Guess these international films, from around the globe, released between 1949 and The Year 2000 :-
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Clues:-
Answers:-
I shall provide the answers myself, once some of my fellow bloggers have given this a try
Have Fun with the quiz
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense
Q&A: Your Opinion Matters
Six Degrees of Separation: from Emile Hirsch to…
…Barbara Stanwyck
Hirsch played the lead in the tragic true-life adventure flick, Into the Wild (2007), which was directed by actor, Sean Penn (1), who was married to pop diva, Madonna (2), whose second husband was British film director, Guy Ritchie (3), who directed Sherlock Holmes (2009), which was based on notable author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (4), famed fictional sleuth, as was The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), directed by Billy Wilder (5), and Wilder also directed the noir classic, Double Indemnity (1944), starring Barbara Stanwyck (6).
…Diego Luna – Ang Lee vice versa (vv)
Hirsch appeared in the bio-pic, Milk (2008), in which Diego Luna (1,6), co-starred as an insecure, unconfident, paranoid, vulnerable gay lover, of the lead political figure of this tragic movie, who commits suicide, and Luna has been best friends with Gael García Bernal (2,5) since childhood, and García Bernal starred in surreal fantasy flick, The Science of Sleep (2006), which co-starred Alain Chabat (3,4), who directed the French comedy, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002), a fictional account of, cartoon characters, Astérix & Obélix’s meeting the famed Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra (4,3), who was portrayed by Italian actress Monica Bellucci (5,2), who starred in the Italian movie Malèna (2000), which was nominated for two Oscars, in 2001, in the ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Original Musical Score’ categories, but lost out to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), in both categories, along with two more Oscar wins, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was directed by Ang Lee (6,1), with whom Emile Hirsch had worked with, in, Taking Woodstock (2009).
…Norma Crane
Hirsch appeared in, the waste of time, film, The Darkest Hour (2011), which co-starred Olivia Thirlby (1), who appeared in the excellent comedy Juno (2007), for which Diablo Cody (2) took home the Oscar statuette for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and Cody also wrote the screenplay for the teenage horror flick, Jennifer’s Body (2009), which also starred Johnny Simmons (3), who is currently working on the project Frank and Cindy, to be released next year, which also stars Rene Russo (4), who came in the re-make art heist flick, The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and original 1968 version, was directed by Norman Jewison (5), who also directed the musical, Fiddler on the Roof (1971), starring Norma Crane (6).
…Yoko Ono
Hirsch appeared alongside Penélope Cruz (1) in Venuto al Mondo (2012), and Cruz starred along with Rebecca Hall (2) in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and Hall acted in Frost/Nixon (2008), a feature film focusing on the, post-Watergate scandal, television interview by the illustrious British talk-show host, David Frost (3), of former president, Richard Nixon (4); the only president of the United States till date to resign from office; and the well-known Beatle, John Lennon’s (5), song ‘Give Peace a Chance’; written during the famous ‘Bed-In’ of May/June 1969, and which soon became an anti Vietnam-war anthem, and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington, D.C. at the ‘Vietnam Moratorium Day’, on the 15th of October, 1969; shook the Nixon government, and Lennon staged the famous ‘Bed-In’s’, for peace; which gave birth to this song; along with his newly married bride, Japanese artist and peace activist, Yoko Ono (6); whom he married, in March the same year, 1969, and they staged their first ‘Bed-In’ on their honeymoon, in March 1969 itself.
…Gloria Swanson
Hirsch in his teens, played a sensitive, effeminate, lonely, farm-boy; who seeks companionship with a chicken, he associates with his dead mother; in The Mudge Boy (2003), directed by Michael Burke (1), which was a feature length re-make of Burke’s own earlier short film, Fishbelly White (1998), which starred Jason Hayes (2), who appeared in Andrew Jackson (2007), a television movie about the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson (3), who was portrayed by Charlton Heston (4) in the re-make of The Buccaneer (1958), and the original 1938 version was directed by the luminary Cecil B. DeMille (5), who had a cameo, playing himself, in Sunset Boulevard (1950), where screen goddess of silent era, Gloria Swanson (6), played a faded, ageing, silent movie star recluse; whose disintegration into nothingness, unable to accept the loss her stardom since the invention of sound in cinema, talking pictures, is inevitable.
