Wild Strawberries 1958

Isaak Borg is a 78 year ex-professor, driving along a seaside ringed by slopes dense with conifers. Accompanying him are his estranged daughter in law and three boisterous teenagers, who have hitched a hike. He is a successful man, and his destination is a nearby university, where he is to receive an honorary doctorate today, his professional crowning moment. Early this morning, he had a strange dream, foreboding his death, though he seems  in good health (clip below). His journey is a journey through his own past: an unhappy marriage. a bitter father son relation, losing his youthful love (in a double role by Bibi Andersson, who is also one of the three teenagers in his car) and a rewarding career. He also picks up a couple whose car has crashed into theirs in the process of a physical fight. They make no attempt to hide or suppress their mutual hatred, and have to be asked to leave. We have a picture of the hellish depth to which a relationship can descend, mirroring his own with his long deceased wife.  He visits some of the places marking events of his life and meets his 90+ mother, in this journey of dreams and reverie. This is in effect a biography of the aged professor, what was and what could not be, and his present anxieties about death. His present is of idyllic comfort, as we see him passing his days, writing in his book populated study, tended by his efficient housekeeper of 40 years standing.
This was the first Bergman film I saw, and perhaps the best. It is a picture of a bitter sweet journey of life, as the camera drinks in the sea, the hills and the human form. Bergman is a master in portraying human expressions, the fleeting variations of mood and emotion. Ebert once remarked he was a master in his studies of human faces. This is cinema of the finest vintage. Bergman is no mean literary talent either, and the script sparkles and dances.

CLIP

Rashomon

Seeing it for the third or fourth time over the years, it was revisiting a cherished and half forgotten place. It is a riveting drama that takes place on the stage of a glade hidden from the policing eyes of society, where primal human nature-lust, anger, greed, even goodness-have unrestrained play. It is a deep, timeless, human study.

The Weekend 2013

Old age is the best of times. The body may show wear and tear, but the mind is steadier, and the experience and learning of a lifetime can be relished and savored. There is little left to lose. As the population grays, it is natural that there are more and more movies about old folk. In this melancholy-sweet film, both are professors, married for thirty years, celebrating a brief expensive holiday. The film dissects the portrait of a particular marriage, thread baring the intimate details with some restraint. The woman is the dominant partner, and contempt vies with affection.. Steering skillfully through a sequence of non events, this melancholy picture of old age ends on a buoyant note, with the couple set on to confront life together. There is no such thing as getting to know a person, however many years one may have spent.

The Unknown Known

Errol Morris, 2014
A riveting documentary, worthy of its celebrated director. It is an interview with Rumsfeld,who was close to the helm of affairs from US side during the Middle East events in the first decade. Morris with great skill is able to snapshot from many angles the mental workings of this very intelligent decision maker, He is, of all things, a "dictionary addict", a person alive to the importance and power of words. We also learn the essential element of unpredictability of life, all calculation notwithstanding, which makes war, sport and even business, so endlessly fascinating. Another thing which appears is the absence of any significant ethical dimension in the thinking of even sophisticated intellectuals.

Citizen Kane****

This is my third or fourth view, and difficult as it may be to be objective about so lauded a movie, what came out clear was that it is a simple and enjoyable film, brimming with energy and the joy of life, it's tragi-comic and somewhat philosophical conclusion notwithstanding. 'Rosebud' is a mere ploy of narration, a prankish device of story telling by a young director. One may say it is the aspect of life, "if only I'd chosen a different path", a regret filled feeling as the curtain lowers. The film lunges through time with momentum and speed, managing to compress a dense biography within two hours. There is not a dull moment, starting from the obituarial newsreel which opens the movie.The film is visually poetic, not least the "no trespassing" which opens and closes the film, or the billows of sooty smoke which seem to symbolize the net worth of Kane. No less than the cinematic element, is the continuous verbal creativity of the script, and one could pullout any number of quotes. In essence, it is more funny than sad. It is unpretentious. Welles is too much the genius to draw conclusions.
Old Review