A Most Wanted Man (2014) or Beautiful Spies

He was drinking his whisky anxiously. He needed to calm down. Other spies, mightier and with more efficient networking qualities (what other people call ass-licking qualities) were way ahead him. With a fiasco in his pocket -defeated by the Americans, can you imagine?- he had to do it right this time around. 

Audiovisual Pleasures when Traveling

Earlier this week I was travelling to and back from Prague, not on a plane, nor by car, neither by train. And exactly because of that, I was the blessing that is called free time immobilised. Why is that, you will ask. Let me explain: the aforementioned ways of travelling no matter how different they are, have one similar result: keeping us busy. Not sure if it applies to others, but for me taking the plane means a lot of organisation and serious item selection and separation (liquids here, heavy stuff there, fragile goods where?), which brings along stress, just like the never-ending controls, check-ins and so on so forth. Little time to rest and be peaceful/ready to concentrate on something other than the trip per se. Travelling by car implies company, and your company wants to converse, wants you to be a good dj and stuff, occasionally he even wants you to drive a little bit so that he gets some rest (what the fuck). No free time for extracurricular activities there. Train comes handy, cause it surely gives more time for contemplation; the voyage is normally long, but the landscape distracting, just like the various stops on the way. You cannot help listening to the bizarre names of the stops in between, noticing new passengers coming in or going out, staring at interesting strangers if not the strangely-shaped trees that for the fraction of a second collate with the horizon and little time is left for you to read or write, let alone watch a movie. Because, this is what I'm talking about: the impossible deed of watching a movie on the move.

But, yes, earlier this week I made it. I opted for a bus from Luxembourg to Prague, and, what a joy, I was left exhausted in my not-so-comfortable seat, ready to endure a ten-hour-trip armed with unusually quiet co-travellers and a small screen stuck on the back of the seat in front me. A vast (sic) choice of films and TV series awaited me. I finally had the time to fill my gaps when it comes to recent and not-so-recent cinematic releases. On the way to the exceptionally gothic Czech capital I watched Argo (2012), the oh-so-acclaimed film I once scoffed on the basis of its fame -sometimes too much praise gets on my nerves, you know- only to realise that it is a good film indeed. I love to find out that I was wrong; I enjoyed a messy and long-haired Ben Affleck, full of poise and secret agent allure, as much as I found the atmosphere in '79 Teheran intimidating and threatening, even a bit exaggerated so (been in Teheran ten years ago, the early years' roughness had worn off, but, oh well, it is an "unfree" place to a certain extent).

Frantic (1988)

fran·tic (adj.)

1. Highly excited with strong emotion or frustration; frenzied: frantic with worry.

2. Characterized by rapid and disordered or nervous activity: made a frantic last-minute search for the lost key.

3. Archaic Mad; insane.

That's how  the Free Dictionary defines the title that Roman Polanski gave to his exciting thriller, and it got it all correct. There is a certain unpleasant incident/situation that makes Dr Richard Walker -played by a Harrison Ford who seems to be in his thirties, but is in his early forties instead- frantic in every possible sense; he is definitely frustrated, very emotional, making nervous/random efforts to re-establish order and he is taken for mentally ill for his efforts, not only by the police, but also by other people in his entourage.

The story goes like this: Dr Richard Walker, an American doctor arrives in Paris for a certain professional convention with his wife, expecting to have a second honeymoon of sorts. Having left their children back home, they expect some thrill for a change, to forget their peaceful  (read mundane) life, but not a thrill of this kind. They hardly had a relaxing shower in their hotel room (a reference to the shower scene we will never forget, hail Hitchcock), and Mr Walker realizes that Mrs Walker has gone missing. Nobody wants to take him seriously, but he is certain his wife knows no one in town and she would never leave without letting him know first.

Why are The Birds yet to come?

The Birds are all about Freud and the power of the maternal leash that does not stay off her male child according to Slavoj Zizek and his Pervert's Guide to Cinema. Valid analysis for me, but I could also take the one that states that we have on screen a graphic example of nature attacking back, after years and years of slavery under man's indifferent hands.

Passion (2012)

I watched Passion (2012) some time ago, and, alas, I was not so eager to write about it. Not that I found it dull or deprived of charm, no; the two leading ladies and their rage to devour each other, the mise en scene and certain twists and unpredictability kept me going while in the cinema. When the film finished, though, the only thing that stayed was a little curiosity on how Brian de Palma got interested in directing Passion: I didn't see it so much as his type of film.

The Departed (2006)

This is a sad coming-of-age story. Not only for Leonardo di Caprio and Matt Damon desperately searching for the father figure, that loving, caring and trusting figure nowhere to be found -one in the scary persona of a true villain like only Jack Nicholson could be and the other to his white-haired and kind boss Martin Sheen. Not only for them, but for me, as well. When the film was out I scorned it; was it because others praised it so much, was it because the rebellious nature of early youth is not willing to show any respect to old age? Or was it because I could not tell between a bad and a good crime and cops chase movie. What I remember is this: back then, Martin Scorsese was for me nothing more than a director that withheld his retirement only too long.

Cape Fear (1991)

A remake of the 1962 thriller with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum; Scorsese directed it for Universal Studios -they say it was part of a deal: he would finally be able to make his Temptation in exchange of a mainstream film. That mainstream film ended up being Cape Fear, after Scorsese traded projects with Steven Spielberg. Surprising enough, Scorsese was originally planning to direct Schindler's List. Who knows how film history would have changed, if things didn't go this way.