Delon, the clothing moghul?

Plein Soleil (Purple Noon, French; 1960)
Director: René Clément

Malaysians are more familiar with Alain Delon as a stylish clothing brand than as an accomplished actor. He was definitely an accomplished person, and he is synonymous with French cinema in the vein of Gérard Depardieu and Bridgette Bardot. Like his career, his personal life was colourful, with criminal investigations, multiple affairs, and offspring.

He died at the age of 88 in 2024.

In his heyday, he was a prolific actor with sex appeal who toured between French cinema and Hollywood. 

This is one of his early movies, which launched his career. It is a dark tale about two buddies who have a strange relationship. Delon, the poorer of the duo, is constantly bullied and ridiculed by his wealthy friend. Actually, they are not friends at all. Delon is just a messenger passing a message from his father for a fee. The rich guy has a yacht and a pretty girlfriend. 

Long story short, Delon kills the rich guy and assumes his identity. He then tries to woo his girlfriend by spinning a tale that the boyfriend left her for another. Meanwhile, the police are hot on his trail because they smell a rat. The rest of the story is a cat-and-mouse game, with Delon running from the police and the girlfriend finding her lover. It has excellent entertainment value.

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The best time is the present!

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Director: Edgar Wright

We always like to think of the 'good old days' and how life was simpler then and people were honest. Were they really so? Artefacts from our pasts stir so much serotonin that nostalgia sells. Like Pavlov's dog, we drool at sephia photos of yesteryear. Would we really give up everything we have right now and recoil into the past and do it all again if those days were indeed so simple?

If we were to delve into our lives, we should consider ourselves lucky to have survived the negativities that could have brought us down at every single turn of our lives. We should thank our lucky stars that the turns we took at the crossroads of our decision-making moments turned out to be a-OK. Not perfect, could have been better than could have been worse off. What made us take the right turn? Is it some kind of guardian angel, guiding light, our sheer intellect or the deeds of our past karma? I guess it is a topic for the sophists to argue and convince, not the simpletons.

Nobody is saying that life is so easy that we should just accept life as it unfolds upon us without giving a good fight. We should not be fatalistic and just surrender to fate as fate is what we make of it. Akin to the conundrum of whether God had decided that war should commence would also depend on us sending the battleship. Even if God had decided that a battle should occur, it would not happen unless and until we send our armada! Future depends on us and our actions or inactions.

This film tries to us that any time can be a good or bad time. The present can be as challenging as the past and the future. There were injustices before, just as it is now and will be in time to come.  Bigotry, bullying and wanting to domineer is engrained in our DNA. 

Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer from the countryside, gets her break when accepted into the London College of Design. She grew up with her grandmother as her mother, a fashion design aspirant, killed herself when Eloise was young. Eloise sometimes sees visions of her mother. Longing to be with her mother, Eloise, showed a keen interest in things of the swinging 60s. In keeping with this motif, we are sprinkled with many of the British invasion songs of the 60s, e.g. Petula Clark (Downtown) and Cilla Black. A pleasant surprise inclusion is Dusty Springfield's 'Wishing and Hoping', James Ray's 'Got my mind set on you' (Cover by George Harrison in 1980s), Sandie Shaw's 'Always something there to remind me' (Cover by Naked Eyes in 1983) and many more.

Eloise found her batchmates quite repulsive of her background, and hence, she found her own accommodation. It appeared ideal for her as it appeared that time had stood still in that room. The settings were like the 60s. It was fine until she started having recurrent vivid nightmares in which she also became a participant and witnessed a murder. 

After a heady rollercoaster ride into the past and future, Eloise finally resolves her issues and pursue her aspirations as how a good movie should end!

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A walk into the past!

Roaring Thunder Revue (Netflix; 2019)
A Bob Dylan Story (Directed by Martin Scorsese)

In a way, it looks like a mockumentary. It captures a specific time during Bob Dylan's tour of Northern America. It was 1975 and Dylan did a hodgepodge musical tour with no preset number of performers. Artistes of the era joined in as they landed in various towns. A diehard Dylon fan may know these people by hard, but to me, only Joni Mitchell rings a bell.

This film puts forward the actual 16mm footage of this tour with present-day Dylan giving interviews. Over time, probably with the state of intoxication that the musicians were in, many of the information remains a blur. The real reason the title of the tour is one instance. One says it is an honour to a Native American chief, Rolling Thunder. Yet, one cites the weather at the start of the planning of the trip. Could it be that it was about the open secret North Vietnam carpet-bombing by the American Forces during the Vietnam War? After all, Dylan's songs were mostly carried social messages and injustices in society.


