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So in continuation of my previous post which didn’t go down that well (surprise surprise) I shall profile some filmmakers whom I think exemplify my pet theory.

Despite being totally different in terms of the techniques they employ and the genres they usually work in they also have a lot of common attributes apart from being incredibly prolific.

1) They work with low to mid budgets
2) Tend to work with actors instead of stars
3) They always seem to push they envelope and sometimes they fall flat on their ass
4) The amount of fun they have in the process of filmmaking is very apparent
5) Their weakest films have occurred whenever they have gone commercial / mainstream

Michael Winterbottom

17 Films in 13 years

One of the most innovative and provocative filmmakers around who has been making indie gems for a long time. A very well respected counterculture filmmaker who is known for his keen adaptations of …

Cinema is now over a hundred years old and since it’s inception it has slowly but surely metamorphosed from entertainment to the opium for the masses with due apologies to Karl Marx. One question however vexes both those who strive to create it as well as those who breathlessly ingest it week after week.

Is Filmmaking an art or a science ? You could argue both sides of the argument till Gabriel blows his horn and I don’t feel I can add something more to this debate. What I can do however, is advocate a counter opinion. I propose that filmmaking is in fact a sport. Like Sex.

All form of sport have one absolutely undisputed axiom. The more you practice the better you get. Like Sex. Sex is a sport whether you admit it or not. I will leave the pondering of your sexuality and beliefs to yourself. I’m frankly …

The denouement of a film is hands down the hardest thing to pull of well. How many times have we seen a great film which goes kaput at the culmination with either a forced application of the old Deus ex Machina or an abortive attempt to be profound / politically correct.

One of the most amazing denouements which I have ever seen comes from the Oscar winning German film “The Lives of Others”. It ends with a seemingly innocuous answer by the antagonist turned protagonist to a shop clerk. In response to a query asking whether he would like a book called “Sonata for a Good Man” gift wrapped, he simply replies “No. It’s for me”.

That’s it. It was jaws on the floor / balls in my mouth time for me. I used to live on 25th Street in Manhattan and saw the film on 13th Street. I was in such …

I’ve been in LA for little over a month now and have still not adjusted fully. The reason being that it is so different from NYC which I think is one of the most amazing cities on earth. I won’t call it the best till I have lived in Rio, Tokyo and Paris. There are so many things I miss about NYC but by far I miss my buddies I made in film school and while crewing the most.

One of the guys I knew back there moved to LA bout 6 months before me and he got a really coveted job as an assistant to a hotshot agent at one of the top talent agencies. He started from the mail room but worked his way up in a very shot amount of time.

If you think being an AD in Bombay sucks, trust me it’s nothing compared to working in …

I would like to share some of favorite experimental short form films. The experimentation encompasses both form and content in unbelievably innovative manners. They are a constant source of inspiration and wonder to me and I hope after watching them there will be new followers to the flock of experimental cinema devotees.

Flex - Chris Cunningham

This video installation can only be described as savagely beautiful. Cunningham is so way out there it’s exhilarating as well as scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f80j_hzAzlg

Old Man and the Sea - Alex Petrov

Petrov is the master of the extremely rare and poetic art of painting on glass. Watch his Oscar nominated short and you will be astounded that he paints directly onto sheets of glass using his fingertips. SALUD !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvK-Bjzm3AQ

Speed of Sound - Mark Romanek / Harris Savides

This video might seem run of the mill …

This post is a barter deal with a fellow PFCite who successfully bribed my by mailing me the link to a Kanti Shah opus called “Gunda”. The fact that raw stock gets exposed on stuff like this just boggles the mind. No wonder he finishes a feature in 4 days. Hats off man !!!

Well anyways coming back to the juicy prospect of adapting graphic novels into film, instead of listing the best, I’d rather talk about the ones I’d love to see on screen. The best ones yet choose themselves in a snap with Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, V for Vendetta, Ghost World and Sin City topping the list. Before anyone cries foul over the exclusion of 300 I have to let it be known that though I’m a huge fan of the book, I have serious idealogical differences with the film.
I also haven’t seen Persepolis yet …

The title of this post isn’t an original. It’s taken from a fictional article written by a Salinger-esque character in Gus van Sant’s incredibly tepid and derivative “Finding Forrester”. In fact I think the name of the article is the best thing in the film. Hard to believe that the man who had made films like “To Die For” and “My Own Private Idaho” would make such hooey. It’s got cliches in abundance and even F Murray Abraham who played Salieri in “Amadeus” plays a similar character. Happily though van Sant got back into form with films like “Gerry” and “Elephant”. Dying to watch “Paranoid Park” as well when it gets released.

