( Whose friends? )
Another brilliant ten-part series narrated by David Attenborough. It’s about the different creatures of this world like you’ve never seen them before and how they survive quite intelligently in their habitats. If you are not stuck by amazement watching this series, you must be an alien to human kind. Another reason as to why it’s been a pleasure to watch is that it has all been shot in HD with an ‘on location’ ten minute segment towards the end where they show how they actually got the shots in certain locations. Well if you’ve seen Planet Earth and loved it, you can be assured to get the same sentiments from Life, if not more. It’s awe-striking. It’s hilarious. It’s most fascinating.
If you happen to be reading this from the UK, catch it on BBC One showing every monday or on the iPlayer. (BBC website)
This was one of those wonderfully made European movies that cannot be replicated in the details by any of the “-woods”. Life is full of coincidences that adds the unexpected element in our ordinary lives. This Danish movie has an ordinary plot of estranged lovers, where their paths diverged only to meet in unusual circumstances to reveal some expected news. But it stands out for the plot is so powerfully expressed by performances that move you. The details in the making of the movie, so as not to overwhelm you excessively and setting the pace perfectly is to be commended and for keeping the emotions close to real life.
My one line review: A wonderful gripping drama for the emotional soul. (Via Rungta)
Have waited a long time to watch this. Now that it has become available, I can only recommend it. Although the after taste felt something like this:
It strives to cover just about every possible facet of industrial design, but with a 75 minute running time, there are a lot of ideas that don’t quite get all the attention that they deserve. Which is not to say this isn’t a fascinating documentary, only that it flies by so fast that it’s hard to grasp and fully digest all of the questions being asked.
Which consequently asks for a re-watch soon and worth the watch ‘cause…
Objectified is a movie that will open your mind to the hidden world of design that influences virtually every aspect of our lives. Gary Hustwit has once again taken a mundane concept and made something both compelling and artistic out of it.
Taking a trip to the computing clouds. An untechnical description of where your online data actually is.
Amit Varma’s take on the state of education in India and how it fails.
Sita Sings the Blues. A self explanatory title. It’s an animation with an autobiographical parallel to the mythology of the Ramayana. Personally found it to be a well executed idea for an independent movie. Give it a go if you want another, although arguably feministic, POV of our great Indian epic. The good part, it’s also publicly available. (Via Shikha.)
I suppose I didn’t do enough justice the first time I watched this movie a couple of years ago. Re-watching it made me realise just how beautiful and how much depth there was in the movie. The theme and the performances by Zack Baff (who also wrote and made this his directorial debut) along with Natalie Portman definitely made it worth the watch. Also loved the choice of indie music.
Doing the regular rounds of finding movies to look forward to:
Bharka Dutt in conversation with Kapil Sibal. Need more such arguments like these.
Continuing my stand-up comedy (mild) mania. This bit is is from Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow in Edinburgh, with Rhod Gilbert as one of the stand-up guests. Although I think this one is classified as a gag, the otherwise narrated observational comedy by some of the comedians has had me literally laughing out loud.
Watch it! And let it change you.
Sadly for some reason it’s airing only till the 14th of June. So make sure you catch it by then.
I’m a couple of years late in reading this I suppose, but better late than never. This book killed me, to say the least. I have to completely agree here with my friend’s reaction to the book. Personally the honesty of the thoughts in the book, almost makes me not feel alone with my thoughts. I’d recommend it to anyone.
I seem to be on a roll tumbling across wonderful things about people’s passions and their views of life to eventually learn of their passing. Sometimes knowing a story doesn’t quite complete the chance to be moved until you watch the emotions of another person, who are closely affected by it, commemorating their life. This was one of the saddest moving documentaries I’ve seen in recent times. P.S. This might be viewable only in the UK.
This was my first discovery of his talks and it was fantastic. I’m glad not to have missed this.
Slightly melancholic as it may seem, its the wonderful truth- hit hard and honestly.
A history and virology lesson of world pandemics.
This is such a fresh side to standup comedy. His material is around simple everyday things with an uncanny comical side that you know very well to be true; and his ‘Man-drawer’ bit totally had me cracking cause it’s like what my father does with things around the house.
A very cool, intelligent app for anyone who loves to catalogue the movies, books, music they own/see among other things like their games, software etc. This will make any Mac owner want one.