House of Gucci: Ridley Scott
Friday night was Gucci night with Lady Gaga, Adam Rider, Al Pacino - directed by Ridley Scott. While I had heard of Gucci and seen them on the pavement of Fashion Street, I never even thought of owning one but like all other luxury brands this also has an aura and a mystery behind it. Gucci was no different.
It’s only after the credits rolled that I got to know the murder of Gucci and the story of patrizia Gucci who was behind the murder and breakage of family busines. Gucci became a public company, there are a lot of articles on the net around Gucci - so one can read about it.
The movie was a simple narrative and unlike other Ridley Scott movies movies which are larger than life like Gladiator, Blade Runner, Alien, or even the last release ‘The Last Duel’ which bombed in box offfice. I personally thought the length was too long- i have seen shorter and crisper documentaries on Netflix which are gripping and hold you spellbound like Blackhole, Fantastic Fungi. The whole Italian accent was nice but i am not an italian to judge - but they seem to be over the top.
Shatranj Ke Khiladi - Satyajit Ray
This was in my list for a long time but unlike MUBI which I had taken for a limited time, this is there in Prime so 12 month availability led me to ignore it over other movies. I found some time over the weekend to see it. It was a typical Ray movie, slow, languid and very authentic in terms of language, dress, situations & even dialogues. Brilliant acting by Sanjeev Kumar and Javed Jaffrey and a totally different Amjad Khan who dances with Gopis & hardly speaks.
The movie was in a way period piece with authentic dresses, thrones, jewelry, carpets and houses, I read that Ray researched the movie for 2 years and went to a museum in London to get the dress / attire right, he looked at paintings drawn in 1850’s to create the dress of the British Sepoys.
For me it was just too slow and something too far away for me to empathize with. I liked the family based movies which Ray made as it had very strong characters, undercurrents and also a tale of the times in which they were made.
The above is a personal and probably a very narrow view.
Here is a beautiful review of the movie by Bhaskar Chattopadhay who did a series on Ray movies https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/shatranj-ke-khilari-satyajit-rays-commentary-on-the-systematic-atrocities-of-british-in-india-4226157.html
Recently Suresh Jindal who was the producer of the movie has come out with a book on the making of Shatranj Ke Khilari. Some notes here https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/my-adventures-with-satyajit-ray-the-making-of-shatranj-ke-khilari-is-a-must-read-for-movie-lovers-4192423.html
Day 14: 200 words/day challenge, 456 words
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