MAGONIA (2001) is a quietly affecting film about the power of story telling, by Ineke Smits. Every week, a son visits his father living on a small flat island in the North Sea. Surrounded by the endless horizon of the ocean, the two spend much of the day on the beach. The son listens in rapt fascination as the father tells him tall tales from the magical land of Magonia. In one, a woman who cares for a elderly Muslim crier falls in love with one of his young apprentices. In another, an unhappy couple meets an old man accompanied by an older man, sparking renew warm in the couple's marriage. And the final tale concerns a woman waiting in a harbor for her lover to return after a particularly vicious gale. As the father tells these stories, the son begins to see his father's frailties and passions. The film stars Ramsey Nasr, Dirk Roofthoot, Willem Voogd, Nodar Mgaloblishvili and many others.
A SPECIAL DAY [Una giornata particolare] (1977) is the best film I have seen on World Movies. It stars Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and John Vernon, as well as a special cameo appearance by Alessandra Mussolini, and was directed by Ettore Scola. The occasion is the first meeting between Mussolini and Hitler. Left alone in her tenement home, when her fascist husband runs off to attend the historic event, Sophia Loren strikes up a friendship with her homosexual neighbor Mastroianni. As the day segues into night, Loren and Mastroianni develop a very special relationship that radically alters both of their outlooks on life.
5 comments:
hi buddy!!!
it's my pleasure to know the detail story of the movies through your post as i'm unable to watch UTV World Movies, specially some films like "The Special Day" or "My Girl" or "The Stolen Kisses"......
but i'd love to know more about the movies airing on World Movies untill i get to see them.....
ho... hum....
All's well with World Movies, the new channel on our television, except for the sad fact that like all other movie channels that we get to see, World Movies too is subject to stupid censorship!!!
The best of French, German, Spanish, or Italian cinema becomes banal screenings with horrid cuts that maim the films!!!!!
Nudity, partial or total, and cuss-words being a strict no-no, the screening of the clsssics by Truffaut, Bergman, Godard, Bunuel, Visconti, Kurosawa, Wong Kar Wai, Pedro Almodovar, Fellini or other giants would be nothing but sacrilege!
I saw both these films after you told me to, and before you wrote about them on your blog, and I was really moved, both these films were genuinely moving..... that's what movies are meant to be, no?
I also enjoyed the movie 'Scorchers', as it was so different in terms of its tone, a curious blend of humor and pathos.
I feel that UTV World Movies must screen an eclectic & punchy line-up of films in order to make the channel thrive. And promoting the least-heard films will definitel help. I also want to see some of the finest of Iranian fims on the channel. I hope they are listening.
I hope UTV World Movies lives up to the promise of screening films which are more mature, artistic, and intellectually satisfying than those generally available on other movie channels providing commercial entertainment.
I would love to see the movies from all over the world on the new UTV channel. But I would also urge them to hold discussions, and arrange for brief introductions for the films, as - merely by default - a viewer might not be keen to watch the alternative to Hollywood or Hindi cinema. Hence there is a need to reach out to the potential viewership base by garnering interest & consciousness. The new series '50 Movies to See Before You Die' (to be hosted by Koel Purie, and featuring the likes of Mahesh Bhatt, M. Night Shyamalan & Tanuja Chandra, talking about their personal favorites) may well be a step towards that end. I wish UTV's endeavours all the best!
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