Intermittent Rant » Movie

What We Really Want

Nehal — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 05:27:43 +0000

I was waxing philosophic today and began to wonder about what I most wanted out of life. I mean some people are purely hedonic and are looking for pleasure while others are looking to accrue wealth, security, property, or even adventures. But for me, neither does the trick. Or rather both do. I want to draw as much fun out of life as possible, but I suppose I feel compelled to have it all mean something in the end. Then it hit me. I want to experience it all. But it’s not for the sake of experience itself that I’m after. It’s the fact that experience makes us grow. And the great experiences makes us grower greater.

It’s like the difference between a good movie and a great one. After a good movie, we’re all like “Eh, that was alright”. After a great movie, your life is somehow altered. You see everything through a new prism and your life holds greater possibilities. It’s like you feel moved to act. Born into Brothels was such a movie. I wanted to help those kids out too.

What it’s all about is not just experience, but life-changing experience. I think every few years, one has to go through a life-changing experience in order to feel whole and alive. Or else we simply stagnate.

The Man Who Copied and The Cloud-Capped Star

Nehal — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 08:59:00 +0000

I saw two really great movies today. The first one was The Cloud-Capped Star, an old Bengali film from the 60’s. It’s about this young woman from a middle class family fallen on hard times and how she struggles to keep them going. Her faith in her brother and in the beaux that is courting her compels her to do all that she can to keep them in their innocence. She ends up quitting school and getting a job to support her family. But somehow they all turn on her. It’s a clash between Romantic ideals and the real world. It’s almost Madame Bovary-esque. It reminded me of my mother.

The second film was The Man Who Copied. It’s playing in select theaters now and well worth seeing. Since I saw City of God – another great film — a couple of years ago, I felt compelled to see this as it seems that a lot of great films have come out of Brazil in the last few years. It’s about a guy who operates a copy machine in a little shop, a guy that earns peanuts and spends his time spying on a girl through her window with his binoculars. He eventually falls in love and tries to pursue her. That’s where I’m leaving off…trust me, it’s a great film. And very smart.