No use for hue and cry!

Brief Encounter (1945)
Director: David Lean

When we are caught in a twist, it sometimes feels appropriate to solve our problems ourselves without creating a hue and cry. Bringing out in the open, getting numerous opinions and getting their worthless two-cents' worth of advice may occasionally cause more problems. Being truthful out in public to the aggrieved party may not be the best choice too. Honesty is not always the best policy.

This obscure film directed by the same man who did classics 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'The Bridge over River Kwai' also did this gem. The screenplay was written by the famous English playwright, Noel Coward. The film tells the tale of a happily married mother of two and a brief encounter with a charming gentleman en route her return from weekly shopping at the railway station. The occasional weekly meeting turned into something romantic. The gentleman himself was a married man, a doctor, who works once a week at a nearby hospital. Soon realising their wayward ways, after many souls searching, the affair comes to an abrupt end when the doctor uprooted himself to South Africa.

What do you know? This film was voted by BFI as British's #2 in their list of top 100 movies of all time, after 'Third Man'.

A relevant philosophical question that begs to be answered is sexual loyalty. Values change with time. At the time this film was made, after WW2, after being drawn into the working force in droves to meet local demands in the labour force, women felt empowered. With more freedom, came sexual liberation. It was a time of conservatism, however. Morality varied from class to class. For the middle class, the sanctity of marriage is revered, and promiscuity outside the institution is frowned upon. How things change over time?

P/S: Hue and cry is a common law process where bystanders are summoned to help apprehend a criminal. (Wiki)

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

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

https://www.facebook.com/groups/riflerangeboy/!

If only life was so easy...

Run Fatboy Run (2007)

If only life was so easy to win the girl over after leaving her at the altar high, dry and pregnant. Five years after developing cold feet at the church, Dennis has a second lease on life when his ex-girlfriend allows him to bond with his kid. Just when he thinks of re-establishing his relationship, his girl gets cosy with an American Mr Perfect, wealthy, articulate, good looking and runs marathons!

After that, you know what to expect. An out-of-shape smoker and a boozer whips into shape within three weeks to complete 26.2 miles of gruelling run. If only life was so easy and running marathons were such, well, run in the park! 

This comedy, in the typical vein of any British comedy, is a self-depreciating one where a loser, a zero becomes a hero in the end. I do not why, but it keeps reminding me of another British flick, The Full Monty - a father fighting to keep his son with him.

My running buddies would flip if anyone, who is an out-of-shape couch potato, suddenly decides three weeks before a race, decides to run a full marathon! A marathon is no child's game and could be potentially lethal if one does not train properly. At three weeks time before the race, he should be tapering his runs, not starting from scratch. And there is definitely no place for uncertainties. Today, he says he wants to compete; he is not so sure anymore!

No organiser would allow a participant to run from dawn to dusk in the busy city streets. It is not only potentially harmful to the runner but is also disruptive to the traffic. Any Marshall worth his salt would insist that slow-coachers be red-carded and be picked up by the sweeper vehicle. And the protagonist hardly drank any fluids or need nourishment even though he ran all day. The wall that hits a runner, whether seasoned or novice, cannot be just be overcome just with sheer willpower.

Well, it is a romantic comedy for the souls who believe in true love and Santa Claus, not realists and the survivors of the School of Hard Knocks of Life.

Running marathons may not solve problems but may provide a diversion. It may immerse your brain in euphoria-inducing neurotransmitters to numb the pains of everyday life. It may negate the necessity to start tranquillizers, anti-anxiolytic, anti-depressives or antipsychotics but it is definitely not a penance for people to empathise your plight and come your way. This is not akin to kavadi carrying, self-flagellation during Ashura or Pinoy cross-carrying feat at Easter!

Romedy with sleaze!

The Apartment (1960)

Director: Billy Wilder

Watching this movie reminded me very much of 'Mad Man', the TV series. There is so much of partying and infidelity going on in a place where people were supposed to bring home an honest pay. But instead what goes on is apple polishing, intimidation, dangling of carrot and scurrying for strewn shreds of bones for the dogs a.k.a. subordinates. In fact, it is said to be based on a showbiz producer's affair and his usage of his staff's apartment for his tryst. The husband had supposedly shot the lover boy.
Well, if you think the story sounds like a heavy drama with explicit display of emotion, you are wrong. With actor like Jack Lemmon, you can only expect comedy. This one is a romedy (romantic comedy). In fact it was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 5.

CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lowly clerk who is a hit among his bosses at an insurance mega company. He is a hit not because of his undivided commitment to his profession but because his apartment is strategically located for his bosses' extra-marital clandestine activities with their subordinates- secretaries, telephonists and elevator attendants. In fact, CC has a log to ensure their usage does not clash. For his sacrifice, he gained the notoriety of being labelled a woman's man by his neighbours and he spending many cold nights in the park to accommodate his bosses.
Slowly, CC climbs the ladder of promotion. The problem starts when CC falls for the same elevator girl (Shirley MacLaine) as his immediate boss. In midst of covering up for his boss, nursing a suicidal girl and seeing an innocent girl being taken for a ride, he finally confesses and gets the love of his life.
This film had its own problem with its denigrators who accused the filmmakers as making a 'dirty filthy movie'. CC Baxter's boss in the movie, played by Fred MacMurray, who had an affair in the movie, was hit on the head with a purse for high negative role by an old woman in the street! Not much different from India!