The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

The Seventh Seal is poetic, existential, grim, somber, witty, and on the whole a medieval treatment of an eternally relevant curiosity of human race - the existence of god and the inevitability of death. It draws up a desirous balance of solemn and the carefree, the harsh and the satirical. A medieval knight named Antonius Block and his squire Jöns have just returned from ten wasted years in the Crusades to a Sweden in the throes of the black plague. Block is the most philosophical, perceptive, and inquisitive character who is never tired of seeking answer to an ever-contemporaneous inquiry into the existence of god. Jöns is verging on the cynical side of the inquiry, maintains an expression of scornful derision toward Block, and most prominently a strict enforcer of civil rules. 
We also meet a simple actor named Jof who holds a simple vision of life and a believer in the god, his wife Mia radiating eternal love and affection, and their infant son Mikael, a metaphoric object of future and hope. Vacillating between his inability to believe and his dissatisfaction with unbelief, Block fulminates against God’s frustrating elusiveness on the one hand and the God-shaped hole in his own heart on the other. "Why must he always hide behind unseen miracles and vague promises and hints about eternity?" Block complains. Yet he also asks, "Why can’t I kill God within me? Why does he live on inside me, mocking and tormenting me till I have no rest, even though I curse him and try to tear him from my heart? Why, in spite of everything else, does he remain a reality — a maddening reality I cannot get rid of?" Besides struggling with doubts about God’s existence, Block also resists death in the hope of performing a single meaningful act before dying. He challenges Death, the grim reaper, in a game of chess only to temporize his search for god. The reprieve is granted by Death who intermittently engages in his usual pitiless acts to remind us the inevitability of him. Block does get an opportunity to perform his meaningful act before the film ends — even in a way cheating Death — ultimately this gives him no consolation or peace. Instead, his only respite from his existential dread occurs, notably, during an encounter with the playful couple, Jof and Mia, in which Block briefly shares in their peaceful existence, enjoying a simple meal of wild strawberries and milk. In final, Block and his company with the exception of Jof, Mia, and Mikael accept lurking Death in a moment of submission. In The Seventh Seal, Bergman scrutinizes life and death as a philosophical problem rather than living it as a man. He portrays agnosticism and existential angst with recognized expressions of excitements, but allows religious allegiance to appear only in archaic and repulsive forms. Throughout the film, each encounter with Death gives way to an earthy humorous episode reminding us the endless proceedings of a mundane life. Like Block, Bergman never attempts to enter into Jof and Mia’s uncomplicated way of life, yet still somehow seems to draw comfort from it. By the film’s end it’s clear that although the director has no wish to be like Jof and Mia, he nevertheless values their way of life and doesn’t wish to see them deprived of it. Bergman expresses his impression of Death in the following:
"I was afraid of this enormous emptiness, but my personal view is that when we die, we die, and we go from a state of something to a state of absolute nothingness; and I don’t believe for a second that there’s anything above or beyond or anything like that; and this makes me enormously secure."

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)

There are two kinds of directors: those who have the public in mind when they conceive and make their films and those who don't consider the public at all. For the former, cinema is an art of spectacle; for the latter, it is an individual adventure. There is nothing intrinsically better about one or the other; it's simply a matter of different approaches. For Hitchcock, films are meant for the public. He made movies for the public.

Alfred Hitchcock, often dubbed as the master of suspense, is a remarkably intelligent director. Right from the start of his career in England, he had formed the habit of predicting each aspect of his films. All his life he has worked to make his own tastes coincide with the public's, emphasizing humor in his English period and suspense in his American period. This dosage of humor and suspense has made Hitchcock one of the most commercial directors in the world. It is the strict demands he makes on himself and on his art that have made him a great director. 

Let me first start with two quotes that hopefully capture Hitchcock's motives behind his style of filmmaking:

• On the length of movies: "The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder"

• On his mission in life:
"to simply scare the hell out of people."

