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Melbourne: Sun stops play. Slumdog Millionaire.
Posted by daveb on February 9th, 2009
Joining the roads in Melbourne shocked us a little bit. It’s the biggest city in Australia that we’ve been to yet (4 million people) and we were unprepared for the weight of traffic and the number of lanes it filled. Add trams trundling along and across with navigating the roads for the first time and you’ve got a heady mix headed for momentarily high blood-pressure!
Melbourne is oft quoted as being Australia’s secret city: the locals fiercely defend their claim that it’s much better than Sydney. “Sure, Sydney’s a beautiful tourist city, but I really wouldn’t want to live there… Melbourne’s a much more liveable option”, they say.
Big thanks to Mark, a family friend of Squiffy, who is hosting us slap-bang in the central suburb of Fitzroy. Rather unbrilliantly–and unexpectedly–the apartment is not fitted with air-conditioning and we’re arriving just at the commencement of the hundred year record-breaking heatwave. Melbourne is supposed to be the country’s city with the most temperate climate. It’s often said that all four seasons can be experienced in a single day and, as such, neither air-conditioning nor central-heating is usually fitted. As is becoming quite monotonous for us now, we’re arriving just as the local weatherman predicts freak heat in the mid-forties until further notice.
Instead of spending our first day meandering around the city on foot, we took refuge in the nearby cinema. The air-conditioning in two of it’s screening rooms had packed up, which fed into our criteria of what film to watch: Slumdog Millionaire.
Now I’ve watched some great movies in my time, but I can’t think that I’ve seen a more powerful film. Ever. It didn’t just move me — it rocked me sideways. Perhaps it’s because I’ve only created the opportunity to go to the pictures three times in the last eighteen months. Or, more likely, perhaps it’s because I’ve travelled through India recently and personally struggled with the dog-eat-dog mentality, every man for himself regardless of cost.
Squiffy, myself and much of the audience were totally gripped throughout: I had an almost constant lump in my throat that might have converted to tears at any given moment. Some say the movie is based on a true story. Others say the whole thing has been completely fabricated. No matter: I just thank goodness the for the light-hearted Bollywood-style choreographed-dance as the ending credits rolled, giving the audience (Squiffy and I included) five minutes to remain quietly seated, allowing our minds some much-needed time to process the events which we had just witnessed. Rarely, we both felt compelled to applaud, but equally couldn’t quite find the inner strength to be the first to break the silence. Instead and after the screen went blank, we took our broken–but somewhat mended–heads and hearts to the downstairs coffee bar to continue to sit in silence amongst the remaining cinema-going refugees.
Truly I can’t think of a better written, directed, photographed, scored and acted movie in the last decade. In a single swipe, Slumdog Millionaire has joined The Shawshank Redemption
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7 comments »
Comments
Comment from Sarah B
Time: February 9, 2009, 10:12 am
Hi Wavey,
I agree. I went to see it on Thursday and haven’t got over it yet. Truly harrowing stuff and I haven’t had the ‘uplifting’ feeling that others apparently have experienced.
You can google for the ‘Indian’ response quite easily: I did after I saw it and it’s proven controversial to say the least. Not surprising. one of my thoughts at the time was – wonder how many people at the Tourism Authority have been tempted to jump off the nearest cliff…
On a related tangent, Alex Arnold is returning to Delhi to continue her work for a slum-based charity there. She says SDM does indeed reflect real life as she’s experienced it. Anyway, I’ll be going over there for a long weekend later in the year to check it all out, and she’ll be popping over here too.
All my love xxx
Comment from Naomi C
Time: February 10, 2009, 1:12 am
I’m so pleased you two are in NZ and didn’t stick around in the Oz heat. I guess you’ve heard about the horrendous bush fires- you left at just the right time.
Hope you’re having fun x x x
Comment from daveb & Claire
Time: February 13, 2009, 4:16 am
@Sarah B: A long weekend in Delhi? A curious concept to us Brits, but entirely possible. We met a bloke in Rajasthan who had popped over from Afghanistan for the weekend!
@Naomi C: Yes, we’ve followed the news quite closely. It’s very sad and we feel quite lucky to have made the decision to leave.
Comment from Nalubega
Time: February 2, 2014, 3:59 am
Ahhh, you are making me so notaslgic and jealous!! The food in NY is amazing. I am still on a major diet from me and Lu’s 2 week adventure. Wish I was there now *sniff* stupid carrot salad for lunch, not pastrami sandwich. You HAVE to try Dizzys diner in Park Slope Brooklyn. Best Ever, followed by nice walk in Prospect park. I used to live nearby, those were the days.
Comment from Alby
Time: February 19, 2015, 12:07 am
was right on the money, Unless you have walked a mile in sonmoee else’s shoes you cannot fully understand the feelings,emotions or desperation of the people needing help. Everyone’s experiences are different and if you ever feel like the so called Fatigue is setting in, let sonmoee help you with a problem and notice how good that makes you feel and the relief it brings. Then you will know that what you do on a day to day basis to help others gives them an even greater amount of joy .and within an instant Charity Fatigue disappears and a smile appears.Keep up the good work. Ty
Comment from Edson
Time: April 5, 2015, 2:52 am
HAHAHA . thats so awesome Nick they prloabby will have internet somewhere but hopefully you will have to pay for it.. and so you wont pay for it ~ when we go on holiday we drive 14 hours up to Foster Tuncurry because my dad likes fishing .anyway we go to the library to use the internet we can get it at the resort place but you have to pay!! .so we go to the library once a week, I borrow books my parents use the internet but yeh most of the time we are out on the boat fishing so I dont really miss the internet LOL. anyway . Go for walks explore.. take photos, read books, sleep in be inspired have awesome ideas write them down and come back and tell us all about it! HAVE AN FANTASTIC AWESOME TIME NICK..see ya when you get back !
Comment from online colleges
Time: April 20, 2015, 5:28 pm
Je confirme effectivement l’intérêt de ce livre. J’ai surligné ce passage qui résume assez bien le rôle du rédacteur, évoluant dans une stratégie éditoriale préalablement définie … "Fournir du contenu Web ne se limite plus à écrire des textes mais demande plutôt de savoir compiler et assembler des contenus existant ailleurs, de les mettre en forme et de les transformer pour les besoins d’un public donné, de les articuler dans un ensemble de dispositifs utilisés par ce public, et de les inscrire dans un environnement hypermédia fertile, en ayant soin de rendre leur diffusion toujours plus rapide et fluide."
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