#2: ##4: Frances Ha

I could personally relate to this story because the protagonist is just as crazy as I am, in a way. It's how a not-so-gifted dancer makes a series of bad decisions and then find a way to redeem herself but not leave dancing. I could feel the character, it's so real - the way she embarrasses herself, opens up to people and genuinely loves people she loves. She might not be my role model but has definitely something to teach me with her child like innocence and her natural optimism.



Plot:
It's genre is comedy but I don't know how. I found this more like drama but that could be just me. It's about how Frances is looking for a place to stay and experiences living with different people. She moves out of her first apartment she shares with her best friend as the best friend is moving in with her boyfriend. Then she lives with two guys, one of whom loves her truly and they act like old married couples as Frances says "We talk and we don't have sex." But because the rent is too high for her to pay and she loses an important employment opportunity at a dance company, she decides to move into another apartment with a girl who is very different from her. She moves out from there too eventually. While she is still broke, she makes a trip to Paris and turns down a decent day job only because its not about dance. She goes back to her college to find employment where she lives in a small room and works as a waiter as she is not allowed to work as a teaching assistant for dance classes. With an interesting incident, she decides to move back to NY city and take up the day job she had turned down, manages to teach dance to a few children and organize her dance show successfully and finally moves into a small apartment she rents for herself.

Here are some images that stuck with me after the movie.

I won't do the character portrayal for Frances. I urge you to experience it!

#2: ##3 The Lady Vanishes

A good thriller. As the name suggests a lady vanishes from a moving train. It is a simple story. The plot is conventional with its high points and low points. The way the mystery is built is quite engaging. All in all, a fun movie to watch if you can sit through the first 30 minutes of the movie.

Plot:
There is a young lady, Iris, travelling on a train back to Britain from another country. She get accidentally injured just before she enters the train and an old English lady offers to help her. The old lady is called Ms. Froy. She decides to be with Iris until she feels better. They are spotted together and have brief interactions with a couple of people on the train. Suddenly she disappears from the train. Iris is sure that Ms. Froy existed but not a single other person seems to recollect it.

 The story goes from the point where people are suspecting Iris to have suffered brain injury to her convincing one person who helps her eventually find Ms. Froy. In this process, they end up creating trouble for the entire train as there are a whole lot of people involved and it is a matter of international importance. They eventually help is saving Ms. Froy and also the people on the train.

For those, who love the details, here's the wiki link.

Alternate plot:
Since this story has a clear purpose, suggesting an alternate plot won't help. Although, it is possible that the movie could get to the inciting incident (when Iris realises that Froy is missing) much faster.

Characters
Iris:

She is young, beautiful and confident. She is shown to bribe the hotel manager to throw someone out of the hotel because she can't sleep because of the amount of noise the person was making. This is contrary to her behavior in the train where she goes to a great extent to make sure a stranger who helped her in safe. She can stand by what she believes in, even if she has no one by her side.

Gilbert:

He is a young musician and a teacher who is very smart. He knows how to deal with people who can hurt him. He believes what he sees and is quick to judge the situation. Although he is a smart man, he is also very kind and helpful and morally upright.

#2: ##2: The Big Night

This is one of those movies where you are taken by surprise that the movie ended already. You are pretty much in the middle of the scene when the credits appear. Much like real life when you can't put your finger to a time and place and call it a start or end. But not many people like to watch such movies, at least that's what I experienced. I like such movies. Not everything follows a  mathematical character arc. Our day to day experiences change something about us everyday without radically change us. I feel this is what the movie is about. You want to see the end to be happy or sad but it is just another day in the life of those two brothers where they have to figure out what they want to do going forward.

Plot

A dying restaurant business is run by a chef who is a genius who has come to the US to make a fortune. The genius prepares italian food for americans without adding the american touch to the dishes which makes him less popular. His younger brother runs the hotel and is really trying to save the place from dying. His last chance of revival of his business is to call a celebrity jazz musician and throw a party to make his restaurant popular. They make big plans for the night and call friends, including the one who gives him the idea of calling the musician and decides to arrange the invite on his behalf. This friend is not liked by the chef but the brother believes in him. Come the big night and the people get into a party mood - there are starters and drinks, music and dance. Everyone arrives but the musician! They begin the party and everyone seems to be having a good time. After waiting for long, everyone is served the food which is perhaps the best meal the guests have ever had. After the meal is over, the chef brother gets to know that the musician was not invited in the first place. This leads to a fight between the brothers over how the other person has ruined their chance of being a success and how America is not being friendly towards them. On confronting the well-wisher friend, the younger brother understand that this was a business move to get both the brothers to join the friend's restaurant but the brother sticks to his elder brother and refuses the offer. This leaves them to decide what they will do with no money left in their account in a foreign country!

Alternate End

Perhaps, as a consequence of the previous night, one of the other party guests enters the restaurant on the following day with a few other friends of his. 

OR

The younger brother has a moment of epiphany and learns how to advertise his restaurant for people to value what the genius chef has to offer. The stubborn chef learns to yield to the demand of the situation and agrees to work with another chef who would make fusion dishes too for their restaurant. 

