The Movie Recommendation Thread

[ashdoc]

Bhouri ( 2016 )

Bhouri ( Masha Paur ) is a beautiful 23 year old girl newly married to a 55 year old man in a rural part of India . The reason for the marriage is superstition . Her earlier 3 fiances have died due to various causes and in these rural parts she is considered as bringing bad luck , so she is has to marry a 55 year old man called Dhanua ( Raghubir Yadav ) who is the only one willing to accept her as wife . He is a labourer .

But Bhouri is so beautiful that all the men in the village begin to lust for her . The chaudhary ( headman---played by Mohan Joshi ) , the shopkeeper Baniya ( Manoj Joshi ) the labour contractor ( Mukesh Tiwari ) ,the corrupt priest ( Sitaram Panchal ) , and even the doctor ( Shakti Kapoor ) of the village---all openly lust for her . They openly and brazenly ask her husband to send her to them for sex in return for money . When he back answers them , he is thrashed . The whole village has this kind of atmosphere of sex addiction . Chaudhary has sex with a married village woman because she is poor and needs his money . Doctor gives free treatment to families in the village if their women agree to have sex with him . Only the police officer ( Aditya Pancholi ) is honest and brings to book any criminals . Two men who are chaudhary's brothers rape a girl and the police officer brings them to book by hanging them upside down and beating them . An older woman kaki ( Kunika ) tries to protect Bhouri and her husband from the sexual advances of the fivesome of baniya and chaudhary and doctor and priest and labour contractor .

Soon Bhouri's reputation of bringing bad luck to her partners seems to affect her husband too . He begins to cough violently . The doctor falsely accuses him of being HIV positive , so that he will be kicked out from the village and he can get his hands on Bhouri . But Bhouri begins to work as labourer in place of her husband and rejects all the lustful advances of predators .

One day a handsome young film maker from the city comes to film the lives of these people . But Bhouri finally loses her control and gets attracted to him and has a night of wild passion with him . The villagers who have unsuccessfully lusted for Bhouri beat the young film maker out of sheer jealousy and drive him out of the village . Her husband too forsakes her , for she is in love with the film maker .

But the film maker does not return and Bhouri who is left alone has to give in to the lust of the villagers to satisfy her monetary needs . Soon all the village men are having repeated sex with Bhouri . But many of the begin to die out and doctor's daughter who has sex with one of them is diagnosed HIV positive . Tests are done on the villagers and most of them are now HIV positive . But Bhouri's husband who was ironically falsely accused of being HIV positive turns out to be HIV negative .

So who has been spreading AIDS in the village ? In the end we find out that the film maker was HIV positive and Bhauri contracted the disease from him . And the villagers became HIV positive because of their unbridled and unprincipled lust for her . Nature has it's own ways of taking revenge for injustice....

The movie seems to have been made with India's current image as rape / lust/ sexploitation capital of the world in mind , and the shameless attempt of the film makers is to bolster that image in the eyes of the world in order to get awards . Foreigners who see the film will come out of the theatre with horrifying image of Indian men as rapists and sex addicts who shamelessly lust for even married women and openly ask their husbands to send their wives to them . Shakti Kapoor the eternal rapist of bollywood has been specially roped in to play role of sex predator , something that he is past master of playing . However , embarrassed by his atrocious role his daughter actress Shraddha Kapoor has forced him to disassociate himself from the film's publicity . But the damage to India's image has already been done . The liberal / communist lobby which backs making of these films openly encourages this self hate .

Photography is good and so is background music . Acting is good by most , if acting loudly as sex mad predators is your cup of tea . Masha Paur looks really good as Bhouri . But I was appalled by the open and brazen sex madness shown in the village .

Verdict--just about okay .

Two stars out of five .

 

[Tactical Frog]

Waterloo movie's main achievement is the fact that it manages to win a bit of sympathy for the loser of the battle of Waterloo , Napolean Bonaparte . Inspite of him being a megalomaniac who invaded large parts of Europe , you do feel for the great man as he nears the end of his illustrious career as warrior .