But wait. I got my bearings all crossed when the documentary started talking about American bicentenary celebrations and Nixon's resignation which happened in 1976 and 1974 respectively while the concert was in 1975! 


Even if one is not a Dylan fan or a neophyte, he would surely appreciate the Kabuki-esque painted Dylan and sometimes his ex-beau, Joan Baez, belting out meaningful songs with social messages. There were songs about Ruben Carter, the middleweight potential World Boxing Champion and his wrongful arrest for murder. Then there was a song (the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol) about deadly assault of three black hotel workers by a drunk white male. The assailant went scot-free.

Sure, intoxicants were used left, right and centre. It is interesting how, in some people, these substances managed to open a new window to shows them things from another angle. It is a known fact that hallucinogens, naturally occurring or synthetically produced ones, open portals into a totally different realm that is rarely assessed by the conscious mind. Some individuals managed to harvest knowledge from here for the betterment of mankind while others just succumb to the persuasion of the Maya.

History of Mankind has thought us that every intoxicant is this world, if not treated with respect, will lead to destruction. Tobacco, even though the Native Americans had been using it during their entire early civilisation in the continent that was later called the Americas, they never had any problem with it. The smoking of pipe was a sacrosanct ritual with a specific purpose. When the European explorers brought it back home for leisure, it became a problem. The same scenario with the coca plant and the Aztecs. Workers were chewing coca doing backbreaking jobs without a fuss. When the pillaging Spaniards brought it home, and soon the physicians recommended it as the panacea for all ailments from morning sickness to migraine and alcohol addiction, it became a social problem. Alcohol which was unknown amongst the Native American became an issue when it was introduced there.

The take-home message is to treat everything with respect. No single substance is without side-effect. It is just that it is yet to be discovered. Sugar is sweet but try drinking concentrated syrup. You would not stomach it!

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Life on fast lane

My Generation (Documentary; 2017)


This documentary is mainly about the rise and demise of the British Invasion generation. It was the time after World War 2. Euphoria was everywhere. Clement Attlee and his Labour Party gave a shot in the arm for the working class people. NHS made medical services accessible to the average Joe. Education became free. The divide between the aristocrat and the common man soon became blurred. The class demarcation became a thing of the past. Everyone has the opportunity to prosper. Clothing became democratised. The normal sombre tone of the garments became strikingly loud and short. Dressing-up was no longer to cover the bare essentials and to keep warm but became a statement of anti-establishment.

As it became to generations to come, the generation before thought that the society was heading to a path of decadence and Armageddon was nay.

Music became an annoyance to the elders. Rock and roll music could not be contained by the powers that be. The youngsters, creative as they were, even got around the legal wrangle by transmitting them from a boat as Radio Caroline.

The popular music and their new-age gurus dictated what fashion is and what is haute couture. The introduction of contraceptive pills to the general public further empowered the younger generation and especially the girls, to come out of the cocoon of being treated as second-class citizens. The young ones dictated what they wanted and were not going to take the orders of the oldies lying down.

With music appreciation also came recreational drugs. This, in essence, can be said to be the cause of the downfall of the 60s generation. Addiction, overdose and death brought this flamboyant age to its self-destruction.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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A kid's movie with murder?

Avana Ivan? (Is that him?, Tamil; 1962)

Directed and Produced by S. Balachander

It is supposed to be based on a murder which happened in the USA at the early of 20th century. An executive killed his pregnant secretary on a boat trip to marry a rich woman. The story created such a sensation that it a spawned a best seller novel and a 1951 Hollywood hit, 'A Place in the Sun'.

The lone wolf, S. Balachander, wrote the screenplay for this film based the above hit, just that this Tamil version ended up as more of a children's show. Two children witness a brutal and fatal beating of a lady. They are totally composed throughout the event and afterwards, showing no emotional catastrophe but have the composure to narrate the whole incident to adults around them. Unfortunately, none the adults including the police take them seriously. Balachander, the flamboyant director, acts as the anti-hero to have committed the heinous for the same reason; to dispose of his pestering girlfriend to marry a rich man's daughter to win his business deals.

Interspersed in the narration is the evil wife of the businessman with her piercing tongue and incisive words, the daughter with her love of a commoner as well as the bane of being amongst the slave class. For comedic relief, there is the bumbling chef with his horrendous culinary skills and his antics of courting his neighbour!

