carry some solid undercurrent of an idea. Can't call it the central theme. The incidents depicted all belong to this undercurrent. Sixth Sense differs in that it lacked this undercurrent but was an excellent movie nontheless. Unbreakable (contrasts/balance) and Signs (no coincidences) had these undercurrents in their best form. Weirdness, suspense and thrills all rolled into one epitomize his films.

The Village is weirdness at its best. It falls into the same category as The Sixth Sense in that there is no substantial undercurrent idea. It stayed with me long after it was over. My brain could not come to terms with it and thats the best thing about it. That made me like it. I know my movie absorbing prowess and can confidently say no movie invokes (or intrigues) me much. Be it horror or romance or gross violence, I can take it all well. But this movie made me uneasy for a long time after it ended. This effect has made me a follower of this intelligent filmmaker. I hope he keeps on developing good ideas like this in future. Critics and movie-goers have had mixed opinions about this film (moslty negative). For the record, The Village opened along with Bourne Supremacy and The Manchurain Candidate. Three weeks later the chart rankings prove my point. Weirdness wins! It has too.