No comment on this part

I have yet to watch a convincing interpretation of Napoleon on screen. Is Rod Steiger good in that movie ?

As for Napoleonic wars movies, only interesting one I watched was Ridley Scott’s «Duellists ». A must see, rarely mentioned in Scott’s impressive filmography.

 

[ashdoc]

No comment on this part

I have yet to watch a convincing interpretation of Napoleon on screen. Is Rod Steiger good in that movie ?

As for Napoleonic wars movies, only interesting one I watched was Ridley Scott’s «Duellists ». A must see, rarely mentioned in Scott’s impressive filmography.

yeah he is good enough..........

 

[A chauhan]

The movie seems to have been made with India's current image as rape / lust/ sexploitation capital of the world in mind , and the shameless attempt of the film makers is to bolster that image in the eyes of the world in order to get awards . Foreigners who see the film will come out of the theatre with horrifying image of Indian men as rapists and sex addicts who shamelessly lust for even married women and openly ask their husbands to send their wives to them . Shakti Kapoor the eternal rapist of bollywood has been specially roped in to play role of sex predator , something that he is past master of playing . However , embarrassed by his atrocious role his daughter actress Shraddha Kapoor has forced him to disassociate himself from the film's publicity . But the damage to India's image has already been done . The liberal / communist lobby which backs making of these films openly encourages this self hate .

True ! that's why I don't watch bollywood dramas......

 

[dhananjay1]

No comment on this part

I have yet to watch a convincing interpretation of Napoleon on screen. Is Rod Steiger good in that movie ?

As for Napoleonic wars movies, only interesting one I watched was Ridley Scott’s «Duellists ». A must see, rarely mentioned in Scott’s impressive filmography.

Generally, Anglos don't like Napoleon. So it's pointless to expect anything other than stereotypes from them.

 

[Razor]

Bhouri ( 2016 )

Bhouri ( Masha Paur ) is a beautiful 23 year old girl newly married to a 55 year old man in a rural part of India . The reason for the marriage is superstition . Her earlier 3 fiances have died due to various causes and in these rural parts she is considered as bringing bad luck , so she is has to marry a 55 year old man called Dhanua ( Raghubir Yadav ) who is the only one willing to accept her as wife . He is a labourer .

But Bhouri is so beautiful that all the men in the village begin to lust for her . The chaudhary ( headman---played by Mohan Joshi ) , the shopkeeper Baniya ( Manoj Joshi ) the labour contractor ( Mukesh Tiwari ) ,the corrupt priest ( Sitaram Panchal ) , and even the doctor ( Shakti Kapoor ) of the village---all openly lust for her . They openly and brazenly ask her husband to send her to them for sex in return for money . When he back answers them , he is thrashed . The whole village has this kind of atmosphere of sex addiction . Chaudhary has sex with a married village woman because she is poor and needs his money . Doctor gives free treatment to families in the village if their women agree to have sex with him . Only the police officer ( Aditya Pancholi ) is honest and brings to book any criminals . Two men who are chaudhary's brothers rape a girl and the police officer brings them to book by hanging them upside down and beating them . An older woman kaki ( Kunika ) tries to protect Bhouri and her husband from the sexual advances of the fivesome of baniya and chaudhary and doctor and priest and labour contractor .

Soon Bhouri's reputation of bringing bad luck to her partners seems to affect her husband too . He begins to cough violently . The doctor falsely accuses him of being HIV positive , so that he will be kicked out from the village and he can get his hands on Bhouri . But Bhouri begins to work as labourer in place of her husband and rejects all the lustful advances of predators .

One day a handsome young film maker from the city comes to film the lives of these people . But Bhouri finally loses her control and gets attracted to him and has a night of wild passion with him . The villagers who have unsuccessfully lusted for Bhouri beat the young film maker out of sheer jealousy and drive him out of the village . Her husband too forsakes her , for she is in love with the film maker .

