The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 04:09 PM PST

DEC 1 — European football's two biggest and best games this weekend take place tonight, with Bayern Munich hosting Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga and then Atletico travelling to the Bernabeu for the Spanish La Liga season's first Madrid derby.

Both games have the potential to be real thrillers and they can certainly exert a profound impact upon the title races in their respective leagues.

Bayern have made a spectacular start to the season and are currently 10 points clear at the top of the table as they look to end Borussia's consecutive run of title triumphs.

A couple of months ago I wrote in this column that Bayern were looking like the strongest team in Europe, and not much has happened since then to alter that opinion.

True, they stumbled in the Champions League with a surprise 3-1 defeat at unfancied Belorussian side BATE, but that seems to have been a one-off bad night and they've recovered well since.

The thing I like about Bayern is that they possess a great balance between defence and attack, with the endlessly reliable Bastian Schweinsteiger continuing to play a vital link role in the centre of midfield.

Thomas Muller and the "Super Marios" Gomez and Mandzukic provide plenty of goalscoring options and they ooze creativity with Toni Kroos, Xherdan Shaqiri and Franck Ribery all top-class performers — even though Arjen Robben has endured a poor season so far. In short: an extremely good team.

If Bayern are the best team in Europe, then Dortmund aren't far behind. They produced one of the most impressive performances I've seen so far this season with their dismantling of Real Madrid in the Champions League in October — a game that could easily have ended up with a far bigger winning margin for the Germans than the eventual 2-1 scoreline.

Dortmund are another team in the true sense of the word, striking a perfect balance between the attacking and defensive aspects of their game.

Classy central defender Mats Hummels has looked excellent every time I've seen him, and Lukasz Piszczek is surely one of the best right backs currently playing. Further upfield, Sebastian Kehl performs the same link role as Schweinsteiger for Bayern, allowing livewires Marco Reus and Mario Gotze to play with freedom in creating opportunities for main striker Robert Lewandowski.

This weekend's game is an absolute must-win for Dortmund, who have suffered a few surprisingly under-par outings on the domestic scene — perhaps distracted by their European campaign — and are currently 11 points behind Bayern.

It's a game that could go either way and, with both teams always focussed on attacking intentions, it should present a demonstration of football at its finest.

The Madrid derby could also be an absolute cracker. Real come into the game with manager Jose Mourinho under considerable pressure following last weekend's 1-0 defeat at Real Betis, which saw his team fall 11 points behind league leaders Barcelona.

Yesterday, the Spanish sports newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that Mourinho will probably be sacked if Real lose tonight and, although that particular publication is heavily biased towards Barcelona (and therefore heavily biased against anything that Mourinho says or does), it provides a good indication of how much pressure the Portuguese boss is facing.

Atletico, on the other hand, are absolutely flying after a brilliant start to the season that has exceeded all expectations and propelled them into second place, just three points behind Barcelona and a full eight points ahead of their cross city rivals Real.

Their star performer is the Colombian international striker Radamel Falcao, who has scored 11 league goals so far this season and is attracting the attention of Manchester City and Chelsea, both of whom may well be prepared to meet the €60 million (RM237 million) buy-out clause in the striker's contract when the transfer window opens in January.

Falcao is a hugely admirable performer. He works tirelessly for the team, never (or rarely) complains about the kickings that he routinely receives from opposition defenders and is constantly alive to any opportunities that might appear inside the penalty area — and he's also good enough to take those chances when they come along.

But they are far more than just a one-man team, and again I have to return to that word "balance": they know when to defend and when to attack, and carry out both sides of the game with absolute efficiency.

Manager Diego Simeone, the former Argentina international midfielder, has fashioned a team in his image: hard-working, relentless and physical. If you can remember Simeone as a player, imagine 11 of him and you'll have a pretty good idea of how Atletico play.

And that is intended as a big compliment because in addition to the "hard man" image, which was admittedly well deserved, Simeone also played with a high level of technical ability — you don't win more than 100 caps for Argentina without being a very decent footballer.

Real have been excellent at home this season — their troubles have come on their travels — but there's an unavoidable atmosphere of tension and mutual mistrust around the Bernabeu at the moment: the fans don't trust the manager, who doesn't trust the players, who don't trust each other.

Despite romping to the league title in a magnificently clinical fashion last year, Los Blancos have barely played well all season and right now they seem to be teetering on the brink of a major breakdown — and Simeone's intense Atletico are the perfect team to pounce on any weaknesses.