…Madeleine Carroll
Hirsch played the younger version of the eminent, Hungarian-American, illusionist, Harry Houdini (1), in the television movie, Houdini (1998), and in the past, Tony Curtis (2), was the first actor to portray Houdini, on the screen, in Houdini (1953), and Curtis starred with Marilyn Monroe (3) in the sizzling comedy, Some Like it Hot (1959), and Monroe, appeared alongside Cary Grant (4) in another hilarious comedy Monkey Business (1952), and Grant starred in the classic Film-Noir, Notorious (1946), which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock (5), who had earlier directed Madeleine Carroll (6), in The 39 Steps (1935).
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation: from Logan Lerman to …
…Elijah Wood
Lerman starred alongside Aaron Eckhart (1) in the hilarious comedy Meet Bill (2007), and Eckhart appeared in the magnificent satire that was Thank you for Smoking (2005); a humorous insight into the manipulative business tactics of a tobacco industry; which was directed by Jason Reitman (2), who later directed yet another comical brilliance that was Juno (2007), starring Ellen Page (3); who earlier played a very dark role, of an underaged teenager who has her heart set on castrating a paedophile who she suspects is responsible for the death of yet another underaged teenage girl; in Hard Candy (2004), which co-starred Patrick Wilson (4), who appeared in Little Children (2006) with Kate Winslet (5), and Winslet starred in, the surreal masterpiece that was, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), which also starred, former child star, Elijah Wood (6).
…Tom Sturridge
Lerman did one of the laziest roles ever in the pathetic flick called Gamer (2009), the only saving grace, of which, was the villainess character, excellently portrayed by Michael C. Hall (1), whose most notable role, happens to be, the titular character, of a serial killer, he plays in the television series, Dexter (2006-2013), and in the last season of which Sam Underwood (2) played his young protégé, and Underwood starred in a stage version of the play Equus, a play written by Peter Shaffer (3), and the 2007 West End and Broadway productions, of this same play, starred Daniel Radcliffe (4), who plays famed poet, of the Beat generation, Allen Ginsberg (5) in the movie Kill your Darlings (2013), and Ginsberg was also portrayed by Tom Sturridge (6) in On the Road (2012).
…Rudolph Nureyev
Lerman, as child artiste, appeared, alongside fellow child actor, Cameron Bright (1), in The Butterfly Effect (2004), and Bright played a kid who harassed a widow into believing that he was a reincarnation of her dead husband in Birth (2004), which co-starred Lauren Bacall (2), who was married to Humphrey Bogart (3); and together they were famously known as Bogie and Bacall; and Bogie starred alongside Ingrid Bergman (4), in the much loved tear-jerker classic, Casablanca (1942), and Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rossellini (5), starred in White Nights (1985); which tells the story of a famed Russian male ballet dancer who had defected from the Soviet Union (USSR), who finds himself back in the USSR when a plane carrying him to Tokyo has to have an emergency crash landing there; the character of the defected dancer was loosely inspired by the renowned ballet dancer, Rudolph Nureyev (6).
…Rock Hudson
Lerman appeared in the excellent re-make; 3:10 to Yuma (2007); of the classic western, 3:10 to Yuma (1957), and the original was directed by Delmer Daves (1), who made his directorial debut with Destination Tokyo (1943), starring Cary Grant (2), and Grant starred in the amusingly crazily splendid farce, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), which was directed by Frank Capra (3), as was the romantic comedy, It Happened One Night (1934), which starred Claudette Colbert (4); who was famous for playing the legendary ‘Queen of the Nile’; in Cleopatra (1934), as was Elizabeth Taylor (5) in Cleopatra (1963), who starred alongside Rock Hudson (6) in Giant (1956).
…Roger Vadim
Lerman played son to Renée Zellweger (1), in My One and Only (2009), and Zellweger starred alongside Tom Cruise (2) in Jerry Maguire (1996), and Cruise appeared in The Color of Money (1986) with Paul Newman (3), who starred alongside Robert Redford (4), in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Redford appeared alongside Jane Fonda (5) in Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Fonda was at one time married to director Roger Vadim (6).
…Tom Ford
Lerman starred alongside Emma Watson (1) in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), and Watson appeared in My Week with Marilyn (2012), which also starred Dominic Cooper (2), who came in The History Boys (2006), alongside Stephen Campbell Moore (3), who appeared in Bright Young Things (2003), which was based on Evelyn Waugh’s (4) novel Vile Bodies, and Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited, was the basis for the 2008 movie starring Matthew Goode (5), and Goode appeared in A Single Man (2009), which was the directorial debut of fashion designer, Tom Ford (6).