Characters

The elder brother is so sincere towards his talent that he thinks changing the way he prepares food will kill his art and his god. He takes his profession for his religion but does not understand the pressures of running a business and surviving in a hostile environment of the restaurant business where adapting to the customer needs is of prime importance.

The younger brother is running the business but is too innocent to know the intentions of his so-called friends. He takes things on face value and is an average person who really can't solve critical business problems. In spite of his friend giving him various cues of improving the business, he does not seem to get the idea and just goes by what he is told. But he truly understands his brother's talent, respect what his brother has and tries to defend it at all costs. 

#2: ##1: The Apartment

Today is the first day and I did watch an entire movie in one go (with just one break and changed my place twice). To summarise, I liked the movie. It has a nice ending which makes it a feel good movie. The lows in the movie makes you heart sink but also make the highs more enjoyable and honest. Now let us get into the details.

The Plot
It is a simple story about a young man, Mr. Baxter, who allows his seniors at work to use his apartment to get in girls they are sleeping with. One such senior is involved with a girl, Fran Kublik, the young man really likes. The senior, Mr. Sheldrake is just having fun but Fran is genuinely involved with the man. Fran comes to know about Mr. Sheldrake's intentions during an office party. Later when Fran and Sheldrake meet at Baxter's apartment, after having a disappointing interaction with Sheldrake, she tries to commit suicide in the apartment. When Baxter comes into this apartment and realizes what has happened, he gets the doctor and takes the blame on himself for forcing the girl to commit suicide. Baxter insists Fran to stay back for two days in the apartment to let Fran recover. He takes care of her and in the process, Fran starts liking Baxter. At work, Sheldrake's secretary discloses his affair secret to his wife and his wife kicks him out. Now, Sheldrake wants to be with Fran and Fran has started developing interest in Baxter. Baxter continues to like Fran but decides to give up his love as he sees Sheldrake and Fran may get together again. When Sheldrake asks for Baxter's apartment key, he refuses it this time around which costs him his job. He decides to move out and begins his packing. In the meantime, Sheldrake lets Fran know that Baxter did not give the keys to him and he is fired because of his noncooperation, Fran realises that Baxter likes her too and leaves the party to join Baxter at his apartment.

Alternate Ending
The ending makes the movie more likeable. This story has a character arc of Baxter that goes from shy to courageous. And Fran's character arc from wanting to get Sheldrake to love her to abandoning him for Baxter as she realises that Baxter loves her and he is indeed a nice guy. Had these arc's not happened, an ending may have been something like Baxter ends up leaving the country. Sheldrake convinces Fran that he did leave his wife and kids for her. Fran may have been happy till the time she did see the truth for herself but by that time, she would have already lost her true love. And Baxter would get over her after going to the new city with a faint memory of her always in some corner of his heart.

Characters
There are two main characters here. Baxter and Fran. Both are not too complex. The dialogue do a fantastic job of explaining how they feel about themselves. Fran says about her broken mirror "I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel." She is a simple girl who has fallen in love with a wicked man who is taking her for a ride and she knows it and does nothing about it and continues to stay in love with him. She decides to cry over her fate and give up on her life. She knows she chooses the wrong men yet does not care to change her behaviour. She is soft in her manner though and mostly believes herself to be a victim.

And Baxter explains his failure to getting the love of his life as "That's how it crumbles - cookie wise". He had made peace with his situation. He is an extra polite person. Never says no. Is stupid enough to let his love interest continue the illusion of being loved by someone else who actually does not love her so that she won't get hurt. He does not have the heart to tell her that he loves her. And does not have the courage to stop others taking advantage of her. But eventually there is a change where he cant see her and himself suffer anymore and decides to stand up for what he believes in and end the ordeal for himself. He too gives up easily. Does not fight to get the love of his life. A very straight forward person. Does not understand some offers made to him in exchange of his apartment keys. Tries to imitate his boss without really understanding the qualities he has. Honest, sincere and naive but extremely caring and loving. That's C. C. Baxter for y'all.

Mission #2: Understanding Movies

Movies are a sure short way to keep ourselves entertained. But movies are also a great source of improving understanding of a lot of things. They are a sort of school in themselves. My next mission is going to be watching movies everyday and describing the plot or characters in a way that is not explicitly mentioned in the movie and are left for the audience to interpret or understand.

Where is this coming from? I have recently joined a creative writing class and I am exposed to a whole new way of reading books and watching movies. I suspect myself to be a dyslexic given the difficulty I face when reading anything, so I am going to stick to movies - they will get over much faster and with relative ease. Besides, I will get my daily dose of entertainment too instead of sleeping through the afternoons. Although I feel that even movies are hard work to some extent because I can't sit in one place for more than 30-45 mins if I am not actively working on something really engaging but I am going to give this a shot.

So this is what I want to do -
Watch a good movie everyday. Understand the plot or the character's designed. Write a post about my understanding of the central character, the plot and my comment on the two.

Hope this is fun for all of us.

P.S: I tried a mission before this and failed at it twice. I had to give it up and give myself some time to energize myself and look for another meaningful mission that will help me develop my creative outlook and also be a little entertaining for my audience. Thank you for coming back to this blog!