When the Cheshire emerges...

ANYTHING that challenges conventionality is often looked upon with fear, as we live in a world increasingly ruled by regulations and expectations. How scared most people are when asked to step outside the box, even for something directly to their personal benefit…

 

A look at our world using only the sense of sight is impossible for most humans as they go about their duties. Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson find solace in their ability to use film as a powerful alternative, eliminating all other senses and replacing the sounds of our world with those that heighten feelings of both uncertainty and hope.

 

Their attempt at samsara, a continuous flow, takes us through a circle of life. There are good and bad things to come, and not all things are simply accepted as a part of that. What starts out respectful and beautiful is shown to suddenly turn into what we try to avoid.

 

Fricke and Magidson filmed in 25 countries across five continents, spanning a period of five years. Filming predominantly around Asia, we see the wonders of Balinese dancers, Tibetan monks, and elsewhere, the struggles of a man in the corporate world and a tender moment between a father and child.

 

 

Its message is heavy, one reminding us that when there is not harmony, there is often disarray. A film with no definitive opinion (rather, aiming to make a general observation), the monotony of lives with no direction is what perhaps hits the hardest. Factory workers packing for hours on end and the repetition of machinery manufacturing dolls (of an adult nature) encourage you to question.

 

Eyes are certainly a window to the soul for the creators of Baraka; director Fricke and Magidson use them as the ultimate communication tool to display longing and determination. The film also uses popular culture in showing a flash mob as it travels down life’s tougher path, while an unintentional timeliness makes the sight of a gun-toting family all that more chilling.

 

The triumph comes from the stunning photography. Fricke, also the film’s cinematographer, captures both the vibrancy and bleakness of our world with ease. Working with 70mm film, a wide-film chosen for its higher resolution, this is a picture that warrants big-screen viewing. A film that will challenge your senses for 102 minutes, Samsara is like nothing you’ve seen before.

Rating: 4/5

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

AS the third adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s detective novel, the John Huston-Humphrey Bogart version stands out not just for Huston’s directorial debut but the dominant presence of his star. Bogart appears in nearly every scene in a truly powerhouse display.

 

Bogart plays detective Sam Spade, half of private business Spade and Archer. When Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) is shot while on a case, Spade looks into the circumstances on suspicion the story Brigid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) used when hiring them, is false.

 

His skills at discovering information (through charm if not his actual talent at the job) are what get him to Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet). What follows is simply a story of the group’s personal gain where lives were lost inconsequentially.

Huston plays the dread card well with Bogart and Astor, and still remains a triumph among the crime genre. His cast doesn’t miss a beat and the story is kept tight and suspensful until all is revealed.