'Yankee Doodle Dandy' on Super 8

Perhaps the most unique emotion is experienced when this feature ends. I call the emotion "unique" because I have not come across such a feeling in any other movie or novel. 

Here we have an artist performing song and dance his whole life. He has been at the very top of his profession for a lot of his career. He is a performing artist having fun all his life, all his performances are merely entertainment.  I watched the movie thinking, "Here we have another feel-good musical movie.". Then the profundity of the climax came along. Just when I thought the movie will finish with Cagney receiving some award, the screenplay made me experience Cagney's realization of his accomplishment. The song and music he was just having fun with, had inspired an entire nation. Cagney suddenly realized he has lived a great life. In other such movies we know we are watching the story of a great man, sometimes the character's dialogues are written with gravitas. All through such films the character believes in his greatness being realized. Here Cagney realizes this only at the end of the feature, when he is at a very ripe age. Perhaps he wasn't even striving for greatness, he only understands his greatness as we approach the film's climax.

'The Body Snatcher' (1945) on Super 8

A few years before 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', Robert Wise and Val Lewton picked up a short-story by Robert Louis Stevenson on .... guess what ..... body snatching! Unlike aliens in Don Siegel's extraterrestrial and psychological body snatching, here the medical profession snatches bodies. Bodies 'snatched' from graves are used as reference points to perform surgeries. So who is the Body Snatcher? No one better than Boris Karloff to do this job. He has so much fun with this role, and .... he has so much fun in his scene with Bela Lugosi. 

A point to note, Robert Wise, who went on to 'The Sound of Music' and 'West Side Story', directed Karloff and Lugosi in this B-movie. But don't let that B-movie tag fool you .... this is a A-grade B-movie, if there is such a thing. Anyway, this shows that even A-list greats sometimes start B-movie small.

This is a neat print mounted on two 800' reels. Sound isn't great but the dialogue is understandable. The contrast on the image is good, but the print is grainier in comparison to the best Super 8 prints.

'Horror of Dracula' on Super 8

Despite its B-movie status I have coveted this Hammer Horror title for two years. All I needed was one chance to make it mine. It first came up for sale on the 8mmforum a couple of months ago, but I had two concerns. First, the print was priced higher than it has been in the past. Second, the sound was in German! This meant I'd have to re-record. Since I don't yet possess this skill, paying $$$ for the English remix would escalate costs! WTH, I went for it.

The print reached the remix expert in Los Angeles, from Germany. Just when the seller, me and the remix guru thought all was good, my luck changed. Where a naked-eye-visual-inspection had revealed a good pre-triped print, audio tests on the GS-1200 revealed an inferior, flaking and most likely post-striped magnetic tracks. I was told to expect a poor remix with "rumbles" in the audio, so my ears prepared for thunder. All that money, and I wasn't going to get a good print.

But there is such a thing as a 'happy ending'. I transfered the print from two 800-footers to one 1600-footer, this means I don't have any reel changes. How is the sound? It is .... now what's a good adjective to use to describe sound mixing .... hmmm ... let's use the standard American one .... the sound is amazing! The 'rumbles' were hardly thunderous. And, there were fewer 'rumbles' than I'd anticipated. And, the rumbles didn't mask any dialogue. This is the best audio in my film collection, maybe 'Goldfinger' is slightly better, ah, 'El Cid' had good audio too.

How is the movie? We'd recently watched F. W. Murnau's 'Nosferatu' so the story was fresh in our heads. Sometimes slight deviations from the familiar are good news, so we were happy to see a few "liberties" being taken. Where Murnau gave us a Count we felt sorry for, here Hammer creates an evil Count. Where Orlock dominates screen-time, here Dracula plays second-fiddle to Dr. Van Helsing. Several beautiful women appear in brief but pivotal roles, so the various female characters actually move the story forward. And, the 82-minutes run-time keeps the movie rolling along. What fun!

'Goldfinger' on Super 8

James Bond on film, 007 on Super 8. Ask yourself which movie you'd like. Did I hear Goldfinger? 

Considered by many to be the best Bond Movie of them all, considered by many to star the best James Bond of them all, considered by many to be the best Bond Villain of them all, considered by many ..... This is, arguably, the best James Bond feature in the franchise. Now I haven't watched every single Bond Movie, so I can't say if this is the best for sure. But the one James Bond feature I wanted on Super 8 is 'Goldfinger'.

The feature arrived mounted on four 600' reels. I duly remounted it on one 1200' and one extend-a-reel. Lack of a second 1200-footer arm-twisted me into using one of my 1400-footers. Superb way to watch Goldfinger and Oddjob battle Bond with just one intermission.

Fritz Lang's 'While the City Sleeps' on Super 8

A few nights ago we watched this rare print mounted on four 600' reels. Now Fritz Lang is very famous for his silent films but here we have a talkie, that too on Super 8 film! But this talking picture is no reason to celebrate Fritz Lang, who remains a giant of the silent era.