If that happens, maybe El Mundo Deportivo will get their way, after all.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Lonesome, but not forgotten

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 03:55 PM PST

DEC 1 — It's a great time to be alive if you're movie crazy like me. Just like how VHS and DVD brought a whole host of previously out of circulation movies back into the public consciousness, the rise of the Blu-ray format is already looking like an even more exciting time.

While VHS and DVD definitely did not lack in terms of the quantity of titles, the sheer amount of storage space that the technological advancement of Blu-ray offers (50GB compared to a DVD's mere 4.7GB) means that in terms of the ability to store the highest possible definition and fidelity with regards to picture and sound, Blu-ray is quite simply miles ahead of its competition. Heads, shoulders and even feet above, if I may say so.

While Blu-ray is clearly the best format to view such titles as "Transformers" or "The Avengers", not many people realise how gorgeous old films can look on Blu-ray as well, even the silent ones. If you don't believe me, just pop the region-free Blu-ray of F.W. Murnau's 1930 film "City Girl" into your player and weep at how crystal clear and beautiful the images are, restored from a near-pristine print.

The past few years have seen a host of iconic silent films released on Blu-ray, from Charlie Chaplin classics like "Modern Times" to Buster Keaton's "The General", D.W. Griffith's "The Birth Of A Nation", Sergei Eisenstein's "The Battleship Potemkin", Murnau's "Sunrise" and all the way to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and more.

If releases of established classics like these are expected whenever a new home video format comes around, the advent of a new format also promises a fair fresh new (re)discoveries. Some of these rediscoveries may turn out to be a bit overpraised, nothing more than a case of film geeks trying to champion relatively obscure directors not yet established in the film canon, like the big fuss made last year around the Blu-ray release of Jean Epstein's 1923 film "Coeur Fidele".

From a technical point of view, it really is a beautiful Blu-ray movie image-wise, as the print used was almost spotless, but as a narrative film it didn't really do that much for me emotionally. And since it's a silent film about forbidden love, what use is it if it doesn't cut it in terms of emotions, right?

But sometimes a rediscovery can be so unexpected, so special and so beautiful that one just can't help but sing its praises. And with "Lonesome", a 1928 film by almost forgotten director Paul Fejos, recently released on Blu-ray and DVD by The Criterion Collection (with his two other Universal Studios films, "The Last Performance" and "Broadway" added as bonus features), we film fans everywhere can finally see the film in its full glory after only getting to read or hear about it from the sporadic screenings it got since the premiere of its restoration at the Telluride Film Festival in 1994.

Made at Universal Studios in 1928 with total creative freedom (because Carl Laemmle Jr, son of Universal head Carl Laemmle was a big fan of Fejos' independently-produced debut film "The Last Moment", now sadly lost), the film tells a supremely simple story of two lonely people from New York City, Jim and Mary, who meet in Coney Island on a Saturday afternoon during a carnival, playfully flirt and chase each other, only to lose each other afterwards in the aftermath of an unfortunate incident and a storm.

If the story sounds simple, it's because it really is that simple, as it was actually adapted from a short story that the studio bought for US$25 (RM77). The genius and beauty of the film is in the execution, with Fejos employing all sorts of visual tricks from multiple superimpositions, combining documentary-like "city symphony"-type footage with the Russians' famous rapid montage, playfully roving camera movements that recall Murnau and Jeans Rouch and Epstein and even hand-painted colour sequences that will remind you of Melies and lots more. There's nothing that Fejos wouldn't try, and for some reason, it all works in the film.

Because it's 1928 and talking pictures have become popular that year, the studio forced Fejos to add in three dialogue scenes into what's undoubtedly a silent film in spirit and form. Film critics have always complained how these three awfully earnest scenes with clunky dialogue almost ruin the film, and I have to admit that they're almost right. But even these three scenes (clocking in at about six minutes out of the film's 69 minutes) fail to negate the movie's splendour and the wonder you'll feel when you watch this achingly lovely little film.

If not for the many errands I had to run after I watched it for the first time, I would have immediately watched the film again just to experience that joy and happiness once more. This is one previously mythical film that deserves that status, talking scenes or not.

And I'd like to wholeheartedly thank The Criterion Collection for making this film available in the best home video format possible for we film fans to experience again and again, and share it with our friends and family. Give it a shot, guys!

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 1 Disember 2012

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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