Talking Movies

Perhaps the thing that I have missed the most while I was away from blogging is talking about films. Initially, after moving here, it was difficult to get time to watch movies on any regular basis, but gradually, once I got the hang of managing my time, and the novelty of the place died out, I was back to watching movies frequently enough. I am averaging about 3-4 movies every week now, which is nothing compared to my prolific record in the past. But, this will do for now.

In the last two-three days, I have seen three good movies. Surprisingly, the one that I expected the most from, turned out to be the worst. But doesn't that happen all the time?

The first one, and the one that disappointed me, was Lolita. Kubrick brought some amazing books onto celluloid, and invariably spoilt them with his own interpretation. 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and now Lolita. All of these movies are classics in their own right. But I feel very srongly that the film-maker's interpretation should not overshadow, or even worse, desecrate, the author's. It hurt even more in this case because Lolita is one of my favorite books, and I still remember being awe-struck when I first read it as part of a course on Modern Fiction. A Clockwork Orange, incidentally, was a part of the curriculum too.

A couple of years back, I had seen Adrian Lyne's version of the movie. I was not very happy with Jeremy Irons' Humbert. I thought he made it more lecherous than he was in the book. Quilty was pretty decent.

In Kubrick's version, Peter Sellers' Quilty is obnoxious. That is the single-most important reason why I felt the movie failed. James Mason is fine as Humbert. Though it would be unfair to the movie if I don't acknowledge that the period it was made in it must have been very difficult to be faithful to the book completely. A disadvantage that Lyne didn't have to work with.

Anyway, both of them are nice movies. And watch them both, whether you have read the book or not. I hope to get my hands on Nabokov's screenplay of the movie some day.

The second movie was The Queen. Starring Helen Mirren in the role of Queen Elizabeth II, this one's about the short period in 1997 following Princess Diana's death. I haven't seen all the movies in the awards fray this year, but this one's top-class. The quiet dignity that Mirren brings to the role is worth every award in my book. The restraint and polish that every scene shows has to be seen to be believed.

But the best of the trio was A Scanner Darkly. Now that's how a book should be made into a movie! The book by Philip K Dick is what one would probably call a mind-bending work. It's a fairly complicated plot, not helped at all by the weirdness of the characters. And the movie is completely faithful to it. It has been simplified a bit, and some parts have been removed to maintain bearable length. Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson, and especially Rory Cochrane's characters overshadow the lead pair of Reeves-Ryder completely. The long wait for a DVD-print was worth it!