Snapshots From a Dream

What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away from us ....

Monday, January 15, 2007

Great Moments From Cinema - 43


On The Road…With The Band

Movie: Almost Famous (DreamWorks and Vinyl Films; 2000)
Director: Cameron Crowe
Screenplay: Cameron Crowe
Major Cast: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand and Kate Hudson

Film Synopsis: A coming-of-age film about a 15 year old boy, Fugit, who as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine gets a chance to tour with the rock ‘n roll band ‘Stillwater’

My Favorite Moment: All the band members singing the song ‘Tiny Dancer’

Why I Like It: This is a movie made with a lot of heart. Crowe has written a semi-autobiographical film about his early days as the Rolling Stone reporter and he shares his experiences with such passion and enthusiasm, that we can’t help but fall in love with it. He shows a rare gift of avoiding sentimentalism and yet tugs the emotional strings. It is set in the 70’s towards the end of golden age of rock music and we can see how much Crowe was influenced by music in his early life. It’s a celebration of his youth and our privilege at being invited for an unforgettable summer wherein he lived a lifetime. It is not just a feel-good movie, it is our cinema therapy.

Fugit has grown up in a household of an overbearing mother played magnificently by McDormand. She wants him to be a lawyer but ever since his rebel sister introduced him to it, Fugit has been in love with rock music. Crowe pays homage to all the great artists of the era when in one scene we see the wide-eyed young kid scan trough his sisters LP collection which includes music by all the legends. He starts writing for his school paper and gets noticed by editors at Rolling Stone who send him to cover a rock concert. There he meets two people who will change his life: a lead guitarist (Crudup) of an up and coming band called ‘Stillwater’ and a beautiful ‘groupie’ (Kate Hudson in a career performance). His young heart falls in love immediately with Hudson and she is also fond of him, though her real love is music itself and she worships Crudup. Fugit impresses the people at Rolling Stone and is assigned to tour with ‘Stillwater’, much to the chagrin of his mother. On the road, Crudup takes him under his wing and thus begins Fugit’s initiation into the real world.

One night, Crudup has an argument with his band and gets high on drugs. Next day as the tour bus picks him up, the mood is somber and everyone is on the edge. Then one person starts humming Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’. This starts a chain reaction as everyone joins in gradually, including the disillusioned Crudup. Music is the strongest bond holding all of them together and they know it. As Fugit turns towards Hudson and tells her that he has to wrap up the tour and go home, she looks at him, waves her hand in front of his face and says “You are home.” Sometimes a person’s path is chosen for them. Fugit’s true love in life is Rock ‘n Roll, not law. This is where he belongs and that is perhaps what Crowe is telling us about himself. All the people in that bus have so much love for something which they cannot explain to others. But through this scene we really understand it and also understand them.

The film is extremely well written and incredibly involving. Our heart goes out to Fugit as sometimes he faces disappointment in his love for Hudson and his hero Crudup. But at the same time his sprit and self-belief never waver. After all, he only turned out to be someone called Cameron Crowe.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Great Moments From Cinema - 42


Verbal Volleys

Movie: The Philadelphia Story (MGM-USA; 1940)
Director: George Cukor
Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart; Philip Barry (Play)
Major Cast: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey

Film Synopsis: When a wealthy socialite (Hepburn) plans to re-marry, her ex-husband (Grant) returns with two tabloid reporters (Stewart and Hussey), which disrupts the wedding.

My Favorite Moment: The dialogue exchanges between the entire cast.

Why I Like It: “The prettiest sight in this fine pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges.” This dialogue by Stewart sets the tone for the movie which is one-upmanship between the ensemble cast. Hepburn and Grant are two stubborn characters who ended their marriage in acrimony and when she decides to re-marry he comes back to be, what she perceives as an irritation. However, even though she refuses to acknowledge it, as the movie progresses, she can’t help but realize that he brings out the best in her. Stewart plays a gentleman tabloid reporter who is sent to cover this wedding and ends up being enamored by Hepburn’s personality. Hussey is his colleague who loves him, but wants to wait till Stewart realizes that himself.

No cast member is superfluous and each one of them has lines which major actors in other films can only aspire for. The mother, the father, the sister or even the uncle of the bride to be is not there to make up the numbers. These are interesting people with delightful insights. The dialogue flows freely and sometimes it feels like everyone is trying to catch a runaway train and no one wants to be left behind. Stewart, Grant and Hepburn are no strangers to sharp one-liners, of which they have plenty, but what makes this movie remarkable is the importance given to the writing involving the supporting players. It is difficult to pick just one great piece of conversation and while seeing this movie, it becomes evident that acting doesn’t just mean evoking emotions, but it is process by which one can make the audience member feel like a fly on the wall, that has waltzed into the actors lives and is watching them in their usual surroundings.

The movie does no favors to the lazy audience member who wants to be a passive viewer. It asks us to meet it half way and if we do, then it becomes a truly rewarding experience. Dialogues are funny to only those who can appreciate adult writing. For example, the scene between Grant, Hepburn and Stewart at the swimming pool where,

Grant: “I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. (Then looking at Hepburn) You know one time I secretly wanted to be a writer.”


Everyone at one point or another has the last-word. The tête-à-tête is more like tennis between players who give no inch to the opponent and pounce to hit a winner at first available moment. So when Hussey observes that the intercom at Hepburn’s residence has a button called ‘stables’, she promptly says, without batting an eyelid, “Perhaps it is for when they want to talk to the horses without inviting them in the house”. Well I say, really it can’t get much better than this!