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Cleopatra**********
Since the invention of Cinema, there have been over a hundred actresses who’ve portrayed the Queen of the Nile. But there have been very few on screen Cleopatra’s, that have blown us away with their powerful performances.
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Q° 1. Which of these stars did you feel was Cleopatra incarnate? Who was the most beautiful Cleopatra of the silver screen?
a) Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
b) Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in Cleopatra (1963)
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c) Another actress completely (Please Specify; e.g. Helen Gardner (1912), Theda Bara (1917), Claudette Colbert (1934), Sophia Loren (1954), etc etc …)
Q° 2. If there were a newer bio-pic on the life of this, pre-feminist era, bold feminist, Pharaoh, which one of these actresses should play the role of Cleopatra?
a) Angelina Jolie
b) Kate Winslet
c) Marion Cotillard
d) Sridevi
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e) Kerry Washington
Q° 3. If there were to be a new movie on the life of Cleopatra, which of these would you prefer to see?
a) a bio-pic on her life based on an original new screenplay.
b) another movie based on William Shakespeare’s 1623 play Antony and Cleopatra.
c) another movie based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1898 play Caesar and Cleopatra.
d) a mystical, fantasy, surreal piece of artistically and visually spectacular, intellectual piece of cinema.
e) a blockbuster, with a weak script, meaningless violence (an action flick), good looking bodies (sexualising the film’s characters with necessity for very limited acting skills), where the computer graphics dominate the entire premise of the movie; meant for the masses, just to make a load of cash; which would be here today and gone tomorrow.
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense
Q&A: Your Opinion Matters
Day before yesterday I watched the Bengali film, Aranyer Din Ratri – Days and Nights in the Forest (1970) online (on you tube). I rarely watch movies online but Days and Nights in the Forest was screaming at to me to be watched, thus finally I did and it was absolutely worth it.
Days and Nights in the Forest
Days and Nights in the Forest, is a brilliant Indian art house movie to come out of the state of Bengal, India. Bollywood is famed for it’s commercial Hindi films, but when it comes to thought provoking art films, Bengal offers the best (Be it in their own language, i.e. Bengali, or in English).
Directed by the veteran Satyajit Ray, Days and Nights in the Forest is a very interesting character study of various young people of modern India (India of the late 60’s) within two social strata’s.
The movie begins with four well to do middle class men from Calcutta, Bengal, India; who travel up north to a forest, mainly inhibited by a tribal community, in the state of Bihar, on a holiday. Their plan is to enjoy themselves with alcohol and the local tribal women, and not bother to shave and live by city rules, and to avoid associating their own social circles, for those few days. But their hypocrisy is soon revealed, when early next day one of them spots two sophisticated ladies through his window. As he happily runs and wakes up his friends to share what he just witnessed, he states, one in a ‘sari’ and the other in ‘slacks’. This attire itself signifying the ladies’ higher social status as opposed to the village tribal women’s attire.
Thus, shunning all plans of disregarding city rules, the men shave and bathe to look more presentable to vie for the attention of the two more elegant females residing in the neighbouring lodge, rather than stick to their original intention of going wild in the wild.
The men, all clean and dressed, venture forth to introduce themselves, except for Hari (Samit Bhanja), who recently being ditched by his classy girlfriend (Aparna Sen), lusts for the affection of a mouthy tribal woman, Duli (Simi Garewal), instead. The others are invited by an older gentleman, Sadashiv Tripathi (Pahadi Sanyal) who happens to be the father and father-in-law of the two ladies in question; and soon Hari joins in as well.
Three very varied bold women
The four men in this movie themselves are quite varied characters.
Ashim (Soumitra Chatterjee) happens to be a bit of a flirt, yet a man with a conscience, and is especially conscious of how he is perceived by others; while we see Sanjoy (Shubhendu Chatterjee) who happens to be a poet, literary advocate and a bit of a leftist (in the late 60’s a lot of young modernist were influenced by communistic propaganda); then there’s Hari (Samit Bhanja), a somewhat brash and quite lethargic, yet straightforward, individual, who’s not so happy about the fact that a woman dared to dump him (i.e. his ex-girlfriend mentioned above, a nameless character played by Aparna Sen); and finally there’s Shekar (Rabi Gosh), who happens to be a jobless gambler and a bit of a comical character, a jester (more laugh at him, than with him, kind of jester), who seems to be the happiest of them all, with no conscience and not a care in the world, yet a good hearted character.
