Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

Adam_S · 03-16-2008, 12:48 AM

The Music Room - 4 of 10
#208 - 35mm - 3/15/08

The cinematography and direction are gorgeous, the performances are good and the art direction is excellent. The music... well if you really love non-western music this is for you, it's more intense (and more of it) than Yellow Earth even. the diagetic music was simply very overpowering in almost every scene it was featured in (about 60% of the film). Some of the underscoring was quite beautiful though, same type of music, just not as aggressive. ultimately it's fairly boring and more than a little tedious though.

An old man hears music wafting across the hills while lounging on the roof of his mansion. When he discovers that it's the sacred thread ceremony of a crass new-rich fellow it launches him on a long reminescence (which isn't apparent until the reminescence is over an hour and fifteen minutes later) that begins with his own son's sacred thread ceremony, and how his lavish spending there, and in particular on the music for the ceremony started his proud family's slide into bankruptcy. He is too proud to borrow money from the crass new-rich fellow (a usurer) so he slowly sells off his wife jewelry to fund his lavish lifestyle. Eventually his wife and son go on a trip to see his wife's dying father (or mother I can't remember), and the crass new-rich fellow decides to hold a house warming party and invites the old man. The old man decides to put the crass new-rich fellow in his place and claims to holding his own party on the same day, and naturally this forces the crass new-rich fellow to cancel to avoid offending the old man. the old man summons his wife and child and spends more of his ever decreasing wealth on a celebration culminating in a concert in his music room. They are due to return on a houseboat, but there is a storm on the day of their return and both are killed. how sad. The man sinks into a depression and becomes a recluse, end reminescence.

The crass new-rich fellow comes by to invite the old man personally to the opening of his new music room, with the best musicians in india. The old man refuses and the crass new-rich fellow mocks and attempts to humiliate the old man. Hearing the concert waft over the hills the old man decides to have the same musicians at the reopening of his own music room the next night and spends all his money on them to once again put the crass new-rich fellow in his place. then the lights go out in the music room and on the old man's life.

This was a double feature with Charulata, I'd intended to stay, but this film dragged on for so long (theoretically it's 100 minutes) I didn't think I could sit through a second one that was even longer, even though the story sounds much more interesting. Plus I'd missed my workout and skipping the second film let me get one in before the gym closed.

03-16-2008, 12:48 AM	#3579 of 3711
Adam_S *Adam_S* Member Location: Marina del Rey, CA Join Date: Feb 2001 Local Time: 12:18 AM Local Date: 08-30-2008 Posts: 5,008	Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club The Music Room - 4 of 10 #208 - 35mm - 3/15/08 The cinematography and direction are gorgeous, the performances are good and the art direction is excellent. The music... well if you really love non-western music this is for you, it's more intense (and more of it) than Yellow Earth even. the diagetic music was simply very overpowering in almost every scene it was featured in (about 60% of the film). Some of the underscoring was quite beautiful though, same type of music, just not as aggressive. ultimately it's fairly boring and more than a little tedious though. An old man hears music wafting across the hills while lounging on the roof of his mansion. When he discovers that it's the sacred thread ceremony of a crass new-rich fellow it launches him on a long reminescence (which isn't apparent until the reminescence is over an hour and fifteen minutes later) that begins with his own son's sacred thread ceremony, and how his lavish spending there, and in particular on the music for the ceremony started his proud family's slide into bankruptcy. He is too proud to borrow money from the crass new-rich fellow (a usurer) so he slowly sells off his wife jewelry to fund his lavish lifestyle. Eventually his wife and son go on a trip to see his wife's dying father (or mother I can't remember), and the crass new-rich fellow decides to hold a house warming party and invites the old man. The old man decides to put the crass new-rich fellow in his place and claims to holding his own party on the same day, and naturally this forces the crass new-rich fellow to cancel to avoid offending the old man. the old man summons his wife and child and spends more of his ever decreasing wealth on a celebration culminating in a concert in his music room. They are due to return on a houseboat, but there is a storm on the day of their return and both are killed. how sad. The man sinks into a depression and becomes a recluse, end reminescence. The crass new-rich fellow comes by to invite the old man personally to the opening of his new music room, with the best musicians in india. The old man refuses and the crass new-rich fellow mocks and attempts to humiliate the old man. Hearing the concert waft over the hills the old man decides to have the same musicians at the reopening of his own music room the next night and spends all his money on them to once again put the crass new-rich fellow in his place. then the lights go out in the music room and on the old man's life. This was a double feature with Charulata, I'd intended to stay, but this film dragged on for so long (theoretically it's 100 minutes) I didn't think I could sit through a second one that was even longer, even though the story sounds much more interesting. Plus I'd missed my workout and skipping the second film let me get one in before the gym closed. top 20 films 2008 film list My DVDs; S&S List 62...212 AFI lists: - DONE! Last edited by Adam_S : 03-16-2008 at 01:06 AM.