3rd Bangalore International Film Festival
3rd Bangalore International Film Festival
16-22 Jan 2009
BIFFES’09 is on, in full swing. This was day two for me, quite a nice and varied collection, nice retrospectives(Resnais, Kim Ki Duk, Kaurismaki, Dan Wolman), Homages(Chahine, Ichikawa, Vijay Tendulkar), Jewels from the archives, Cinema of the World, Country Focus(Italy, Norway, Poland), Summer 2007(no this is no category. You guessed it right ‘That film is in the festival!’. So I thought it deserves a mention) and Documentaries.
BLIND MAN’S BLUFF/A CAIXA(1994)
Portuguese
Dir: Manoel de Oliveira
Saw this in a broken down old theatre, and it couldn’t get any better. Oliveira, over 100 yrs old, is the oldest filmmaker in the world. So I was presumably expecting something ‘old’. The film was anything but that. The film explores the society, through all possible eyes. So many characters living close-walled lives, fighting cribbing loving beating shouting playing selling. The lives as in this falling neighbourhood atmosphere are saturated enough, everything is on a downfall, for some there are hardly any moments of laughter, for some its loneliness stretched over days and weeks and months, for some, it is the perpetual rejection of a better life, for some it is the dearth and indignation that reigns supreme in their enemies. However, the crux motif is an old beggar’s BOX, hidden with coins and presumably the beans of existence of this colony.
The film stunned me with its frames. The frames were fixed though but the people were not, there was life in all its forms, a former music teacher playing his pitch to perfection in an empty pub, a quarrelling no-do-gooders, good-for-nothings in the neighbourhood, the sloping houses, the old bastards, the young hags. A broad portrait for all things real and all things suggestively human. Social rejects and the representatives of the society who reject them in the open but do approve of their indispensable ugliness. The individual stories might present varying flavours but the community as a whole entity survives and breathes nonetheless.
What a master handling of the actors, the stories, and the blind faith on the very craft of handling faces in a frame, handling lights and sounds, simply classic stuff. The music begins and refuses to fade. And you wish it just goes on, through the afternoon. The first long sequence done entirely in a small room, the camera just gazes numbly in the faces all around, as they talk, about matters trivial and sundry. It might be one senseless talk or many such ones, you might not approve of the practices, but these are their lives. And they are living with it.
Favourite sequence, the street fight and the onlooking community neighbourhood members while someone is stills selling roasted chestnuts.
THE CHORUS/LES CHORISTES(2004)
France
Dir: Christopher Barratier
Something about French films, whenever you are in doubt over French and something else, watch something else once. I went for this one expecting lots of 400 Blows and music. So it was in a sense fulfilling on those grounds. The tale of an aging World-class music conductor, and how he looks back at what made him the man he became – the lost era of his Rock Bottom days, a school of the same name, for not-so-normal kids, their mischief ridden days, pranks galore, Principal, teachers, influences, circles. In all this, a new music teacher arrives. Sounds quite clich'©d, ain’t it? Well, i won’t call it path-breaking or anything, because that is not. However, I will remember this for some time because few films have that ability to hop so rigorously between sucking and not sucking. And this was a similar case. At times, I would find it too soppy and linear, and at times the mostly inane music supervisor’s antics would bring the film up. So you can expect some clich'©s that do make you feel elevated, or some shit like that. You will still give in. I did.
You will think of many films, I thought of 400 blows, dead poet’s society, school of rock, and some Kusturica films when the music would fade in. Lots of humour, mostly intentional. Some intentional and brilliant. Lovely visuals. You don’t see a dark and authoritative school here, you see something in spite of its harsh goings-on inside those thick castle-walls, could go in a postcard.
The film took my confusion away at the conclusion, and I walked out all frenched, in a not the very obvious meaning of the phrase.
Nostalgia is not always sweet. Sometimes it is bittersweet. Action & Reaction.
Just some lines/motifs from the film that stayed with me.
Do watch French films, I mean contemporary ones, they often come with surprises.
TIED HANDS(2006)
Israel
Dir: Dan Wolman
This one was a choice between a film from Israel and Time from Kim Ki Duk(Time). The latter not being that hard to procure, went for the Israeli film.
Quite a nice piece of filmmaking from Wolman, the quest of a mother to ‘find’ life for her badly sick son, mostly suggesting a terminal disease, of body and of mind. Life here implies ‘grass’, a socially acceptable name for weed, Marijuana for the aesthetic, or ‘drugs’ for the uninitiated. So the mother goes to the darker suburbs, the shady alleys of the town searching shit for her son, she meets his former friends, drug hustlers, prostitutes, taxi drivers, the works. The film, much attributed to the low-budget feel, has thriller stuff going on in places, in other times it is a disturbing personal account of the troubled characters, mostly depressed and visibly doomed for life.
This one comes in the ‘important’ cinema category. Because the themes it touches (drug addiction, loneliness, damaged relationships, effeminate art-inclined protagonist (son), terminal disease) will appeal irrespective of how cinematically rich or not the film is. I would say Tied Hands was not a great film, but a damn important and well-intentioned and well-approached film.