But the variations in the psychological characteristics of the three women, all bold feminist in their own way, is way more vast and not easy to decipher, neither for the four men nor us, the viewer, until towards the end of the film.
Sharmila Tagore as Aparna
Sharmila Tagore plays Aparna, the daughter of Sadashiv Tripathi. When the four men enter the threshold of the neighbouring lodge and are introduced to her by her father, she politely says hello, but seems reserved and doesn’t seem interested in socialising with them. Instead she sits in a corner reading a book, while her father, sister-in-law, and little nephew entertain the guests. Yet she politely answers what ever questions the men throw at her, and then gets back to her reading. Here we see her being anti-social, but at the same time she’s not being rude either. Soon three of the men and her sister-in-law decide to play badminton. Aparna is left alone with Ashim, who seems to have developed an infatuation for her.
Her father asks her to show Ashim the unfinished building which she uses for her meditation and recreation. Ashim is in awe when he sees her library containing books as diverse as Agatha Christie mysteries to non fictional books like The Survival of God in the Scientific World, and of her good taste in music too (from her collection of vinyl records) which is as diverse as her taste in books, from classical music to popular music. He can’t seem to keep up with her level of intellect, and starts to develop an inferiority complex, and finds it difficult make her out. She seems kind, friendly and nice, yet aloof. Even when she tells him, that her mother and brother have passed away, she never betrays the how and why of the tragic circumstances that lead to their demise. She smiles, and shares her intelligence, but doesn’t openly display any sign of pain or unhappiness that she might be feeling.
The Three Female Leads
Kaberi Bose plays Jaya, a widow, a mother, Mr. Tripathi’s daughter-in-law, and Aparna’s sister-in-law. She seems fun loving, friendly, moved on with her life despite a past tragedy that beset her.
Simi Garewal plays Duli, a bold tribal woman, who seemingly willingly agrees to do anything the city folk want her to do for money, from cleaning house to other services.
All three women put up a bold exterior, without publicly exposing their true emotions of loss, longing and loneliness.
The Memory Game
I won’t divulge every single detail about the movie, and there are whole lot of happenings in the movie, but I would like discuss many essential aspects of the film. And the picnic sequence (especially ‘The Memory Game’ they play) happens to be one of the best and crucial scenes of Days and Nights in the Forest.
After the four friends meet their new neighbours, they are invited by Jaya for the Breakfast the following morning. But owing to a drunken escapade the night before (a recurring occurrence in the life of the four men), they wake up too late next morning and find their breakfast sitting outside with a note. Embarrassed, the four friends apologise and invite their new friends to their place for a sort of picnic. Since Mr. Tripathi and his little grandson, on the insistence of the child, have already made plans to go and see the circus, just the two ladies attend.
At the picnic Jaya suggests playing ‘The Memory Game’, in which, apparently, Aparna is really good at. The Memory Game comprises of each individual stating a name of some well known personality; and as they go around each person has to say all the names said before and add a name of his or her own, without breaking the rhythm. The names have to be said in the chronological order. What is interesting is each name added by the said individual represents his or her own personality. For example Sanjoy, who veers more towards communist attitudes says names like Karl Marx, Mao Tse Tung etc etc… ; while Aparna, says names like Cleopatra, reflecting her own feminist intellectual non submissive roots, and Bobby Kennedy, famed for his advocacy for the African American civil rights movement, reflecting on her open-minded attitude. As the game goes around, people make mistakes and fall ‘out’, meanwhile Hari drops out loosing interest. Ultimately only Ashim and Aparna are left. Ashim, desperate to win is very careful, not wanting to seem inferior to Aparna, in front of whom he’s managed to embarrass himself a number of times. Detecting his fear Aparna, lets Ashim win the game. But, aware that she got out on purpose, it only adds to Ashim’s inferiority complex.
The Carnivalesque situation
This segment in about the Carnivalesque situation of disruption and celebration that happens at the same time, literally, in the finalé of Days and Nights in the Forest.
