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New York Stories, an omnibus comprising of three short films based on New York and New Yorkers, bears the astounding distinction of serving as the confluence of three of the greatest American filmmakers – Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen. Scorsese’s Life Lessons is about an ageing, moody and brilliant painter (a compelling Nick Nolte) in self-destructive love with a bitchy and much younger girl; Coppola’s Life Without Zoe deals with a few days in the life of Zoe, a lonely 12-year girl and daughter of a renowned, globe-trotting flautist; Allen’s Oedipus Wrecks concerns a successful Jewish lawyer (played by Allen himself) whose life and relationship (with Mia Farrow) are on the docks courtesy his domineering mother. Scorsese and Allen have, over their careers, created masterpieces with Big Apple as the backdrop, and their shorts, though never equaling their best works, are certainly worth a watch – Scorsese’s edgy and melancholic, while Allen’s darkly funny and self-deprecating. The one by Coppola, however, tuned out to be rambling, a tad pretentious, and thus ultimately disappointing – saved only by the fact that his fantastical short was sandwiched between two reasonably assured works. The three shorts do not have any connecting thread apart from their locale, thus making the whole seem disjointed; nonetheless, any project that brings such powerhouse filmmakers on the same platform should automatically become a must-watch for any cinephile worth his salt.
Directors: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola & Woody Allen
Genre: Drama/Romance/Black Comedy/Fantasy/Urban Comedy/Satire/Omnibus Film
Language: English
Country: US
Polish master’s Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog, one of the most staggering masterpieces ever brought to screen, would rank, along with the likes of R. W. Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, among the most ambitious cinematic achievements. Comprising of ten one-hour films made for television, each representing a pronouncement from the Ten Commandments, Dekalog paints intimate, richly layered and thoroughly enriching portraits of Polish society through the microcosm of an apartment block which forms the backdrop for the stories. The series encompasses themes ranging from personal crises, ethical dilemmas and the political history of Poland to even the role of filmmakers, and covers such topics as technology, parent-child complex, infidelity, voyeurism, new found wealth, etc. In fact love, or lack thereof, human loneliness, cosmic conundrums and ironies of everyday life are some of the recurring as well as underlying motifs of the deeply philosophical project. Since Kieslowski was an agnostic himself, religious symbolisms never take the front seat; rather, they are subtly alluded to at most, as the various devastatingly human stories unfold before us. Music forms a vital aspect of the series, and has been used with astounding effect to create and accentuate the moods and tones specific to each parts. Hauntingly beautiful, profoundly moving and brilliantly enacted, Dekalog is cinema of the very highest order. Dekalog 5 & 6 were later expanded into A Short Film About Love and the A Short Film About Killing, respectively.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Existential Drama/Romance/Black Comedy/TV Series/Omnibus Film
Language: Polish
Country: Poland
Three…Extremes is a unique omnibus of short films in the genre of psychological terror – unique because three reputed directors, one each from Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, combined forces in order to scare the viewers. The first one, Dumplings, directed by Fruit Chan (of Made in Hong Kong fame), is a well-made and marvelously eerie tale of a beautiful lady going to a mysterious maker of home-made dumplings, eating which would improve her fertility. The second film, Cut (undoubtedly the best of the trio), directed by the inimitable Park Chan-Wook, is a near poetic execution of a tale of extreme violence. The short, involving a vicious psychological tussle between a famous filmmaker and psychopath, is brilliantly conceptualized and extremely well enacted. The finale, Takashi Mike’s Box, unfortunately, is a complete letdown. The tale of a lonely writer harboring a dark secret from her childhood days, by simultaneously being too surreal and bizarre, fails to either terrify or engage the viewers. Though episodic shorts can be disorienting and/or disengaging for viewers at times, Three… Extremes, on the whole, is a decent watch – if not anything, for Chan-Wook’s enthralling piece.
Directors: Fruit Chan, Park Chan-Wook, Takashi MikeGenre: Horror/Psychological Thriller/Omnibus FilmLanguage: Chinese/Korean/JapaneseCountry: China (Hong Kong)/South Korea/Japan