Hitchcock, as many of us are aware of, started his career in England and then took American citizenship and started his illustrative career in the Hollywood. His filmography is given below:

The Silent Years

1925            The Pleasure Garden

1927            The Mountain Eagle

1927            The Lodger

1927            Downhill

1927            Easy Virtue

1927            The Ring

1928            Champagne

1928            The Farmer's Wife

1929            The Manxman

The British Classics

1929            Blackmail

1930            Juno and the Paycock

1930            Murder!

1931            The Skin Game

1932            Number Seventeen

1932            Rich and Strange

1934            The Man Who Knew Too Much

1934            Waltzes From Vienna

1935            The 39 Steps

1936            Sabotage

1936            Secret Agent

1937            Young and Innocent

1938            The Lady Vanishes

1939            Jamaica Inn

1940            Foreign Correspondent

Vintage Hollywood

1940            Rebecca

1941            Mr. and Mrs. Smith

1941            Suspicion

1942            Saboteur

The War Years

1943            Shadow of a Doubt

1944            Lifeboat

1945            Spellbound

              

Perfecting the Art

1946            Notorious

1948            The Paradine Case

1948            Rope

1949            Under Capricorn

1950            Stage Fright

              

The Fourth Decade

1951            Strangers on a Train

1953            I Confess

1954            Dial "M" for Murder

1954            Rear Window

              

The Master of Suspense

1955            To Catch a Thief

1955            The Trouble with Harry

1956            The Man Who KnewToo Much (remake)

1956            The Wrong Man

1958            Vertigo

1959            North by Northwest

1960            Psycho

             

The Grand Old Man

1963            The Birds

1964            Marnie

1966            Torn Curtain

1969            Topaz

              

Coming Home

1972            Frenzy

1976            Family Plot

There are many widely distributed sources where one will come across Hitchcock's style of moviemaking. The following video summarizes some of these elements, even though it is far from being adequate:

In the following video, the master of suspense describes his  "Theory of Bomb" that lies at the heart of his filmmaking style. 

In yet another video, posted below, Hitchcock defines the idea of a McGuffin, a ploy by the director to sustain the suspense, first introduced by Hitchcock. 

The last video clip traces Hitchcock in all of his cameo appearances:

My Favorites (not necessarily in this order):

Frenzy (1972)
Overview: Hitchcock in full gear, telling story of London strangler and innocent man suspected of murder spree. All Hitchcock elements are here, including black humor and several astounding camera shots.

Strangers on a train (1951)
Overview: Walker gives his finest performance as psychopath involved with tennis star Granger in 'exchange murders'. First - class Hitchcock, based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Dial M for murder (1954)
Overview: Frederick Knott's suspence play of man plotting wife's murder and subsequent police investigation; stagey at times but slick and entertaining.

Rear window (1954)
Overview: One of Hitchcocks most stylish thrillers has photographer Stewart confined to his wheelchair in his apartment, using binoculars to spy on the neighbors, and discovering a possible murder.

To catch a thief (1955)
Overview: The French Riviera serves as a picturesque backdrop for this entertaining Hitchcock with Grant as reformed cat burglar suspected in new wave of jewel robberies.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Overview: Hitchcock's remake of his 1934 film is disappointing. Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" won the Best Song Oscar.

Vertigo (1958)
Overview: One of Hitchcock's most discussed films. Retired police detective who has fear of heights, is hired by old school friend to keep an eye on his wife, eventually falls in love with her and that's just the beginning. Haunting, dream - like thriller.

North by northwest North by Northwest (1959)
Overview: Quintessential Hitchcock comedy - thriller, with bewildering ad - man Grant chased cross country by spies (who think he is a double agent). One memorable scene after another.

Psycho (1960)
Overview: The master's most notorious film is still terrifying after all these years.

The birds (1963)
Overview: Hitchcock's classic about a woman and mass bird attacks that follow her around isolated California community.

Marnie (1964)
Overview: This story of a habitual thief whose employer is determined to understand her illness was considered a misfire in 1964 but there's more than meets the eye.

Topaz (1969)
Overview: French Intelligence agent works with American to dig out info on Russia's involvement in Cuba. Good but also not a great Hitchcock.

Rebecca Rebecca (1940)
Overview: Hitchcock's first American movie about a girl who marries British nobleman but lives shadow of his former wife. Academy Award winner for "Best picture" and "Cinematography".

Shadow of a doubt (1943)
Overview: Perceptive Americana intertwined with story of young girl who slowely comes to realize her beloved uncle is really the "merry widow murderer".

The man who knew Too Much (1934)
Overview: Young girl is kidnapped to prevent her parents from revealing what they've learned about assassination plot.

The 39 steps (1935)
Overview: Classic Hitchcock mystery with overtones of light comedy and romance, as innocent Donat is pulled into spy - ring activities.