After the picnic, by evening, they all go to the village Carnival that’s taking place that same day. This is where the films most climatic situation ensues. All the friends split and immerse themselves into the carnival. The comical gambler, Shekar, goes off to gamble away with his friends’ money; Ashim and Aparna separated from the group, walk off together, where we see Ashim’s torture at being constantly feeling inferior to Aparna, but here we also see Aparna share her more vulnerable side, which wasn’t easy to detect earlier. She confides in him about the fact that as a child she witnessed her mother burn to death, and that her brother’s death was actually suicide, leaving behind his wife Jaya and son. At the same time she confronts Ashim about his ignorance and indifference relating to the illness of the wife of the gatekeeper at the lodge the men are currently residing in. (Earlier in the movie, in more than one instance the gatekeeper mentions that his wife is ill). Aparna takes Ashim to a small hut, where we see the gatekeepers bedridden wife, and a child crying can be heard as well. Ashim admits he had no idea that she was in such a grave condition. Aparna points out their urban insensitivity. Despite spending three days at the lodge, and the gatekeeper more than once having mentioned his wife was ill, none of the four men bothered to find out how seriously ailing she was. Meanwhile we see Duli, the tribal woman, being dragged into the forest by Hari. Yet once there, she seems to be willing to satisfy his lust, so long as she gets paid. Here we learn that she too is a widow, and that her husband died due to a snake bite. Hari is seen threatening her, that he’ll hit her if she doesn’t see him again. She agrees without a fight. The sad thing is, she actually believes he has a right to treat her this way, not just because of her low cast, but also cause she is a woman. At the same time, Jaya takes Sanjoy home for coffee. Her father-in law and son have not returned. Whilst he’s drinking his coffee, Jaya has changed her clothes. We see, her dolled up, and in what appears to be a colourful sari (in this Black/white film), all decked up in jewellery. She tries to seduce him, and makes him feel her heartbeat, letting us see her longings and loneliness. Here we start to sympathise with her, seeing her unexpected weaker side. She laughs and cries at the same time. Sanjoy is shocked when she states her husband died by committing suicide. When asked why, she seemingly nonchalantly states, who knows? He must have had some problems.
Meanwhile, a man, who was falsely accused of stealing Hari’s wallet earlier in the movie, takes his revenge in the forest, after witnessing Hari’s escapade with Duli.
Ultimately, By the end of the film, by the time the four friends head back home, we see them all changed. Each more mature than before, each individual having improved as a person after spending a few Days and Nights in the Forest.
All the actors are brilliant in their performance, especially Sharmila Tagore as Aparna. But the most unexpected exceptional role seen here is that of Duli, the tribal woman, by actress Simi Garewal.
An excellent movie. The last Satyajit Ray film I watched was Nayak (1966), and that was almost a decade ago. I loved that movie back then, but I think I like Aranyer Din Ratri – Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), even more.
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense
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Six Degrees of Separation: from Marlon Brando to…
… Diablo Cody
Marlon Brando played one of the most famously/notoriously loved fictional underworld mafia heads of the big screen, Don Vito Corleone, in The Godfather (1972), where Al Pacino (1) played his youngest son who carries on the family legacy, in the latter two sequels of the Godfather films, and Pacino later played a cocky blind man in Scent of a Woman (1992), where Chris O’Donnell (2) played a paid companion to Pacino, and O’Donnell appeared in School Ties (1992), which saw Matt Damon (3) in a villainous mode, who along with best friend Ben Affleck (4) created Good Will Hunting (1997), by working on the screenplay together, for which they won an Oscar in the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ category; and Affleck is married to actress Jennifer Garner (5), whom we saw in a sophisticated motherly mould, keen on adopting a child, in Juno (2007), which was a farcical entertainment with a fresh take on teen-pregnancy, written by a stripper Diablo Cody (6), who just wrote a brilliant script/screenplay after she completed her memoir on being a stripper, the result being a great movie and well deserved Oscar win for Cody.
… James Dean
Marlon Brando starred opposite Vivien Leigh (1), in a movie based on a Tennessee Williams’ (2) play, A Streetcar named Desire (1951), as did the violet eyed Hollywood starlet, Elizabeth Taylor (3), in another film based on another Williams’ play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Taylor, alongside Rock Hudson (4) starred in Giant (1956), which was loosely based on the real-life Texan oil-giant, Glenn McCarthy (5), who struck oil 38 times, between 1931 & 1942, and it was young actor James Dean (6) who portrayed this oil-tycoon, in this movie; and Dean died soon after he completed this film from a car crash, aged 23.
