Army of Shadows

Interrogation.

It's been a while since I reviewed a movie proper. So naturally, I decided to jump straight into the good stuff.

Pierre-Melville's Army of Shadows is no boring art-film, despite the long drawn out scenes, gloomy tinting and monologue meditations. This film relies instead on pointing out the ironies and inconsistencies of its human characters, not to mention the numerous (and masterfully tense) sequences of escape, rescues and executions. It isn't entertaining at all - but it is most certainly engaging.

Army of Shadows depicts the French Resistance in 1940's occupied France in its most unromantic form (indeed, as in that period there were more French fighting for Germany than against).

There is a scene where a resistance leader (in London) watches Londoners dance in a night-club during while being bombed at night. His bewilderment at the whole scene is palpable and in stark contrast with the mood when in France. The whole movie is depressing and ends on a less than joyful note. Did they make any difference at all to the war? One wonders.

A note about the movie- it does not depict any battles against the German per se (that is left in the background) and instead focuses on the sequences mentioned above. Filmed in 1969, it hasn't gained much recognition until recently (recently as of 2006 when it was re-released).

Draft: 6

To write romance: Necessary to have been in love.

To write crime: Not really necessary to have committed it.

To write horror: Remember your nightmares well.

To write mystery: See here. A bow for you if you can add on to that.

To write fantasy: See below.

To write science-fiction: See above.

One Year With Light

It was a busy first half and now towards the end of '09 I am practically doing nothing, once again.

Games last only so long. I suppose I ought to look for another job. College is part time. Which leaves a little too much time for everything else, except if I were to work. Then I would have too little time for study. An odd dilemma, one some people might say could be solved with better time management, but time can hardly be managed (oh if only), only what one does.

So then, I am challenged to make full use of the remaining months. My own personal goals are far from being fulfilled - and let's not get started with others' expectations of me - so I suppose I got to get busy soon. Or at least, look busy.

White Collar

It's been over half a year since I entered the corporate world complete with politics, deadlines and late nights. Frankly, I'm not impressed. But that does not mean I take the employees in my company (who - most of them aware of this irony - sell products most of them can never afford) to be sad people.

Exactly the opposite. They are far far braver than me - I am positively inadequate before them. Most of them enjoy their job. It is, after all, hardly the worst company to end up in.

With one qualification: if you have bigger dreams (as I do), not even a Forbes 100 will satisfy you nor bring you anywhere close. And that is why I will be leaving unsatisfied.

Battle for Terra

Terra is a sci-fi epic in draft. Steamrolled a few months back under the weight of Wolverine et. al, its running time, execution and even script does not do the story underlying it justice.

Visuals are somewhere upon the spectrum of spectacular to so-so, but the dialogue and pacing I must single out for making Lucas look like a playwright.

Now, if only there was enough money and a decent execution to turn it into the live-action CGI epic it was intended to be. Oh wait, that's Avatar* (which this movie shares many themes with).

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*No, I am not obsessed about Avatar. It's just a big, massive, expensive 3D CGI epic by James Cameron, is all.