Most common elements of a Hitchcockian film:

• Hitchcock used the theory of proximity, by "proper" placement of camera to plan out each scene. These varations are a way of controlling when the audience feels intensity, or relaxation. Hitchcock compared this to a composer writing a music score - except instead of playing instruments, he's playing the audience. 
• The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room. This allows the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story. Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements. An example is here:

• Hitchcock said the following: "People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs.” The focus of the scene should never be on what the characters are actually saying. Have something else going on. Resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. In other words we don’t have pages to fill, or pages from a typewriter to fill, we have a rectangular screen in a movie house."
• Putting an idea into the mind of the character without explaining it in dialogue is done by using a point-of-view shot sequence. This is subjective cinema. You take the eyes of the characters and add something for them to look at. You can edit back and forth between the character and the subject as many times as you want to build tension. The audience won't get bored. This is the most powerful form of cinema, even more important than acting. This is what Hitchcock calls "pure cinema.
• Divide action into a series of close-ups (Montage editing) shown in succession. Don't avoid this basic technique. This is not the same as throwing together random shots into a fight sequence to create confusion. Instead, carfully chose a close-up of a hand, an arm, a face, a gun falling to the floor - tie them all together to tell a story. In this way you can portray an event by showing various pieces of it and having control over the timing. You can also hide parts of the event so that the mind of the audience is engaged.  Hitchcock said this was "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience."  The famous shower scene in Psycho uses montage to hide the violence. You never see the knife hitting Janet Leigh. The impression of violence is done with quick editing, and the killing takes place inside the viewer's head rather than the screen. Also important is knowing when not to cut. Basic rule: anytime something important happens, show it in a close-up. Make sure the audience can see it. 
• Make all of your characters the exact opposite of what the audience expects in a movie. Turn dumb blondes into smart blondes, give the Cuban guy a French accent, and the criminals must be rich and successful. They should have unexpected personalities, making decisions on a whim rather than what previous buildup would suggest. These sort of ironic characters make them more realistic to the audience, and much more ripe for something to happen to them. Hitchcock criminals tend to be wealthy upper class citizens whom you’d never suspect, the policeman and politicians are usually the bumbling fools, the innocent are accused, and the villains get away with everything because nobody suspects them. They surprise you at every step of the plot. 
• "Information" is essential to Hitchcock suspense; showing the audience what the characters don’t see. If something is about to harm the characters, show it at beginning of the scene and let the scene play out as normal. Constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense. But remember - the suspense is not in the mind of the character. They must be completely unaware of it. 
• Create situations of irony. While working on a screenplay Hitchcock would often ask, “Now wouldn’t this be a funny way to kill him off?” He built his stories around ironic situations. He liked to play practical jokes on the characters, putting them through the worst possible things that could go wrong. In the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "One More Mile to Go" (1957, directed by Hitchcock) a policeman has stopped a man because of a burnt out tail light on his car, completely unaware there is a dead body in the trunk. The more obsessed this policeman gets with fixing the light, the more uneasy the murderer gets. Hitchcock pushes this situation to the level of unbearable absurdity as the policeman continues worrying about the light, and gets closer and closer to noticing the body. North By Northwest (1959) places Cary Grant in an open field on a sunny day, where he is then chased by an airplane. “I like to take a lurid situation and counterpoint it with understatement,” explained Hitchcock.
• And many others...

Finally Truffaut said of Hitchcock the following: "Hitchcock has long been judged by the flowers he places in the vase. Now we have at least realized that the flowers are always the same, and that his efforts are directed at the shape of the vase and its beauty."

Bhooter Bhabishyat (The Future of The Past) (Anik Dutta, 2012)

In recent times, Indian and in particular Bengali media (in the state of West Bengal, India) are unjustifiably generous when it comes to heaving accolades on the current generation of Bengali filmmakers. This surplus of praise is mostly indefensible as recent Bengali films are still imprisoned by their strange obsession with relationship centric dramas. Exploring relation-based dramas, however, is not the main problem. The problem lies in elsewhere. Most of these cinematic efforts can mostly be characterized by the following undesirable elements: characters that are outside the bounds of possibility, only scratching the surface of emotional layers without much regard for deep character analysis (a lesson in this regard would be to watch, for example, the highly acclaimed Iranian film A Separation by Asghar Farhadi), lack of sensible dialogues, strong desire to pose as an "intelligent" filmmaker who is up-to-date with the world cinema (read literally stealing from these films; an example would be the much-hyped Bengali film Autograph), choosing style over substance, underappreciation for aural instruments of a film (Ritwik Ghatak was a pioneer for using sound brilliantly), sometimes unconvincing and archaic plots (when plots are convincing they are marred by some of the other factors mentioned here), and sheer inability to build up narratives that do not satisfy two important criteria of narrative cinema: credibility and coherence. Although, these films are technically much superior than their 1990s and last decade counterparts. Bhooter Bhabishyat avoids just about all of the above pitfalls. 