Kudos go to the two child actors. One of them is Kutti Padmini, the child prodigy who went on to act in many more films later. Her magnum opus was 1965 hit 'Kulanthaiyum Deivamum, a Tamil version of 'Parent Trap' where she acts in a dual role.

S. Balachander gives a stellar performance as a killer without over-acting. He is likeable as an actor and is very comfortable in front of the camera. He even composed the music.

"Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!"

Seven Days in May (1963)

Humans are social animals, they say. We need each other to survive. We should look at one another as our brothers and sisters to sail through the journey of life. They say we should look at another not by colour or creed, but as a fellow being seeking temporary sojournment on Planet Earth. That, borders and nation states are artificial boundaries created by multinational conglomerates with business and acquisition of wealth on their mind!

But snap out of it! This is what we have. Various nations wanting to do better than the other and do not to be taken for a fool by others. An entity called nationalism evolved over differences and the trust was put on a piece of cloth and the writings which define the nation, the Constitution. Leaders are elected democratically to guard this common belief that the Constitution is supreme, infallible and can stand the test of time as the founding fathers were visionaries extraordinaire!

We all may not be happy with how things are done but we have it stick to the majority decision. That is how it works, we state our displeasure at the ballot box, the democratic way. Any other way should surely spell mayhem and that would be healthy for our State, if we loved it so much! But then, most people are not visionaries and cannot even see beyond their next meal. They need to be coerced and shown the way. For that, we have the political platform, not the hostile military takeover.

At the heights of the Cold War just after the Cuban nuclear crisis, came a book which predicted a time in the future, in the 1970s, of a situation where a nuclear disarmament treaty is to be signed. The President's rating is at an all-time low for putting the mighty USA in a cowardly stance, believing that Communist Russians would stay true to paper. The general scream for 4-star General James Scott (Burt Lancaster) to take over the helm.

The whole premise of the story is about the observant Colonel Casey (Kirk Douglas), the personal assistant to General Scott, who notices many peculiarities and deduce that his boss was planning a coup d'etat! As a loyal citizen, he brings his case to the President himself. After much deliberation, the President and his band of trusted men unfold a takeover of the Government by rogue Army personnel.

Over the years, either by own volition or by certain undetermined events in history, we are all divided into nation states. We are given sovereignty and the free rein to lead our country to whatever direction we want to. It is our birthright to protect and preserve the visions that our forefathers had. We are not expected to just at the sideline when someone from somewhere who have failed miserably their own backyard, comes to our country upon our kind humane gesture, tells us that we are doing it all wrong. They, instead, want to inculcate their failed ideology into ours! No way, Jose!

...and the storm clouds emerged!

Inspector George Gently (Mini Series Seasons 1-7; 2007-present)

There are police procedural dramas and there are police procedural dramas. What makes this British drama stand out from the rest are manifolds. For one, it is one set in an era when life was simple and was getting complicated. The pilot episode starts in 1964 and it slowly goes on to the tumultuous years at the end of that decade. We can slowly see the gender roles change from a patriarchal one slowly to one where the skirts get shorter and the brassieres go missing. In the time frame, the death penalty was removed in the UK.

The seemingly euphoric times of the post WW2 era sees the baby boomers and their offspring experience the darker side of progress. The working class were no more dancing to the tune of the aristocrats. They start standing up for the rights against the perceived tyranny and the old order of the ruling class. Many minority groups start demanding for their rightful place in society. The general public becomes vocal critics of their leaders, especially with their handling of world politics and Vietnam. In their earlier seasons, brutal ways to elicit information from suspects are totally acceptable but slowly accusations of police brutality start creeping in.

Martin Shaw who assumes the role of

CI Gently as we knew in the 70s as

MI6 agent in 'The Professionals'.

The world seems simple enough is the early 60s. Smoking in closed offices are accepted norms. One by one, the ill-effects of modernisation surface. Mesothelioma and its link to asbestos come to light. The poor working condition of coal miners becomes an issue. The unholy union of businessmen and people of power puts self-interest above that of the majority, especially of the little men.

The one thing about this mini-series that captivated me all through is the prop and setting. The buildings, cars, attire, hairstyles all gave a convincing account as if it was made in the 60s. Pretty impressive. The shooting of the picturesque countryside adds on to its credibility. The mood is set again with melodious tunes of the bygone era of songs not so frequently heard.

