The Common Man, and his indomitable spirit, forms the focus of this weekend screenings from Bangalore Film Society. Three classics that celebrate human resilience in the face of grave odds and how man triumphs over all adversities in the end.
If the first is an odyssey of a man dealing with his own mortality and lasting bonds of brotherhood, the second is a cinematic tour de force and light-hearted, rambunctious ode to dying Wild West, the third neo-realistic saga of a retired civil servant, impoverished and isolated trying to survive and retain his sanity in a society that has dispensed with him.
Films lined up
The multi-genre, uncommon cinematic sojourn begins Friday with David Lynch’s The Straight Story. Based on a true tale that captured the hearts of America, the film, spotlights on the six-week arduous journey that 73-year-old Alvin Straight undertakes to visit his sickly, estranged brother who has suffered a stroke in a bid to make amends with him. And during this sojourn across the rural America, the people he meets, his impact on their lives, and theirs on his. A warm, gentle, and inspiring rare films that offers powerful, uplifting entertainment for audiences of all ages, Lynch’s The Straight Story, that starkly captures the man’s 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin, on a lawnmower, is a poignant film that celebrates the indomitable human spirit.
A lusty, splendidly entertaining and most poetic film from epic Westerns filmmaker Sam Peckinpah, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, is “a musical about the economic and emotional complexities of capitalism”.
The film shows how, double-crossed and left to die in the desert, rascally prospector Cable Hogue, who discovers the life-sustaining liquid, transforms this desert water-hole into big time capital business.
A film that will stick with you, and one, you will want to revisit frequently, The Ballad, is a clean, crisp and believable parable about a man whose life is caught in a swirl of survival, revenge, building a business, falling in love, and finally, making a decision about life’s priorities. Peckinpah’s own personal favourite of all his films, the film with several touches of pure slapstick, it shows how the director eschews violence to provide a contrasting funky and appealing Western parable with unforgettable images of tenderness.
Both a celebration and a lamentation of the death of Italian neorealism, renowned maestro Vittorio De Sica of The Bicycle Thief fame’s equally evocative and lyrical and powerful masterpiece Umberto D.
The story follows an elderly, retired civil servant’s Sisyphian struggle to maintain his dignity and decent standard of living on a rapidly dwindling state pension, is considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made.
Umberto Domenico Ferrari, who is up against his tyrannical landlady, who keeps demanding rent that he can’t pay (while renting his room out to prostitutes during the day), and his only friends are the pregnant housemaid and his little dog Flike, struggles to survive in a city plagued by passive disregard for post-World War II plight of elderly.
Full of uncompromising grace and authenticity, Umberto D, Like De Sica’s earlier masterpieces Shoeshine and The Bicycle Thief, earns its every bit of teardrops honestly. Yes, it this timeless classic doesn’t make you smile and cry, it’s time to give yourselves a thorough check.
Screenings, 6.30 pm, at Ashirvad, 30, St. Mark’s Road cross, Opp SBI. For membership and details call 2549 2774/ 2549 3705/ 9886213516 (Siddarth).
FILM WORKSHOP
A course entitled ‘An overview of narrative cinema’ will be conducted at the Suchitra Film Society on August 25 and 26. The course contents will include fundamental aspects like realism and ex-precisionist, montage and mise-en-scene, classic Hollywood cinema and elements of genre theory. Two or three relevant films will also be screened. The course will be conducted by award winning film critic, M K Raghavendra. The number of participants is restricted to 25 and those interested may contact Suchitra Film Society, Banashankari 2nd Stage.
