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DVD: Sylvia (2003). w/ Gwenneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig. About the life of famous American poet Sylivia Plath, the relationship with her husband, Ted Hughes, her jealousy, her depresseion, and her longing to become an acclaimed writer. Film is not a historically accurate portrayal. Depressing, sad, slow at times. Lacks the 'magic' of a good movie. Paltrows acting is good in this difficult role. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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Language: Islamism: 1.) from Merriam-Websters: the faith, doctrine, or cause of Islam. 2.) from Wikipedia: Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. It holds Islam is not only a religion, but a political system that also governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. [...] In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Islamism, along with other political movements inspired by Islam, gained increased attention in the Western media. The media often confuses the term Islamism with related terms such as Islam, fundamentalism, militant Islam, and Wahhabism. Although the groups and individuals representing these are not mutually exclusive, within academia, each term does have a distinct definition. Some Islamist groups have been implicated in terrorism and have become targets in the War on Terrorism.
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DVD: Pather Panchali (Song of the Road, 1955). Bengali w/ English subtitles. 126 min. Directed by Satyajit Ray. First part of the 'Apu Trilogy', along with 'Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1957)' and 'Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959)'. Everyday life of a poor family close to starvation. Father Hari is a dreamer and poet, while his hardworking wife struggles to feed the family. Their daughter Durgha is free-spirited and petty thief. And her younger brother Apu is watching the world with his eyes wide open. Exotic, very different cultural background is interesting to study. But slow plot. Much redundancy. Overall rating: 4 out of 10.
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DVD: A Clockwork Orange (1971). Directed by Stanley Kubrick, after a novel by Anthony Burgess; w/ Malcolm McDowell (Star Trek Generations). Members of gang in near-future Britain entertainthemselves by raping and murdering innocent victims. One of them, Alex, gets caught and imprisoned, and volunteers to subject to an experimental aversion condition method to cure him from his preverse desires by losing his ability to choose. After he is released, he becomes as defenseless as his former victims, but finds his own way to manage. Movie was initially X-rated. Plenty of sex and violence, to the point of disgust. Kubrik has built in several subtle, but deliberate inconsistencies (e.g. filling height of glasses in subsequent scenes) to generate additional confusion. Overall rating 7 out of 10. Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) did reportedly not authorize the movie, and later wrote a play based on the book. As to the title, Burgess wrote it came from an old Cockney expression "As queer [i.e. strange] as a clockwork orange", but other interpretations have also been found, including the 'mechanically responsive (clockwork) non-human (orang, Malay for "person")'. Alex is now "good" after his treatment, but his ability to choose this has been taken away from him. His "goodness" is as artificial as the clockwork orange of the title, and this might be much worse than having the freedom of choice to be 'bad'. More info about book and movie at Wikipedia.