Gently (Martin Shaw), a Chief Inspector of Police solves many murders in the vein of 'Mid Summer Murders' which was set at about a similar setting, using traditional police investigative techniques. This type of drama are clearly a far departure of what we see as police dramas on TV today. The police officers sit in front of their monitor the whole day just to solve the case at the end of the episode without getting their hands dirty!

The mini series come with great one-liners and profound lines on life. There are many philosophical quotations like one from Edmund Burke - The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing!

As Gently and his sergeant, John Baccus, deal with many hard knocks of life, the dialogue becomes darker as the seasons advance. Gently is dealing with the death of his wife and secretly has to terms with onset of multiple sclerosis. Baccus is handling a broken marriage.
They perceive the world as an ungrateful lot. They start questioning the meaning of doing things for the greater good, whether there is honour in war and that nothing is like it is, except death! They wonder what they are doing is right, living a life digging into other people's misery. What do you do to the riot in the heart? You silence it. Really?

The next season, Season 8, scheduled for release in 2017 is supposed to be the last.

Then, it hits you!

A Single Man (2009)

So, what do you do when someone in whom you put all your hope disappoints you? What do you do when your dreams come crashing down? How do you reconcile with the situation when everything seems hopeless and there is nothing else to look forward to?

Do you call it quits? Do you live the rest of your life, miserably, in the memory of the good times you had with the special other? Do you get real, be a pragmatist, be level headed and start life anew and do it all again? Do you call that betrayal or realistic as life has to go on? Do you recoil into a world of solitude where you are king and nothing else matters? Do you recharge yourselves and keep your sanity by engaging yourself? They say your life is your making, your karma; your suffering your making. You decide your life is heaven or hell. They make it sound so simple as if we control the rein to the path that we go. It can be simple if there are no others involved in the journey. Otherwise, it can be too complicated as it involves too many variables. And one cannot, just at will, disentangle himself from worldly commitments and sins of his previous actions.

Do you focus your time and effort in other non-emotional duties? Perhaps, you can plunge head-on into your vocation for clear-headedness. Divert your attention to other equally fulfilling work.

Do you console yourself that you had had a time of your life and just spend the rest of your living life in memory of the glorious past you once had? Is it not living in the past and forgetting the present, now and future?

Do you put the past aside and start life anew, morphing into a new creature? You want to live life to the tilt when there can be no better time than now!

Do you re-live your life to go astern and re-do all the things that you always wanted to do and never had the chance to!

Or do you just throw in the towel and call it quits? Just leave the building?

These are just some of the questions that go through the mind of the protagonist of this movie. Set against the background of a 1962 America where the threat of nuclear annihilation with the Cuba standoff is looming in the background, he, a university professor, is grieving the loss of his boyfriend. In keeping with the sensitivity of the times, he also has to keep his sexual preference in the closet.

As in many things in life, the answers to all our questions spring out on its own spontaneously without any probing. It is a funny but evil way to smack things right on our faces. Life has a cruel sense of humour. Just when you think you had it made and everything is under control, boom it hits you!

Raindrops keep falling on my head!

Cathy Come Home (1964)

This is the story of many societies. The urban dwellers, unable to keep up in the rat race, get left behind. Initially occupying the centre of the city, as their earning capacity declines or the opportunity dwindles, they get displaced. Slowly they abandon their urban dwelling to sojourn for something modest at its fringes. With further obstacles, they go further to the suburbs. In the best of times, they form the backbone of the workforce. As the economic pie gets smaller and the profit to the bosses takes a dip, they are replaced by economic migrants who would work for a song.

And the original urban dwellers would show their resentment to the migrants and the system they plunge further into hopelessness. The bourgeoisie blames the poor for taking it easy, for their decadence and not saving for a rainy day. The poor feels that it is their birthright to be cared for, after all, they contributed immensely to the progress of the country. The politicians try to be the nice one to all parties. They need the poors' votes and the wealthy's financial support. Does it all sound too familiar?

This problem was there in the post-WW2 Britain, and it is here in 21st century Malaysia. It is the familiar story of the marginalised.

This 1964 offering appeared as a TV drama on the BBC as a sort of a public service to announce to the general public about the urban poor and their desperate situation being pushed around like herds by the system which was ill-prepared to cater for their housing needs. The portrayal of Cathy by Carol White was so convincing that she was often stopped in the streets to be pushed money in the hand and friendly words of encouragement!

This show was shot and told in a documentary-neorealistic style with mostly outdoor shooting straying away from studio dramas which were norm those days.