The article in question refers to a piece Sean Connery’s character wrote in the revered magazine “The New Yorker” about what he considered the perfect season of baseball. Likewise a lot of film critics and historians contend that 1939 …

“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” - American Beauty

Each day I go to UCLA campus to attend class I stop by at my place of worship. Even if it’s for a minute I enter my place of peace and give silent …

One of the biggest problem that plagues Bollywood is the rampant plagiarism which is sadly seeped into it’s very essence. Everyone of us probably has war stories to tell of this particular affliction which we affectionately used to call DVDitis. I have two to share.

The first incident happened around the time we were doing costume trials for “Eklavya.” We had gone to meet Jimmy Shergill (who is one of the sweetest people I know) at the Marriot coz we needed to take some pictures of his own clothes which he wanted to wear in the film. He had some meetings in the hotel so he asked us to come over. Over coffee and general chit chat I happened to spy a DVD on the adjacent table covered by a piece of paper. I picked it up and it was a copy of the Cassel/Belucci starrer “The Apartment”.

What was really …

According to my Facebook these are the films I have seen for the first time over the past 100 days. One of my favorite teachers told me to keep a log of all the films I see and try to identify my viewing patterns. I have seen about 104 films which makes it about one a day which isn’t bad. Earlier I used to watch 3 a day but that was coz it was winter and NY was freezing and wet. The films are in the order of most recent to oldest.

Sorry for the nasty alignment.

Nomad the Warrior 1
Things we lost in the fire …

F1 Racing. To most people its a hideous waste of time, money and precious resources in a world going to hell due to environmental atrocities. Even if they have no moral qualms against the sport they simply can’t fathom the fascination of the devoted to watch a bunch of men going around a track some 50 odd times over 3 hours.

To the fan however, whether we may or may not be gear heads, F1 remains the pinnacle of the automotive experience. I’m not gonna go through a tedious SWOT analysis of the sport but rather just hint at how it influences our lives. The reason that Car manufacturers spend Billions of dollars every yeah on it isn’t just for the glamor or brand awareness but also due to the fact that most of the innovations filter down to their production lines

Automatic transmission, Traction Control, ABS , Carbon monocoque frames …

Peer pressure is a tough thing to deal with both as a kid and as an adult. As a kid you really want to conform and be a part of the group so you end up doing stuff you hate doing but all your friends love to do.

As an adult the need to undertake unwanted activities is drastically lessened but one thing that goes up exponentially is the ability to speak our mind. You see children are considered paragons of innocence cause they wear their hearts on their sleeves and speak their mind.
If they like someone or something they will let you know and will let their dislikes be known as well. That’s the reason schoolboy poetry is equal parts charming and dreadful. :-)

Another thing that happens when you reach maturity is the realization that you are not immortal and that there will always be someone who …

About 10 years ago when I first got my greedy adolescent hands on the internet you can easily imagine where my interests lay. After an exhaustive examination of cyberspace porn I digressed into my other two interests ie Gaming and Films. As you can well imagine I have never been much academically inclined. :-)

So I browsed through websites related to films until I hit the G spot of cinema so to speak. Scores of websites which had posted scripts of all my favorite films including Star Wars, Godfather, Transformers (Animated) etc. I ravenously devoured all the scripts alphabetically even eschewing to watching films until I had read the script. I read most of em and was happy in the knowledge that more scripts would be added each week so I could never run out of them.

There were two scripts however which rocked my world completely though I wouldn’t get to …

This isn’t a usual top ten list. In fact there are only 9 films here. There have been many outstanding films made about cinema with the usual suspects being Cinema Paradiso, Kaagaz ke Phool, The Bad and the Beautiful, Day for Night, RKO 281, Day of the Locust, The Player, Millennium Actress etc etc. These films aren’t on this list.

I felt that since cinema is manufactured reality the only format that would show what is the real human cost of making a film would be a documentary. The films on this list inspire and excite me because they are not hagiographies. Despite the respect and even reverence in some cases towards the subjects, the filmmakers have shown their lives truthfully, warts and all.

Anybody who spends his money to watch a film has the complete right to appreciate or criticize as he sees fit yet it is only a …