Happy New Year & Happy New Decade
So the Roaring 20’s are here again, now in a Newer Century!!!!! Happy New 2020 & an even Happier New Decade ahead!!!
When it comes to movies to be released this year (Year2020), I’ll take into consideration that a movie isn’t made in a day & into account that no Zero Year exists (21st Century started from Year 2001)!! Thus, any movie released this Year, Year 2020, still belongs to the 2010’s (as far as I am concerned, at least). When it comes to movies, books, fashion trends, pretty much the arts related activities, whatever comes out this year, in a sense shall end the 2010’s, at the same time inspiring the next decade (which in every other sense has already started, it’s Year2020). Past Examples; 60’s didn’t feel like the 60’s till Hollywood’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) came out; it’s Year 1966 (and not 65′) that’s considered the half way mark that turned the late60’s over a brand new leaf never ever witnessed before, globally speaking (we live in, or are suppose to be, in a better freer world today, thanks to modern open-minded thinking that relinquished blind stoic rules and regulations of the past); and Love Story (1970) still feels very 1960’s, yet forming a catalyst to the 70’s styles yet to come!! In Bollywood, the 70’s didn’t feel like the 70’s till Haré Rama Haré Krishna (1971) came out, laying a stronger foundation to India’s already existing Hippie culture, and Qurbani‘s (1980) Bollywood Disco tunes (Pakistani Pop Singer, Nazia Hassan’s “Aap Jaisa Koi”, composed by India’s famed Music Producer Biddu, will always be my favourite Indian Disco number) happen to be a celebration of Club Music of the times (70’s & early 80’s); whilst globally (though more specifically among American youth) Fame (1980) perfectly ends the 70’s decade meanwhile serving as an inspiration for the 1980’s decade!! Mera Naam Joker (1970) took six years to make (between 1963 & 1969), and covers the Essential 60’s decade (although the story line spans a couple of more decades). Boyhood (2014) took twelve years to make, capturing the whole of the noughties (the 1st decade of this century, i.e. 2001 – 2010) and enters into the early 2010’s (2011 – 2013)! Manzil (1979), was filmed in the begining of the 70’s, when Amitabh Bachchan was a virtual unknown (the Big B rose to prominance with Zanjeer, 1973), but due to various reasons the release got delayed, ultimately being released at the very end of the decade, in 1979! Thus, without going into drastic extremes, I feel movies released in an Year eding with a nought (0), ought to be regarded as a movie belonging to the previous decade! So basically, Year 2020, specifically movie wise, is a transition from the 10’s & into the Nouveau Roaring 20’s. Some 2020 releases (especially if set today itself, although, unlike the previous century, there is no definite unique look that differentiates one decade from another, other than technological advances of this digital age) shall feel very 2010’s, whilst others could end up defining the whole decade of the 20TWENTY TWENTIES20’s!!!!
Of course, one unique look that came out in recent times (though only seen on celebrities) would be one that helped change gender norms, blurring lines between masculinity and femininity!! Young Straight male actors (like Timothée Chalamet of Call Me By Your Name; 2017; fame, for instant) have dared to experiment with the androgynous look, thus not stereotyping the effeminate look on a male attributed only to transgender people. Cisgender men and women (gay or straight), immaterial of their sexual orientation, can now try out blending styles that in the past were catered to just one specific gender, or attributed as a reflection of their sexuality!!!
Why not? We are all Equal!! We are all human!! Who made these rules in the past, anyway?? Go Crazy, Go Gaga, if you wanna!! Nobody has the right to judge!!!
New Look for the 20TWENTY TWENTIES20’s
I’ll be honest, the 2010’s haven’t been good to me, health wise and other wise! As it is, all my life, I’ve suffered on my own, survived on my own, and still surviving!! My stress and depression has worsened over the years. As we speak, my head is pounding, my eyes tried; yet I persevere, I go on!! Despite going through a lot, I decided I shall somehow work on a Blogpost today, no matter what! Despite everything, I shan’t give up that easily!!!
So here’s to a better future, than the past (especially better than my recent past) !!!! Looking forward to a better year & even better deacde ahead, and wishing everyone the same. Here’s to the 20TWENTY TWENTIES20’s!!!!
Wonder if Flapper Dames will make a come back, or with a 21st century twist (as gender lines blur further), even Flapper Dudes!!!! Maybe have a modern take on famed The Charleston, jazz music and have swell time this coming decade, all round!!!
Today, also happens to be Nudin‘s Official Birthday🐾!! FOUR Years Old!!! It’s (Atta’s) my Maternal Grandfather’s 100 Birth Anniversary, as well!! Haven’t witness a real Birthday Party/New Year Celebration in a while. The last time I actually did something to usher in the New Year was; when on 31st December 2006, my friends & I, Down Under, went to see the fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and welcomed Year 2007 (one of the rare better years of my Adult life, comparatively).
Wishing all my fellow Bloggers, #Twitterians, et al, a very Happy New Year & Great Decade ahead, once more!! Keep on Blogging (a note to self, as well).
