User Reviews

Nina Paley's animated musical that combines her collapsing marriage with the tale of Sita and Rama.

The exception to the rule that flash animation really isn't the way to go for feature animation. A beautiful marriage of music and image. This is one of the most romantic movies I've seen in a while (for the most part). This is a film that has rightly gotten a great deal of press about how its music rights issues have prevented a real distribution, which everyone says is a bad thing. And it is. This is a great film that proves there can be real adult animation.

I absolutely loved the first half of this film Its just a neat little treat. The problem is that the duel structure of the film, the tale of Sita and that of Nina Paley doesn't work. Actually the part that collapses the film is the Paley portion of the film. Why does her marriage implode? We don't know. She's simply told don't come back and then she is "left in the wilderness" the problem is that we are given so little to go on it makes you wonder why the story is there. This is related to Sita how? I'll be damned if I know. It makes no sense to me and it weakens the film.

Still when this film works its gangbusters. if you love music and image and magic and stuff you have to see this film...just because its neat.

Between 7 and 8 out of 10

This actually made me pretty uncomfortable. I can tell a lot of time and energy was put into making it. But, I think it is actually a shame this is getting so much attention. I felt like the story was basically about a woman that visits India, has a bad experience in her personal life, and then decides rather arbitrarily to try and relate that to Hindu religion. Except, the connection is not as strong as she would imply-- to the point that she is literally misrepresenting Hindu religion to the Western world.

I guess it's sort of like... if someone was suggesting Christianity is a religion about baby killing because of that one Bible story about Saul, except even worse, because this utilizes an uncommon *interpretation* of a *disputed/controversial* text (that some people even believe was written with malicious intent).

The issue is, not everyone even interprets the texts she is referencing like the film presents. In fact, I am genuinely sad if this is someone's first introduction to these deities, because this is not a very common interpretation of this religious text. For example, a belief I have heard often is that Rama truly loves Sita, and he drives her to give oath by fire not because he himself ever even doubts her fidelity, but because he wants her name to be cleared and that she will be respected and accepted as queen.

For those that *accept the legitimacy of*, and even like, the controversial "last chapter" represented in this film (which contains stylistic and other differences from the rest of the text and some believe was written at a different date by a different author, possibly even with ill intentions!), where he ultimately leaves her at the ashram with the sages... generally, they liked it because the idea was more that Rama had to make a choice between the duty of a king and his own personal happiness, and ultimately gave up even what he loved most in the world - being with his true love - for duty. So, in other portrayals taken from the same text, it might be that he leaves her outside the ashram, where the sages live, but he is shown sobbing and considering death, and he is clearly devastated when he sees he cannot be with her. The context is supposed to be there, that those deities are actually soul mates. The idea that he was throwing her away because he doubted her, and continued to doubt her fidelity, is actually not what everyone necessarily even believes! (It is best to just ask people how they felt and why!)

In this way, I feel it's spreading misinformation about Hindu religion, and was not very considerate. Yes, there are ethical issues which could be discussed respectfully, but, this wasn't quite on the mark. I felt so bad for Ms. Paley about her husband. But, this husband that left her, obviously, was just a man, and not God. And he was not having to make any hard choices.

So the comparison was weak and really was not done in the best taste, either. Unfortunately, I don't think this movie was a particularly academic, particularly helpful, nor particularly respectful handling of the subject matter. It just seems more about unrelated personal feelings than anything else. The animation was lovely, though, and personally I also liked the very end because I liked the idea he would serve her and try to comfort her after such a hard life. Also, I could feel so much pain and passion in this work, and really liked a few scenes. Though overall, I'm afraid it might be seen as hurtful.

I'm really sorry about this awful husband, Ms. Paley! However, I think people perhaps should just take with a grain of salt the idea that her husband was like Lord Rama; as per my own reading and discussions with others, I expect not everyone is going to agree with that.

Sita Sings the Blues is an exercise not only in art and animation, but also in storytelling. Rather than try to take the best or most important parts of the "Ramayana" and put it all together in a linear story, Nina Paley's inventively animated piece chooses to layer all viewpoints together, giving each world ample time to present their version of events. First is the scholarly approach, wherein the story's finer details and plot elements are scrutinized by a witty cast of silhouette-like beings, with Terry Gilliam-style amalgamations of photograph and illustration acting out their words. After those segments, two different illustrated worlds are presented: the fairytale, rendered through stiff Mughal-era prints hopping stiffly through static backdrops, and a goofy cartoon musical, which brings to mind the animation of the Fleischer Brothers (Sita's saucer eyes, exaggerated curves and musical bent are reminiscent of Betty Boop), the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" and Richard Williams. Finally, there is the story of the filmmaker, Nina Paley, presented in a drab but charming scribbled newspaper comic style. The movie's structure plays fast and loose with all these styles, and somehow keeps continuity while deviating constantly, such as with the fever-dream imagery in the opening and middle of the film.

Annette Hanshaw's blues catalog, which makes up most of the movie soundtrack, compliments the surreal animation much better than one would think, and the pathos of Sita's story comes through loud and clear with Hanshaw's recording of love-and-loss blues standards, which the animation both compliments and contrasts brilliantly. Each song is allowed to play until the last note in every musical sequence, which means that her tuneful voice can be heard saying "That's all!" just as the cartoon cuts off. Such a simple phrase provides an interesting contrast to a strangely contrived, often surreal adaptation of an epic poem that is so dense, even the paper cutout shadows that serve as narrators can't come to an agreement about what really happened.

"That's all!" serves as a wry summation of the epic themes of the poem, which are both taken for granted ("Do not challenge the stories!" one narrator says, before later turning skeptical himself) and scrutinized by the film, through the framing devices of Paley's experiences, and the comical, cartoonish tone. Mainly, the film examines the supposed perfection of Rama and Sita's unconditional love, which, in the epic, is presented as pure and perfect, akin with devotion to a god (Sita, while a captive of Ravana, prays for her husband, an avatar of Vishnu, every day unceasingly). While the film doesn't completely reject this notion, the musical segments highlight Sita's emotional suffering, with the songs themselves having a running theme of being hopelessly in love, no matter how badly her lover treats her, making Rama's later treatment of Sita come off as abusive and cruel. This is a divisive interpretation of the story, since the filmmaker deliberately makes parallels between Sita's suffering and her own relationship with her all-too-mortal disinterested husband, and is openly critical of the idea of Rama being the "ideal man."

Sita's damsel-in-distress role is given agency through singing the blues, even though she is often robbed of agency in her story, being kidnapped by Ravana mainly to insult her husband by stealing his "property." Likewise, the rather abrupt conclusion to such a rambling film, could be interpreted as a feminist reading of the tale, with Sita returning to the womb of Mother Earth, ending the turbulent love affair after years of patience and fidelity. With the way Paley parallels Rama and Sita's relationship to her own rejection by her ex-husband, and her eventual growth and transformation out of grief, it doesn't seem too far-fetched that she thought this was a happier ending for Sita than being an exiled queen. This reclaiming of power is emphasized through a piece of animation at the end, which shows Vishnu (Rama) now kneeling and massaging Lakshmi (Sita)'s feet, where before the roles were reversed.

Obviously, I found this film very evocative, thought-provoking and, if unusual, than at least able to hold my attention. For art lovers, academics or just people who like experimental cinema, this film would be a "Yes" for me, but anyone who has limited patience for older styles of music, repetitive story techniques and languid pacing might have a low tolerance for this particular kind of art.