But the film maker does not return and Bhouri who is left alone has to give in to the lust of the villagers to satisfy her monetary needs . Soon all the village men are having repeated sex with Bhouri . But many of the begin to die out and doctor's daughter who has sex with one of them is diagnosed HIV positive . Tests are done on the villagers and most of them are now HIV positive . But Bhouri's husband who was ironically falsely accused of being HIV positive turns out to be HIV negative .

So who has been spreading AIDS in the village ? In the end we find out that the film maker was HIV positive and Bhauri contracted the disease from him . And the villagers became HIV positive because of their unbridled and unprincipled lust for her . Nature has it's own ways of taking revenge for injustice....

The movie seems to have been made with India's current image as rape / lust/ sexploitation capital of the world in mind , and the shameless attempt of the film makers is to bolster that image in the eyes of the world in order to get awards . Foreigners who see the film will come out of the theatre with horrifying image of Indian men as rapists and sex addicts who shamelessly lust for even married women and openly ask their husbands to send their wives to them . Shakti Kapoor the eternal rapist of bollywood has been specially roped in to play role of sex predator , something that he is past master of playing . However , embarrassed by his atrocious role his daughter actress Shraddha Kapoor has forced him to disassociate himself from the film's publicity . But the damage to India's image has already been done . The liberal / communist lobby which backs making of these films openly encourages this self hate .

Photography is good and so is background music . Acting is good by most , if acting loudly as sex mad predators is your cup of tea . Masha Paur looks really good as Bhouri . But I was appalled by the open and brazen sex madness shown in the village .

Verdict--just about okay .

Two stars out of five .

Never heard of this movie before and it doesn't even seem to have a story...

Forget foreigners even us city folks in the south may think this is what happens in northern villages...

 

[Razor]

Ok, I watched it yesterday, I missed the first 10 minutes of the movie since I was late, now review, music 6/10, story 5/10, entertainment 7.5/10, direction 6/10, special effects 6.5/10 I liked the movie but you can see it's an average movie in my opinion, overall 6.2/10 means it's good if you watch it but if you don't you won't miss it.... Thor : Ragnarok was better...

Watched both; as far as Hollywood standards go they were both good one time watches with a bit of Comedy sprinkled in.
And yeah Thor was better..

 

[A chauhan]

Watched both; as far as Hollywood standards go they were both good one time watches with a bit of Comedy sprinkled in.
And yeah Thor was better..

Yeah they were good, and I enjoyed them as well, yet I cut marks of Justice League as i felt that the fight scenes were typical, I was expecting something new from them, yet some scenes were spectacular. One more thing I took my mom to watch it with me and she said she liked it

 

[ashdoc]

Never heard of this movie before and it doesn't even seem to have a story...

Forget foreigners even us city folks in the south may think this is what happens in northern villages...

http://www.nettv4u.com/movie-review/hindi/bhouri

Above link gives review of the movie Bhouri by a typical liberal reviewer .

 

[dhananjay1]

http://www.nettv4u.com/movie-review/hindi/bhouri

Above link gives review of the movie Bhouri by a typical liberal reviewer .

It's nothing new though. "Art movies" are doing same shit since decades. Mirch Masala (1987) has similar theme. Evil upper caste patriarchy practicing Hindus oppressing poor wimmin.

 

[Wisemarko]

Watch "Hornet's Nest" award winning war documentary with actual firefights with Taliban.

 

[thejoy93]

Nothing goes wrong with M. Night Shyamalan film, try watching Split. You will love the story and cast.

 

[ashdoc]

Godfather part 3

Saw this movie on netflix . On seeing this movie my reaction was---why didn't the whole Corleone saga end with the end of the first Godfather movie ? At least that showed an uplifting ending with Michael becoming the next Godfather . The next two movies have a depressing hang about them with Michael's wife Kay leaving him in part two and he being forced to kill his own brother Fredo in the same part , leaving Michael increasingly lonely .

