Films To Thrill, Titillate & Move You!

Bound

“The chemistry which Tilly and Gregory bring is nothing short of incendiary. Which makes us believe their transition from lust to love to trust. Seeing them on screen together is to know they will either burn something or get burnt themselves. Both Gershon and Tilly are fabulous as they match and then merge their native street-smartness with their mutual hunger to opt out of their bruising male-dominated worlds. 

“The film, in a way, is the story of their transition from shit to shiftiness to shelter. But they would have been lesser if not counterpointed by the brilliance of Pantoliano as Caesar, who gives the character so much perspicacity that you can almost see the levers of his crafty mind working out survival scenarios. Alas, he makes the mistake which every man in this world does - he thinks he understands his wife.”

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Titane

Julia Ducournau  is a filmmaker with an incredible flair to shock. Her sensibilities, though shot with the intensity of the disturbing minutiae, is also capable of capturing a grieving soul. There is a viscerality to the violence which punctures through the audience’s nerves. I had to turn away from the screen, time and again, to avoid seeing the disturbing images only to be confounded by the sound which was equally virulent and searing.

But to crack that hardness of visual assault and find infinite tenderness inside it is this film’s special gift. The directorial craft which enables this makes Titane transcend genres - to literally start from a body/horror/thriller but to end as a tale of infinite loneliness and discovery.”

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Charade

The charm of Charade is its deliciously conceived journey, and it’s continuous turn of events. And the terrific set pieces! There’s a delightful chase Regina gives Peter, there’s an orange game which ends in unexpected ways, there’s a fully-clothed shower scene, a kissing scene on a yacht, and the delirious scene in the church as Charles' mates come one by one to check on Charles' corpse - and to reconfirm he is actually dead!

Charade has the most charming locales, shot as it is in Paris, and we transverse the city with its characters - beside the Seine, on the Seine, it’s parks, cafés, streets, flea markets, the metro, theatre, et al! There is a freshness and immediacy to the proceedings which makes the city just the place to worry in, get chased in or simply to romance in!

Audrey Hepburn is fully attuned to the goofy subtext of the film, and gives it her most cooky charm. She agitates beautifully, and in her stylish distress one can easily see her fall for the aging Cary Grant, even through his incessant lying (which in itself is a running joke in the film, though with dire possibilities). And Cary Grant is like wine, very obviously conscious of his age difference with Audrey, and perfidious in his infinite attraction. His character Charles tells her - how about making me Vice President in charge of cheering you up? And Audrey makes him President instead, though he has other things on his mind!”

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Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

The film seeks both intimacy and scrutiny of it’s characters and their motives. And the entirety of its technique is towards bringing clarity into what drives its ordinary likeable characters to end up doing what they do. The shots are framed to let the tension between characters emerge like sparks between plugs. Wide-angle lens is used in close-ups to have faces fill the screen and the narrative is deliberately non-linear to see the same incident from differing points of view. And the information is released in sachets of intrigue, supplemented with revelatory action, till the whole is revealed, in all its calamitous clarity.

The thriller morphs into a transition of festering wounds, a family drama which culminates in catastrophic decisions, of a father seeing his family spinning in all directions when all he can conceive of relationships is in linear patterns. Half-baked resolutions make for poor familial harmony. The result of the misdemeanours is finally a putrid riot of desperation, murder, and a mafia-like showdown of mayhem.”

Read the full review here!

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