Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —1
My first from both directors and I thought them both very strong efforts. I’m giving the slight edge to Haynes for the tone and pacing which appeal to me more (not to mention the lead performance).
Den says:
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) —1 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —0
Cloud Capped Star 1 Safe 0
What a great film Ghatak’s is. The expressive, inventive use of sound, the love of nature, the emotional power; we feel with the heroine Nita (superb Supriya Choudhury)’s physical pain even as we admire her selflessness. Would have made a great match up with Story of the Late Chrysanthemums; the emotional force of this film is greater
Oops, this is Match 10. Please excuse the typo in the title.
It’s a Women Getting Sick double feature!
I consider Safe to be one of the biggest accomplishments to come out of the independent film boom of the 1990s: smooth, provocative, and full of disturbing ambiguities. And Julianne Moore’s performance is remarkable. With a minimum of dialogue, she establishes her character as a frightened suburban Barbie doll—as if she’s afraid that she’s not allowed to think and feel the things she thinks and feels.
The Cloud-Capped Star is an excellent discovery for anyone who thought that Indian film of the time began and ended with Satyajit Ray. It’s compelling and well-shot, full of nice flourishes in the sound design and great performances. But in the end, I find it too rooted in the “Bad Things Happen to Good People to Get a Rise Out of the Audience” subgenre for my tastes, so I have to go…
Cloud-Capped Star 0 – Safe 1
@ HoL
Typo has been fixed.
Excellent. Thanks.
wow. i’m really curious about how this match is going to go. this whole group is causing me problems. my one solace is that there will be more chances to balance out my appreciation. my one concern is that it won’t be enough.
first, i apologize for not re-watching the beautiful cloud-capped star, no time, so i’m working from a frail memory of blubbing and leaking too much to not discern the finer points vikram has mentioned…the only sound design i heard was me sobbing…this film snuck far too easily under my appraising armour and left me a snotty mess. is that good?
the haynes is an immense surprise. i’ve never seen any films from him before, so i look forward to seeing what carries through to his other films. i’ve minor quibbles about the scope of his broad allegorizing, and as i just watched it i should probably have thought about it a bit longer before voting, but there were so many things i liked about this, main one being that it was just damn gorgeous, that i’m going to again observe the spirit of discovery that’s the main point of the cup for me and go with haynes’ scenes from diseased america over ghatak’s previously discovered emotional female overture. (though it’s a tight choice, the limit of my abilities makes them just about even)
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) 0 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —1
Cloud-Capped Star 0 – Safe 1
I’m personally predicting a very easy win for Ghatak, if only because I’m hoping for him to win this whole tournament. Go Ghatak!
(even though I admire Haynes except but one film of his..)
If anyone considers Safe to be an indie film, then Cloud-Capped Star is as much indie as that “American indie” trend that’s been bugging the cinephile world for the past 20 years now. “Indie” has no borders and Ghatak knew it better than a lot back then and same goes for other "indie’ directors of the 60’s around the globe, not just the U.S. of A…
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) —1 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —0
Two films about societal influences on the health (or rather sickness) of a woman. Ritwik Ghatak’s powerful melodrama, the first part of his Refugee Trilogy, shows us a self-sacrifying young woman named Nita whose family suffers from the consequences of poverty and relocation, and regards it as self-evident that Nita sacrifices her own goods and forces her to struggle emotionally and physically until she inevitably gets sick. Her tuberculosis can at least partly be regarded as the revolt of her body/immune system against the condition she has to endure, and it indeed helps her to escape to the “safe” place in the mountains, if only to await her death. The outcry “I want to live!” is one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve seen in cinema. In Todd Haynes’ “Safe” the reasons for the female protagonist’s sickness can be found in environmental pollution and the so-called “First World”‘s irresponsible handling of toxins, just like the families of Minamata since the 1950s and more recently Fukushima she becomes a victim of her world that is dominated by economical interests and doesn’t regard health as a priority. While conventional medicine isn’t able to help her, the alternative she finds isn’t one either. She ultimately gets trapped just like Hans Castorp on the Magic Mountain, since the clinic keeps her away from further contaminant loads, but doesn’t aid to actually remove the toxins from her body, thus only sensibilizing her and making it impossible for her to return to the insecure outside world. Both Nita and Carol remain helpless victims, though Carol ultimately seems to be more willing than Nita to accept her helplessness and nearing death, maybe even accepting to fool herself while looking into the mirror and saying: “I love you!”.
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) 0 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —1
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) – 0 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) – 1
Both good films. I’m not a huge fan of Julianne Moore, but Haynes did such a great job of capturing that sense of suburban malaise and the creeping paranoia of unseen threats.
3-6 Haynes
Also, I’m curious to know which of Haynes’ films Dimitris doesn’t admire…is it I’m Not There?
@Apursansar, good comments as usual. Yeah that family expectation on Nita is such a burden, but as you say, the anguish is so intense- well i felt it that way even if some here didn’t. Her entrapment is reinforced by the shots with her behind the bars of the window (hardly an original image but effective nonetheless); her brother may have become a “star”, but she’s the hidden one of course, and behind his glory is suffering and loss. What a beautiful opening with the shots of the tree; there are some wonderful images showing Ghatak’s refinement as well as his passion. The passing train in the distance another remarkable shot, that may bring to mind Pather Panchali. Nita’s relationship with her sister is very well handled, the sort of threesome tug of love was found in another Mizoguchi film, Miss Oyu- a sort of melodrama staple, but again i think it’s done with more depth here. The sister is much more selfish here, and we feel Nita’s betrayal (given her decency i don’t think betrayal is too strong a word).