Here is an excellent idea for a story and screenplay, whose execution isn't particularly bad. The feature works on two levels, one as an office drama and the other as a thriller. The office politics is more engaging in my opinion. Like in most movies there are several beautiful women, only here they fit into the thriller segment of the story. Every time a beautiful woman walked into the frame, I felt she would be the next victim of the serial killer. Very soon we have too many such women and guessing who the screenplay will sacrifice becomes difficult. This maintains a certain suspense in the picture. All in all, a very good movie but can be skipped.

'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' on Super 8, with music score

Two genres seem hot among film collectors: Horror and Sci-Fi. No horror collection is ever complete without The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Finally, after almost two years, I have a Super 8 sound print of this title mounted on one 1200' reel.

My wife and I watched Dr. Caligari for the first time on DVD, four years ago. Back then the feature floored us. Even today it sucked me right in. My wife however felt that the sense of mystery was lost second time around. All the buzz around Dr. Caligari drew my brother to this screening, he didn't like it all that much.

Jean Renoir's 'The Southerner' on Super 8 film

The feature is mounted on two 800' reels and the second reel is very very full. Since this is a public domain feature, I was expecting a poor print. But I was surprised! The (tinted) image and sound are extremely good.

The feature doesn't feel dated. Comparisons between joining-the-workforce and self-employment, factories and farming, roles of men and women .... serve in making the story contemporary. The story and screenplay throw up several dramatic situations; but unlike Frank Capra, Renoir avoids milking the drama. Despite Renoir's restrained direction, the feature moved us in a few places. Excellent movie!

Epistle for a friend feeling flat

Hi Friend,

Let us continue our 'biggest loser' contest a little. I don't typically like stories without hope - an exception here is Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balance' which I think of on a regular basis - so through some self-deprecation I'd like to close with prospects of a bright future for both of us. Okay, here goes. 

You listed the following as my achievements (you didn't use that word though): Ph.D., marriage, marathons, cycling, blogging, watching movies. Let's us keep marriage out because it involves Revathi, an individual not common to us, and she and me together make the marriage what it is; so this marriage isn't just a man show. Regarding the Ph.D., you don't know the details of my doctorate. It isn't a great Ph.D., I am in some sort of trouble now because I will graduate in a month with nothing to go to. This wasn't the case after my times in Davangere and Bombay, let us where this Ph.D. takes me. So, as of now the Ph.D. isn't a clear cut achievement. Each of the other items you mention are all gone now. I don't run anymore so am frighteningly overweight; my blog remains untouched in almost a year; and .... where did the cycling come from? I haven't owned a cycle since July, 2007. You have an inflated image of me and perhaps I am responsible for this image. The only truths from your list are Ph.D., marriage and movies. Strike out the Ph.D. and put in money instead to get every single person we know from Sindhi High School. Most are married, watch movies and are financially in strong positions. Since the toss up is between money and the Ph.D., let us agree that the choice between the two would vary from individual to individual. Most chose financial security, I chose this Ph.D.. Therefore, in the larger picture of life I haven't really run far ahead of our classmates.

Now for the future. You use 'mediocrity' and your acceptance of it frequently. It is a feeling that I know roughly 50% people to possess. The other 50% people will try to talk up their life and say they have done some special things. Where do I stand here? My feelings vacillate all the time, some days I feel myself to be nothing short of 'great' with boundless research possibilities, then there are days when the future looks hopeless. In your case, it appears you don't have positive days at all. There is no conclusion to this paragraph, I am just stating how I know people to feel about themselves, my self-image and how I believe you evaluate yourself. All this revolves around the word 'mediocrity', a variant of which is used as self-assessment by everyone I know. When I ask them what being above-mediocre means, they don't have a specific answer. Answers veer toward 'something special', 'kuch khaas karenge' and 'yeno ondu maadbeku'. Therefore, people are assessing themselves as mediocre without defining what above-mediocrity means. If that definition is known, we can work towards it. Therefore, I feel success needs a definition. 

Unfortunately, that definition can't be a universal one, but one for each individual. Let us consider examples. Jeet Thayil. He wrote Narcopolis which made the Booker Shortlist last year. In brief, I loved it. Jeet was a drug addict from his teens till about forty years of age. He got his head out in 2003 or so, rehabbed out. His father gave him a home to live in. Jeet felt it was too big for him, so he rented it out and moved to a smaller place where he started work on Narcopolis. It took him five years to write, his first novel came out at fifty-three. The general consensus ranked him as second/third on Booker Shortlist of 2012. The way I read the story is this, somewhere in his late forties he defined success as one work of literary-fiction. Let us put a new twist to the old Tendulkar story. He defined success as a batsman for Team India when he was thirteen years of age. You and me, man. At this point in our lives, thirty years .... right between the ages Tendulkar and Thayil defined their successes ..... we must define what above-mediocre and success mean for us. Then we can try to get there. By getting there, we will not be mediocre. There is no other solution.

