Not GreatFellas, but Good!

Watched GoodFellas last night. And that seems to say a lot.

One of the many good films in Martin Scorsese's repertoire, GoodFellas is a movie with class. Well, at least for the time it was made in.

A simple movie about three gangsters and their rise and fall. Really, that is all the movie is about. But as Scorsese always does, he packs so much into just the rise and fall of these three gangsters, that by the time you are done watching the movie, you are panting and trying to catch up with your elusive breath.

Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a boy from a simple family who leaves behind family, education and any semblance of his middle class neighbourhood because 'he always wanted to be a gangster'. He works his way into the Lucchese crime family and meets Jimmy, played by Robert De Niro, who takes Harry on as his protege. Along with Harry is Tommy, played by Joe Pesci, who is also being groomed by the family but without grooming his temper. Together these three, wreck havoc, pile on the money and good times as they hijack truck after truck of goodies.

Along the way Harry marries, starts a family, takes on a mistress, goes to jail, deals in drugs and inevitably deals out his own downfall. As the viewer, though the rise and fall may be predictable after a certain point in the movie, it is the various characters so cleverly etched out that hold the viewers attention. The movie definitely does not ride on the shoulders of the main character.

Technically the movie is awesome but the point I really took home were the quirks each character had. For example, Henry´s high pitched, open mouthed laugh was so irritating it stayed on long after the movie was over.
Robert De Niro´s hairstyle, Joe Pesci with his use of the word Fuck. (Trivia alert This film ranks ninth in the list of films which use the word Fuck over 250 times)

GoodFellas is a good Saturday night movie watch. Buy it, keep it in your library as part of your Scorsese collection. It is worth it.

Please, not These Women

Dear Meg Ryan,

Let me start by saying, I am a huge fan. Harry met Sally was one of the first few Hollywood films I ever watched and needless to say I was hooked. Not only by the glamorous lights, music and action but also by blond hair and blue eyes.

After that it was one rom-com after another. My friends and I would meet every week just to watch a romantic comedy and most often than not, it would be one of your films. Addicted to Love, You´ve got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, City of Angels (not  rom-com you say, have you seen Nicholas Cage in it?). And that was the start of my obsession with Chick flicks. I would make all excuses to watch one, laugh with you, cry with you and shamefacedly defend it in front of my friends. French Kiss was the door that opened doors to love affairs from another world, a more exotic one. You´ve got Mail was more with the times, for a long time I hoped to find love which would go 'Ping!'. Kate and Leopold proved that anything was possible with Love.

Now when the going was so good, The Women, really? A movie that even I cannot make excuses for. A movie which was probably made by a woman PMSing while riding a camel on crack? A movie probably made secretly by all the men who are tortured by their women to watch this genre and have secretly formed a club and made this movie only so that their girls will switch to action movies?  A movie which makes Jada Pinkett Smith look like a first timer and you like a shrieking banshee with a fetish for Medusa-ish hair? The storyline (yes, even chick flicks have them) where was it, did you lose it with your mind? Please, redeem yourself, do something and by that I do not mean Serious Moonlight.

Take a break Sally. You need it. And comb your hair.

With love

Small town, no difference

Just got back from a walk in Frankenthal. A tiny industrial city in Rhineland-Palatinate.
I set out thinking I will find something different. Even though it is a city smaller than Nürnberg, quaint, rustic, small-town sights will catch my eye. And they did. Except physically, ideologically, aesthetically they were just like Nürnberg. The same city centre, the same walking zone, the same church and the same shops and even the same bakeries with the same kind of bread!

Made me think of back home in India, where every city is different. Even though you may know the language, the food, the people, the atmosphere the culture, everything is different and frustratingly so! Where you are a stranger anywhere you go. Where it is all about discovering the city, where you have to forge your own path. But here, things are different. You are never too far away. Frustrating truth, but true.

Not just a Romantic city

A lot has been said about Heidelberg already but I have some more.

Walking through Heidelberg is like walking through a dysfunctional time machine that flings you between past and present. An old world and a swanky modern one.

On one hand the sights are breathtaking. The Schloss is really worth the trouble. Views of the Neckar and the city apart, the facade of the fortress itself is so intricate, you could easily spend a good hour, on a cold, cold bench, just taking in the statues, and unabashed Gothic carving on the facade. But on the downside, (maybe a little economics and greed to blame) most of the fortress is off limits to visitors unless they join a guided tour. The view of the Neckar and the old city from high up on the fortress makes for that mandatory photo opportunity from Heidelberg! If that is not what you are looking for, then grab a sandwich and a drink from the cafe, sit on the lawns and enjoy a meal looking down on Heidelberg. The much talked about Burgweg is really quite steep. Asthmatics, take the Burgbahn or the cable cars that take you to the top.

Once you are done with the Schloss, walk down through the Marktplatz, to the AlteBrücke, or the Old Bridge. Though the bridge, the walk down the bridge and the Brass Monkey at the beginning of the bridge are all a tourist trap, it is just nice to walk across the Neckar River and just pause midway for photographs or simply just to feel the wind in your hair.

The University square took me completely by surprise! I walked in just as classes were letting out and I was suddenly in the midst of thousands of students milling about, chattering, laughing and generally being student like all at once! That itself is a charming experience. The churches, the statues, Hauptstrasse (Europe's longest pedestrian zone), the view of the ruins from the market all form the rest of the sights worth seeing.

But it is when you are done with the checklist of sights that you really begin to enjoy Heidelberg. I had to two hours to catch my train and that's when Heidelberg showed itself to me. Each street, every lane has something that will make you stop and take it all in. The curving side streets, with cripplingly old houses with their beams exposed, all end either with a peek at the river or a view of the castle. A house which has 1936 carved above the door was right next to a swanky bistro dedicated to Andy Warhol filled with kitschy decor and free Wlan! But that's Heidelberg for you. Pretty as hell, but equally confusing. Almost as though the city does not want you to slot it in an era.

And it is not just me who thinks so. Legend has it that the Americans loved it so much they refused to bomb it during WWII. It is not just me. Go to Heidelberg and get swept away.