The gentlemen who met on a train joined each other for a meal and chatted murder.

The Great Alfred Hitchcock has made many contributions to the thriller and mystery genre, he has an adjective ‘Hitchcockian’ termed around his name which defines and grades a movie which pushes it’s viewers to the edge of their seat and keeps them up till the curtain falls. He also made a significant contribution to the Noir genre. And during this month the cinephiles celebrate the month of Noir. A genre builds around the studios’ indulgence in musicals, comedies, drama, and horror, completely opposite to the optimism of the screen idols while counterbalancing it with the tensions and insecurities of the time. Hitchcock’s ‘Strangers on Train’ is one movie besides Notorious, that highlights the same. The concept of control, loss of innocence, despair, and paranoia are portrayed on-screen through the chemistry between the two leads as the film is toned in a familiar visual style found within the noir genre and Hitchcock’s movies. The story also had a latent sexually interwoven thematic element of homosexuality, just like many other themes found in a Hitchcock movie. What it lacked was a classic femme fatale, but fatal were the intentions of its protagonist.

Strangers on a Tran tells the tale of Guy Haines and Bruno Anthony who happen to meet up on a train journey and chat about life and how when it gives you lemons, you make a murder out of it, that is to trade murders, a father for a wife. Based on a novel by Patricia Smith and some parts adapted and written by Raymond Chandler (which could explain the noirish theme) the movie had a great montaged title sequence which in subtext represented the dualities of the characters in a cat and mouse game of criss-cross murders. As we carry on with the viewing, one of the players goes ahead with his part of the bargain and pursues the other to keep his side of the deal. Now the game really gets interesting. We all engage in everyday conversations and oftentimes wish we could get rid of certain people and sometimes we include this in conversations as well but never really mean any harm. Now, what if we come across a person that actually wanted the death to visit in the form of a stranger with no connections or motivations at all. Then we have the traditional Hitchcockian McGuffin, the tennis game and the climactic opera on the merry go round adding to the desperation of both it’s lead characters in a game of wits that takes it’s the viewer to a state of the association and begins to manipulate our fears. Shot in Black and White, the signature of a Noir genre the film utilizes the shades to highlight the thoughts, desires, and desperations of the characters. A must watch during the month of Noir.

by ScreenJives

Tenet. What is Tenet?

The first look for Christopher Nolan’s next film to hit the screen in a year’s time has arrived. Titled ‘Tenet’, twitter was initially filled with the trailer, which later disappeared but good enough for the Internet, Cinephiles, Fandoms, Cinemaholics and everyone else to buzz with anticipation of setting the countdown for 7.17.2020 for the next Nolan adventure to come and blow the mind. Well, the mind is once again the scene of the crime. From the past we have learned, his last attempt at retelling an incident that took place on a beach in France was told in a typical non-linear narrative, a story told with visuals and narrated with sound and the similar sense of tension we have made ourselves familiar. Now the time has come for a new mission, the time has come for a new protagonist, the time has come for us to start the clock and wait as the countdown begins to unravel. Speculations and stories begin to swarm about ‘What is tenet’? Definitely not a sequel. Definitely not a franchise. Definitely not a reboot or prequel. There’s a lot of definitely but definitely, a definitely may also work in this case. Can it have a connection to Inception? Maybe. Can it have a relationship to Interstellar? No. We are still in our universe. Definitely, it’s not the Dark Knight coming out of Gotham. So What is Tenet all about?

Spy-Fi as in Spying meets Science Fiction. When stealing met the science of dreaming we tried to dream bigger and search for the ideas hidden in these worlds. Earlier, this year we saw men in tight suits harness the power of quantum and engage in a Time Heist. Blip as it came to know later. Now, travel in time and spy or spy through another scientific medium which is more than James Bond’s gadgets, Jason Bourne’s skill or Ethan Hunt’s face trick. It is the introduction of a whole new protagonist as mentioned in the teaser but there would be a new antagonist in there as well. It has been a while since we heard a story about ‘How someone got his scars?’. With a cast that includes faces from around the world, one of them needs to be the bad guy or girl with some interesting take on evil. Will it be mind-bending again. Will we look into the universe trying to expand it. What is this new protagonist going to be? Whatever the story? The wait is worth the wait. The teaser should be arriving online soon as the countdown continues for next summer as Fincher, Synder, Villeneuve, and Tenet will hit the screens. More about Villeneuve ‘Dune’ later. For now, let us wait and

by ScreenJives

The Ship was afloat, the spirits were trapped. The mystery was revealed.

Ghost Ship – This old beauty from the ’90s, a part of the isolation horror, where a crew of technical and experienced salvagers is trapped on an ocean liner trying to escape an unseen entity. Imagine John Maclane at the Nakatomi Towers, but instead of fighting terrorists, he is fighting zombies. Anyways, in the last article, I wrote about the adventures on board the ‘Nostromo’. A few years later, a new hybrid genre of isolation genre, we a no escape clause came back into play. Not many made it to the mark, and amongst the midst was Ghostship, in the lines but different from a Deep Rising. Horror at the sea, like a Poseidon Adventure, except the ship, hasn’t turned upside down, just abandoned at sea, for a while and infested by ghosts running away from a horrid past. so what happens next? Do the Salvagers die? Do the Salvagers find the loot? Do the Salvagers kill each other? Do the Salvagers save the girl?

Although the movie does not adhere to a shock and surprise system, for its horror, it still works on building up the tension slowly. It fails with the engagement of the characters, and the interactions with the ghosts are predictable until you come across the past, the dance at the beginning of the movie which ends up in the blood. Isolation is a strong part of horror movies, but once the like interchange a haunted house with rooms, to a space ship or a ship in the water, then throw in a few ghost sightings, then either someone disappears, someone gets killed or some gets killed and disappears, the audience knows, the others begin to search, one by one death comes knocking at the door. Then a small revelation leads to an anti-climax and then to the climax which could either live up to the reputation or fail to provide a happy ending.

Ghostship had everything working for itself as a good horror movie, lost ship at sea, a group of experts who want to get with the treasure, a bunch of ghosts that love play tricks with the mind, a ghost with a Casper Complex and partial nudity that would make the midnight viewing interesting. Mostly, it had a ’90s style which was more adaptable to make a feature work on home video. One problem with the movie is that it sets up everything very well but doesn’t live up to the beginnings or maybe this story should have had a different beginning. The characters are very bland, very one dimensional, it is the situations that make it interesting for the viewers. Still, the movie loses out on the horror, possibly something which a ’13 Ghosts’ had or maybe a ‘Scream’ did for the viewers.   The Salvagers could have been abandoned at sea, rather driven to the sea to find the ship, the history of the ship is interesting, but what connection does it have with a soul keeper is still puzzling. Yet, it’s a good watch.

by ScreenJives

Not Holmes and Watson. Nothing elementary about it Mr Moriarty.

Not Elementary my dear Watson. Except Watson feels, a lot more like a dear in this rendition of the great detective from the turn of the century. There have been many movies about Sherlock Holmes. He has been the figment of many imaginations on screen, on stage, on a radio broadcast, and on television for over a century now. Many actors have made a mark or tried to make a mark as the consulting detective with a frock coat and a deerstalker hat. There have been many serious and accurate renditions of this role from the canons of Conan Doyle. There have been funny renditions as well. Starting from Buster Keaton to the recent one by Will Ferrell. I enjoyed watching ‘Without a Clue’ with an emphasis on Dr. Watson as the man with more than a seven percent solution, and Sherlock being portrayed by an actor played by Micheal Caine. The ‘Arty Morty’ gag from the movie is the best. Besides the combination really works, Ben Kingsley and Micheal Caine. Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman as not Sherlock and Watson were noteworthy in a story about Sherlock Holmes’s smarter younger brother. It’s always the combination, the master of deduction and his chronicler remains at the center of the story. The recent one ‘Holmes and Watson’ tries to build upon a great relation shared by the actors off screen onscreen but fails. And fails to come up with a good story as well.

The combination of Holmes and Watson is what fails the movie, Will and John synched perfectly in Stepbrothers but failed to bring in the charm and humor required to pull this rabbit out of the Hat. Another failure was Professor Moriarty. Ralph seemed to be lost between the humor of Sherlock Holmes and the menace that is Moriarty. He never seems to fulfill the part that comes from the pages of Conan Doyle, not living up to the nickname Napolean of Crime. The crime just wasn’t up to mark or admiration. The twist about Mrs. Hudson lacks the sting. Humor relies on moments of physical and verbal nature to incite laughter. This is diluted into moments of crass humor but fails. What this combination loses is a certain innocence to the combination and why is the story about Watson and Why Holmes is over smart and smitten? This part of humor does not work. The Guy Ritchie edition featured a good bromance, that worked along with the renditions of the characters bu RDJ and Jude Law. It is the Bromance that went missing along with the story. And the gig about Titanic is not funny. Take heed from ‘Without a Clue’ to get a clue about how this combination can be elementary to bring a smile.

 by ScreenJives

 

This City. Vice. Violence. Crime. Noir. The Story.

What defines modern-day noir?

The Lead. The Dame. The Deception. The Setting or The way it has been shot.

The most prominent aspect of early noir that stays with me is the gumshoe detective or Private eye who seems to run out of his luck and decides to pick a job that would pay the bills. The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past, are some, I love Bogart but the others were good too. There were also the occasional cops, agents, out of luck towners, down on luck towners, and the femme who wasn’t necessarily the Fatale. The settings, which seemed around the Detective/private-eye’s office, some hotel/motel room, the posh mansion, the club and the city. The city was the most important ingredient. The night of the city and every corner that was captured became a character itself.  The dresses that the characters wore, were equally significant in contribution and setting the genre apart from the rest. In Cain, Hammet and Chandler’s writing, the city of Los Angeles played a significant role serving both as the rich and poor, the vice and the violence. The allure of the city and the aspect of achievement of dreams is important for the city to manipulate the outsider, their morals into a state of ambiguity. The job always seems simple but random elements are unaccounted for and this serves as the twister. Sometimes it’s also the femme, but the viewers know it, so do the readers. The lead seems to enter the light but it leads to a darkness from which there seems to be no escape and we come to a point where bad luck turns into an opening monologue. The see-saw between one’s ambition and greed is what builds around the character as they are thrown into different situations and culminates that success comes at a cost with the corruption of one’s body, mind and soul. The opening frame and the closing frame is not just for a compositional value but play an important part of this narrative.

The modern-day noir has added more violence and the characters seem to begin at a point where they have already in a state of moral ambiguity. The seedy underbelly of the city has changed it’s landscape and so has the crime. Disorientation, Disillusionment, Alienation and out of luck are still the key ingredients but Sex, Murder and Crime still haven’t changed, just upgraded. Today the mood is more grim and dark in contrast to the early days of the genre and Noir has made its way into a lot of other genres in terms of compositional exploits. Isolation of the characters and the city is still the working variant. I would still recommend reading Cain, Hammet and Chandler. Watching some of the good classics of the genre before indulging in Film-Noir. Mystery and Suspense are only parts of this genre as we are invested more with the characters rather the mystery. The characters stay with us in the end. The Detective. The Private-Eye. The Out of Luck Towner.

So, What defines modern-day noir? You watch and interpret.

by Screen Jives