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| Angelina Jolie: In the skies |
It?s a comic book-style story of scientists and superheroes, science fiction set in the past. Manhattan in 1939, to be precise. There were no sets or props ? it?s all digital, with 2,031 special effects shots in all. It?s been in the making for six years. But it has a star cast of tinsel town?s finest.
Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow has broken all sorts of technological barriers in Hollywood. And to think it all began as the obsession of a computer geek with a fascination for old movies and comic books. Kevin Conrad took four years to film six minutes, using his home as the set and friends as the cast, and pottering around with the effects on his PC. Then he got noticed and things changed.
The movie was released in the US last September, starring Jude Law as Joe Sullivan and Gwyneth Paltrow as Polly Perkins. A rakish Angelina Jolie in an eye patch as Franky Cook, captain of an all-female amphibious squadron, beautiful Bai Ling as the mystery woman, the versatile Giovanni Rabisi as a technical genius, Michael Gambon and UK-based Omid Djalili (the self-proclaimed ?only Iranian comedian?), make a wonderful supporting cast. Catch it at the multiplexes in town.
Swashbuckling aviator Sky Captain and intrepid reporter Polly set out to discover why scientists are disappearing from around the world, before a robot army conquers the planet. While the actors performed in the studio against a blue backdrop, Conrad built it shot-by-shot and created each exotic locale in the virtual studio on his computer, stocked up with all sorts of software.
Paltrow famously said: ?You get a little nuts in that blue. I started to feel like, if I ever see this colour again, I?m going to kill myself.? Jolie said she found the fantasy ?refreshing? and loved the fact that Franky had one eye.
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| Meet the masters: Ray and Kurosawa at the Taj Mahal |
Walk into any book or music store in the city and it only takes a few minutes to figure out that the foreign language film (English included) collection is limited to just a few recent blockbusters, some Charlie Chaplin silent films and a few of Alfred Hitchcock?s early British productions.
You ask for a Bergman or a Bertolucci and blank smiles are all you get. But Kurosawa freaks have something to cheer about. Two of his masterpieces are now available ? one on DVD and the other on VCD. Ran, Kurosawa?s personal favourite, is now available on DVD for Indian viewers. The film that earned the Japanese master an Oscar nomination for Best Director is the auteur?s screen adaptation of Shakespeare?s King Lear.
Ran won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1985 and was nominated for a Golden Globe in that category in 1986. While Kurosawa lost the Oscar to Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa), Ran went on to win the Best Costume Design award for Emi Wada.
The Kurosawa film that did win an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and is now available on VCD, Dersu Uzala, is an enthralling tale of an eccentric Mongolian frontiersman who is taken on as a guide by a Russian surveying crew. Against a backdrop of the treacherous mountains, rivers and icy plains of the Siberian wilderness, Kurosawa stages an extraordinary adventure of comradeship and survival.
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| Ben Stiller: Back to crack |
To celebrate the F?te de la Francophonie, Alliance Fran?aise de Calcutta has organised a festival of comedy films on Monday and Tuesday at Nandan III. The four films are representative of the very essence of French humour at its best. The opening film at 4.30 pm on Monday is Le Pari (The Bet) is how two brothers-in-law, one of whom drive a rusty 205 and the other a Mercedes, challenge each other to stop smoking for a fortnight.
The second film, to be screened at 6.30 pm on Monday, is Comme Elle Respire (White Lies) about a compulsive liar Jeanne who tells a crook named Antoine that she is the daughter of very rich parents, only to have him planning to kidnap her.
On Tuesday, at 4.30 pm, it?s Serial Lover, the story of beautiful 35-year-old Claire Doste, who has three men falling for her, leading to hilarious situations. The last film of the fun festival is Tanguy at 6.30 pm, about a 28-year-old guy who loves living with his parents. But his mother and father, Edith and Paul, along with his fianc?e Marguerite, cannot keep up with the number of women he brings home.
Another Hollywood blockbuster comes to Calcutta. Meet the Fockers earned nearly $500 million overall at the box office, making it one of the top-grossing comedies ever. About $221 million came from overseas sales, over and above the $277 million it made in the US.
If you thought Meet the Parents was funny, then it?s time to catch the sequel. Meet the Fockers promises to be just as much of a laugh riot, with a stellar cast and a storyline that?s sure to strike a chord with one and all. Joining Robert DeNiro, Blyth Danner, Ben Stiller and Teri Polo are the evergreen Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Striesand, as Stiller?s parents.
Greg, aka Gaylord Focker, is still trying to get into the good books ? not to mention the circle of trust ? of his father-in-law-to-be Jack Byrne, played by DeNiro, not a mafia boss but an ex-CIA agent. The serious guy-turned-funny man proved to be just as humourous this time round. Matters aren?t made any easier when the Byrnes meet the Fockers for it turns out that Greg?s parents are still living in the age of flower power.
