Some time back, we were chatting with a young lady (who’s planning to graduate from a US Univ.) and she was citing her deep interest in pursuing a cinematography course. What impresses us the most is that, today, the millennial have at such an early stage acquired new insights and depth of knowledge in technically intricate fields which hitherto were rarely trodden before except by die-hard professionals.
However, with no training, as avid cine-goers we have our own thoughts and reflections on some of the facets of the craft of film-making that are so fascinating. In fact after six decades of being virtual movie-buffs, we feel we can easily discern a good film from an indifferent one and identify the weak links, pronto ! As we understand, even a good story has to be told well and told brilliantly, if it’s to be memorable. There are so many aspects to film-making that each is a science by itself – be it the screenplay, script writing, music and title tracks, background score, photography, editing, recording, actions shots apart from acting out scenes.
Our golden era of films belonged to the 50s to 70s when many movies were on wide canvas, grandly panoramic in scope and of a genre based on classics. Not only the films, but makers and actors became living legends ! Call it our ‘age-bias’ but the likes of Frank Capra, William Wyler and Alfred Hitchcock could never be replicated. Back home none has still to come near genius of Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Shyam Benegal, Hrishikesh Mukherji, and Basu Chatterji (to just name a few) though talented writers and makers with new styles, keep emerging over the past few decades. A great film appeals to the senses, visually aesthetic and appealing to the ears.
Sounds have played such an important part, with it’s breath-taking effect.While songs in Hollywood films were mostly reserved for musicals, the music score was an integral part of the success of Hindi and language films.
On the subject of background scores, Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ was a watershed in suspense and gore but we recommend you hear and watch some of these too. William Wyler’s epic ‘Ben-Hur’ has an unforgettably long chariot race, David Lean’s ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ has a shattering climax and then there’s ‘Gone With The Wind’ that immortal saga set on backdrop of the American Civil War, which swept the Oscars in it’s year of reckoning.
Let’s also not forget the classic westerns and their celebrated background scores in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’, ‘A Few Dollars More’ and ‘Mckenna’s Gold’ ! The edgy opening music score of ‘Bond’ films acquired cult status ! 70s cult film ‘Sholay’ and it’s menacing beats remain a corner-stone ! BR Chopra’s ‘Kanoon’ in the 60s, with no songs, was mesmerizing !
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