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Rediff.com  » Movies » Review: Gravity is a MUST WATCH

Review: Gravity is a MUST WATCH

By Suparn Verma
Last updated on: October 11, 2013 14:32 IST
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Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in GravitySuparn Verma, who last directed the Bipasha Basu-starrer Aatma, reviews Gravity in a single sentence as a tribute to the greatest single take sequence in cinematic history.

We space out the review for easy reading.

Director Alfonso Cuaron’s has a remarkable filmography starting with

the Dickens adaptation of Great Expectations,

the brilliant Y Tu Mama Tambien,

the best Harry Potter film in the series,

the terrifying and thrilling Children of Men which was the last film he made six years ago

because since then he has been working on his latest film Gravity

which takes everything he has ever done

and then he not just reinvents his own oeuvre but also the very language of cinematic story telling

because as the film unfolds and if you jolt yourself out off the captivating narrative you will realise that you are 17 minutes into the film

and you have been watching a single take so brilliantly orchestrated that for a moment you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that this is the greatest choreography of

actors,

camera,

lightning,

camerawork,

VFX

all being conducted in absolute sync with the vision of the director

who had decided he wanted ‘incredibly long shots’

which he first started in his last film Children of Men

and we have seen Spielberg create superb long shots in War of the Worlds and the MOCAP animated film The Adventures of Tintin,

director Joe Wright had one such sequence in Atonement,

Russian director Alexander Sukurov made Russian Ark using a single 96- minute Steadicam sequence

and each of these scenes are remarkable achievements but they all dwarf under this incredible vision portrayed in Gravity

where Cauron used 3-D to the best effect possible creating a narrative so immersive that your jaw is open half the time wondering ‘how did he do that’

and it is not as if these are moments but the entire length of the film leaves you wonderstruck at the genius of this man and his vision so ably carried out by his brilliant team

about whom director Rian Johnson (Looper) tweeted ‘I had no idea what 80 percent of the jobs in the end credits were’

and I would urge you to wait and watch the end credits and you will see departments handling robots

and just the rigging department list is half a mile long which isn’t surprising considering the kind of immense work gone into this film

where the actors Sandra Bullock and George Clooney – please note this film only has two actors – hold your attention

along with the greatest production design created by God and replicated by Andy Nicolson and an army of VFX giants

and lit up and shot with such ingenuity by the films director of photography the genius Emmanuel Lubezki -- who I am sure has invented enough rigs and lightning  equipment which will be used over the next decade –

the other man Cauron partners with is his co-editor Mark Sanger and they create this ride after a point you just give up trying to figure out where one shot ends and when the other begins

or even bother to figure out how did they manage to do what just happened

and sit back enjoying the narrative of Sandra Bullock, a medical engineer cut lose in space and trying to make her way back to Earth with the help of astronaut Clooney,

and this is all I will tell you about the story which is best enjoyed spoiler free

in fact I would suggest don’t even watch the trailer and just go watch this film

but since it isn’t possible to do that in this day and age

luckily for us the makers have cut the trailer from the first few minutes of the film which is a blessing at a time when producers end up showcasing the whole film in two minutes flat

so armed with minimal information this Sandra Bullock starrer has the actress in prime form supporting the film in an absolutely unabashed way

because the film creates claustrophobia not just in closed spaces of her helmet or the space pod but just the sight of a human being floating in endless space with no end in sight

a blip on the screen

and the distant sound of her breathing

which gets louder and louder

as she comes closer to the camera

and you realise the way sound has been used in this film

because space has no sound

so a majority of the times all we have are the sound of the actors breathing all heard through their head gear

but every now and then the sound mixers up Steven Price’s superb score drawing you into the terrifying emotions being conveyed on screen

which if you can manage then make sure you catch the IMAX 3D experience

because some films are meant for the big screen

and Gravity is that film.

Rediff Rating: 

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Suparn Verma in Mumbai