The third part completes the tragedy , with Michael dying alone on a wheelchair grieving for the lovely daughter who was the apple of his eye but was killed in another mafia war . Yeah I know these are mafiosi and therefore criminals and actually deserve to die dog's deaths , but after seeing three back to back movies I was getting kinda sentimentally attached to the family of the great Don

So the movie begins with Michael trying to legitimise his empire , something that he had promised to his wife in the first part . But his health is increasingly failing while his son refuses to join the family business , a smart decision because anyone joining the family business has a big chance of getting killed .

In order to legitimise , Michael offers to buy out the Vatican's stake in a real estate company called Immobiliare . The deal would make him a powerful man . In a meeting the other Dons ask Michael for their share in the deal , but he does not want them to get involved as he is in a bid to legitimise himself . So he gives them money from another legitimate deal .But he does not give anything to Joey Zasa , a Don who has already been at loggerheads with Michael's nephew Vincent ; Vincent is illegitimate son of Michael's older brother Sonny . Zasa walks out of the meeting in a huff and attacks the meeting in an armed helicopter , killing most of the assembled Dons .

But Michael escapes only to suffer a diabetic stroke . Vincent takes revenge by killing Zasa . On recovering Michael shows that he may be weak in body but not in mind ; he tells Vincent that it is not Zasa who was the real enemy because Zasa lacked the firepower for such an audacious attack . Michael goes to his ancestors' homeland Sicily to find out who was backing Zasa . He soon discovers an elaborate plan to swindle him on the Immobiliare deal by a group of Dons whose leader is Don Lucchesi and second in command Don Altobello .

His plans to legitimise himself thus roadblocked and himself losing all his friends , Micheal is brought to a crossroads of life . He meets the man who is going to be the next Pope in order to get a breakthrough on the Immobiliare deal , and is forced by the father to confess his sins including murdering his own brother .

In all this saga , only Vincent and his sister Connie are loyal to him , and Michael decides to retire and anoints Vincent as the new Don / Godfather . But the enemy Dons have an elaborate plan ready to kill Micheal---a deadly assassin who never misses his mark .

A further complication is that his own innocent daughter is in love with Vincent . Michael forbids this relationship not only because she is in love with her own cousin but also does not want his daughter to live a dangerous life as a Don's wife , for Vincent will be in constant danger as a mafiosi .

All this comes to head at the performance his son Antony is going to give in a theatre . The assassin is coming to kill Michael brushing aside all the elaborate security arrangements of Vincent , and at the same time his own daughter is going to confront him because she is too much in love with Vincent .

But the Michael/Vincent/Connie trio have both inherited the genes of the original Godfather , and they manage to kill many of their enemies before the enemies can strike . The new Pope has ratified the Immobiliare deal too , before he himself was killed . In fact it would have been a perfect ending except for a complication---a woman in love , Michael's daughter who else . She barges to confront Michael over his non acceptance of her love for Vincent at the same time the assassin hired by his enemies fires a bullet to kill Michael....the assassin is killed by Vincent , thus sealing Michael's triumph over his enemies . But the triumph has come at terrible price , for the assassin's bullet has killed Michael's precious daughter....

So we learn two lessons from the whole Corleone saga---

one -- that crime never pays . This was something we were supposed to learn in school , but the whole saga of the family and the associated deaths dins it more firmly into our heads like nothing else can .

second -- whatever any Don or Godfather thinks about women as immaterial is not true , and women are important . For in the end Michael dies in grief for a woman , his own daughter . Sophia Coppolla who is director Francis Ford Coppolla's own daughter , has brought an innocent charm to her role as Michael Corleone's daughter . After the climax scene I sat almost in tears of sadness because of her death and the death of the great Don and for the end of the Godfather series....no more enemies to encounter and no more stories to see . Of course , there would be other crime movies , but none would have the grandeur of the Godfather .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Operation daybreak ( 1975 )

1942---the heyday of nazi occupation of Europe . Hitler's right hand man Reinhard Heydrich is appointed as the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia ( modern day Czech republic ) and he quickly unleashes a reign of terror there , giving orders for murder of countless innocents . To stop him , the British parachute three Czechoslavs with orders to assassinate Heydrich . The Royal air force drops two of them in the wrong position 200 km away from their intended target .