A free-spirited easy going girl, Cathy, meets Reg, a crane driver or something of sorts. With the spring of youth and the spirit of optimism, they plunge into matrimony only to discover that life is not a bed of roses. Hardship rears its ugly head in various forms. Reg gets injured and loses his job. People look at children as God's gift to humankind and that there can be nothing more precious than own flesh, bone and DNA. So, Cathy and Reg receive the news of her pregnancy with open arms. She stops working. Then comes another baby and another. What can they do? It is just an act of love and of God through Man.

Their kind landlady dies, and her next of kins demand Cathy's arrears of rent. Soon they join the long list of the homeless. The queue for government housing facility is endless. They are shooed away like flies as they occupy caravans and empty spaces. Their children just grow like wildflowers, without necessary medical attention and educational needs. The relationship between adults is also not exemplary but go on by making the best of what they have and making themselves feeling contented.

Cathy and Reg lose a child in a fire. She eventually gets a temporary shelter for herself and the two kids, but her husband is not welcome. Slowly, the family breaks up. Reg rarely visits his family, Cathy loses her temporary accommodation and also her children to social services when they are forcibly removed from her when she is seen strolling aimlessly at the railway station.

The film created such an impact after its release that the issue of homelessness became a national agenda and was discussed in the Parliament. Sadly, as the director, Ken Loach puts it, it was a storm in a teacup. It was business as usual for the capitalist. Loach went on to direct many social awakening films. His latest offering is the dilemma of a working class man who has to work to support himself due to bureaucratic rulings but against his doctors' advice.

One of the reasons why the Chinese diaspora prosper wherever they go is their outlook towards life. Staying true to Confucius' teachings, education is given paramount importance. The desire to own land and properties is high on their list of things to do. These two traits with the desire to strive hard must the secret of success in life. This must also be the reason the concept of 'Malay Reserve Land' was thought about when the British realised that the Rulers had a real possibility of losing their ancestral land to new economic migrants at the turn of the 20th century.

Without a shelter above their heads and education (and a birth certificate), a Man will be considered a persona-non-grata in this country and has to make way to the next highest bidder. In essence, you are a slave to system.

I get no satisfaction!

Seconds 1966

Man can never be satisfied with what he has. He is forever yearning for the unattainable and not satisfied with what he already has. If by a twist of fate, he is bestowed with his boon, he would still feel discontented and would crave for what he already had before!

This obscure sci-fi thriller never left its mark on anyone’s list of favourite movies. Nevertheless, it has many meaningful philosophical messages which are relevant to mankind even 50 years after its release.

It follows the mundane life of a middle age banking executive whose purpose in life seems to have been lost along the way. Having two adult kids who could fend for themselves, a predictable routine which gives him a comfortable life and cursory purposeless conversation with his wife appear meaningless to Arthur Hamilton. He wants something else but what is it?

A mysterious phone call from his supposedly dead friend brings him to an eerie clinic which promises him a complete make-over of himself into a new youthful life in a new young body. Using arm-twisting techniques, he is coerced into agreement.

That is life is, isn’t it? We are constantly dragged into situations which are beyond our control. Whether we like it or not, precluding situations tie our hand and we have to cave.

So, Arthur gets a body and a new life as a painter, Tony (Rock Hudson), in Malibu. The clinic stages a hotel fire to ‘kill off’ Arthur. Tony slowly adapts into his new identity, get a new love interest but soon feels out of place with his new found friends. He yearns for his old life and wife.

We seek pleasure that is short lived!

He gets drunk at a party and almost blows his cover, only to discover that many around him are actual ‘reborns’, just like him. Upon, Tony insistence of being reborn again, he is actually taken for the process. The only difference is that he will be somebody else’s cadaver!

The soul of modern man is hollow. Despite attaining many feats in his life, he still has that unaccomplished feeling. He is never satisfied. He does not know what he wants in the first place. When opportunities fall at his feet, he is sceptical. He wonders whether his choice is the right one. He is just drawn in by gut feeling or peer pressure. After choosing a certain path, he wonders whether he should have chosen an alternative way especially when his chosen one meets an obstacle. He starts imagining and appreciating all the things that he had before but failed to value. He wishes he could turn back the clock. In spite of what philosophers tell about time being all illusion and McTaggart’s unreality of time argument, we cannot go to a time which we left.

At the end of the day, what are we left with? Unfilled shattered dream. We may not be able to control dream but at least, when we dream, the concept of time does not matter!

Murder, funny matter?

Murder She Said (1961)

Come to think of it, she is a bit like some of the slightly older people in our lives that we know. (Hush, hush). All inquisitive and nosy at times. Poking their heads into unnecessary businesses and insisting what they saw was right and usually is. It sometimes can be annoying to the affected parties and invades into their something quite private called privacy. To the nosy-pokers, the older generations usually, this concept may be something quite alien! However, there are some who, under the cloak of privacy, do secretive transactions and pass it off as national security and insist that it cannot be questioned. That is another topic for another day!

Margaret Rutherford

Across the Atlantic, in a year's time, Ursula Andres would emerge from the waves draped in what was hardly accepted as garment appropriate for general consumption. Their British cousins were quite contended with casting a 70-year-old Margaret Rutherford, hardly a sex symbol, in a murder mystery penned by Britain's favourite author, Agatha Christie.

Here, in a typical mystery murder fashion, Ms. Marple is the only witness to a murder that had taken place aboard a moving train. Ms. Marple had the pleasure of being able to be the only person able to give details of the mishap as two trains crossed path at a crossing. Expectedly, nobody could verify the death. Neither body nor evidence was found, making our elderly freelance crime buster a pain in the neck.

Unable to take no for an answer, Ms. Marple took police work into her hands. She goes undercover as a maid (an old maid? a wee bit oversized and over-aged to assume the role of agile worker, you may ask) when she deduced, after doing her investigation. She gains employment in an estate and solves the mystery amidst interesting multi-layered characters who are occupants of the estate, and all have a dark secret behind them.

Based on the book '4.50 from Paddington', the movie managed to turn the somber mood of the book to a lighthearted one. Thanks to Margaret Rutherford and the witty screenplay. A sheer joy to watch movies of yesteryears. Unlike the present trend of glamorising exposure of flesh and the use megalomaniac special effect techniques, here the emphasis is on its characterisation and story.

These boots are made for walking...

The Wild Angels (1966)

This movie is the prelude to the 1969 'Easy Rider' about counterculture movement. Honestly, there is nothing great to say about this one. It is about a bunch of young adults of the Hell's Angels just riding and riding being chased by cop, beating up people, breaking up things and getting high.

The thing that struck me was the two main actors - Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra, both offspring of great legends of showbiz, namely Henry Fonda and Frank Sinatra. Peter Fonda had his own successes and so did Nancy Sinatra. Nancy, famous with her signature tune 'These boots are made for walking', did not do so well in the silver screen as she did on the music front.
It made me uneasy whilst watching this movie is to see how offspring of a generation who had strived hard to make it big, never have the tenacity to scale great heights as the generation before them did. The story also reminds me of how the younger ones in any society at any time of history tend to be weaker and less resilient physically and mentally than their predecessors. The younger one also yearn for 'freedom' and the need to avert difficulty and sufferings. The living example around us is the ability to withstand labour pains. Our grandmothers and mothers just embraced childbirth with all its anxieties and uncertainties with the stride of life and the off loading their worries at the altar or at the lotus feet of the Divine.
The newer generation are not going to leave the moment of their joy to the hands of others without giving a fight. They want to know exactly goes on with them. within them and they will just not take the discomforts of childbirth lying down. They cannot accept the old grandma's tale of the pain of childbirth is nothing compared to pain of dying on a cross. Times change.

You are made to think that you are free!

Easy Rider (1969)

This classic of the late 60s glorifies the counterculture spirit of that era. Even though it seem to showcase a decadent lifestyle with hedonistic desires away from the usual requirements of society like working and following the law, herein lies the philosophical outlook on life. The message is imparted via the travelogues of two hippie bikers as the they span the USA from Los Angeles to St Louis to attend Mardi Gras before they retire in style in Florida with the ill-gotten stash of cash obtain by drug trafficking big time.

The riders (Wyatt@Captain America, Peter Fonda, the producer; Billy, Dennis Hopper, the director) pick up a hitchhiker and spend a night in a commune. In the 60s, people who were disillusioned with the way the capitalistic industrial world was heading, with war and nuclear threat, decide to give it all up to live the simple life with simple desires with lots of love and hallucinogens. The riders could see that the members of the commune, even though they think they are free, they are actually having a very hard time trying to grow their own grain in a hostile environment, bad soil, bad weather without the proper tools and know how. They seem to get detachment from their troubles through the performing arts. So, they are close to nature and away from modernity but are they truly happy and free?

