In the name of justice

I was going through the update page on IMDB, when I encountered this piece of news. Read on-
"Chinese Movie Pirate Sentenced to Life
In what may be the stiffest penalty yet for movie piracy, a man in China was sentenced to life imprisonment for reportedly operating the country's biggest bootleg DVD ring. The state-operated Xinhua news agency said that the man, Lin Yuehua, and 11 associates were convicted of producing 30 million bootleg DVDs and VCDs in an unnamed foreign country and smuggling them into China between 2002 and 2005. They were said to be worth $23.9 million. "

Another report- "BEIJING - China sentenced a man to life in jail on Thursday for running what state media called the country's biggest ever pirate film disc smuggling ring.
A court in southern Guangxi region convicted Lin Yuehua and 11 gang members of buying five production units to make DVDs and VCDs, setting them up in a foreign country and smuggling over 30 million bootleg discs into China from 2002 to 2005, the Xinhua news agency reported Lin's pirate smuggling business was the "largest one which has been so far uncovered in China," Xinhua said. The bootleg discs were worth about 188 million yuan ($23.9 million), the court said, according to Xinhua. Lin's accomplices received jail sentences of two to 15 years. The report did not name the foreign country where Lin based his bootlegging. The Guangxi region borders on Vietnam. The court verdict came at a time when the United States and European Union are pressuring China to crack down on pirate copiers of films, music, software and other kind of intellectual property. US copyright industry companies claim bootleggers cost them US$2.6 billion in sales in China last year. But on Chinese streets, pirate DVDs can cost as little as US$1, much cheaper than legitimate copies sold in wealthy countries.
Washington has left open the door to taking China to the World Trade Organisation, the Geneva-based world trade watchdog, to demand stricter criminal prosecution of counterfeiters.
Much of China's smuggled trade in counterfeits is out of the country rather than into it.
In 2005, United States customs made 8,000 seizures of pirated goods valued at US$93 million, and this year customs had made more than 14,000 seizures valued at over $156 million, and China was by far the largest source of the fakes, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said in Beijing last week. Brussels said earlier in the month that faked goods cost the European Union about 500 billion euros (US$644 billion) a year, and two thirds of fakes seized coming into Europe were from China. "
I can understand the need for the authorities to show a strong stance, but a life sentence? Does this sound like justice? Interestingly, you will be hard pressed to find a newspaper which will protest this man's incarceration. A rapist or a murderer sometimes gets off in two years or less, and a bootlegger gets life imprisonment? Interestingly, a recent scientific and statistical study came out which disproved the claims of the Studios that they were losing out on so much money and proved their numbers to be highly exaggerated.

R.I.P.

The last two days have been sad. Today specially so. Philippe Noiret, the legendary french actor passed away. He has been a national phenomenon, and has acted in many memorable films. His portrayal of Pablo Neruda in Il Postino was awesome to saw the least. Philippe Noiret is an actor specially close to my heart because his role of Alfredo in Cinema Paradiso will be etched in my mind till the day I die. Goodbye sir, you will be always there in our hearts.

P.S- Herge, the creator of Tintin felt that Philippe Noiret was his only personal choice for Captain Haddock if a live action film of Tintin had ever been made.




Robert Altman passed away two days ago too. The acclaimed director of films like Nashville, Gosford Park & the ingenious M.A.S.H died while his latest film Hands On A Hard Body was under development. He will be sorely missed.

Fillum fever

As mentioned before, here are my reviews of the films I saw in this years film festival. In the order I viewed them.

The Last Days (Germany)- This was the diploma film of a German film student documenting the story of two American paratroopers who meet up with a German deserter. Pretty neat special effects for a diploma film. Otherwise, very standard Band of Brothers style execution. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Metamorphosis(Russia)-This adaptation of Kafka's story was quite impressive, primarily due to the very tangible peformance of the lead actor. The clear lack of dialogue makes the acting more important, cause its primarily through action that you get to feel the emotions of the protagonists. The dream sequences dragged a little, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

The Absolute Moments(Greece)-This short film was very weird. It tells of a time in the near future presumably when people, in order to experience some strange revelation about their life( a sort of nirvana if you may) actually pay for tickets to take their time to jump off cliffs. And others pay to watch them die. Very weird film...an interesting attempt. At first I thought this was going to be the directors statement against the voyeurism that is plaguing films these days, or it will be a pro life film...but it turned out like neither. I had a distinct feeling that the director lost track towards the end. Still, a commendable effort.