The story is exceptionally imaginative and yet simple. A gang of eclectic ghosts (a cook, a Bengali music band member, a Zamindar aka landlord, a representative of the East India Company, a refugee from Bangladesh,  a Bengali theatre actress, a revolutionary from 70s' Calcutta, a Rickshaw puller, and a few others) need help as they are about to be evicted from their current home as a businessman is all geared up to make way for malls and multiplexes.In the backdrop of this, an aspiring director steps in the same old mansion (where these ghosts are housed) for checking the site of an about-to-be-made film. What follows is a burst of activities replete with spoofs, puns, songs, and dance. Although, beneath all these lies a satirical message about the greed of the modern society that spreads its gluttonous wings at the expense of rich sculptural heritage of cities. The first time helmer Dutta is a master storyteller. Humorous and sharp dialogues (although being an ad filmmaker himself, Dutta couldn't escape the usual knack of an ad-maker for inserting punchlines after every two lines of dialogue), first-class camerawork, unforgiving editing, clever montage of sound pieces, keen eye for details, credible reproductions of a bygone age and society, idiosyncrasies of ghostly creatures - everything seem to jell for the film. Dutta heavily borrows from the master director Satyajit Ray's works and he is not at all reticent about this. In fact, when the aspiring filmmaker and the narrator of the ghosts' lives converse to build up the suspense, their performances strongly remind us of the interactions between the famous Bengali detective Feluda and his assistant Topshe. Delivery of some of the dialogues in the film that rhyme with each other is reminiscent of the lyrical exchanges from Heerak Rajar Deshe ( The Kingdom of Diamonds). In many other aspects, the film is replete with references from Ray's films. In fact, Dutta pays a grand tribute to Ray in this film. Overall, Bhooter Bhabishyat is a rare combination of ingenious plot idea, almost flawless execution, skillful exploitation of the medium as an art form, and an eye for commercial success - a combination that is visibly absent in most of the recent Bengali films.

The Hole (Ming-liang Tsai, 1998)

The Hole is a cinematic marriage between two genres, science fiction and musical drama (romance). Ming-liang is one of the prominent directors from Taiwan and is known for long takes, few close-up shots, and minimal use of dialogues. The plot unfolds in Taipei. The city is flooded out and a strange disease has surfaced in the city that turns infected people into human cockroaches that fear any form of light. A woman and a man live in an adjoining top and bottom apartments in a dilapidated apartment complex. The two lonely souls are caught in the middle of an impending ecological apocalypse. Loneliness has engulfed their lives, each is unaware of the other's existence. However, an inept plumber inadvertently connects the two isolated humans by creating a hole in the floor of the man's apartment, which automatically creates a hole in the woman's ceiling. Thus they become connected to each other by a gaping hole, which acts as a symbolic and metaphysical connection between the two previously disconnected humans. From thereafter, Tsai starts weaving their growing affection for each other among the ruins by lip-synched renditions of popular radio numbers that break the monotony of the frames. These numbers, by their conspicuous absence, also underscore the profound loneliness experienced by the characters . The hole gradually becomes a catalyst that compels each character to fix it. At this level the hole non-literally enables them to fill an emptiness in their lives. The woman hopelessly tries to fix the hole by sealing it off with a mop. In contrast, the man ignores the hole and even pours or pukes liquids through it. The differential nature of their actions reveal the different attitudes of men and women towards the concept of romantic involvements. In the climax of the film the man lifts the downtrodden woman through the hole. This particular frame is captured by the shot of his hand reaching through the hole with the light piercing the darkness of her apartment below. Eventually in the face of a great cataclysm, they repair their respective holes in life. The central philosophy behind The Hole is that most often lonesome conditions of humans can be analyzed better by recognizing our striking failure to communicate with those who may be right under our nose.


