Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Building blocks of my mind, my heroes

It was in 1994 at Trivandrum, the capital city of my state, that a cultural organization named Soorya celebrated the hundredth year of the birth of cinema. In the city’s biggest theatre rented, they screened world classic films for fifteen consecutive days. Each day, exactly at 7.58 A.M., Soorya’s logo would appear on the screen. At about 12 P.M., the screening would end. Thus, fifteen days. Seven films each day. A total of one hundred and five films.
These fifteen days, almost literally, I lived in the theatre. I ate and slept in the too short intervals, inside the theatre. Went to my lodge after 12in the night and returned before 8 next morning, to take my seat. Thus, I saw all the one hundred and five classics. But that of course didn’t change my life. It had already been changed. Even two years before that event, cinema had mesmerized and captivated me. A perpetual seizure. I wandered along the length and breadth of kerala for years, seeing classics screened by various film societies.
It was the same with literature. I just shut in my room and read for months and months and chewed up pages. Thus I read all of Doestoyevsky. All of Victor Hugo. All of Kazantzakis. Amos Oz. Carpentier. Kafka. Mann. Kawabata. Amado. Rulfo. Marquiz. Fuentis. Llosa. Bulgakov. Anand. Cortazar…And visited art galleries. Sat in meditation before opened pages of books of painting. Caravaggio. Velazquez. Dali. Brughel. El-Greco. Munch. Chirico. Rousseau. Manet. Renoir…It was the most fruitful years of mine…I found myself reflecting in the mirrors of art. And I loved being myself. Those years formed me…and what I try here is to make a list of films, books and other art forms that for the rest of my life energized me and decided my destiny.
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My Most Favorite Films: Sacrifice, Ivan’s Childhood, Stalker (Tarkovsky), Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Silence (Bergman), Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni), The Passion Of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer), Colour of Pomegranates, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Pandjanov), Journey Through The body, In the name of the son, Diapason (Jorge Polaco) The Sleeping Man (Kohei Oguri) Aguirre, the wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo (Herzog), The Hungarian Rhapsody, Silence and Cry (Miklos Jansco), Theorem (Pasolini), Nazarin, The discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel), The Tree of life (Farhad Mehranfir), Gabbeh (Mohsen Makmalbaf), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene), Spring, summer, fall, winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-Duk)
If I have to choose just ten from the above, I will choose: Sacrifice, Stalker, Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Journey Through The body, The Sleeping Man, Theorem, Aguirre, the wrath of God & Red Desert.
If I have to choose just seven from the above, I will choose: Sacrifice, Stalker, Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Aguirre, the wrath of God, Journey Through The body & The Sleeping Man.
If I have to choose just five from the above, I will choose: Sacrifice, Stalker, Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, & The Sleeping Man.
If I have to choose just three from the above, I will choose: Sacrifice, Stalker, & Seventh Seal.
If I have to choose just one from the above, I will choose: Sacrifice
The strangest film from the above series: In the name of the son by Jorge Polaco.
My Most Favorite dialogue from a film: “I will remember this moment. This silence. This dusk. This pot full of wild strawberries. This milk. Your faces in twilight. Sleeping Michael. Jof with the tambourine. I will remember all we have discussed. And I will keep this memory like this bowl filled to the brim with milk. That would be a good sign-it’s enough for me”
(Antonious Bloc, the Knight in the film Seventh Seal, says this to Mia and Jones, the gypsy performers. Sitting on a meadow, the knight is relishing the wild strawberries and the bowl of milk presented to him by Mia and Jones. He says the above, holding the bowl of milk in his hand. Then he departs with his chessboard for his final play with Death.)
The film that made me burst into tears: Cries and Whispers.
The most curious films I have seen: Luna Papa (Baktiar Khudojnazron-Austria), & Bird people in china. (Takashi Miike)
The most poignant film I have seen: Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)
My Most Favorite Short Film: Ithaca (Phylis Katrapani-The film is based on the poem by Kawafy, with the same title. I remember, after seeing the film, having met Phylis and congratulated her, more than 10 years ago when she came to a film festival at Cochin, Kerala. After some years, I also met her mother, Gonul Donmez. If they, or somebody personally know any of them see this blog, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.)
My Most Favorite Documentary: Glass (Bert Hanstra.)
My Most Favorite Novels: One Hundred years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance (Robert Pirzig), White Hotel (D.M.Thomas), On Heroes and Tombs (Ernesto Sabato), Aarogyaniketanam (Tharashankar Banerjy), Terra Nostra (Carlos Fuentes) The house of sleeping Beauties (Kawabata) Magic Mountain (Thomas Mann), Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky), Govardhante Yaathrakal (Anand), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera.), Les Miserable, The Hunchback of Notre Dam (Victor Hugo),
If I have to choose just five from the above, I will choose: One Hundred years of Solitude, Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, Terra Nostra, White Hotel & On Heroes and Tombs.
If I have to choose just three from the above, I will choose: One Hundred years of Solitude, White Hotel & Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.
If I have to choose just two from the above, I will choose: One Hundred years of Solitude & Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.
If I have to choose just one from the above, I will choose: One Hundred years of Solitude.
My Most Favorite short stories: The third Bank of the river (Juao Guimares Rosa), The Cinnamon Shops (Bruno Schulz), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Alan Poe.)
The following stories are from my language, Malayalam: Chithrasalabhangalude Kappal, Athbutha Samasya (The ship of butterflies, The wondrous Riddle by Thomas Joseph), Aarkkariyaam? (Who Knows? By Paul Zacharia), Pakshiyude Manam (Scent of the bird by Madhavikkutty), Panthrandam Manikkoor (The Twelfth hour by V.P.Sivakumar), Naalamathe Aani ( The fourth Nail-by Anand),My Most Favorite Single Poem: Sunstone ( Octavio Paz)My Most Favorite Poetry series: Duino Elegies (Rilke)
My Most Favorite Lengthy Poem: Odyssey a Modern Sequel (Kazantzakis)My Most Favorite Autobiography: Report to Greco (Kazantzakis)
Other Books I love the Most: All Books by Osho Rajneesh, Tao of Physics (Fritzjof Kapra), Freedom from the Known (Jidhu Krishnamoorthy), Jnaneshwary (A descriptive commentary on Bhagavat Gita written by Sage Jnaneshwar of the 16th century.) The Sleepwalkers (A detailed historical sketch of man’s changing vision of the universe, lives of cosmologists from Babylonians to Newton, by Arthur Koestler), Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Autobiography of Carl Jung), The Story of San Michele (Autobiography of Axel Munthe), The Occult (A detailed study of the arcane knowledge; cabbalists and others, by Colin Wilson ) The Land that Never Was (Early explorations into the Arctic, by Vasily Passetsky), The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (About the secret continuation of the lineage of Christ up to the modern era, detailing the mysteries shrouding Knights Templar and other secret organizations, by Mike Beigent & Richard Leigh),) Admiral of the Ocean Sea (About the life and Times of Christopher Columbus, by Samuel Eliot Morison ), Einstein; The life and Times (Ronald W.Clark), The signs of the gods, Chariot of the gods, In search of ancient Gods (Eric Von Daniken.)
My Most Favorite Geographical Explorer: Thor Heyerdahl.My Most Favorite Painters: Dali, Chirico, Velazquez, El-greco & Rousseau.My Most Favorite Fashion Photographer: Patric Demarchelier.
My Most Favorite Landscape art: Running Fence (Christo).
My Most Favorite Subjects Other Than Art: Science, Semitic literature and History, Ancient history, Upanishads, Cosmology, Psychology & Anthropology. (As it could be well imagined, I have a deep knowledge in none.)
My Heroes: Bergman, Tarkovsky, Dali, Marquez, & Einstein.
My Torch Light Upon Life and Its Eternal Philosophic Enigmas: Osho Rajneesh.
posted by a j muhammed shafeer @ 11:59 PM 0 comments Friday, September 01, 2006

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