The Road to Guantanamo(UK)- This docu drama er, documents the incidents involving the infamous Tipton three. First and foremost, I had not been very impressed with Winterbottom's works, specially when he made 9 songs. Couldnt even sit through 15 minutes of that film- me! And I have even seen entire Steven Seagal films in one sitting! Nevertheless the subject matter of this project made this film one of my prime targets in this years film festival. I had to watch it. This film is intercut between the actual interviews of the real Tipton Three, and actors dramatising the incidents. The very first thing that struck me was the abrupt start of the film. The no nonsense start of the film was a clear indication of the mood. The music was claustrophobic and had no intention of letting the audience out of its grip. What followed in the next 95 minutes was quite visceral. A very commendable film. A must watch if I may say so. If I felt there was anything lacking in the film, it would be the fact that I wanted to see more. Not more of this particular trio, but I wanted to see the other side...the wider political issues. But then I realized that to to do justice to those aspects would require at least an hour and a half more of screentime and that would probably have muddled the film. Very good effort Mr Winterbottom and Mr Whitecross.
P.S- Here is some inane trivia-Two of the actors (Riz Ahmed and Farhad Harun) and two of the ex-detainees were detained temporary and interrogated at the airport by the British police when they returned from the Berlinale-festival where the movie got the Silver Bear. According to BBC-news Ahmed said he was asked if he intended to make any more political films.

Through a Glass Darkly(Sweden)- Bergman's film about a family, the daughter has just recovered from some mental illness, and the father who is a writer is tempted to use his daughter's suffering as writing material. Obviously, Bergman's films can hardly be described that easily. And this film of course , in classic Bergman tradition has a lot more hiding up its sleeve. This film was part of the trilogy of films he made about religion. This film was a very intense experience, but I have to be frank- I have to see this film one more time along with the other two religious films which completes his trilogy to make complete sense of what he intended to talk about. Nevertheless, watching this was awesome. Definitely something everyone should see even if Bergman is their least favourite filmmaker. Oh and to state the obvious, Sven Nykvist's cinematography is brilliant to say the least.
Another useless trivia-This film was nominated for best screenplay and won the oscar for best Foreign language film in 1961

Sophie Scholl :Die letzten Tage(The Final Days)(Germany)- There has been a noticeable surge in German Films constantly trying to look back into their darkest days. This particular film documents the last days in the life of Sophie Scholl, who was arguably the most famous member of the White Rose - an anti Nazi resistance group. Just imagine how much courage it took to stand up and publish writings against the Nazis when they were in power during the Second World War. She was only 21. This film documents how she was caught, faced trial along with her brother and another member of her group and was sentenced to death by guillotine. The films only problem was a bad sound design and over indulgent suspense film music. But thinking back, perhaps I can understand why it was done. Hardly anyone knows about Sophie Scholl's life. Let me be the first to admit, inspite of being somewhat of a self proclaimed Second World War history nut, I came to know of her only when I got to know such a film was being made. So for the average joe, they might go in not knowing the end. Maybe that was the justification behind the music. Inspite of this aspect, the film is well made. Intensely dialogue driven, some of the dialogue seemed too brave for reality. Being a lifelong sceptic, I immediately branded them as the writer's indulgence. But when I did a little research, the real shocker came. The dialogues are all real. How? All the interrogation sessions, and the court proceedings were recorded by a stenographer. Recently in East Germany, a huge cache of documents from this time were discovered. Which made this film possible. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction. Definitely one of the better films I saw this year in the film festival. If it isnt already on your must watch list, add it on.

Well, thats all for todays post. There are more films left to review as I have only gone through two days worth. I will dedicate two more posts on reviewing the films I saw. See you soon.