The film won a FIPRESCI Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film festival.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives is the latest gem from the Thailand's New Wave director Weerasethakul. Uncle Boonmee, the central character of the film, is a successful tamarind farmer who has made a place of abode in a pristine forest in Northeast Thailand. He is at the doorstep of death and therefore has decided to spend the last few days of his life surrounded by nature. Having realized that he is about to transfer from the "material world" to the "uncharted territory of death", he starts reminiscing about his past life, death, and beyond. Boonmee's reflective persona is facilitated by time spent in the forest which speaks the language of silence, punctuated by rhythmic utterances by nature: swaying sounds of trees, humming crickets, and melodic birds. In stark contrast to establishing Boonmee's character as a nature lover, the film also provides certain glimpses into cruel and  materialistic aspects of Boonmee's character like killing of the "commies" for which Boonmee appears to be remorseful and guilty. Thus Uncle Boonmee presents a familiar combination of good and bad life choices that define typical human nature. In his last journey, Boonmee is accompanied by people who are linked to him by known and unknown tokens of identity: sister-in-law whose parasitic existence on nature is starkly juxtaposed with Boonmee’s cosmic love and respect for nature. On the other hand the character of the illegal immigrant, who is in search of a fresh identity, is a skilful ploy by Weerasethakul to accentuate the discriminatory treatment of people by people on the basis of geography, history, and politics. But these aren’t the only characters who visit Boonmee. He is soon unexpectedly visited by his long-dead wife and long-vanished and dead son, who is transmogrified into a monkey-ghost. In sum, by exploiting these surreal elements (natural atmosphere, fantasy-like characters, aural anatomy of a forest, and brilliant choice of images) Weerasethakul creates a unique setting that is conducive to undisturbed contemplation about life, death, and beyond. From thereon the film touches upon some profoundly deep concepts of philosophical nature. Boonmee is in two minds about his impending death. On one hand, death will allow him to bond with his deceased wife. On the other hand, death will transfer him to a world that is filled with fear, anxiety, strangeness as alluded  to him by his dead son. At this time the film infuses fantasy into reality to delve deep into Boonmee's psyche. Boonmee's past "lives" (re-embodiments) rise before him as outcomes of his meditative state . His re-embodiments include a tethered buffalo that unshackles itself and escapes to the mystical forest in the pursuit of freedom and nature, and a cat fish who performs sex acts on a princess who is trying to regain youth and beauty. We are never told as to why "these" re-embodiments are particularly chosen for Boonmee and what conclusions ensue from their study. Weerasethakul apparently uses these fantastical characters to portray Boonmee's views toward nature and man and earthly desires. The art of marrying fantasy-like characters to mundane details of human life is an important element of Weerasethakul's films (Blissfully Yours, Syndrome and A Century, and Tropical Malady). By doing so, Weerasethakul creates a film language that manifests itself best by exploiting monotony of life (as we know it) and infusing fantasy into that dull life that are ably aided by magnificent aural and visual compositions. There are some scenes or themes in the film that deserve a special mention. The parasitic existence of humans on nature is exemplified by the superb cutting techniques where in one scene the sister-in-law lays claims to nature’s bounty when in the next she deprives the smallest of the small insects of their life. Ideas of oneness of man and nature and reincarnation are represented by various animal figures like the buffalo, the catfish, and the ghost that are presumably the various re-embodiments of Boonmee. Weerasethakul’s mastery of the cinematic art manifests itself at the dinner table where two alive human beings, a monkey-ghost, and a dead person share an uncanny evening and yet we never feel the awkwardness of the scene for a moment. The director mixes fantasy with reality with such a gentle touch of humor. The most profound and unearthly moments of the film take place when a catfish performs cunnilingus on a princess in the jungle, when the catfish finds beauty in the same princess who is judged as ugly by a man in the moment before. The illusory nature of human beauty  and the non-discriminatory character of nature are placed in direct contrast to each other. One of the last few scenes where a monk "unshackles" himself from the spiritual jersey, gets inside a modern piece of clothing, and indulges in loud pop music immediately establish a pretentious understanding of spiritual freedom. The scene gives us an inkling of the thin line that exists between ritual-centric religious practices in everyday life and true enlightenment of the soul. The beauty of the film lies in its magical ability to blend heavy concepts like memory, identity, life, and death in a playful manner. The imagery is suitably slow paced and phenomenologically enriching. The frames sometimes project images that can be found in a typical documentary film (the last part mostly), or images that can be found in a mise-en-scene cinematic style (the parts with the princess) to capture the underlying thematic sensibilities of the film. Thus by intermingling rich interpretations of man and nature, by mixing poetry with cryptic images the film transcends the limitations of cinematic language.

The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film festival.