way back in the seventies the big daddies, satyajit ray, mrinal sen, ritwick ghatak et al, decided to be voyuers. and out flowed a flood of movies which the confounded critics termed as immersive experiences.
nothing much happened in these movies other than a camera following people around, sometimes in excruciating cringe worthy details. who can forget the eight minute long shot of a starving man eating and eventually choking on a bowl of rice, or two kids fascinated, minutes on end, by 'singing' telegraph wires.
interestingly these movies invariably end abruptly. almost as if even the director had enough and just sprang from his seat shouting 'its a wrap' or maybe he just realised he was running out of budget
whenever i saw these movies i did three things, at some point i wondered where was all this headed, at some other point i would sneakily lookup the timeline to see how much is still left, and at the end, when it abruptly ended, i wud swear 'wtf' under the breath
however these movies had their moments and there were times when the details would jolt one into realising that one is not paying enough attention to the smaller more important things in life.
so will roma. it is as immersive as movies can get and it will take you on a ride in such minute details that you will wonder whether you bought a movie ticket or did you instead hop on a flight to mexico.
and i am equally sure that you will feel that sense of deja vu, the sense that though you are watching people out there in mexico, things aren't so different after all. that all of us live similar lives. do similar things. at one point in the movie a maid goes about wrapping up the house at night, and the camera follows her as she goes room to room switching off the lights, and then in the end when all the lights are off she walks over to a corner lamp and switches it on. i smiled. thats exactly what i do too.
it has its cringe worthy moments, for sure. i dare you not to flinch at two scenes, once in a bedroom and once in a hospital. and yes, i did wonder at one point where was this headed and yes, when it ended i did swear under my breath.
did i love it? well, lets just say i wasn't anywhere close to hating it.
nothing much happened in these movies other than a camera following people around, sometimes in excruciating cringe worthy details. who can forget the eight minute long shot of a starving man eating and eventually choking on a bowl of rice, or two kids fascinated, minutes on end, by 'singing' telegraph wires.
interestingly these movies invariably end abruptly. almost as if even the director had enough and just sprang from his seat shouting 'its a wrap' or maybe he just realised he was running out of budget
whenever i saw these movies i did three things, at some point i wondered where was all this headed, at some other point i would sneakily lookup the timeline to see how much is still left, and at the end, when it abruptly ended, i wud swear 'wtf' under the breath
however these movies had their moments and there were times when the details would jolt one into realising that one is not paying enough attention to the smaller more important things in life.
so will roma. it is as immersive as movies can get and it will take you on a ride in such minute details that you will wonder whether you bought a movie ticket or did you instead hop on a flight to mexico.
and i am equally sure that you will feel that sense of deja vu, the sense that though you are watching people out there in mexico, things aren't so different after all. that all of us live similar lives. do similar things. at one point in the movie a maid goes about wrapping up the house at night, and the camera follows her as she goes room to room switching off the lights, and then in the end when all the lights are off she walks over to a corner lamp and switches it on. i smiled. thats exactly what i do too.
it has its cringe worthy moments, for sure. i dare you not to flinch at two scenes, once in a bedroom and once in a hospital. and yes, i did wonder at one point where was this headed and yes, when it ended i did swear under my breath.
did i love it? well, lets just say i wasn't anywhere close to hating it.
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