In the post discussion, the director further spoke about his life as a student in New York of the sixties, his own experience with some of the themes in the film, some of his own thoughts and experiences on the same, and also some of his other films, showing currently in the festival.
BREATH(2007)
South Korea
Dir: Ki-Duk Kim
Have to hand it over to Ki-Duk for always winning me over with his personal tales of simple lives, entwined in daily inanities of life, troubled relationships, overlapping priorities, the never ending ballet of life.
Breath explored pain of being cheated in a relationship, and what one does in such circumstances, it might border on the extremes, it might not, it might all blow up the world around, and yet it might all disappear in an air of forgiveness and confessional coincidences.
Lots of fantastical film elements and motifs, close-ups, faces that go from sadness to hysteria and surprise in their own natural way, at their own natural course, the almost lack of dialogs, a reality TV narrative, master handling of the ‘human body’ and how it is captured in a film, the prison inmates and all that conspires behind the bars, BREATH is a slow contemporary poem, on film.
I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND(2007)
Czech Republic
Dir: Jiri Menzel
True find of the festival so far. Jiri Menzel. Making films for last 40 years. Where was he! Why didn’t I hear about him? Why didn’t he hear about me? The award list for this film runs pages long, the build-up euphoric and the title, we don’t often get to hear things like that. Sid, while writing on BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, said the next time the waiter is gonna ask what will you have sir, I know what to say. Well, this one is for the waiter to reply, Sid.
I can’t get over the film, this is one of those ‘it changed my life’ films, and to see it in the last show in a film festival is only a multiplied delight. Politics. Personal. Humour. Biopic. Flashback. All this and more, I served the king of England traces the story of Jan Dite as he waits tables, introspects on life, follows the footsteps of his accidental mentor and role-model, trudges along his secret fantasies, religiously declares and reminds himself over his ultimate dream, being a millionaire that is. The tone is humour, VO, sequences that catch your attention, and lines that make you go wtf at more places than once.
The idiotic audience response notwithstanding(it was a full house and the film touched upon Hitler, Nazi stuff, political humour, sex, so you can imagine), the film reigned supreme, and that happen in the very first scenes. Opulence in all its glory, we enter the pervert and ever-dreamy head of Dite, as he dreams and dreams and finds his life being constantly confronted with strange and happy coincidences(mostly implies landing in the bed with objects of his and everyone’s desires). The voice over is to die for, the colours, the grandeur, the context, the references, the smartass humour all makes this one pure essential and classic stuff.
CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA (2009)
Hindi/Bollywood/Bakwaas/Masala/errm/errm/errm
Dir: Nikhil Advani
OK so this film was not screened in the festival, it was running at the same theatre though. So I thought why deprive it of its dangerously possible fate. In any case, you wouldn’t give a shit about me writing a full-length review (I had even thought of the title – CC2C c if u wnt 2 c bt dnt go all intlctl on its ass) on it telling you how and why it is important and good enough and not that bad and all that. So ya, arguments notwithstanding, Chandni Chowk to China IS great fun.
Today was another occasion when I realized what over-exposure can do to films. I saw this in a reasonably pro-masala place, and all I could hear all around while going in was “ya I know it’s a ‘one and a half’ stars film”. It is one thing to be updated on the world around, and another to update the world around you. I am not sad at the trend, but sad for the films. I had a similar observation last year when I called Tashan, The end of Masala as we know it, because it is all so evident, when every little aspect of a masala film goes under the scanner, why or how would it survive. And I am not saying…ok cut the crap.
The film is a broadly mounted fun fest right from the dhamaakedaar titles in Chandni Chowk to Rohan Sippy flourishes(‘ye kele ka chhilka kisne phenka’ right in the middle of the lavishly done title song, alu mein Ganeshji, Chura ke dil mera sequence, the whole Chinese-translated-digitally thing and a hilarious out of nowhere Chinese TV shopping ad for some equally crazy gazettes, ‘what they generally say in such situations wagarah wagarah’), to a rocking Akshay, walking tightrope between so many challenges. For all these and more, Chandni Chowk to China is an enjoyable ride, one and a half stars can go to China.
Always loved the film’s music, and Sidhu and Chak Lein De stood out. I imagined it would be used to some good use, but was surprised with what actually happened. Can hardly think of any other film(there are hardly any made lately, thanks to one and a half stars) lately having relied so heavily on two similar textured songs to carry the whole film. Chak lein de is the training song. But this is no sadass g***d maaro Kill Bill training or we put Bruce Lee to shame Kungfu Panda trip. This is Akshay Kumar, and he knows it better than what you can imagine(check his preparation for the training induction). And the trainer here also couldn’t get any better, he speaks hindi and scores his student with surprising disgust and element of surprise almost all the time. Then Sidhu. Both the songs have some awesome lines, that only become better on watching the film.
Hai nahi teer talwaar nahi goli, tu khud hai teri fauj teri toli…
Taaron ko pakad lein de, tej dhaaro ko jakad lein de
Bade bade sapne dekhe bade bade, bada na kuchh bhi karna pade..
Pal mein banna bada chaahta hai, pa sa ni dha ni dha ma ga ma pa…
This is no Lost in Translation, but the story is the same. Well, in some points at least. Shridhar Raghavan writes the film with lots of goofiness, clich'©s and scope for music. We often analyse the use of songs a little too much lately. In terms of oh it was simply stuffed in the film. There was no room for it in the script. What I fail to understand however is what are we gonna do with films that work in that very format? Beats me. Anyways(I love Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Tashan and Drona, so that ends it right there).
Coming back to the songs, the title song works great fun in the remix version. Tere Naina starts in the sky, as the lead pair fly over the skyline of Beijing(I assume, I am entitled to). India se aaya mera dost was not done well at all(why not ude Mithun Da in the film when you can! Why limit him to a boring dada from UP-Bihar kinda role), but the chura ke dil mera sequence which follows makes up for it.
Akshay Kumar plays himself to the tee, and the film successfully goes from comedy to action to a pleasantly stereotypical big screen fest all thanks to him.
So many things could be done better – the Delhi connection, the female angles, the sidekick(Ranvir finds himself uncomfortable in such films and it shows, an unknown face would have done wonders here, the only thing going for Ranvir here was a cool unexplored deception angle and a supercool name-CHOPSTICK!), there was definitely scope for one more hit song. Loved the action and all the flying all around. Loved the final fight, the treatment of the element of revenge(babuji ki maut ka badla loonga wo bhi China mein Lun Sheng ke statue ke saamne) doesn’t spoil the goofy fun the film is.
A wears its heart on its sleeve boisterous masala feast. The genre is Akshay Kumar. Ebertji, let us meet over beer.
“yaar it was not bad, can be seen once, errm, errm”, overheard on the way out.
Oops. I just realized CC2C got more words than the other films in the festival. Dubaara nahi hoga sarkaar. Sorry.
Looking forward to these films in the coming days(no badmaashi this time) in BIFFES’09:
Reprise
Three Monkeys
The Match Factory Girl
Rupantor
Special Thanks for the film reccos:
Sulakshana Biswas, PFC
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
I have seen ‘Aki Kaurism'¤ki’two films at Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) last week,
*These Boots(5 min)
*Ariel(73 min)
I liked it a lot, especially ‘Ariel’.
Must see.
The Srilankan movie MACHAN is also worth a mention i guess…. hilarious yet realistic…
Hi Tushar,
I am also following the Bangalore 3rd International Film Festival very closely and would like to catch up with you for some healthy filmi discussions. Let me know if you are free sometime and we can catch up.
–Sourav
Hey Tushar,
I served the kind of scotland is still the best movie for me here in fest, but today I watched a telegu movie “Mee Sreyobhilashi(your well-wisher)” and loved it for its concept and execution both, apart from that I watched reprise,sorry but not sure if the movie was not interesting or i had a good lunch, i fell asleep during the show only . Then I watched three monkeys and The yellow house.
Three monkey looked a bit saddistic kindda movie with silences outnumbering the dialouges. but The yellow house turned out to be a decent watch for me.
Gearing up for the tomorrow shows!
Thanks guys.
@Shekhar, hooked to Kaurismaki now, will check all his remaining stuff in the fest.
@sanjay, missed MACHAN man, wanted to watch it.
@Sourav, have sent you a mail.
@Ajay, I saw these films today:
Reprise – saw till the blackout, then went to
Mirush – jumped from this to watch
Rupantor
Three Monkeys
Rocky VI
The match factory girl
Still need to sit and reflect my thoughts on the films, but Three Monkeys stood out for obvious reasons.
Looking forward to more Kaurismaki tomorrow.
So after some homework, I have zeroed in on these films for the remaining festival:
Drifting Clouds
La Vie Bohamme
The Early Bird catches the Worm
Ariel
Bet Collector
Warsaw
Song of the Sparrows
Juha
Shadows in Paradise
So the festival got over today, here is some more films that I saw:
Aki Kaurismaki(this man rocks, officially I mean):
Drifting Clouds
La vie en Boheme
Juha
Shadow in Paradise
(Kaurismaki needs an article)
Hong Kong Dreaming – the WORST film possible
Warsaw – another big WTF
Films I regret missing:
Machan
Katyn
The Yellow House
Ariel
Song of the Sparrows
Time
Ben-X
The early bird catches the worm
Goodbye Lenin
Things we do when we fall in love
I am going home(Oliveira)
The man who quit smoking
The Land
The Kolkata International Film Festival also had a retrospective of Kim Ki Duk this year…
This guy really amazes me… Loved “Breath” and “3-Iron”.
Tushar, I saw this film “Road to Guantanamo” in the festival 2 years back. By Michael Winterbottom and (forgot the guy’s name). Watch it if you can… Good stuff!
Also “Iberia” by Carlos Saura. though I have a feeling you have already seen Iberia. :-)
Hey Ritsjoe
I need to see more of him dude.
Haven’t seen Road to Guantanamo. :-( Winterbottom any day man.
Haven’t seen Iberia either.
send me details regarding Bangalore short film festival