Slovenka (Slovenian Girl / A Call Girl) (2009)

             Slovenka is a story of an ambitious girl who starts facing the wrath of the world and does her best to manage the situation around her. The movie is slow, intense, barren and gives a sense of normalcy in between. The movie doesn’t have much as a story but a lot as intensity of the lead character, her relationship with her father and her determination and confidence in herself. Throughout the movie the camera has literally followed the lead character, she is never out of frame and that’s why she leaves an imprint on viewer. It is more about situation and conditions than moral judgment. The quest of a girl and her deep desire to make it more in her life is unquestionable and make you think without actually disturbing you great deal.

Aleksandra is a beautiful, innocent looking and ambitious Slovenian girl. She is a student of English language and works as a prostitute under the name Slovenka for European diplomat as Slovenia is presiding European union. She has bought an apartment by taking loan from bank and is under debt. She is a child of divorced parent and frequently visits her father in a small town.

One evening when she was supposed to serve for a German diplomat, the person gets a heart attack and dies while she calls to hotel authorities for an ambulance. She quietly takes away after collecting money from his wallet. The death of German diplomat becomes a news and national tabloid all over and police start looking for the prostitute who called for ambulance for more information.

She manipulates and avoids her lover who divorces his wife to marry Aleksandra. She also successfully manipulates her professor to pass the exam as well as the bank staff to extend time for paying debt. Things get vicious when two pimps forces her to work for them and apply tricks to subdue her in their trap however she ran away from them and seek the assistance of her lover whom she was plainly ignoring earlier. Incidentally her lover come to know about her real profession when ‘the pimps’ make a threat call on her cell which he picks.

She still manages to work as a call girl even there is a certain fear of pimps’ duo. At one instance she comes across the friend of her father as her client. She ran away but the friend of her dad chases and psychologically forces (or virtually blackmails) her to have sex with him and later deny paying her.

She ultimately has to sell her flat and move on with her life with her dad as the only person she cares about.

The movie has represented the complications in the girl’s life as something which potentially could discourage or break her but every time she seems more determined and confident. The police and the pimps searching for her, the incident where the friend of her father manipulates her, these all tends to fall heavy on viewer’s psyche.

The movie is quite watchable more for the lead character; the actress has played it great with proper justice.

Cast –

Nina Ivanisin - Aleksandra/Shasha/Slovenka

Peter Museuski - Edo (Aleksandra’s father).

Other Links -

On imdb

On Wikipedia

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In the end the story of our life is not our life, it is the 'story'.

Modern Times (1936)

‘Modern Times’ is one of the masterpiece by Charles Chaplin. It is a movie of great importance as this particular movie was the last silent movie presented by Charles Chaplin and In this movie for the very first time Chaplin’s voice could be heard near the end. 

The movie is in itself a composite structure, On social platform it deals with unemployment, heavy work load, The era of great depression, strike and riots and more but in typical Charles Chaplin style. The movie is hilarious at different stances. All in all Charles Chaplin is able to successfully narrate a complex story consisting serious issue with his immaculate art of comic depiction of a honest and innocent person. The end of the movie is not conclusive but pleasurably hopeful.

Charles Chaplin plays the role of a tramp who due to heavy work load and strict working circumstances bears a nervous breakdown creating havoc in the industry. After getting medicated he being normal, was caught waving a red flag accidentally and pushed in the jail for being a communist leader. In jail under the influence of drugs and in bizarre ways he foils a jailbreak by few inmates, by this act he wins trust of authorities and is subsequently released. On the other hand a young gamin loses her father and runs away from the authorities. She crashes into Chaplin while running after stealing a bread loaf. To save her he takes the blame of stealing but police come to know about reality soon. After that, through multiple sequences they plan to live together.

 Charlie try to get a job but couldn’t instead he again get into jail, meanwhile the girl successfully get a job of dancing girl, After her recommendation he was placed as a trial waiter and singer. There is a sequence of bizarre incidents, still he manage to get a steady job after a commendable singing performance. As everything look perfect the detectives caught the girl as she was absconding and somehow they both manage to flee out of detective’s clutches. In the last frame he gives her hope and they are seen walking away from us buoyed and hopeful.

Though the plot seems little serious, It was throughout light and comic thanks to Charles Chaplin’s gift of comic timing and superb expression. This very movie make you think about all the social issues without getting grim or even serious. Perhaps that is what Chaplin believed in. In ‘Modern Times ’ one can sense the idea which was more boldly to come in ‘The great Dictator’.


All in all This is a must watch movie due to it’s concern for social issue, due to excellent comic timing, due to Charles Chaplin’s reluctance toward modern times and above all due to the Charles Chaplin himself.

Cast

            Charles Chaplin ... A factory worker (as Charlie Chaplin)

              Paulette Goddard ... A gamin

             Henry Bergman ... Cafe proprietor

             Tiny Sandford ... Big Bill (as Stanley Sandford)

             Chester Conklin ... Mechanic

             Hank Mann ... Burglar

            Stanley Blystone ... Gamin's father

           Al Ernest Garcia ... President of the Electro Steel Corp. (as Allan Garcia)

            Richard Alexander ... Cellmate (as Dick Alexander)

Other links 



 On imdb 
 On Wikipedia 

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In the end the story of our life is not our life, it is the 'story'.