The Absurd & The Real = Life

I saw 2 movies - one absurd & one real - both by master storytellers. 

Aki Kaurismaki directed ‘Leningrad Cowboys Go America’ is a story of a struggling Siberian rock band leaves home in the lonely tundra to tour the United States because, as they’re told, “they’ll buy anything there.” The musicians bravely venture across the States, carrying a bandmate and some beer in a coffin, and sporting hairdos resembling unicorn horns.

For somebody to even think of a plot like this you have to be really super mad but executing or giving shape to it the production design is a crazy. You just have to see the poster to understand the hard work needed to keep the hair in the form of unicorn 😂. There is no story, it’s just a band traveling from manhattan to mexico and doing small gigs earning money which the manager keeps for himself. Like old black and white silent movies, a black slide comes in between and mentions a chapter title. It’s absurd but you can miss it.

Raging Bull By Martin Scorsese 

The last 3 lines of the review below captures my feeling after seeing the movie - ”When I first saw Raging Bull, I came out of the cinema simultaneously exhausted and yet supercharged with energy, as if I could throw buses across the street. It still makes me feel like that”

Made in 19 80 in monochrome it’s a masterclass in all departments of movie making. Growing up on staple Rocky series and posters, all of us were big fans of Sly. I had a huge poster of Rocky in my room and everytime I would look at it I would feel ‘Yes I can also win”. 

But Raging Bull which is based on Jake La Motta (person and book) a middle weight champion of 19 40’s has more to do with his psychotic personality and his downfall and less with boxing. Yes boxing is integral to this story but so is his personal life where he loses out on his brother - both leave him and go and ends up running a club doing funny acts & then jailed. Especially because of monochrome it has that 19 40’s / 50’s touch. 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/12/raging-bull-review-still-packs-a-punch-like-no-boxing-movie-before-or-since 

Both the movies reflect my life which is having too many of raging bull moments and very less of Leningard Cowboy moments but I guess just like the movies it will pass.