Which reminded me of The English Patient, one of my all-time favourite movies. We have the North-African-Arab connect, we have deserts, we have impressive dialogue, fine non-American actors (Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Colin Firth, Naveen Andrews), great cinematography and background score, and above all, a painful love story. Any movie that makes me sob loudly is thumbs-up. And I cried bucketfuls with this one.Note to self: Must read Michael Ondaatje's novel. Still haven't.
Quotable quotes from the film, and maybe the book:1. (Almásy writing): "Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace."
2. Almásy: "I fear Madox knows about us. He keeps mentioning Anna Karenina."
3. Almásy: "Swoon, I'll catch you. "
4. Madox: "I have to teach myself not to read too much into everything. It comes from too long having to read so much into hardly anything at all."
5. Hana: "There's a man downstairs. He brought us eggs. He might stay."Almásy: "Why? Can he lay eggs?"
Hana: "He's Canadian."
Almásy: "Why are people so happy when they collide with someone from the same place? What happened in Montreal when you passed a man in the street? Did you invite him to live with you?"
6. Katharine Clifton: "Will we be alright?"
Almásy: "Yes. Yes. Absolutely"
Katharine: "'Yes' is a comfort. 'Absolutely' is not."
Also liked Minghella's Cold Mountain (primarily be on account of Jude Law, Renee Zelwegger and some very impressive landscapes). And the Talented Mr Ripley. Not so much Breaking and Entering.
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4 comments:
* scratch, scratch. Me go live with George of the jungle. :D
Sabby cat, I'll be sly and jot down references just so I can go nod-nod and nod some more about such like things. I like the sound of it though :)
some snappy dialogue fer sure.
english patient is a movie i've never seen (save from occasional snippets on tv over the years on various movie channels).
saw a couple of good movies lately, so refreshingly devoid of formulaic hollywood bool-shettings. (i just can't bring myself to PAY for the privilege of watching the standard fare in dooby's plush sinny-mar's):
- no country for old men (can't go wrong with messrs coen & coen - raising arizona, fargo, o brother, lebowski, barton fink even)
- margot at the wedding (which they might describe back home thus: "kahani kahani thi, story tau koi thi hi nahin!") (or of which neil young might have said, "it sort of starts out real slow, and then fizzles out altogether").
Well well, I watched this one couple of days ago :)
I was warned that this was a painfully slow movie that needed buckets of patience.
Turned out that it was a good movie after all.
The screenplay and Juliette Binoche being wonderful.
The not so wonderful thing being, 1) The falling in love part. The characters just did not have enough time to FALL in love with each other, they went from zero to 100 in a matter of seconds !
2) Adultery = Love ?
And poor Colin Firth, always the jilted husband tee hee hee
Also, I watched this back to back with "Schindler's List" so Ralph Fiennes was not exactly the epitome of romance at the moment for me :P
@StayingColors: You must, must watch. But you must!
Kinky saheb: Yes, sir, I too have heard glowing recommendations about No Country For Old Men. Plan to watch the coming weekend because this one is choc-a-bloc with F1 and soccer. Yay!
Margot at the Wedding, eh? Shall watch as well.
Totally agree about not really feeling inclined to watch Hollywood jamborees in the multi-plushes. Used to be a time not too many years ago back in college that I would satisfactorily watch every movie from the 2nd row in the front (Gandhi-class) for Rs 30 to Rs 45 (in really posh cinemas). Gaaah. Gone are those wonderful days.
@Good Gawde: Come now, sir! When confronted with a shy, awkward yet searing-intense Ralph Fiennes in gorgeous desert landscaped surroundings, are you telling me tat going from 0 to 100 is unbelievable? ("Nooooo!" scream the ladies.)You see, he has a certain magic about him. It could be that he pronounces his name differently than its spelt. That really gets me intrigued. "You had me at 'Ray-f'," as it were. *wink*
I am also adhamed to admit that I have not yet watched Schindler's List. I know. I deserve to be lowered gently into boiling oil.
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