… Halle Berry
Marlon Brando played famed Roman General, Mark Antony (1), in the movie Julius Caesar (1953), and Antony was the lover of Queen Cleopatra (2), who was portrayed by Claudette Colbert (3), in Cleopatra (1934), and Colbert appeared alongside Clark Gable (4), in the light hearted romantic comedy, It Happened One Night (1934), and Gable starred in the one of the greatest Hollywood epics ever, Gone With the Wind (1939), for which Hattie McDaniel (5), won an Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in 1940, for her portrayal of the likable, strong willed house servant/slave ‘Mammy’, being the first black/Afro-American actress to win a trophy, and the first (and only till date) Afro-American actress to bag the ‘Best Actress’ trophy, at the Oscars, was Halle Berry (6), in 2002, for Monsters Ball (2001).
… Oscar Wilde
Marlon Brando acted in one of the most controversial films to come out in the 70’s, Bernardo Bertolucci’s (1) Ultimo tango a Parigi – Last Tango in Paris (1972), which brought about a fifteen year rift between Brando and Bertolucci, and three decades later Bertolucci, directed The Dreamers (2003), one of best films made about film buffs, where one of the film buffs was played by French actor Louis Garrel (2), who appeared in the controversial, Ma Mère (2004), about incestuous relationship between a mother and a son, and the mother was played by Isabelle Huppert (3), who starred in the existentialist comedy, I Heart Huckabees (2004), which also starred British actor Jude Law (4), and Law played Sir Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas (5), in the Bio-pic Wilde (1997), and Bosie was the lover of playwright/novelist/poet Oscar Wilde (6), on whose love story and subsequent trial, this movie is based on.
… Michelle Monaghan
Marlon Brando appeared in the Charles Chaplin (1) directed comedy A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), an entire film set in the confines of a cruise ship, which co-starred Sophia Loren (2), who appeared in Get Rita (1975), a story about an Italian mafia leader obsessed with Hollywood starlet Rita Hayworth (3), and Hayworth was featured in, and was relevant to the plot of, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which starred Tim Robbins (4), who appeared in Mystic River (2003), which was based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (5), as was Gone Baby Gone (2007), in which the female lead was played by Michelle Monaghan (6).
… Imran Khan
Marlon Brando starred in the first instalment of the epic Godfather trilogy, The Godfather (1972), directed by the renowned film director, Francis Ford Coppola (1), who directed actress Bridget Fonda (2), in a miniscule role as a newspaper reporter, in the last instalment of the series of films based on this fictional mafia family, The Godfather III (1990), and Fonda starred in Camilla (1994), which was directed by Deepa Mehta (3), who also directed the ‘elemental’ trilogy, of whose the second instalment, 1947-Earth (1998), was based on a novel by Bapsi Sidhwa (4), entitled The Ice Candy Man, and the ‘Ice Candy Man’ was portrayed by Aamir Khan (5) in the film, whose nephew happens to be Bollywoods young blood, Imran Khan (6), whose not much of an actor yet, and whose popularity is solely for his good looks; but considering the fact that he’s been in the film Industry for only six years or so, there’s still scope for improvement.
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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On the 16th of February, 1923, the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun (a.k.a King Tut), were discovered, with his mummified remains inside.
English archaeologist and Egyptologist, Howard Carter, led the expedition to excavate the ancient tomb of King Tut, funded by the Earl of Carnarvon. Carter and his crew discovered the steps leading to King Tut’s tomb in November 1922. Lord Carnarvon soon joined the expedition along with his daughter. And finally on 16th February 1923, Carter opened the doorway to the burial chamber where the elaborately carved sarcophagus of one of the most famous teenage Pharaohs of the ancient civilisation was discovered.
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun ascended the throne when he was only 9 years old, and married his half-sister Ankhesenamen. They had two daughters both stillborn. King Tut, died aged 19, and Ankhesenamen went on to live till she was about 24.
The curse of King Tutankhamun
There were various mystery deaths post the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. Lord Carnarvon was the first to die. Bitten by a mosquito and accidentally slashing it while shaving, which in turn got it infected, and as a result the earl died of the blood poisoning.
Sir Bruce Ingham, who came into possession of a mummified wrist of King Tut’s with a bracelet with inscription ‘Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence‘, his house burnt down soon after he received it. Six others died after this discovery, but Carter, who survived the curse, died much much later in 1939, aged 64.
Nuwan Sen’s Historical Sense
No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen 