The sweet taste of freedom

Papilllon (1973)


Steve McQueen, the macho guy of the 70s is seen here acting out as Henri Charrière, a French convict, a safe-cracker accused wrongly of killing a pimp. The film narrates the friendship bond that he built during his incarceration in French Guiana and his escapades to escape from confinement, first from prison then from exile in Devil's Island.

By standing up for his fellow inmate, Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a master forger and counterfeiter, they built a bond so strong that forms the basis of this movie.

Papillon is the French word for butterfly, the tattoo that Charrière wears on his chest, hence his nickname.

Between cruelty in prison and solitary confinement, he still managed to plan a daring escape. Dega, the reluctant escapee, was quite content in believing that his beloved wife in France would fight for his release. (It never materialised till the end of the movie!)

The attempt at escape was marred by fraudulent agents. A liaison with a group of lepers, they managed to ride a boat. The adventure continues with a group of Indians and later a stint at a monastery. He returns to prison afterwards when the Mother Superior alerts the authorities when his past deed is discovered.

In his later years, he is relocated in Devil's Island where he is reunited with Dega and executes a successful escape to freedom!

McQueen, despite a not being the best surname to show masochism, exudes the aura of a typical testosterone filled silver screen. He apparently performed a daring stunt at the tail end of this film when he took a jump into the sea from a high cliff. For this effort, he was paid more than Hoffman who was riding high then with past laurels and had his name before Hoffman's on the credit!

The two main characters in the movie shows the nature of man in handling any adversity. Whilst some would plunge head-on to change their fate themselves, others would wait. They would leave others, fate, God, the legal process or natural justice to bail them out. Whichever modality is chosen, time is of essence. Is time on our side for change to take place or will we perish trying?

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Bank heist: A political statement?

Dog day afternoon (1975)

What makes this bank robbery movie different from others of the same genre? We have bombarded with too many stories with nitty gritty technical details of planning and execution. DDA, however, appears to me like a satire of sorts. By the way, DDA just a poetic way of saying 'a scorching hot afternoon'.

The bank heist shown on screen these days are so high-tech. The amounts planned to be robbed are in gargantuan proportions and their modus operandi is usually much bigger - including world domination, anarchy, terrorism and even nuclear warheads. In the 70s, it was a political statement. It is about the small man fighting a system dominated by greedy enterprises and politicians. This film is based on a real story. 

It starts with 3 bumbling amateurs holding up a bank. Just as they unleash their weapons in the premises, one of the gang of three get cold feet and requested to be out. And off we goes, walking out the bank! The bumbling remaining duo - Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal - were in for bad luck. The armour truck had come early to collect the bank money early, leaving only $1100 in the vault! So they started taking petty cash and travelers' cheques. To squash evidence, Sonny, the dominant and mastermind, started burning the register book. The billowing smoke alerted a passerby and within minutes, the area around the bank was sprawling with cops.
The  startled robbers took the bank employees as hostages. Negotiations over negotiations happened with the police to release the hostages. In came the TV crew eager to interview, and he did, of the robbers. Taking pity on the robbers who seem to be getting bad luck, one after another, the hostages develop Stockholm Syndrome! At some point, they even give suggestions to them what to do next.
The taped area outside become theatrical as the spectators cheer for the robbers as they deem that their action was heroic -the oppressed Vietnam veteran fighting the establishment, as Sonny goes on TV.
When Sonny requests to meet his wife, the police discovers that Sonny was a homosexual and brought him his gay 'wife' whom he had recently married (in a church!). Now, the gay community started lobbying their plight in front of the bank. They claim that the heist is a statement, to highlight their course!
Sonny's annoying mother and later his first wife appear at the scene. They, of course are no police to persuade the robbers to disarm as they are more interested in washing dirty linen in public and highlighting their own problems.
Sonny and Sal, who are at wits end on their escape route, demand for a free passage to Algeria on a jet.
Even though the whole stories may appear comical, the excellent direction and acting by the stars managed to maintain the suspense.
In the end, they only made it to the airport. Sal was shot dead by FBI and Sonny was captured. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
A classic film with subtle jibes at modern living. It pokes fun at people's herd mentality, media craze and media manipulation of people. A good one.

(N.B. Dog Day Afternoon just means 'a scorching hot afternoon')

The joy of the climb to the top?

Seemabaddha - সীমাবদ্ধ, Company Limited (1971)

Screenplay, Music, Direction: Satyajit Ray
Seemabaddha is the second of trilogy of what is referred to as the Calcutta trilogy. I guess it must be depicting the changes in Calcutta society and the challenges faced the urbanites in modern times. Will wait and see what the rest has to offer...
It tells the story of Shyamal, a son of a teacher from Patna who manages to secure the prestigious Senior Management Trainee post in a British electrical company after obtaining his M.A. in English. Before starting the film proper, before the opening credits, we are introduced to the protagonist for the viewers to get an idea of his background and the change of his lifestyle that he is living.
After starting as a trainee in Delhi, Shyamal rapidly climbs the ladder of promotion and is given the post of Sales Manager of Hindustan-Peters fan division. Things are looking promising for him - a nice flat, 7 year-old son in boarding school, bought flats for parents, servant, working with English management, living their high life, managed to secure a big shipment to Iraq....

At the races

In midst of all these, his wife, Dolan's sister, Tutul (Sharmila Tagore) comes to stay in their flat. Tutul, a graduate from Patna, new to city life, sees how her sister and brother-in-law's life has changed, incorporating western life style seamlessly as their own. Alcoholic beverages flow freely, cigarette puffing all over the place, ladies also indulging at same level with their spouses in banter and drinks. Sometimes Tutul finds it awkward, especially when Shyamal's parents made an unexpected visit to the flat once. Tutul also cannot stomach the fact that it is alright to go the horse races.
Shyamal finds that he finds it easier to converse with Tutul as compared to his wife. Perhaps, it is because she is too engrossed in her own life style or maybe Tutul is more naive and impressionable. I gather that Tutul is quite impressed with her sister's choice of husband and secretly wishes that she could land up with a well to do and ambitious husband like her brother in law. (Or are they have something on? It is left to our imagination!)
Of course, as in any of Ray's film, none of the messages are put right smack in your face but through subtle inneundoes.
A little thing that I learnt via this flick is the significant presence of ethnic Chinese in Calcutta (through a scene at a beauty parlour). Oh, yeah! There were plenty of characters in the film with big, probably with fake  hair buns, like the one Amma and her contempories used to spot in RRF.  Quick Google search revealed that Chinese made big landings through ports like Calcutta and Madras in British India. Calcutta is the only town now with a Chinatown.

Sea IP Church, Calcutta.

When it seem like everything was going on just fine, it suddenly came to Shyamal's attention that the fan shipment to Iraq did not meet certain specifications. Rectification would take time, deadline would have passed and would incur great loss to his promotion and the company.
As he was casually discussing the problem with Tutul, which he had conspicuously hidden from wife, Shaamal gets an idea.
With the help of the labour officer, they devised a plan to start a commotion at the canteen over workers' dissatisfaction over the food served. It snowballs to an union strike.
It saves the company but at the expense of injury to an old faithful worker. Somehow, Shyamal is felicitated for handling of the strike, even though he started it in the first place and is made a company director. The injury and misery to the small men appears not to matter to the big men.
He feels happy but it appears that whatever respect he earned from Tutul seem to have vanished in this single act. In a symbolic gesture, when it was time for Tutul to leave, she leaves behind the watch that Shyamal had lent to her to use during her stay in Calcutta. Shyamal buries his head in shame. Guess, the climb to the top feels nice and we feel that we want to do it by whatever means. Our conscious, if we have one, will always prick us where it hurts us most!
A joyful depiction of subtle emotions in an intelligent manner, without the melodrama that we are fed day in and day out....

Dolls eat dolls world!

Valley of the Dolls (1967)
There was a time in secondary school when everybody was trying to lay their hands on this book in the library. Even though, it was not in 'red spot section' of the library, it sure was a hit. Nobody could reserve it as it was passed among librarians and after some it was considered lost!
This 1967 film was based on this book by Jacqueline Susann. Dolls here refer to sleeping pills (dolophines) and illustrates the dog eat dog world of showbiz. It revolves around the story of three young girls (Anne, Neely and Jennifer) and the involvement with people of the show business. Barbara Perkins acts as Anne, a green country girl who finds a job as a secretary in an attorney's office who deals with performing artiste in Broadway. People who lived through the 70s would remember her as Betty in Peyton Place on Malaysian TV. Neely is a small time actress who gets fired from her job with a mega-star, Helen Lawson. She manages to make it on her own but she gets into lots of trouble with substance abuse. The third girl, Jennifer, is played by Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski's young pregnant wife who was killed by the Charles Manson cult.
Anne gets into and out of relationship with her boss and finally returns home to New England to start life anew, disillusioned with the bright lights of the performing lights and her two timing partner.

R to L:
Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, Patty Duke.

Neely gets dragged into the spiral world of destruction, gets rehabilitation and gets into it again when the demand of performance got to her.
Jennifer, forever trying to keep her broke mother happy, fails to secure any stable jobs. She falls in love and marries a struggling singer who is diagnosed with Huntington's disease and is placed in a sanatorium. Jennifer acts in French pornographic films but gets shortchanged in the end. She returns home just to be diagnosed to have breast cancer. Frustrated, with no one to confide and the bottomless pit mother with her demands for money, commits suicide with overdose of sleeping pills.
A soapy story which excite those filled with romance or fancy a good evening with a copy of 'Mills and Boons' or like me who try to discover the things that I missed in the past, while I was trying hard to run away from RRF...

What do you get for someone with everything?