The two are questioned by a german patrol and have to kill the germans . But they are helped by czechs who bribe a german driver to take the two to a doctor because one of them is wounded slightly . To the surprise of the two , the doctor first questions them and then unites them with the third member of the group . The mission is on and they prepare plans to kill Heydrich while hiding in a church along with the Czech underground resistance .

The members of the Czech resistance do not agree with the idea of killing Heydrich because the nazis would take terrible revenge by killing scores of innocent Czechs . But for the three sent from Britain , orders are orders . However the first chance to kill Heydrich is lost as another oncoming train blocks their sight just when they are going to shoot him from afar while he is travelling in a train to Berlin .

But they use the resistance members to track Heydrich's movements and find out that he regularly uses a route for reconnoitering the countryside and slows down at a particular turning point . Two members of the group plan to kill him there . They are Sergeant Jan Kubiš ( played by Timothy Bottoms ) and Sergeant Jozef Gabčík ( played by Anthony Andrews ) . The third ( Sergeant Karel Curda---played by Martin Shaw ) goes to meet his wife and child and stays there .

As Heydrich's car slows down one of the two tries to kill him upfront by sten gun but his gun jams . As he flees , Heydrich's bodyguard chases him and leaves his master unprotected . The other lobs a grenade from the other direction fatally wounding Heydrich . The two then meet in the church and members of the resistance then ask them to flee as the avenging germans are after their blood . The two decide to wait for the third member ( Curda ) to come back .

But Curda who is living with his wife gets terrified after he hears about the german massacre and destruction of the village of Lidice as revenge for Heydrich's murder . He fears for his wife and child and thinks that they would get killed too in the german orgy of revenge . He actually goes to the germans and rats out on his comrades in return for safety of his family !!

As the germans surround the church and begin to kill , the extended climax is full of pathos . Of the twosome realising to their chagrin that the comrade they waited for has actually betrayed them . Of the resistance group putting a fierce fight to the death killing many germans . At last gas is pumped into the hiding room of the two and still they hold out . Finally they are attempted to be drowned by pumping water until they are forced to shoot themselves .

The movie has decent photography , but it is the musical score that excels . The background music truly is scintillating and is rich with emotion . The nazi era is properly recreated complete with nazi salutes and uniforms and brutality . Acting and action is good but it is in emotion that the film really scores . The men find time to form dalliances with women and the grief of the women on their death is hard to watch , especially because it is a true story . Yes the movie is based on real events and what happened to each character during or after the war is told at the end . As expected , the war takes the lives of most . But the destroyed village of Lidice was rebuilt after the war , a testament to the triumph of justice .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Love games ( 2016 )

Love games is another thriller with bold sexual content from the stable of producer Mahesh Bhatt---called Vishesh films . The film centres around three pained individuals with a scarred past . All are rich with no need for striving to earn money , which gives them plenty of time to ruminate over their past and liven up their future playing love games ( what else )....

It begins with the murder by Ramona Raichand ( played by Patralekha ) of her abusive husband . Even in her childhood she has been sexually abused by her uncle . This has turned her into a woman who just has sex for pleasure with both men and women , but who does not understand love .

Her obsession for sex is Sameer Saxena ( played by Gaurav Arora ) also called Sam . He too has been scarred by his mother running away from his father with another man in his childhood . He too does not believe in love due to this . Ramona invites him for threesomes including another girl . But Sam gets bored of threesomes .

Seeing his boredom Ramona invites him to play love games , a game in which they try to have sex with the people they meet in parties....and the one who gets to be in bed first is the winner . This is as hedonistic as it gets and should be called sex games frankly . Added to this debauchery is intake of drugs . But when Sam wins by using various devious tricks Ramona pulls a gun and fires at him repeatedly though missing him . She is at least exceptionally hot tempered if not a psycho .

Sam is also a bit crazy , deliberately hurting himself by cutting his hands using sharp knives to forget the past of his mother running away . His psychiatrist asks him to find true love in order to escape from this .

And true love comes , with the entry of the third pained individual---Alisha Asthana ( Tara Alisha Berry ) , whose husband is suspicious of her loyalty and physically abuses her . Ramona asks Sam to play love games with Alisha , but Alisha who is a doctor shows Sam her patients---people who suffer real physical pain . And he realises how shallow his pain was . Life then takes a u turn for Sam and he becomes the person who Alisha runs to every time her husband beats her . And the inevitable happens---they fall in love .

But Ramona who desires Sam physically cannot bring herself to let him go to another woman completely , and she forces him to be with both women on pain of revealing about the romance to Alisha's husband . But sex games have turned into pure love for Sam and he wants to break free from Ramona's hold . And dreams of freeing Alisha from her husband's clutches .

So how does the much in love couple of Alisha and Sam manage to find togetherness after extricating themselves of their erstwhile partners ? Watch the movie for that .

The movie is worth watching for the red hot kissing and uninhibited smooching scenes that adorn it at regular intervals . The atmosphere is as modern and westernised as it gets . And the air is heady with sexual liberation and narcotics . The movie moves at a fast pace with quick twists and turns in the story . Only towards the climax does it falter . But people remember a novel's beginning and a movie's ending....and with the movie's ending being not so great you come out with only a okayish impression of the film .

Photography is good , colours are flashy , and clothes worn by the protagonists are dazzling . Background music is superb and songs are worth hearing again and again . The women look good as they should in such a movie and wear revealing clothes . Acting by everyone is decent . But why a hero ( Gaurav Arora ) who looks like cheapo from the streets ? Couldn't they find someone more presentable as male lead ?

Verdict---okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

 

[salute]

Love games ( 2016 )

Love games is another thriller with bold sexual content from the stable of producer Mahesh Bhatt---called Vishesh films . The film centres around three pained individuals with a scarred past . All are rich with no need for striving to earn money , which gives them plenty of time to ruminate over their past and liven up their future playing love games ( what else )....

It begins with the murder by Ramona Raichand ( played by Patralekha ) of her abusive husband . Even in her childhood she has been sexually abused by her uncle . This has turned her into a woman who just has sex for pleasure with both men and women , but who does not understand love .

Her obsession for sex is Sameer Saxena ( played by Gaurav Arora ) also called Sam . He too has been scarred by his mother running away from his father with another man in his childhood . He too does not believe in love due to this . Ramona invites him for threesomes including another girl . But Sam gets bored of threesomes .

Seeing his boredom Ramona invites him to play love games , a game in which they try to have sex with the people they meet in parties....and the one who gets to be in bed first is the winner . This is as hedonistic as it gets and should be called sex games frankly . Added to this debauchery is intake of drugs . But when Sam wins by using various devious tricks Ramona pulls a gun and fires at him repeatedly though missing him . She is at least exceptionally hot tempered if not a psycho .

Sam is also a bit crazy , deliberately hurting himself by cutting his hands using sharp knives to forget the past of his mother running away . His psychiatrist asks him to find true love in order to escape from this .

And true love comes , with the entry of the third pained individual---Alisha Asthana ( Tara Alisha Berry ) , whose husband is suspicious of her loyalty and physically abuses her . Ramona asks Sam to play love games with Alisha , but Alisha who is a doctor shows Sam her patients---people who suffer real physical pain . And he realises how shallow his pain was . Life then takes a u turn for Sam and he becomes the person who Alisha runs to every time her husband beats her . And the inevitable happens---they fall in love .

But Ramona who desires Sam physically cannot bring herself to let him go to another woman completely , and she forces him to be with both women on pain of revealing about the romance to Alisha's husband . But sex games have turned into pure love for Sam and he wants to break free from Ramona's hold . And dreams of freeing Alisha from her husband's clutches .

So how does the much in love couple of Alisha and Sam manage to find togetherness after extricating themselves of their erstwhile partners ? Watch the movie for that .

The movie is worth watching for the red hot kissing and uninhibited smooching scenes that adorn it at regular intervals . The atmosphere is as modern and westernised as it gets . And the air is heady with sexual liberation and narcotics . The movie moves at a fast pace with quick twists and turns in the story . Only towards the climax does it falter . But people remember a novel's beginning and a movie's ending....and with the movie's ending being not so great you come out with only a okayish impression of the film .