Thanks for your inputs, Apur and Kenji. I think Kenji also mentioned this in the intro thread, about the self-sacrificing nature of Nita and consequently the similarities with some of the other entries in the cup like Mizoguchi’s Crysanthemums and Griffith’s Susie (both great films in their own right). The point about the film’s regarding Nita’s predicament as self-evident, especially against the social and political backdrop of Bengal at the time is perfectly valid, though the depiction of the relationship between Nita and her brother (the singer) as a relationship between equals — she is awe of his talent as a singer, but he freely borrows money from her without embarrassment — implies that she does not regard that condition, however forced, as a predicament.
To quote Moinak Biswas:
Nita in The Cloud-Capped Star fails in her relationship with Sanat, but then the relationship is something in which she hardly participates with any enthusiasm, and it does not seem to occupy her much once Sanat’s betrayal is confirmed. On the other hand, she and her elder brother Shankar create an island of happiness and belonging in the turbulent waters of the refugee home. It is the secret sharing of a language that their relationship thrives on. They exchange poems and songs of Rabindranath Tagore, indulge in childish play, together they devise means to tackle the daily humiliation of the artist and the dreamer.
The unbridled joy that Nita shares with her brother leads me to regard the story more as a critical examination of the beliefs of the family (and as a result, of the Indian society of it’s time) which feels compelled to view Nita as an object of pity and neglect because she is unsuccessful in her romantic relationship. Even if we do, for the sake of argument, accept the notion that the woman’s greatest role is to be a mother, hasn’t she already been a better mother to Shankar (her brother) than his real mother? Which is why the use of harsh, expressionistic sounds in the finale, as the camera observes nature’s indifference is key as it is an expression of anger over this pettiness and injustice and not merely meant to tug at our heartstrings, though the dramatic strengths of the story mean the latter is achieved anyways.
Cloud-Capped Star 0 – Safe 1
I really don’t want to get into a heated argument like I did in the Jancso vs Verhoeven thread for if this were to happen again, it would be with two masterpieces I hold very dear to me as in the other thread. I’ll just say that my only “smirk” with Haynes is Far From Heaven by a loooong shot! (yeah, I’m a bit of a Sirk fanboy here)
My favourite from Haynes must be the most hated of his work around here though: Poison
Yes Nita is both willing and loving (indeed maternal) in supporting her brother, but the family expectations are generally less noble. Harsh expressionistic sounds- the cracking of a whip is pretty fierce and it gets very tempestuous. And yes it’s a political film too, not a sop to the audience. A pity melodramas or apparently melodramatic plots are often met with suspicion or misgivings when in the right hands they can go beyond cliché to reveal a lot about the human condition. It feels as if by the end Nita almost takes on a mythical aura, beyond the individual, to the pain of a national split.
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) —1 vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —0
Ghatak’s film is my favorite I’ve seen for the first time in the cup so far.
The Cloud Capped Star – 1 vs. Safe – 0
The Cloud Capped Star 1 vs Safe 0
6-7 Haynes
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) vs Todd Haynes (Safe) —1
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) 1 – Todd Haynes (Safe) 0
This is another very close match for me. The former I think told an overall stronger narrative. The latter told a good narrative as well, but it has more negatives against it.
I like in Safe the way her fear of her illness causes her to retreat from her life and adopt a cult-like aversion to anything she can’t control. It might have been successful for her to manage her illness by gradually increasing the amount of ‘Toxins’ she is exposed to and building up her resistance until she could handle the hazards of normal living. Instead she goes so far in the other direction that she can no longer even distinguish the real symptoms from the psychosomatic. I also wondered about how the role of the stress of maintaining the front of suburban ‘normalness’ contributed to her disease. It represented to me the temptation for people to hide from the stresses of living, rather than learn to cope with them.
Certain aspects of the film came off as a little forced to me, which is why I’m voting against it.
The Cloud-Capped Star (0) – Safe (1)
Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star): 1 —vs— Todd Haynes (Safe): 0
I love both films, but…… I’ll vote for the film that troubled me the most…..
Safe 1 v Cloud Capped Star 0
I have just been diagnosed with Health Anxiety Disorder and this film represents my ultimate nightmare. That said it portrays the feeling of anxiety and alienation I have had spot on. This is a very personal choice maybe more than any I will make for this cup. The idea that one can live in a perfect world and then have this eden smashed by something uncontrollable that lies within yourself is a terrifying but real thought. This might make no sense, but for someone who has been there it is very real indeed. This film is more than a modern horror story as people like to describe it. This film documents an internal battle between the body and mind. Very rarely has a film depicted a mental health issue with such honesty and brutality and this should be applauded. A Cloud Capped Star is a very good film, but does not hit the raw nerve endings like Safe does. Regardless Ghatak desreves to go far in this competition, and I will look forward to the round 2 pick.
10—8 Haynes
House of Leaves
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Ritwik Ghatak (The Cloud-Capped Star) vs Todd Haynes (Safe)
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