ONE POSSIBLE WAY OUT: Consider our friends, good jobs, mostly high paying jobs, married, will have kids or already have one. In the coming 10-20 years they will consolidate their positions. Till 2033 or so they will do the following: keep the highest paying job, invest money, buy property, bring up kids, save money for their education, get them through college (whatever course is hot in 20 years), see them married off, after these the next 10-15 years will see a renewed interest in money and plans pertinent to retirement. The style with which they do each of these things will be their successes. Maybe one of our friends will raise the next cricketer, tennis player, chess prodigy, painter, novelist, etc. and that will be something to talk about. All of these are things I'd like to do. There is tremendous satisfaction in doing them. The other reason to do them is that I will have saved face in public and familial platforms. The bigger my house, the more expensive my car(s), the higher the fees for my child's education, etc. will gave me greater respect in my family. The distinct advantage is that every step of the rest of our lives is clearly defined here. Milestones are clear. We know exactly what is required of us. So we could define these as our success parameters and shoot for these. A few years ago I would have scoffed at such a life. Now I understand there is some difficulty in achieving all these goals. To know the difficulty we can consider the marriage in 'Kramer vs. Kramer', or the craze of the empty mid-forties in 'American Beauty', or, closer home, the comedic agonies of a middle-class family in 'Khosla ka Ghosla'. So I see the difficulties here and don't belittle this life so much any more. Therefore, this choice can still get us appreciation from our peers, family, etc., so is worth pursuing. This way among the people who chose this life, we can assess our mediocrity/success relative to them.

ONE IMPOSSIBLE WAY OUT: My problem with that life is the lack of ambition, a missing romance. It lacks a grand vision .... like Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' which starts from the Dawn of Man and culminates with the next evolution in humans. Terrence Mallick's 'The Tree of Life' is even larger in scale, it starts with The Big Bang apparently. One major reason for the success of these films is their ambition. What if we stretched our ambition too? What if we looked beyond what our friends have achieved and will achieve? Let's stretch time all the way back to Euclid, Plato and even the chap who wrote Mahabharata (yes I can't recall his name now). Euclid has left a solid imprint, we speak of him 2500 years after his demise. What if these guys were our competition? As a researcher, what if my work lasts 2000 years like Pythagoras Theorem. What if we wrote novels to rival Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' or Victor Hugo's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' or if we wrote verses like in Milton's 'Paradise Lost'? Problem with this 'shooting for the stars' thing is that we believe we lack the ability. We think we can't do it. But logic really is the other way around. Only by doing the great thing is it proven that you had the ability in the first place. In other words, I don't much fancy the notion that 'Einstein always had potential'. All I know is that his proof challenges time as an invariant quantity, which wasn't done before, so he is above-mediocre. By doing something special, he proved himself superior to other beings. So let us do something, that makes the world stand up and take notice. Maybe I can write that one great research paper like other scientists in the past.

BONE OF CONTENTION: A major issue is that the two ways described don't seem to share common ground. It feels like we can't do the 'big things' like the Kubricks and Einsteins while making loads of money and maintaining happy families. Keeping a job takes an entire day, so where is the time to read a novel let alone write one? Focusing on the job comes with the feeling of neglecting the grander goal, this hurts egos. Yet, working towards the grander goal means you are falling behind on regular work, like washing dishes, clothes, cleaning homes, paying bills etc., this is a major inconvenience. Seems like we have to pick one because we can't do both. (This paragraph is inspired from Paul Murray's "Skippy Dies")

I see only one solution from the Bone of Contention. We have to choose. Live the regular life that everyone lives, or go for the gold. Some of us delay the choice so long, that the choice is automatically made for us. Everyone keeps working 9-5 in their 20s, enjoys the weekends and one day realize their shot at superior beings are not a possibility any more. This wasn't the case with me, I have a Ph.D. so there is a possibility of greatness through independent research. In your case, the twenties were about some of the worst possible personal tragedies I have known. If you put those events behind you, we can look to the future. Since shit happened to you in the past, it is highly likely that good times are coming up.

Despite our differences, I still feel a good friend-like connection with you. You mentioned a feeling of loneliness and that of making passes at chicks. I always like the latter, but I don't know too much about it. With regard to the former, write to me as often as you wish. I love email correspondence, as my long replies reveal. Perhaps sometimes I have been tough on you in the past but if we stick through a few years, our friendship will attain an optimum level of comfort.

Since we are on the issues of life, this documentary series (Link) comes to my mind. Do you know of it? When I heard of it this year, I couldn't believe the imagination of its creators. Cinema to answer the meaning of life? I mean not someone's idea of life, or some fictional account. This is the real deal. All seven lives followed reveal a common thread, friend. With passing years, most people are happy with their lives and satisfied with their accomplishments. There is some solace for us here. Even if we are dissatisfied with where we are today, maybe at 40, 50, 60 .... whenever we will look beyond successes, failures, mediocrity and reach a level of contentment. Let's at least get to those ages, man. Sometimes I tell my wife that we are watching the movie of our lives (inspired from the opening sentence of Ebert's memoir). The movie's present run-time is 30 years and we don't know how many zillion miles of film are mounted on how many billions of reels that still require projection. Let's enjoy the voyeurism of watching our own lives unfold, I mean purely as viewers, not as screenwriters. There is a fun in this out-of-body experience too.

You will read this on Sunday. Let's make some time and video chat immediately after. An email reply just won't do for this one. We will chat for 20 minutes only, i.e., if you have a time constraint. If you have time on your hands, we can chat forever.

Bye!