14th Kolkata Film Festival- Day 3
14th Kolkata Film Festival- Day 3
The third day of the Kolkata Film Festival was relatively thanda. A few of them which I saw:
1. Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)
Director: Werner Herzog
Language: German
The creation of visual metaphors had always been the signature move of Werner Herzog. I had only seen his Nosferatu before, and found it to be tepid; therefore I wasn’t really expecting anything at all from the film- Even Dwarfs Started Small had just bowled me over! It’s my favorite of the day. A rebellious group of dwarfs, restore to futile vandalism as a form of protest against the authorities, who are dwarfs too. The film effectively asserts the insignificance of our existence, and the futility of our struggle to change the ever unperturbed substance called the “system”. Herzog excels as an auteur in using the conventional weirdos of society, and penning pivotal parts for them.
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Director: Federico Fellini
Language: Italian
Fellini……my my…..I am totally in love with his movies. I mean…what a great filmmaker he is……..I know I needn’t have said that but…I can only stammer his praise. Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini is impeccable. It’s a slice of a journalist’s life, a story told in such a simple manner that it becomes so beautiful. I just can’t bring myself to write more about it….I am amazed by the way Fellini mixes avant-garde with a linear narrative, a combination, generally not in use. This film is brilliant.
Rami (2007)
Director: Babak Shirinsefat
Language: Iranian
A man’s quest for his wife and son, who got lost during the war at Iran, is an amazing tour de force by Shirinsefat. Stunning visuals-the rugged, barren, breathtakingly beautiful topography, a decent soundtrack and stunning performances, all cater to the brilliance of the film, borne out of a flawless script. Very beautiful. Loved the way they’ve used the flashbacks.
Kadachit (2007)
Director: Chandrakant Kulkarni
Language: Marathi
Barring Firaaq, Indian movies are turning out to be a big disappointment in the festival. As it is the turnout is so low, for watching a regional flick, and then two and a half hours of torture, is just not fair, for us who did turn up to discover films of other regions. Kadachit, is a forgettable story, not because it is tried and tested so many times, but because, it’s horribly made- performances (barring Sachin Khedekar and Sadashiv Amrapurkar…..they both were brilliant), the ancient background score, and an amateurish script, made the film sink (at least at the festival) without a trace. Highly disappointing.
Beware Of A Holy Whore (1971)
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Language: German
A film within a film….a premise that more or less all filmmakers experiment with. Fassbinder, chooses this as a backdrop as he wonderfully creates the trials and tribulations of a confused psyche, coming even more alive with Lou Castel’s portrayal of Jeff. The support cast is amazing, and the background music is seasoned with Elvis Presley and Charles Ray. Lovely film. Avant-garde here too.
Tags: Babak Shirinsefat, Chandrakant Kulkarni, Federico Fellini, Kolkata Film Festival, Marcello Mastroianni, Nosferatu, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
The Herzog & Fassbinder films sound good. Not very commonly heard of titles in their ouvre. La Dolce Vita is a common festival favorite.