Don't talk to strangers?

The Woman In The Window (1944)

Director: Fritz Lang

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037469/

Whilst many of Fritz Lang's films, such as 'Metropolis' (1927), 'M' (1931), and 'The Big Heat' (1953), have gained cult status, 'The Woman In The Window' remains one of Lang's most unappreciated and underrated offerings. 

At the time, when the silver screen was viewed as the root of all evils, and with the strict enforcement of the Hays Code, films had to adhere to stringent moral guidelines. Storylines had to align with societal views on sex, violence, and religion. 

This film is a noir piece featuring what could be a femme fatale character and a middle-aged professor whose family has gone out of town for the long weekend. As the good Professor strolls to his gentlemen's club, he chances upon a beautiful portrait of a woman. As luck would have it, the subject appears in person. They chat, go for a drink, and before they know it, he is at her apartment for a nightcap. 

As anticipated, an unknown individual burst into the apartment, resulting in a scuffle. The intruder is subdued and subsequently dies. Faced with a deceased body and the dread of police investigations and the associated humiliation, they attempt to dispose of the body. 

The rest of the story involves a meticulous account of the Professor hiding his trail while the police poke their inquisitive noses in. Gradually, the audience begins to realise he may have been set up. The plot thickens as the Professor attempts to poison the policeman who is hot on his trail. Things heat up when... the Professor is roused from his forty winks. He had apparently dozed off on the settee of the gentlemen's club. Everything had been a dream. 

It appears that the story's ending was a turn-off for Lang's fans. Some termed it 'lame'. The producers must have thought that crafting a narrative involving hiding the body, dodging the police, killing off a policeman and getting away with murder might provoke a standoff with Hollywood's moral authorities. Hence, they toned it down a notch. Everything occurred in the Professor's dream. At the end of the film, the Professor seems to imply that one should not talk to strangers. 

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It's Christmas time!

Merry Christmas (Hindi/Tamil versions; 2024)
Director: Sriram Raghavan

This film has it all: a little Hitchcockian, a tinge of noir, and a hefty dose of female fatale. Set in the urban setting of Bombay at Christmas, the storytellers thought it was all right to cast modern-thinking characters with modern values as protagonists. Otherwise, it would not be believable that a seemingly single mother would send flirting vibes and respond to the advances of a random hunk at the movie theatre. 

That is what happened in this movie. It is Christmas Eve. While everyone is in a celebratory mood, a recently released murderer, Albert, returns to his mother's home. As old memories haunt him, he goes out for a stroll. He meets Maria, who is wandering around with her young daughter, first at a restaurant and then at the cinema hall. They strike up a conversation, and she walks her home. After having a nightcap and leaving the sleeping child at home, they go for another walkabout. Upon their return, they discover Maria's husband slouched on a settee, dead, after apparently shooting himself. 

Albert, as a recently released convict, is sceptical about being involved in a death investigation. She instructs Maria to inform the police while he wipes out evidence of his presence at her apartment. 

Hours later, curious about the turns of events, Albert returns to Maria's apartment. There is no hullabaloo of a crime scene. Instead, he finds her in the company of another gentleman, going up to her place. He follows them to find no dead body there!

The rest of the movie is predictable, not because it is poorly done but because we have seen it all too many times in various combinations. The original story is from a 1962 French movie, Paris Pick-Up @ Le Monte-charge. The French version was more precise, shorter and straight to the point. In the Indian versions, however, there are additional characters. One cannot help but wonder whether other little nuggets are inserted between scenes to imply anything. I, for one, was left wondering whether the purpose of Albert's uncle naming his home-brewed moonshine 'Yadhoom' (Scandivanian for 'reason of existence'; why we love for) carried any obscure philosophical connotation to the whole story. 

Nevertheless, it is a refreshing movie with a retro 1970s feel, fuelled by a liberal display of neon lights to give it its noir background. Kudos to Vijay Sethupathi, Katrina Kaif and Sanjay Kapoor (in the Hindi version) for their commendable performances. In the authentic Hitchcockian way, it ends with a twist.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

movies

The cold lonely walk of modern life...

Lights in the Dusk (2006)
Written, produced and directed: Aki Kaurismäki

This must surely be the bane of modern living. In contemporary times, Man lives a loner's life. He is individualistic and tries to find happiness in the company of himself. Koistinen runs life in a routine, doing things that he sees little satisfaction. He yearns for that elusive happiness, wonders where it is, contemplates where it is, questions whether it exists, wander around looking for it at all the wrong places and fails miserably.

In his fear of not achieving eudaemonia, he is scared to commit himself in relationships. Perhaps because he spends too much alone, he finds sharing his living space too restrictive. He wants the freedom to explore without being tied down. He wants the cake and to eat it at the same time. 

The film, which is the last instalment of Finland trilogy [Drifting Clouds (1996); The Man without a Past (2002)], keeps the theme of lonely life in that country. The background story seems to hint that life is all not hunky-dory in this supposed first world country with a perfect infrastructure and social safety net. For the common man, it is all the same to him, whether a socialist government reigns or capitalism is the order of the day. Neither of them is friendly to the entrepreneurial desires of the common man.

Maybe it is just me, but there is also a hint of resentment of the days when Russia ruled over Finland. Finland is said to have been raped of its resources and culture by the Russian giants before the fall of the Romanov family. Anti-Russian sentiments continue to date. This must have been sarcastically inserted by the director as a group of drunks arguing about the greatness of some Russian literary figures. It is also seen when he boasts of naming his security firm 'Kosinski', not Koistinen, his real name.

It tells the mundane life of a lowly loner security guard who leads a lonesome routine. He is a shy guy who goes back to an empty cold apartment. His only meaningful contact with a living organism is the plants that he keeps on the roof. He has big plans for his life, but nothing can get off the ground. He finds an admirer in the owner of the hotdog stand but is too aloof to realise. In midst of all these, a mysterious lady befriends him. This femme fatale, as it turns out, is using him just to rob a jewellery under his care. His life goes topsy-turvy.

It is unbelievable that a character such as this should exist; a passivist, one who goes with the flow without fighting back, holding old age-forgotten loyalties like honour and bearing all the burdens in the name of passion. Perhaps, there do!

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