They continue their journey only to find themselves arrested for 'parading without a permit' when they rode through a street parade. In the lock-up, they get the good acquaintance of a drunken lawyer in the same cell, George Hanson (the most talented actor, Jack Nicholson) who got them out and followed them en route to attend the Mardi Gras. Another bashing at free American, people need to get a permit to parade in public!
Jack Nicholson's presence really livens up the whole movie after that.
They stop at a diner. Their presence in the squeaky clean town is not welcomed. The diners would not take their orders and the sheriff's men gave condescending looks on their gruffly unkempt appearances. The older townsfolk made disparaging remarks about their lifestyles and even sexual orientations. The young girls at the place are all starry eyed about them and would die to ride with them, so they say. To avert trouble, they leave. The message here is that, even though America is a free country, people are frowned upon for being different and vilified for that.

The hostility of the local men continued. They turned up at their camping site under the cloak of the darkness of the night to bash the living daylights out of the three bikers. George succumbed to his injuries.

Wyatt and Billy, obviously referring to Earp Wyatt and Billy the Kid of the Wild West, continue their journey. They symbolise the old America. Wyatt is dressed in a leather jacket emblazoned with the logo of American Eagle. Billy looks like he is draped in Indian garb, minus the headgear.

As they were riding along dreaming of their retirement in Florida, they passed by two farmers travelling in a pick up truck. Just for the heck of it, they shot both of them down! That is how the Old America was brought down. The New America and its inhabitants think they have the right formula to be free. Real freedom is a fallacy. The people is power, over time again and again, gave is the elusive idea that we are free while keeping us tight under their rein. By the way, what are we free from? Free from the evil that lurks around us? Free from the hardship of life? Free from our worldly obligations? Free from the cycle of Life? What are we free from?

NB. The film comes with an array of beautiful rock ballad from The Byrds, Steffanwolf, Bob Dylan and others. Film was shot exclusively outdoors depicting the picturesque landscape of the American wild.

Just another drama

Vennira Aadai (வெண்ணிற ஆடை,White Attire, Tamil; 1965)
Director: C.V. Sridhar

This movie remains the stepping stone for 4 of its main stars, namely Jayalalitha (her first Tamil film role), Sreekanth (even though he had been made famous a year earlier through another of Sridhar's hit, Kadhallika Neramillai), Nirmala and comedian Moorthy (who earned the prefix Vennira Adai to their names).
It reminds us of a time when being fully clothed to cover the bare necessities were of paramount importance and people were polite to each other!
Nostalgia was written all over the movie via its sepia hued print and the actors' attires which were all in shade of magenta, pink and brown.
Jayalalitha managed to showcase her star quality through her persona and ability to hold the attention of the viewers. She was considered bold, ahead of her time, as she was the first actress to be seen on Tamil cinema in a gown instead of the usual saree. Srikanth unfortunately was just an eye-candy appearing a tad stiff and emotionless, even though his role as a psychiatrist required him to be so. After that outing, his career stalled, given only stereotyped villainous roles.
Nirmala had her share to flaunt her acting skills in the beginning of the show but was somewhat overshadowed by Jayalalitha later on. Her career peaked briefly, gaining opportunity to star with big names but remained as the second line supporting actress. In fact the story concentrated mostly on Jayalalitha's role as a mentally deranged maiden who is treated to normalcy.
Moorthy, who is still acting, who is now quite irritatingly unfunny, managed to hold his role cracking wise cracks and conning his father to wed his allegedly millionaire girlfriend with a straight face.
Dr Chandru is an up and coming psychiatrist who is thinking of venturing into private practice. To get enough money to kickstart his practice, his superior recommends him to treat a tycoon's daughter who needs psychiatric help. He goes off to Kodaikanal leaving his sweetheart, Nirmala.
The patient, Shoba (Jayalalitha), seem to have regressed mentally to her childhood days after her parents had forced her to marry her cousin. Tragically, 2 hours after the wedding, the groom died sending her stuck in her own world of melancholia. Her millionaire father, Sunderajan, feels guilty of forcing her into the wedding and her misery.
Dr Chandru, with his expertise, nurses her back to health. Shoba, who was seen childlike as if was mentally challenged transformed into a demure lass who is well versed with etiquette and social grace! Then the trouble starts. Positive transference of affection of the patient to the care provider. Dr Chandru just plays along fearing that she might sink back into her illness if her love were rejected.
No major masala here - Shobha eavesdrops Dr Chandru's conversation, learn the truth about his pre-existing girlfriend and backs off.
She manifest in a widow's attire all in white to wish the newly wed of Dr Chandru and his wife, Nirmala.
I was wondering why the movie was named 'white attire'. Initially I thought it was going to denote the white gown donned by the people of the medical profession and how the protagonist stayed true and pure to the ideals and calls of the noble profession. Only at the end did it click to me that the social message at the end of the film about unkind segregation and restriction of the young widows.
Many evergreen melodious hits strung by Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy duo still vibrate like a ear worm.