Nina Paley spent four years making the film on her own computer, and is credited the film's director, writer, producer, editor and animator. The result of her labor is a strange, confounding, colorful, daffy and sometimes hilarious imagining of the legendary Indian folk tale of "The Ramayana." In it, Ramayana (referred in this film simply as "Rama") is a blue-skinned Indian prince who dumps his wife when he suspects that she committed adultery while she was in the clutches of the creature who kidnapped her. The story is narrated by three wisecracking shadow puppets who discuss the story in an effort to orient themselves – and us – on the progress of a story that is probably far more complicated than it needs to be. Meanwhile, in another parallel story, Paley tells her own autobiographical journey of how her husband dumped her and left her with a broken heart that ultimately resulted in her creating Sita Sings the Blues. The main story, though, involves Rama being forced into exile by his father, at the request of his wicked stepmother who wastes no tears on her blue-skinned stepson. She tells him – with an Indian accent – "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." Rama is married to the beautiful Sita, and asks her not to join him in his exile, but Sita is determined that a woman's place is next to her husband. She sings the rapturous joy of being with Rama through Hanshaw's evocative jazzy tune "Here We Are" as the two lovers spent time playing hide and seek. Her joy isn't even deterred when Rama kills a group of blue demons who come out of the woods to do harm to the couple. It is the songs that evoke the most magical moments of Sita Sings the Blues. Sita (pronounced "See-tah"), who looks like a Middle Eastern version of Betty Boop, sings Hanshaw's songs with a sexy, laid-back style and always punctuates the numbers with a happy "That's all" (which was Hanshaw's trademark). All of the songs speak to the situation at hand, and every time Sita opens her mouth to sing, it brings a smile to our faces. Even when she's sad, the film's visuals still evoke a jolly tone. Paley allows the film's visual palette to compliment what is happening to Sita during these musical interludes: When she sings "Am I Blue?" she literally turns blue. When she sings "Lover Come Back to Me", it is accompanied by repeated scenes of her lover dropping her. Sita maintains her loyalty to Rama, but trouble is afoot when an evil ten-headed king named Ravana is informed by his sister Surphanaka (sporting a nasty set of fangs) that Rama has killed his prized flock of blue demons, so he plots to get revenge by kidnapping Sita. Spurring Ravana on to the idea of a kidnapping, Surphanaka describes Sita this way: "She is the most beautiful woman in the world. Her skin is fair like the lotus blossom. Her eyes are like lotus pools. Her hands are like… from… lotuses. Her breasts like… BIG… ROUND… FIRM… JUICY… LOTUSES." Ravana asks his underling to transform himself into a golden deer to distract Rama while he kidnaps Sita. Blissfully unaware of the kidnapping plot, Sita is snatched right out of her house while in the midst of singing of her devotion to Rama with "What Wouldn't I Do for that Man", a song that eventually proves prophetic. Anguished over the disappearance of his beloved Sita, Rama plots to rescue her with the help of the monkey warrior Hanuman who – if I understood correctly – was apparently created by the gods just for that purpose. Sita, meanwhile receives a threat from Ravana that if she doesn't agree to marry him, that his blue demons will cut her to ribbons. Hanuman shows up to rescue Sita while she mournfully sings "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home." It is during this number (which includes Sita's own claranet solo) that Hanuman proves to be an adept warrior as one of the blue demons sets his tail on fire and he, in turn, uses it set fire to Ravana's palace. He leaves Ravana's island and returns to tell Rama the whole story. Why Hanuman didn't just take Sita back with him is a question that the narrators debate. Rama and Hanuman amass a giant army of monkey warriors to return to Ravana's island and rescue Sita. The plan goes into effect as Sita happily sings "Who's That Knocking at My Door?" The blue demons are dispatched with ease and the ten-headed Ravana is decapitated over and over and over again. Sita is delighted to have her beloved come and rescue her, however he is thoughtless, suspicious and jealous. Rama tells her "You have lived in another man's house so you are unfit to be my wife. He cannot have kept you in his house for so long without touching you". Seeing Sita as damaged goods and cuts her loose. Sita is broken-hearted and sings of her sadness with the melancholy tune "Mean to Me". Sita Sings the Blues represents all the reasons that I love the movies. It is lively and fun, it tells a great story that is equal parts comedy, drama, romance, heartbreak, adventure, comeuppance, revenge, all mixed into a musical that is bouncy and fun. It tells a story that is universal in a way that we've never seen before, using various techniques and camera tricks to tickle us and treat us and allow us regard it with wonder. I like this movie a lot.