Photography is good , colours are flashy , and clothes worn by the protagonists are dazzling . Background music is superb and songs are worth hearing again and again . The women look good as they should in such a movie and wear revealing clothes . Acting by everyone is decent . But why a hero ( Gaurav Arora ) who looks like cheapo from the streets ? Couldn't they find someone more presentable as male lead ?

Verdict---okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

mahesh bhatt that means it must be copied from some hollywood or some other foreign movies .

 

[ashdoc]

.......................................................................

Saw this movie on netflix . It is in the Czech language and has english subtitles .

Joseph Goebbels , who was Hitler's propaganda minister during the nazi regime had an unusual choice of woman as mistress . She was a Czech and therefore from the slav race , a race that was decried by nazi propaganda as subhuman . But she was beautiful enough for Goebbels to make an exception in her case for falling in love . The movie is based on her account of the affair , and at the end of the movie she frankly admits to having edited her version of the story to present herself in a favourable light as she tells about it to a journalist in her old age . The journalist herself is a daughter of a person who perished in the holocaust .

The name of the mistress was Lída Baarova , and she was an actress . Her mother was the one whose ambition was to make her daughter an actress . Before the nazis showed their true colours , Lida was attracted to the much bigger German film industry and went to act there . She is played by Slovak actress Tatiana Pauhofova . Here her beauty attracted the biggest star of the german film industry---Gustav Frohlich ( played by german actor Gedeon Burkhard ) , and soon they were in a live in relationship . His wife was a hungarian jew and she had already left him to go back to Hungary due to fear of the nazis . And nazi storm troopers could already be seen attacking jewish establishments in Germany . The second world war was yet to be started .

But as fate would have it , their neighbour was Goebbels ( played by Austrian actor Karl Markovics ) . And soon he was inviting her to parties and propositioning her . And fights broke out between Lida and Gustav over his ignoring her due to his acting commitments and his refusal to divorce his wife for Lida . After such a fight Lida went over to Goebbels .

In the movie as she recounts the story to the reporter , Lida claims that even Hitler was attracted to her and invited her to accept german citizenship and said that she reminded him of someone he was in love with once . And like true patriot , she refused his offer of citizenship .

But Goebbels had tremendous power over the german film industry , and Lida agreed to become his mistress to obviously boost her career . Her paycheck and the budget of her films miraculously went up after this . Soon she was in bed with Goebbels , the only love making scene in the movie .

The americans came to know of her fame , and invited her to Hollywood . The american producer clearly warned her that she was playing with fire by being in a relationship with a nazi , and she was forced to choose between the two film industries . But Goebbels warned her that if she chose hollywood then her fate would be like the german actress Marlene Dietrich and she would have to forever forget a place in the german film industry just like Marlene had after going to Hollywood . So she chose the more controversial and dangerous path of remaining his mistress .

At this point in recounting , the reporter has an argument with the old Lida as to how could she date such a monster . The obvious answer is that like countless women have been , she was attracted to the man's power . This inspite of he being a short man with a limp due his injured leg .

His wife is jealous but at first proposes that they have an adjustment where Goebbels would remain her husband while he could enjoy Lida in bed , but soon complains to Hitler . She is abandoned by Goebbels under Hitler's pressure and events have overtaken everything . The germans have invaded Czechoslovakia . She is helped in her escape back to Czech capital Prague by a german admirer who asks only to stroke her breasts as prize , and she is soon back to the beautiful house she has built for her parents .

But she and her sister ( who is a regional actress ) are hated by their countrymen for colluding with the enemy , and at the end of the war there is a terrible price to pay . Lida is put on trial by the newly installed communist government and is almost sent to the gallows . Her sister commits suicide due to humiliation , and her mother dies of heart attack induced by harassment by the authorities . Her father loses a leg in trying to save her but succeeds .