Nuwan Sen
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What brought about this sudden urge to write about unrealistic romances, portrayed in a realistic style on celluloid? I watched, Her (2013), back in 
Stranger than Fiction (2006), has a similar unreal premise, but am yet to watch it, so I shan’t comment on it further.
If you take classic fairytales, we read as little children, like Beauty and Beast and Princess and Frog, this phenomena of man and beast is nothing new. Yet at the same time, both the ‘Beast’ and the ‘Frog’, are actually human beings, making it somewhat acceptable for children. If you take Greek mythology, there is the famous tale of Minotaur, where the Minotaur is the result of the Queen of Crete mating with a white bull. Added to which there are plenty of tales of Gods and human love stories, as well, in Greek Mythology. Then there is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream. There have been plenty of movie versions of these classic tales and great old literature. In I, Frankenstein (2014); as I stated on twitter ‘another 21st century ruination of a 19th century classic’; this dull horror movie ends with the hint, that Frankenstein’s monster, a man made being, has found a human companion, after searching for over 200 years. On a lighter vein, in not so great films (yet no where as near as terrible as I, Frankenstein), like the comedy, Hercules in New York (1970), Arnold Schwarzenegger falls from the skies (and not to forget Schwarzenegger’s ridiculous Terminator franchise, from 1984 onwards, with the craziest and cheesiest storylines, ever). Like in Corpse Bride, a man accidentally awakens a goddess, in the near pathetic, Goddess of Love (1988), while in Love-Struck (1997) we see a woman who doesn’t believe in love (Cynthia Gibb) fall for Cupid (Costas Mandylor) and vice versa; and Cupid has to decide if he wants to leave his immortal form, and become human. Similarly in City of Angels (1998), an angel (Nicolas Cage) gives up his human form, for his love for a human being (Meg Ryan). Date with an Angel (1987) is about another union between a man and beautiful angel.
Funny though, how all these Hollywood romances, dealing with unreal love, where the perfect looking lover, be it a mannequin, a fairy, a goddess or mermaid, were all hot white women. What happened to the browns, blacks and yellows? Where are the gays and lesbians? Are they considered less than perfect???? Added to which why is it most of time a man finding the perfect mate? And that too preferably a Blonde one? Even better if the blonde’s in a red hot attire? Like the sequence in The Matrix (1999), where Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), suddenly turns to take a good look at a blonde in a red dress. Why did she have to be blonde? What if he saw an African-American? or an Indian beauty? What if he turned to look at a man? Even in Virtual Sexuality, though it’s creation is a male, the man is a white male, Blond, with a perfect physique. Of course when it came to the Bollywood films, the perfect hero/heroine are both Indian’s, obviously. But United States of America, is a diverse country with all colours and creeds, where the indigenous people of the country are actually Red skinned, not white. Yet the 80’s (and 90’s to a certain extent) target audience, were the straight white American youth. Even though these reached beyond borders. And in a way, 80’s was one of the worst periods for Hollywood, with a load crappy B-movies, being made. Not all, but most, including these fantasy flicks.
The Stepford Wives (1975 & 2004), tells of how an intelligent woman finds it difficult, to integrate into a narrow minded society, when she moves into a new neighbourhood. Of course, all the wives (in the original 75’ film) turn out to be machines (while in the 04’ version, only one husband turns out to be a robot, while the other wives have been brainwashed). This is also symbolical, of how difficult it is, when a lone intellectual person gets trapped in an archaic society, that constantly tries to drag him or her down with them. I personally know how hard is to stay afloat, without changing for the worse, living in an extremist narrow minded country. It’s not easy not to be influenced by negativity. And just like Katharine Ross (in the original), and Nicole Kidman (in the comical remake); I have to fight to stay sane, not to be swayed by the rest.
Then there are people who fall for wordsmiths, that they’ve never met. In Saajan (1991) we see a woman (Madhuri Dixit) fall deeply in love with a poet (whom, nobody knows what he looks like), when a man claiming to be the poet (Salman Khan) seduces her, she falls for him. But does she truly love him? If he turns out not to be the poet, would she still love this man? In the Bengali (Bengali/English bilingual)Art Film, The Japanese Wife (2010) and the Hindi (Hindi/English bilingual) Art Film, The Lunchbox (2013), two people have an entire love affair through letters, without ever meeting each other. In The Japanese Wife, they even get married; through ink.
This is my second 
Languages I can speak Fluently
Jack Cardiff was born on the 18th of September, 1914, to a couple of music hall performers. By the age of four, he was already a child artiste, who’d worked in music hall productions as well as a few silent movies. As a child actor he starred in My Son, My Son (1918), Billy’s Rose (1922), The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots (1923) and Tiptoes (1927). By 15 he started working as a camera assistant, clapper boy and production runner. By 21, Cardiff had graduated to camera operator and occasional cinematographer. Having already worked with Alfred Hitchcock, in The Skin Game (1931), as a clapper boy; soon he got a chance to work with Powell&Pressburger, as a second unit cameraman. Powell&Pressburger were so impressed that they hired him as a cinematographer, and the rest is history.
No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen 