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To call the acclaimed French filmmaker Oliver Assayas’ Carlos an epic would be an understatement because, its 5 ½ hours length might seem formidable even to those accustomed to watching epic films regularly. The film deals with the rise and fall of the infamous political assassin Carlos who, as we all know, is now languishing in prison. Employing incredible research work, the film has pieced together the life of one of the most enigmatic persons of the last century through terrific storytelling. The director has resorted to cinema-verite, giving the film the feel of a documentary. Thus, by being ripped off of any unnecessary melodrama and by being a fiercely honest portrayal of the man without any ounce of judging him, the film has succeeded in making Carlos seem like a frighteningly real man of flesh and blood. Divided into three parts, this episodic portrayal of the infamous terrorist’s rise through the ranks, his attempts (which often are successful) at some outrageous and spectacular acts of violence, his pop-culture celebrity-hood, his comparative stagnation after being ousted from the Palestinian group he was part of, and finally his slow decline after massive changes took place in the world order post the collapse of Soviet empire. Edgar Ramirez has given a tour-de-force performance as Carlos in this visceral, violent, anarchic and thoroughly outstanding piece of work.
Director: Oliver Assayas
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama/Epic/Biopic/TV Miniseries
Languages: French/German/Arabic
Country: France/Germany
Ran, Japanese maestro Akira Kurosawa’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, nearly destroyed him as a filmmaker. But history has been kind to him, and Ran has consistently ranked as one of his greatest masterpieces, alongside the likes of Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Ran is an epic with brutal power, a movie that overwhelms with its stunning visual beauty as it does with its display of such basic instincts as honour, betrayal, vengeance, and emotional anarchy. Though a samurai movie, its theme and story are both universal and relevant for all times. When an ageing samurai lord bequeaths his throne to his eldest son, his seemingly innocuous decision sparks a chain of events that spreads like a wildfire among his sons, and destroys everyone in the process – emotionally and physically. His eldest son’s daughter, a scheming and calculating lady, adds fuel to fire by planting seeds of distrust and lust for power. The film’s scope is therefore as much to do with one of sight and sound, as it is to do with portraying, in all its nuances, emotional turbulence. The films boasts of a towering central performance by Tatsuya Nakadai who, as the elderly warlord and a great warrior of his time, realizes only too late the damages caused by a decision that was heavily opposed by his straight-talking youngest son. The movie is drenched in pessimism and portrays a world that goes astray at the slightest opportunity, and this breathtaking spectacle has as company another stunning Shakespeare adaptation of Kurosawa, Throne of Blood.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: Drama/Epic/Family Drama/Action/Samurai Film
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Bridge on the River Kwai is an epic action/adventure movie based during World War II, and is a magnificent viewing experience. A classic American film without a doubt, the film comprises of lavish set pieces and packs quite a punch through its thrill-quotient. Based mostly in a Japanese POW camp, the film has on one hand a group of captured British army, led by the disciplined, principled and stoic Col. Nicholson (played brilliantly by Alec Guinness), building a magnificent bridge across River Kwai, while on the other it has a smooth-talking but tough escaped American convict (played with élan by William Holden) having to volunteer a small team of British Soldiers based in Ceylon back to the treacherous island to blow up the bridge. Though the film can be divided into separate acts, David Lean’s masterful direction has fused them into an intense, thrilling and captivating whole that combined visual splendor and terrific conversations with implosive action. The movie was also extremely well-paced, so that despite its long length, none of the scenes seemed out of the place. The film also happens to be a terrific study of disparate and complex characters. The music too forms an integral part of the movie’s rousing package.
p.s. I'm very thankful to Clumbia Classics for contacting me and sending across this classic in a collector's edition box-set. Apart from exemplary picture and sound quality, the blue ray discs also boast of a host of extra features. And the box-set, with its booklet, pictures and postcards, is worth ogling at.
Director: David LeanGenre: Epic/War Drama/Adventure/Ensemble Film
Language: English
Country: UK
Whoever thought Bertolucci’s films couldn’t get any more controversial and scandalous post-Last Tango in Paris, were given sharp taps on their knuckles in his very next film, viz. 1900. A master class to some and a disappointing mixed bag to others, this gargantuan epic (the film’s original cut, which I was fortunate to have watched, runs over 5 hours) divided the critics right down the middle. This cinematic equivalent of bidungsroman has at its forefront two protagonists – the amorous Alfredo, a wealthy landlord’s son, and communist-minded Olmo, born to a family of poor farmers, conceived on the same day at the turn of the 20th century. Though friends as kids, the two go on to share a complicated relationship as they take divergent routes as adults; and through them the director has presented a captivating picture of Italy’s chequered and volatile history over the nest half a century or so. Breathtakingly photographed and accompanied by Ennio Moricone’s glorious soundtrack, the film has its fair share of spectacular highs and avoidable lows – a film of this staggering length always runs the risk of turning out disjointed, yet it also had the luxury of having a leisurely paced narrative suiting the film’s epic scope. It boasts of an all-star cast, with Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu giving fine turns as the two protagonists. The best piece of acting, however, came courtesy the thunderous performances from two seasoned American warhorses – Burt Lancaster and Sterling Hayden. Donald Sunderland, too, was good in his disturbing, if not entirely believable, character.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Genre: Drama/Political Drama/Epic/Ensemble Film
Language: Italian
Country: Italian
Nowhere in Africa, based on the best-selling autobiographical novel of the same name, is a tale of love lost and found, an epic account of a young girl’s journey from wide-eyed innocence to reluctant maturity, and a reevaluation of the meanings of ‘home’ and ‘roots’. Walter, a farsighted German-Jewish lawyer, who gets inkling about the impending pogroms against Jews, manages to get his beautiful wife Jettel and daughter Regina emigrated to Kenya – a country filled with pristine beauty but culturally and economically at complete odds with their former homeland. Though Jettel initially finds it extremely difficult to adapt to their radically different lifestyle (and later her acceptance of the place occurs parallely with her growing sexual frustrations), Regina gets mesmerized by the place and its people the day she arrives and strikes up an especially touching friendship with their good-natured cook Owuor. Caroline Link, the film’s director, has managed to bring forth the depths and the various emotions at play in her finely-realised, three-dimensional and utterly human characters, through a tone that is filled as much with empathy as with the book’s sad remembrances for those turbulent few years in world history. The movie boasts of captivating photography, and fine performances in front of the camera.
Director: Caroline Link
Genre: Drama/Family Drama/Biopic/Romance
Language: German
Country: Germany
Call Adolf Hitler a genius, a few people will grudgingly agree; call him a twisted genius with the ability to mind-wash people, and a lot more will agree; but try and paint him as a human being, and, as a critic aptly observed, you’re certain to face a lot of backlash. It is nearly impossible to imagine him as a three-dimensional man of flesh and blood, but director Oliver Herschbiegel attempted just that in this audacious feature. The emotion that plays the strongest role in the movie is paranoia, as sociopaths like Goebbels, and well, the Fuhrer too, and their more practical counterparts like Himmler who are aware that the Nazi regime's downfall is imminent, are painted with meticulous detail over the last 10 days of Hitler’s life. The director covered a plethora of characters and events by broadening the movie’s scope, though personally I would have preferred the movie to remain just what it started with – an intimate portrayal of the man who, on one hand, turned Germany into a raging superpower, while on the other, perpetrated such monstrosities that make people shudder even after over 60 years of his joint suicide with his wife/mistress Eva Braun at his bunker. Any personification of Hitler inevitably turns into parody, and here’s where Bruno Ganz has succeeded in his chilling and volcanic recreation of the complex leader of the German war machine and the madman who will go down in history as one of the most hideous villains known to mankind.
Director: Oliver Herschbiegel
Genre: Drama/Historical Drama/Epic/Biopic
Language: German
Country: Germany
That this movie doesn’t belong to the genre of suspense thrillers is amply clear from its title. Yet, such is the successful culmination of the director’s audacious vision and the beauty of the addictive screenplay, that despite the title also serving as its synopsis, the movie manages to make one watch every frame with bated breath. Courtesy its lazy pacing, elegiac tone and the breathtaking splendour of the vignettes captured on screen, this epic revisionist Western about the assassination of the legendary outlaw by a greasy wannabe manages to be brooding, contemplative and insightful look into violence, brutality, death and man’s obsession with celebrity culture. Mesmerizing in its ability to slowly grow on the viewers (even after the end credits have rolled) and incredibly haunting to look at, the movies has been as generously helped by its splendid recreation of the wild West days that is almost nostalgic in its intonation, as by its talented motley crew of actors. Brad Pitt, as one of the fist icons of America, is especially brilliant in his powerful portrayal of an enigmatic man whose mournful exterior masked a psychotic gunman within; Casey Affleck, too, is really good as the queasy and complex young man whose hero worship of Jesse James is gradually replaced with cold jealousy that leads to what the title informed us well in advance.
Director: Andrew Domonik
Genre: Drama/Western/Epic
Language: English
Country: US
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood is often considered as the greatest cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare. The master, of course, might have a point since his Ran, adapted from King Lear, is also equally renowned, if not more. However, there’s rarely any doubt in that Macbeth hasn’t received a more stunning and awe-inspiring cinematic rendition. Starring Kurosawa regular and inimitable actor Toshiro Mifune as the eponymous brave yet tragic hero, the movie is an epic Samurai take on the Shakespeare classic. Based during feudal war-torn Japan of medieval years – a time in which his Seven Samurai and Rashomon were also based – the movie is as much a visual spectacle as it is a deeply psychological one. The self-destructive ambitions of a samurai warrior, played with the kind of gleefully over-the-top, maniacal and utterly memorable swagger that few apart from Mifune could, has made for a grand tale filled with betrayal, treachery and murder. Right from the valorous warrior’s spectacular rise, till the bloody and deeply ironic denouement, the movie is a blast of high-octane force and a bleakly moody denunciation of man’s age-old lust for ‘power and glory’.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: Drama/Epic/War/Samurai Movie
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