Shadows of Norman Bates

Goodbye Again (Aimez-vous Brahms?, 1961)
A movie made in Paris, as someone described it as typical of a French movie starring the restaurants and automobiles, involving Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Perkins (yes! Mr Norman Bates himself). It is a romantic drama which showcases the dilemma of a love of a cougar and its prey! It exposed Perkins' acting ability to earn him the Best Actor's award in Cannes in 1961. Somehow, you cannot help but visualise him as an eccentric young man here too!
Paula (Bergman) is a 40 year old interior decorator who feels that her biological clock ticking away as her partner of 5 years continue life as a swinging bachelor jumping from bed to bed. Like a good partner, Paula turns a blind eye to his philandering ways as he continues with his 'business' trips and returns to her as he feels like it.
Paula gets an offer to decorate an American lady's apartment in Paris. Her son is a lazy spoilt brad who is in Paris for a short stint to learn French Law.
This eccentric 25 year old lawyer (Philip, Anthony Perkins) gets mesmerised with Paula's elegance and starts wooing her to the extent of stalking. A bored Paula eventually succumbs to his advances.
Meanwhile, Paula's partner, after being 'told off' by Paula, finds his liaison with an up-and-coming self proclaimed prima donna a tiring affair.
After an initial ecstasy, Paula and Philip get to reassess their relationship after frequent ridicule by friends. Philip's 'laissez-faire' attitude to work and life starts being an irritant.
Paula and former partner yearn for each other. Philip is dropped like a hot potato and they marry. Fin.

Murder on Express

Neelagiri Express (நீலகிரி எக்ஸ்ப்ரெஸ், Tamil; 1968)

The moviemakers decided to venture into a newer genre. They tried their hand into something along the line of 'Murder on the Orient Express' by Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as they wanted, a thriller. Instead, it showed the excellent comic ala-Mr. Bean role in Cho Ramaswamy. It became an almost full scale comedy with Cho hitting all the thought provoking tongue-in-the-cheek clean jokes. It is not wonder that he wrote the story!

The suspense component did not excite. Neither did the musical score by T.K. Ramamoorthy. None of the songs belted in the movie stood the test of time or were vaguely familiar! The background score proved different with the usage of electronic guitars. Many of the shots were outdoor shots and I can hardly remember anyone with saree. All female characters seem to be wearing spandex pants and striped body hugging tops, probably that was the latest fashion then.

The modus operandi was simple. Occupants of a upmarket hotel known to be carrying valuables were robbed and murdered when they travelled on the Neelagiri Express train which plied Coimbatore and Madras.
An accomplice who distract the fellow occupant of the first class compartment while the crime went on.
In come CID Shankar (Jaishankar) to the scene! The comical antics of Cho and the ever righteous civil servant form the crux of the adventure. An entertaining flick.

Oh, those were the days!

Suzanne's Career (La carrière de Suzanne, French;1963)

This second of Eric Rohmer's offering of 'Moral Tales' deals with the friendship of Bertrand, a pharmacy student, a shy, passive guy who befriends a guy, Guillaume, who is a blue bearded lady killer who is only interested in short affairs without the emotional baggage. Bertrand is interested in a girl named Sophie but is too morbidly shy to progress anywhere. In the meantime, Bertrand is inadvertently dragged into Guillaume's game to bed  Suzanne and use all her money. The unashamed Suzanne just follows Guillaume's whim and fancies with no self pride. Sometimes, Bertrand feels pity for Suzanne, especially when she became broke and jobless. Along the way, Bertrand also loses some money that he left for safe keeping in his textbooks. Not knowing whether the culprit was Guillaume or Suzanne, he just keeps it to himself.

Bertrand tries to improve his relation with Sophie but it goes nowhere.

A few months later, he hears news that Suzanne is getting married to a rich guy.

Bertrand thinks to himself that Suzanne is not just a sorry victim of Guillaumme but was the winner of the race! (Whatever race that was).