FTII People

Movie 4 d week : Broken Flowers(2005)

Language : English

Director : Jim Jarmusch

Don Johnston (played effortlessly by Bill Murray) is being dumped by his latest girlfriend, Sherry (the lovely Julie Delpy of 'Before Sunrise', 'Before Sunset' and 'White' of the Colors trilogy fame). And while on her way out she says "Looks like you got a love letter from one of your other girlfriends". Don looks at it disinterestedly. But then his neighbour, Winston (Jeffrey Wright of 'Presumed innocent', 'Lady in the water', 'Syriana', 'Casino Royale' fame) urges him to explore the contents of the pink letter. The letter is anonymous and presumably from one of his ex-lovers and claims he has a 19-year old son from their affair together. Now he draws up a list of all the women he has been with during his carefree days. Don sets out on a trip across the country to look up all his ex-girlfriends, one after the other. He visits each one of them with flowers, beginning with Laura (Sharon Stone) where he also meets her outrageous daughter Lolita. Next he meets Dora (Frances Conroy) and her husband over dinner where he has to find out, and in a very uncomfortable way, if she has a 19-year old son from their days together. This is followed by his meeting with Dr.Carmen (Jessica Lange) and finally Penny (Tilda Swinton) whose boyfriends beat up Don and leave him in his car. He leaves with broken flowers and heads home when he bumps into a lost teenager. Could this teenager be his son… Bill Murray plays to perfection the old businessman with a playboy past. Recommended viewing on a lazy Saturday.

Somehow felt like watching this one all over again after my alumni meet. J.

Also watched 'Down by law'(A Palador / Moser Baer release where each movie goes with an FTII film. 'Do hafte guzarte do hafte nahin lagte', by Rajula Shah, in this case), one of the earlier Jim Jarmusch fims. Brilliant. 'Coffee and Cigarettes', 'Dead man', 'The Ghost dog' etc by the same director are worth adding to your collection. Awaiting 'The limits of control' which should be out next year.

Useless trivia : Jim Jarmusch with 'Permanent vacation' supposedly introduced his own and unique dead pan style also evident in 'Down by law'. Jim Jarmusch is the founder of 'The sons of Lee Marvin' club and one of the requirements to join the club is that you should have some physical resemblance to one of the sons of Lee Marvin. Any takers?

NB : Women not allowed entry to this club I gather. Lee Marvin sure will be pleased but his son apparently isn't, for reasons totally different though.

Movie 4 d week : I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)

Language : English / Finnish

Director : Aki Kaurismaki

Henri Boulanger (Jean-Pierre Leuad of '400 Blows', 'Pierret le fou', 'C'est la vie', 'Made in America, 'Day for night', 'Testament of Orpheus', 'Alphaville', etc) is an immigrant, a Frenchman in London, who loses his job of almost 15 years. He is upset with life and decides to commit suicide. But then there is one problem. He simply can't. He decides to hire a contract killer to get none other than himself killed that is. Once he has hired a contract killer he is waiting for death to come and meanwhile goes around exploring. To complicate matters he 'falls' in love with flower-seller Margaret (Margi Clarke). And now life is not so depressing after all. The only problem is he doesn't want to die anymore but the contract guys go missing. And they are no cheats and will do full justice to a contract they have taken up. The killer (Kenneth Colley of Admiral Pieth of 'Star Wars' fame, Jesus of 'Life of Brian' and the Soviet Colonel in 'Firefox') has been hired and he is on Henri's trail. Few encounters with the killer followed by the superb climax make this film a very interesting watch.

It sure was worth sourcing this from my cousin in the US. Sure hope to access more of his movies particularly 'Leningrad Cowboys Go America' and 'The Man without a past'. Also watch by the same director some of the films in the Leningrad Cowboys series. Attaching links.

Those were the days


Rocky VI


True the wire


Useless trivia : Aki Kaurismaki's first film was "Crime and Punishment' based on Dostoevsky's classic but set in modern day Helsinki i gather. Aki Kaurismaki appears as a Sunglass salesman in the film. He has also edited 'I hired a Contract killer' himself. Also Joe strummer makes a rare cameo appearance in the movie.