Afterwards she played a part in many movies , but the stigma of having been a nazi's mistress remained . But she lived a long life inspite of having a habit of smoking nonstop ; she is shown forever smoking in the movie .

It is only while escaping from Germany that she is shown confronting the full horrors of nazi rule and she lives in her own blissful world before that . Can this be true ? Obviously not . Probably she was too addicted to money and power and fame to care about right or wrong , and remained Goebbel's mistress even though she knew what was happening . Such hypocrites abound in the film industry and my country's film industry ( Bollywood ) has many such people . But she was not involved in the regime's horrors and we will have to give her benefit of doubt .

Acting is decent by everyone and photography colours and music is decent too . The film is watchable if you like films showcasing earlier eras .

Verdict---Okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

 

[Tactical Frog]

I remember watching this some years ago . Super movie from Iran.

 

[Bornubus]

Atomic Blonde

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[ashdoc]

Vivien Leigh plays Scarlet O'Hara , the daughter of a cotton plantation owner in southern United states . They have black slaves on the plantation , but the movie shows them to be treated more like servants than slaves and they fuss over Scarlet . But at the time of the beginning of the movie itself , their whole world is on the verge of collapse . The northerners have declared war on the south to free the slaves and history tells us that the south was defeated .

But the southerners are full of martial spirit and scoff on anyone who tells them about the superiority of the northerners ( yankees they are called ) over the south in terms of resources . One such person is Rhett Butler ( played by Clark Gable ) , some kind of freelance warrior and philanderer who visits prostitutes .

In typically filmy fashion , Rhett falls in love with Scarlet at first sight . But Scarlet loves another man who rejects her and she marries a boy to spite the person she loves . Soon she is a widow as her husband is killed in action . Similar is the fate of the whole southern armies as the yankees invade Atlanta in Georgia and bring fire and destruction with them . Scarlet who is in Atlanta is helped to escape to Georgia by Rhett , but arrives on her plantation to find her mother dead and her father gone crazy due to the destruction of everything near and dear to him ; yes the plantation has been destroyed .

But Scarlet is determined to survive and stands like rock commanding everyone to help rebuild everything . She grows up from a young girl being fussed over by everyone to be a strong lady...and Rhett Butler does occasionally drop by because he still loves her . But he refuses to financially help her and Scarlet marries second time to an older person to get his money . But he is killed too and Scarlet finally accepts Rhett's proposal .

They have a daughter and but she dies too . And Scarlett continues to love the man she loved from the start . His wife is kind and understands , but she is dies too , asking Scarlet to look after her husband . Rhett realises that it is time a reunion of Scarlet with her man and decides to move out .

But the man says he loved only his wife and too late Scarlett realises that she was so mistaken in rejecting the love of Rhett , but he is gone . She decides to go back to her place of strength---her plantation , from where she will again make a move to regain her lost husband . Not a loser or sissy is our heroine....

And I found myself sympathising with Scarlet O'Hara , the woman who knew no fear and fought like tigress among all the vicissitudes of fortune . And among all these vicissitudes , these southerners yearn for their past . The past where there were huge plantations of which they were their owners and had black slaves and grew cotton . Of grand parties on those plantations . All of which has been swept away by the tidal wave of history....gone with the wind !!

The movie shows the black slaves loyally co operating with the southern ( confederate ) forces and talking of licking the yankees , a fact that I found incredible . The yankees were coming to liberate them weren't they ? And no scene of blacks being ill treated or being unhappy at their position . In the world of Margaret Mitchell ( the novelist who wrote the novel on which the movie is based ) the blacks are satisfied with their position in the existing order and indeed co operate with preserving it . No hint of revolt . A conversation says that the whites treated their black slaves well . Sounds unreal and full of blissful ignorance at best and neglect of the situation on the ground at worst .

I would have been more happy to see Scarlet and Rhett reunited at the end , and was disappointed to see him go . Yet I liked the movie . Colours photography and music is good and Vivien Leigh has put her heart and soul in her acting . Much appreciated by me and of course much loved by the public which made the movie such a huge hit .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .