I got to watch L’illusionniste (The Illusionist) again. Ever since I saw the Les triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville).I have been thrilled by Sylvain Chomet’s movies. This is the kind of animation movie which reveals new things to wonder about every time I watch it.

The amazing movements of the central character throughout the movie was the main source of enchantment the first time. The story, characters, lighting and the masterly use of 3D and 2D to create a unique hand drawn weathered, warm feel is fantastic. The style is absolutely unique. While there are many animation movies today which share the same look (for e.g. Pixar and Dreamworks Superhero movies Megamind and The Incredibles) Sylvain Chomet’s work is simply outstanding.

Something which I stumbled upon while I was surfing

The Top 10 Cult Movies of the Decade.

Battle Royale looks like an interesting film.  Moulin Rouge is a good movie, but I don’t think it’s the number one cult movie of the Decade.

Quick Gun Murugun (Dr. Rajendra Prasad),  what do I say about this daring South Indian Cowbhai movie?

It has everything.. action.. camedy.. sangs..and lats and lats of balls.. sorry bullets I say!

After watching the Oscars in 2006, I was very curious about the movie Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno), which had won three Oscars and was nominated for six Oscars. At that time I did check out who the director was and found out that it was Mexican director named Guillermo del Toro, who’s earlier Hollywood movie “Hellboy” I had seen.

Lately I got the opportunity of seeing Pan’s Labyrinth and was totally blown away. I would totally agree with one of the reviews in IMBD who said that’s its “Beautiful, violent, magical and Sad…” What stood out for me in addition to the cinematography and the art direction was the acting by Sergi López who played the villainous “Captain Vidal”.

The story is set in Spain during 1944 at the peak of the fascist regime of “Francisco Franco”.  The story is  about a girl who with her pregnant mother goes to live with her step father who is a captain of the Spanish army. The girl Ofelia meets a fairy who takes to an old faun who tells her that she is a princess and must complete three grueling tasks in order to prove her royalty. If she happens to fail then she would never see her real father who is the King.

In the movie the whole fantasy world can be interrupted as being created by girl who wants to escape the harsh realities of life. Well that’s left to the audience.

Guillermo del Toro is going to be  directing “The Hobbit” and I can’t think of a better person to fill Peter Jackson’s shoes.

Cache (Hidden)

I have not seen anything like this movie before. It is an exercise in frustration. It is however an interesting, tense and positive kind of frustration. This type of orchestrated frustration is worth examining.

Tales of X9

These dark days when nothing seems to be interesting on favorite cartoon channels like Cartoon Network and Nickolodeon, one wishes that the least they can do is rerun much beloved series like Samurai Jack. While we were talking about the uninteresting shows that are now part of the animation channels, what came to my mind was a few shining moments from the adventures of Jack.

This series quit while it was at its peak. It rose head and shoulders above other shows by achieving the right mix of art, story, animation, music, concepts, characters and dialog. Many episodes would make a lasting impact leaving us with memorable one liners. Like “Lulu, Sweet Thing”

Antoni Gaudi

This is the third part in the series Visions of Space that I saw. This is a look at how the works of three remarkable architects of the 20th century shaped our modern world. It examines how each one of them use space to express our response to the power of the corporation (Meiss van der Rohe), the power of the State (Albert Speer), and religion (Antoni Gaudi).

The third part is called God’s Architect.

Scarface (1932)

The mention of Scarface brings to mind the iconic images of  Tony Montana, the character played by Al Pacino in the 1983 movie made by Brian De Palma. However, it was only recently that I came to know from my friend that this was  a remake of a movie made more than 75 years ago!

This version is considered by many as one of the best gangster noire movies.

A McGuffin

The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock built some his most suspense filled movies around a key concept called a McGuffin. Many famous films of his like Notorious, North by Northwest and Psycho were triumphs of this aspect of story telling. What exactly is a McGuffin?

Albert Speer

This is the second part in the series Visions of Space that I saw. This is a look at how the works of three remarkable architects of the 20th century shaped our modern world. It examines how each one of them used space to express our response, respectively, to the power of the corporation (Meiss van der Rohe), the power of the State (Albert Speer), and religion (Antoni Gaudi).

The second part is about Albert Speer and is called Size Matters.