I haven’t seen most of this year’s Academy Award nominees, not even Slumdog Millionaire, which won more Oscars than any other movie during this year’s ceremony. Now that I am slowly getting to watch these movies I hope that all of them will be as good as this one. I have expected a flashy movie with a Hollywoodesque tear-driven story set in some really poor foreign place where people wear lots of colorful clothes. And in a way, you could describe Slumdog Millionaire like this. It remains a story with a good ending, it sticks to quite a few stereotypes (regarding the distribution of agency along gender differences, for example), and it is very entertaining.
But it is also more than that, maybe even much more. The way the story of the main protagonist is told is quite beautiful. Like Sheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights, our hero has to save his life by telling stories. But in difference to the Arabian Nights, the stories are all about the hero himself, they tell us how he became who he is now. And they also encompass a love story. The movie works so well because it is so well produced: the editing changes between fast-paced and detailed, the soundtrack can quicken your pulse to fit the energy of the movie, the places, people and outfits have been selected extremely well – this was one of the first times when I could really understand why the Academy distributes so many Oscars to a single film: all elements fit together, pushing the whole enterprise onto a much higher level. Watching this film has been a charming, exhilarating and moving experience – more so than I expected. I definitely recommend watching it in a cinema if you have the chance. This is not the greatest movie in years or even for this still young year (see the entry below on Let the right one in). Nonetheless, it is an extraordinary movie that speaks to the heart and the senses in its own, touching way.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Posts Tagged ‘India’
Slumdog Millionaire – Splendid storytelling.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009The Darjeeling Limited – colorful trains.
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Back in Darmstadt, one of the first things I did was to go to the movies. There wasn’t much interesting on show, but the newest movie of director Wes Anderson caught my interest. Not necessarily because it was done by him (although I quite enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), but more so because I really liked the main cast. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman – I like all three of them, and I was curious how three egos like theirs would interact on the big screen. (They are cast as unlike brothers who just lost their father and are searching for their mother in the Indian hinterland.) I am still unsure how to rate this movie. I think the idea, the casting, and the camera work are all well done. However, I was not entirely satisfied by the script and/or the directing. The story and the characters did not catch me emotionally, they remained somewhat on the surface, not touching deeper emotions. Perhaps this is the case because they were on the search for authentic emotions themselves? I do not know. Nonetheless, this movie was quite entertaining. And it was very colorful indeed. The design of trains and clothes ranges from beautiful via charming to hilarious.
IMDb entry | Trailer