While watching reruns of some cult Bollywood films, a thought occurred to me. That how interesting and well crafted characters, more than anything else in those films, have always fascinated the Indian audience and perhaps those characters were the single most important factor in ensuring success and their following even till now. If I think about many cult Hindi films starting from the 50’s, I see a common thread wherein an interesting and an identifiable character- reflecting the times- had always been at the center of those films’ success; when I say success, I mean either box office or critical, and many a times, it was both.
The newly independent India of the 50’s, a nation not only recovering from the bruises of partition & the long colonial rule but also facing many problems- economic and otherwise-, found echo with such characters as sensitive poet Vijay (played by Guru Dutt in the film Pyaasa) or with Devdas (played by Dilip Kumar in the film Devdas). Both characters are love-lorn, misunderstood and also doomed, but both were immensely loved by the audiences for the same reasons; the intensity of these characters and also for some sort of identification with such fatalistic characters. This brilliantly worded song by Sahir Ludhianvi, from the film Pyaasa, captures the ethos of one such character. Other notable examples of this period where the character dominated: The character of Nargis in Mother India and the affable and the Chaplinesque Raj Kapoor in many of his films.
The best things happen when you least expect them. Yesterday evening, there was this special screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the movie theater very near my house. A local movie club was organizing it. I went there expecting just to see my most favorite film, and unarguably one of the greatest films ever made, one more time on the big screen. But not in my wildest dreams, I had imagined to see among the audience the famed Dr David Bowman of 2001, the Hollywood actor Keir Dullea himself! Mr Dullea was actually invited by the movie club to be a part of this screening.
Call Register is a British short film made in 2004. The film starts at the point where Kevin, played by Martin Freeman, is planning to call a girl- whom he met in a party-for a date. He uses his buddy Julian’s cell to call because Kevin wants to play safe. Julian’s cell recognizes the number as Amanda’s number and Amanda happens to be Julian’s old flame with whom he had broken up and Kevin didn’t know that! From here on starts the plot building, back and forth phone calls among all three characters. The film might seem predictable towards the end, but twist in the tale is not the point here. The film scores primarily on the brilliantly written dialogues and on the wonderful performance of Martin Freeman. Especially towards the end, when Kevin wrongly smells victory, his gloating is extremely funny and real. The film is about how one seemingly trivial decision- in this case deciding to call from a friend’s cell -could seal the fate of one party and rekindle an old relationship of another. Or perhaps this wrong call was just an excuse, and sooner or later things would have gone that way in any case. Perhaps the wrong call was a blessing in disguise for Kevin, even though he doesn’t realize it now.
The short also proves once again that if the story, the acting and the dialogues are really good, the whole film could be shot in one room with great results!!
Jim Jarmusch is one of those extremely few American filmmakers who have found success without any big studio backing. He has complete control over his films and Hollywood’s best actors want to work with him. I wrote an earlier post about him here.
What he says in one of those rules, regarding ‘originality’, is something which I never forget.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”
The main idea of your story can come from any of the sources or combination of sources. The script I’m working on currently, for my short film, had it’s genesis in my first ever script I wrote for my scriptwriting class. When I first decided to make the short film, around 3-4 months back, the first idea which came to me was something very different. As always, I had a theme first, which in that case was about moments. That how small moments change the course of relationships. It had six different characters and one setting. Now, the more I thought about it, more I started seeing problems in that story. Even though most people I discussed the idea with liked the story. In fact, my one filmmaker friend still thinks I should do that story about moments rather than the current one. Anyways, for around a month, at least four other completely different ideas came to me and I spent some days each before rejecting each of those ideas. I started getting restless and said to myself that enough of fooling around and I will now choose one of these five ideas and go ahead. And then suddenly one day, while I was in a bank chatting with a teller, this current idea came crashing down to me. And, I knew that this was it. Later I realized, as I started developing the outline in my head, that how this current idea sort of combines at least three of those earlier five ideas plus some important elements from my first script which I wrote last year.
Our Time is Up is a very clever short film. What I found really interesting in this short was that even after the main character encounters the tragic news, and the story shifts entirely, the tone of the film remained the same till the end. Also, notice that how well this short demonstrates the character arc for each character in the film. Not only the doc, but every single character in the film changes. The central theme of the story, that how impending death can change an emotionally cold person, was not really very novel for me. But, the short still worked for me because of the way the story was told. Each of doc’s patients was an interesting character and I think the dialogues were crisp, very funny and insightful. The production standards and the lighting enhanced the tone of the film. I have always believed that good films are about few moments which work so well that they always stay with you. In this short, the Asian girl’s predictament about how to wash the soap which washes the main soap to remove bacteria was one of those moments for me.
The 10 minute short film below, ‘The Lunch Date‘, is one of the most profound, clever, amusing and humane films I’ve ever seen. The film, directed by Adam Davidson, went on to become a worldwide success after it was made in 1989. In 1990, it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for best short film, and, in 1991, an Oscar for Best Short Film. The film explores prejudices and racial tension through a chance encounter between an old white woman and a black man.
“We’re living in a period where cinema is a product; movies are becoming more and more commercialized. Short films are one of the last real places for artistic freedom—they’re important to celebrate just for that.”—Juan Solanas
Six Shooter is one of the short films from the collection Cinema16: European Short Films, a DVD of quality short films. The film won an Oscar in the year 2006 under Live Action Short Film category. I think the film is brilliant. This short is also available free on you tube. Since my review after the videos below is more like an analysis of the film rather than a proper review, I suggest that you first watch the film below before you read my review. The film is little over 25 minutes, so watch it only if you can spare that much time or perhaps you can also watch the film in intervals.
