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The Conformist (1970) Review

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 THE CONFORMIST-1970  DIRECTOR-  Bernardo Bertolucci CAST-  Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin,  Pierre Clementi, Dominique Sanda   THE CONFORMIST (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)- A conformist is one who conforms to the accepted behaviour by following the accepted life being followed by everyone around him sacrificing his own identity in the process. Adapted from Alberto Moravia’s novel, the story follows Marcello Clerici working for the fascist government sent to assassinate his former college professor now a political dissident who has fled Italy. We starts with Clerici in being driven by a man in pursuit of the professor and then non-linearly recounts Clerici’s life to this point, fleshing him out as we cut back into the present at times. Though initially, Conformist might feel like a thriller, but it’s more of a character study. Will Clerici assassinate the professor or not, is not the core and the story is more interested in...

Brightburn Review

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BRIGHTBURN- 2019 or Supes gone rogue.... Director____David Yarovesky Country____USA Brightburn deals with an interesting concept, what if Superman turned out evil, what if that kid from outer space had no good intentions. The Breyers are a childless couple, wishing that someday they also get to enjoy the joy of starting a family. We start with them making, ahem, yet another attempt of being parents, when an infant comes in from the skies in a spacecraft. They bring him in and raise him as their own son, locking the space craft away in their barn. Cut to about a decade later and we see Brandon Breyer grown up into what seems to   be the ideal kid every parents dream, a sizeable knowledge beyond his years and helping hand around the house. But one night the spacecraft calls for Brandon and things start going south pretty fast. Gotta say it upfront, its no masterpiece, and it stumbles a lot along the way, but it never really fails at what its meant to be. Cheap...

Ran Review

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RAN-1985 or I wanna be  the king.... Director_____Akira Kurosawa Country_____Japan Coming to think of it now, I would say that this movie caught me off guard. I just wasn’t prepared for this level of grandness. This was my first Kurosawa movie, and I had gone in not really knowing what to expect. Released in 1985, Ran is arguably his last masterpiece. It was the 80’s and Kurosawa then in his seventies was no longer the man he once had been, movies were few and far between and age was catching up with him, finances were low but not his appetite for producing great cinema. Though the idea for Ran was long in his mind, but it wasn’t until he received financial support from producer Serge Silberman, he was finally able to materialize it. This was the third time he was taking on Shakespeare. First being ‘Throne of Blood’, which was an adaptation of ‘Macbeth’, the other one being ‘The Bad Sleep Well’, loosely based on ‘Hamlet’. This time it was the t...

The Godfather Review

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THE  GODFATHER -1 972 or We are family... Director_____Francis Ford Coppola Country_____USA To say I was born a lover of quality cinema would be a blatant lie. I used to be one those regular ‘watch-a-movie-once-in-a-while’ kinda guy, not really that into the beauty of cinema. But one fine evening, I let Coppola, guide me into world of the Corleones, and nothing was ever the same again. No, I didn’t become a movie buff overnight, but ‘The Godfather’ exposed to me a level of cinema that I had never experienced before, leaving in me a new taste for movies of such calibre. Considering all the success it has had in all the past decades, since its release in 1972, it’s kind of interesting to note the sheer number of difficulties, the production ran into. The lack of trust on the then inexperienced Coppola, the producers outright refusal to cast Brando as Vito, the hurdles in getting Pacino as Michael, the clashes with the production et al. The only reason this movie...

Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name) Review

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KIMI NO NA WA (Your Name)- 2016 Oops!This ain't my body.. Director________Makato Shinkai Country_________Japan   I remember two years back a friend of mine suggesting me a movie, 'Five centimeters per second'. Having never heard of it earlier, I went into the movie not knowing what to expect and oh boy, I was simply blown away. Needless to say I became an instant fan of Makato Shinkai. So when Kimi no na wa released and was greeted with rave reviews by both audiences and critics, it became an instant must watch for me. Now that I have finally seen the movie, I can safely say that, yeah this one was worth all the accolades it garnered. I don’t know about others but for me, I would be placing this movie even higher than five cms. The former was a great movie in its own right, but this one somehow made me feel much more involved with the characters, and left a deeper impact. The story revolves around two central characters, a boy from Tokyo and ...

Madeo (Mother) Review

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MADEO(Mother) - 2009 You just don't mess with my son....   Director___________Bong Joon Ho Country____________South Korea   Having already seen two of Bong Joo Ho's movies 'Memories of Murder' and 'Snowpiercer', two masterpieces in their own right, I went into this movie with high expectations, and oh boy did it just satisfy my expectations,it sometimes even managed to exceed them. Hye-ja Kim plays the role of the titular mother, who makes a living by selling herbs, and giving acupuncture. When her son, Yoon do-joon is arrested, on the suspicion of murdering a girl, for rejecting his advances, based on reports that he was last seen drunk and in a horny state, in the vicinity of the area where the body was found, then it's upto the mother to prove his innocence. With the run-time a little over two hours, the movie takes a twists and turns filled ride leaving you perpetually at the edge of your seat,making you guess about how ...