Running The Movie Marathon – It’s Okay Sometimes!

While I took a break from my Mother’s Day gift making session last night almost exhausted from the debugging war I had with Disqus & ghpages for static site generation, my mind refused to continue and went into the relaxation mode instead.

Woah! Hold on a second – that’s a lot of things in one sentence. You made mother’s day gifts? Which framework are you using for the site? Have you heard about Hugo?

Oh Yes I did. Few hand drawn sketches, few graphics and a lovely poem. None of them I showed to my mother for she doesn’t understand these. How could I have given it better sitting thousand of miles away? I called her and talked about her worries (which my younger brother is the main reason of 😛 ). She understands my voice. It soothes her more than any of my gifts can. Anyway here’s what I made at last when the day came to an end –

For the geeks who are equally interested (or even more) in the latter part. Guys! wait for it. I’m working on an extensive blog post for most of your queries. Let’s not mix up things here. You would get to see codes 🙂

Anyway for the kind of nocturnal habits I’ve developed, the relaxed mind needed something to pass the time with (also where it doesn’t have to work much). Ah! what could be better than movies. So there it started – my movie marathon.

Just like you do warm up exercises before starting a race, the movie marathon starts with YouTube trailers. For kind of recommendation that comes, you’re sure to end up at the wrong corners of Internet. That’s the problem with shared network, so beware 😛

For the safety, I maintain a well maintained list of to-watch movies curated from trusted sources like Quora and authentic reviews. If you’re going to devote your two hours of life, better watch something worthy. So the first one in the list was this –

For curious souls, I generated this using online calligraphy tool. Clicking on the image would direct you to the link.

Considering all the frequent encounters I was having with this movie somehow, I couldn’t resist but to finally watch it. For the readers who’re still awaiting for the perfect moment to watch this movie (probably with their partners), don’t worry! I’m not giving away any spoilers.

If your definition of a cliched love story is something like a poor boy and a rich girl falls in love with each other but couldn’t get along because of girl’s parents while the boy’s parents are chilled out with everything. Life parts them away then somehow matches them up as well. Happy ending. Well it just got your approval for being one but wait!

This is what I wrote right after I finished the movie (quick review) –

It’s amazing how one scene could change your entire perception about the movie. For me it was the notebook’s first page that reads ‘the story of our love by Allie’. Burfi’s initial plot kind of felt like same as this. Actor’s role seemed peculiar though.

But the execution of story somewhat makes it different. While getting the image for the poster, I stumbled upon this link which talks about certain facts that would make you like this movie even more. If you have time, go and have a look. If you want it short, here are the main points –

• Ryan Gosling was considered for Noah’s role because he didn’t look like a Hollywood actor but a regular guy.

• The movie was shot in reverse. [wrt Noah’s character] First beard scenes, then shaved off & young guy beginning scenes.

• One of the most famous scenes in the movie is the heavenly ‘birds in the lake‘ scenes. Birds were not brought from somewhere else for it would’ve been difficult to make them stay in the lake. So they were raised besides the lake itself.

• Some of the artistic furniture shown in the movie were actually make by Ryan.

• If Rachel Mcadams wowed you in this movie then you should know that she had less than a day to prepare for the audition.

The movie has some intense intimate scenes, so <cough>…After all the movie didn’t win ‘MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss‘ just like that.

So that’s how it gets added into the list of romantic movies I’ve seen recently besides About Time (Hands down, winner in my list so far – celebrating love of all dimensions), Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (Brilliant concept and equally brilliant screenplay, heart falls for the Alexander Pope’s excerpt), Submarine (Words fall short. Talking about cinematography, I love these kind of movies), Begin Again (I’m still listening to the songs!) – they’re all so epic that ‘The Notebook‘ had the hard time finding its place it between, at last get appended at the bottom.

The clock ticking around 2:00 AM and the dose of ‘The Notebook’ wasn’t enough to signal my sleep, so my hunt began again. Few YouTube trailers slowly drifting to the wrong side – what kind of movies are made these days! Anyway again I was saved by my list. So the next query went like – ‘moonrise kingdom full movie online’ (who cares about uppercase in google searches anyway!)

It would be a sin to say something about it beforehand. Ok remember the tickle that you feel when you run your imagination about something wonderful and there is a slight possibility of its coming to reality – yeah, that kind of tickling you would feel here (perceptions might vary).

Two of the best movies I’ve ever seen! Both by Wes Anderson.

The brilliancy of cinematography is unmatched in terms of simplicity and depiction of subject.

‘The rule of third should not be called a rule. It’s a preference.’ – Damn right! If you’re a cinematography enthusiast like me who has been fooled by this rule too, watch Wes Anderson movies and your whole learning would be defied. In fact, he has come up with his own technique of filming subjects which he justifies as –

“I have a way of filming things and staging them and designing sets. There were times when I thought I should change my approach, but in fact, this is what I like to do. It’s sort of like my handwriting as a movie director. And somewhere along the way, I think I’ve made the decision: I’m going to write in my own handwriting. That’s just sort of my way.” – Wes Anderson

If you need visualization, see Wes Anderson//Centered yourself –

So there goes ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘ too.

But if you just saw two movie in a row, how could you call it a marathon? It’s quite normal in college, right? Everybody does that.

If you have this question, sorry I don’t have any answer except ‘please know me better!’. You could contact me through blog, website, email or anything. I would be happy to have a conversation.

For the rest, I had booked the ticket for ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity‘ for this afternoon show on Saturday itself. So there you go – three movies in one day, two in peace of my silent room and the next one tens of kilometers away in city.

“Great talents often comes from the most humble of backgrounds” – The true story of limitless mind.

I don’t go to theaters often. Last time I went for ‘Interstellar‘. Ya go ahead and connect the dots – I like movies based on science and romance more than action, thriller, horror or whatever genre you come up with. Sandwich ‘comedy‘ in between as the demarcation line.

What? Are you asking me how was the movie? You’re kidding, right? Go ahead and watch it. Dev Patel’s acting is brilliant and so of everybody else’s.

A page from Ramanujan’s lost notebook – click on the image to know more.

If you collect the amount of such films made and spread it over the entire span of cinematic existence, it would come around 2 years or so (it’s my guess; I’m only counting Bollywood and Hollywood not regional movies).

Imagine this huge film industry (including all of the greatest directors, actors, production units you’ve seen) working tirelessly for 2 years just to produce a 2 hour movie – wouldn’t that worth your time?

Playing renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in “The Man Who Knew Infinity” was a bit of an irony for Dev Patel as the subject of mathematics was an Achilles heel of the actor in school. – Report

So there you go. A blog post with few spoiler (if you sensed them) and some crappy analysis that just fuels your eagerness to watch all of these movies now. And if you’re stuck in crappier situation which doesn’t allow to do that – like stuck in office hours and preparing for exams – then best of luck!

Bonus –

If you’ve read so far, I want you to know that there was one more thing I wanted to write about but didn’t because the post have already gone huge. Anyway I would give a hint – there is something remarkably common among biography movies like ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity‘, ‘A Beautiful Mind‘, ‘The Theory Of Everything‘ and ‘Man’s Search For Meaning‘ (it’s a book) by Viktor Frankl. Try to find out and write in the comments.

Disclaimer (I know it should be written in the beginning but why spoil the fun before it even start!)  – I don’t support watching movies but some films leave a mark of indispensable learning. A huge amount of work goes behind making something meaningful and appreciating the effort is the greatest driver of improvement.

Writer’s Note –  This post is a part of newsletter series ‘Swapping The Bits‘.