That was what I was thinking to myself as the days got nearer to the day of my favourite and respected uncle's day of indulgence drew closer. Not wanting to get something and regretting it later, I decided to leave this Herculean task to the eleventh hour.
What would be special enough to be appreciated by someone who has everything? Sure, we all have heard of the sentimentality and love put into the present rather than the price. But then, he is a result centered practical man of stature who decides by the head not by the heart. Perfumes and shirts sound inappropriate as they deem too personal, not right for a nephew to buy.
Accused of being the unimaginative man that I already am, I decided to wander around a premiere mall in pursuit of the perfect present and came up with a tie (a lame present, my daughter thinks). I thought that it would be practical as his profession would require him to be elegantly attired. A tie would make him that kind of man, not that he is not.
Ok, a tie it is, I told myself. Which tie, from where? I cannot be getting a tie which is just hanging off a rack somewhere sold on wholesale with buy one - free one offer, can I?
As I was walking aimlessly failing to locate a shop dedicated to specialty ties, which unfortunately all seem to have closed down as I think most Malaysian men are more comfortable dressing down then up! I thought, maybe the host was just wanted our fellowship, not our gifts. So, the attendance of all the relatives spanning the spine of the peninsular would be the biggest gift. But then, Uncle is always there with something in his hands at all of my important moments without fail. And I have never really bought him anything. Scrolling down Amazon.com one day, I did come across a box set of DVDs which I thought would excite him- a complete collection of Ian Fleming's spy James Bond's films from the 1962 Dr No all the way to the 2008 Quantum of Solace. But then, I pondered too long and procrastinated that by the time I decided on that, it was a wee bit too late to get the gift on time.
Then it manifested... A shop that would leave a mark, a shop that had class, a brand of international standards that would complete a man besides putting the gentle prefix to a man.

It was no garden party but 

was a bash nevertheless! Even

Shahrukh Khan was there!

Then another set of headache... The choice of tie - no! Too loud for a 70 year old, too bright for a lawyer... Finally settled for 2013 Spring Collection which was just out hot from the oven, so to speak, in collaboration with upcoming lunar new year and their entry into the Chinese market. Yeah, right! Business strategy?

G- Music Man 

The salesperson went on taking about their tradition of fabric making in Italy and how their ties can be handed down generations after generations. (I can almost hear the executor of the will reading, "To my last vagabond son, I leave my collection of ties...and the rest of my property goes to charity..." And the son going, "bloody lunatic old fool!" I digress...
I did not even bother to look at the price tag for fear of inciting a missed heart beat but charged it to the card anyway. Happy birthday, LM!

Another blast from our colourful past

Even before Alleycats came to the local music scene, there was a 15-year-old girl creating waves with her song, 'Kereta Lembu' which is kind of a classic now. She started singing at the age of 13 and carved a name for herself through Juara Kugiran in 1969. After cutting a few albums in the garage music genre and living a 7-year matrimonial life with Adnan Othman (a fellow musician who sang together) which produced a daughter, she left the country.

I am referring to the famous singer of Malay songs of the 70s, Helen Velu (Halina Abdul Wahid). I just happened to hear her song on the radio. It was a plagiarized version of LaBelle's Lady Marmalade called 'Senyuman dan Kerlingan".

She is now residing in LA and makes periodic returns to the motherland to perform.

Helen Velu 2007

 

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?

("Do you want to sleep with me (tonight)?" )

Social consciousness?

Aval Appadithaan (Tamil, She is like that;1978)

Again into movies with themes inappropriate for general Tamil film audience for its social theme and crude (bordering on vulgarity for that era) dialogue. This film was done at end era which in my opinion is considered a watershed. Gone are the days where the characters either gleam with goodness or were bad to the core. The late 70s were the time of social consciousness. Suddenly, making mainstream films in the villages dealing with bread and butter stuff was norm..Actors donned minimal make up and gone were songs and dance-around-the park routine. The birth of new music directors brought music and songs to be played in the background.
Aval Appadithaan is a black and white film with  a slighty different camera work. Manju (Sripriya) is employed in an advertising company run by Thiagu (Rajnikanth). Arun (Kamalhasan), Thiagu's friend from out of town is shooting a documentary on double standards of women position in society. Manju is assigned to help him around.
Manju is a lady disillusioned with life after growing up in a dysfunctional family with a two-timing mother and after two failed relationships. She looks at men with suspicion and scorn. 
Thiagu, an outwardly pious person, is just another blue bearded man who enjoys his drinks and his girls. The protagonist (Arun) is passionate towards his work and takes interest in Manju's life and childhood. Her explosive demeanor and explicit words sometimes frightens him. Perhaps she has bipolar depressive disorder.
Pretty soon Arun falls for Manju but it ambivalent towards her body language. After seeing Manju going out to a function with Thiagu, Arun, who by then had finished his documentary work, decides that Manju is not meant for him. He returns home to marry someone of his father's choice.
Manju who actually had feelings for Arun feels disappointed but moves on.

Some explosive dialogues:
Thiagu: (to Arun on making documentary on plight of women)
"Women should be enjoyed, not analysed".

Manju: (to a socialite who was anxious for not dressing up to be on the camera for an interview)  "You can put your social make-up!"

Manju: (In the closing scenes, asks Arun's new wife) "What do you think of women's liberation?".
Wife: "Oh, I don't know anything about that".
Manju: "No wonder you are happy".

Voice over in the end: She died today. She will be reborn tomorrow. She will die again. She will be reborn again. That's how she is. Aval Appadithaan!