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iView Author: rusted rick (Kolkata, India)
EMAIL: ritchick.mozumdar [at] gmail [dot] com

Title: LEATHERHEADS (2008) : a failed dig at screwball comedy

I remember those days from my childhood, those warm summer afternoons when it was too hot to even put your feet outside. Summer vacations were on and stuck at home I had nothing to do all afternoon but get bored until its was 5 o’clock and I was finally permitted to go outside and play.

Well not being of the habit of sleeping on afternoons ever, I used to sit and watch films with my uncle, who by that time was a retired unmarried man. Every time he went on tour abroad he used to bring home these video cassettes of Hollywood films. Mostly classic Hollywood blockbusters, dramas and comedies. They had the most beautiful looking actors, with perfectly shaven face and curled hair, …

iView Author: Santosh Kumar.T.K (U.S.A)
EMAIL: santydolby [at] gmail [dot] com

Title: 3 Idiots

Rarely have I seen such a film poster with so much simplicity yet with so much to say, visually at least!

Is it the colors, is it the font, is it the guy’s close hair cut or is it the t-shirt in its multiple folds?

or is it the name right at the bottom?

If only the film lives up to the promise.

I am reminded of the some of the most beautiful words I had come across, and something which I have believed in, and said in my own style quite often.

1. Purists/elitists read book.
2. Purists/elitists love book and praise book.
3. Purists/elitists find that common man too likes book.
4. Purists/elitists hate that common man likes book.
5. Purists/elitists hate …

When I had to write a post in a hurry with a nailgun pointed at my temple, I decided to do away with analysis, or insights and resorted to the tried and tested solution of the intellectually bankrupt. The List post.

We all know that the beginning sets the tone for the film, letting the audience know what to expect etc., and some even use it as a bookmark and mirror it in the last scene of the film to make some kinda statement. For my list, I shall use shots (single camera setup), scenes (single location/time with multiple shots), and sequences (scenes united by causality of action or theme) interchangeably freewilly without justification so that I may shoehorn some favorite moments in film that happen somewhere in the first 10 minutes of a movie.

But before that, a public service wank.

I am often amused when people compare their spontaneous experience …

Cinema has reached in to the weird territories also but still human emotions can not be taken away from the cinema and still films are made and will be made which basically cover human life and human emotions in quite ordinary sense as they are meant to be.

We, the human, laugh and cry along with the characters shown in the cinema and that is the success of such humane stories and cinema. Cinema which covers the lives of human beings touches a chord with the audiences and if cinematic effort is sincere then it penetrates audiences deeply and makes a place in their heart.

The Pursuit of Happiness is also such a film which shows us human emotions and life of struggling ordinary human being, whose life is at the verge of destruction.

This man is living on the …

Asian-Arab Competition:

Best Film: Tokyo Sonata (dir: Kyoshi Kurosawa (Japan-Netherlands-Hong Kong)

Best Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Three Monkeys, Turkey-France-Italy)

Best Actor: Ammor Hakkar (The Yellow House, France-Algeria)

Best Actress: Hiam Abbas & Rona Laipaz Michael (Lemon Tree, Israel-France)

Special Jury Award: Salt of the Sea (dir: Annemarie Jacir, Palestine-Belgium-France)

Indian Competition:

Best Film: Gulabi Talkies (dir: Girish Kasaravalli, Kannada)

Best Director: Remo (Lal Paharer Katha / A Story of Red Hills, Bengali)

Best Actor: Rajat Kapoor (The Prisoner, Hindi) & Govind Namdeo (Kabootar, Hindi)

Best Actress: Umashree (Gulabi Talkies, Kannada)

First Features Award:

Best Film: Confessional (dir: Jerrold Tarog & Ruel Dahis Antipuesto, The Philippines)

In-Tolerance Award:

Best Film: Hidden Faces (dir: Handen Ipekci, Turkey-Germany)

Audience Award:

Best Film: The Band’s Visit (dir: Eran Kolirin, Israel-France)

FIPRESCI Award:

Best Film: Ramchand Pakistani (dir: Mehreen Jabbar, Pakistan) & Salt of the Sea

NETPAC Award:

Best Film: Bioscope (dir: K M Madhusudhanan, Malayalam-Tamil)

The six juries were:

Asian Arab Competition:

Christine Hakim (Indonesia), Chantal Akerman (Belgium), Wu Nien-jen (Taiwan), Kais al Zubaidi (Palestine) and …

If Khuda Kay Liye was a fine example of fledgling independent cinema from Pakistan – distinct from the Lollywood’s mindless masala – then Ramchand Pakistani by debutante director Mehreen Jabbar is sure sign that quality cinema from our neighbours are surely getting revived, thanks to a young breed of filmmakers who have largely cut their teeth through television and are socio-politically conscious.

Ramchand Pakistani had its first public screening in the Subcontinent at the 10th Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema in New Delhi on 12th July – three weeks before it becomes the first Pakistani film to have simultaneous release on August 1 in both the countries – and wowed viewers with its sensitive storytelling shorn of any melodrama.

Based on a true incident of a young Hindu Dalit boy from a village across the border from Gujarat, who had inadvertently crossed the international border along with his farmer father at …

iView Author:Aditya Mani Jha
(Kharagpur, India)
EMAIL: amj91288[at] gmail [dot] com

Title: Bookworms and Movie Maniacs : Literary adaptations in cinema

Following are three out of the five nominees for the Best Film Academy Award: Atonement, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.(No Country For Old Men finally got the nod from the Academy sages.)

In case you are wondering what are the ties which bind the trio, the answer is they are all literary adaptations , based on novels by Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and Upton Sinclair, respectively. Although adapted screenplays are not a new thing, the recent trend shows an upsurge like never before. So what is it that attracts writers and directors to bring out the reading glasses?

For one, one of the biggest hurdles of filmmaking is easily overcome when you have an engrossing story on hand. While some directors prefer …

Before the Rains is a landscape movie, a sensuous story of love between an English spice exporter and his married Indian housemaid, shot and directed by Santhosh Sivan in God’s own country, Kerala.

Deepak Chopra in his recommendation compared the movie to E.M. Forster’s “A Passage to India” and stories like “In the Bedroom”, “Little Children”, “The Savages”, and was delighted to find such layered sophistication coming from India, via “Before the Rains”.

The official selection of Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival and Dubai Film Festival, Before the Rains has won 3 awards in the Houston WorldFest — Best Picture; Best Cinematography: Santosh Sivan; Best Music: Mark Kilian.

Mira Nair recalled the movie as “Unforgettable! A hothouse of sensuality, empire, class and guilt.”

NYT called it “A lavish, beautifully photographed film…”

New York Observer called it “A lovely, sweeping film. Stunning!”

And now, Santosh Sivan was interviewed by …

Two directors from the “Far East”, known for their visually stunning cinematic delights and two films that mark some what of a turning point in their careers. For Wong Kar-Wai last year was finally a time to test the Hollywood waters with his first English language film “My Blueberry Nights”, and Ang Lee went back to his roots directing the Chinese war period, “Se, Jie” (Lust, Caution). Now, while Wong-Kar-Wai has seldom strayed from his trademark visual style and patented haunting-romantic melodramas, Ang Lee has probably tried his hands in all genres. Fantasies (Crouching Tiger), CG’s (Hulk), taboo relationships (Brokeback Mountain, The Wedding Banquet), literary adaptations (Sense and Sensibility).. you name it and Lee has been there, done that. And so is the case with the directors’ latest works. While Blueberry Nights is just an extension of Wong Kar wai’s earlier works, Ang lee continues to explore unchartered …

iView Author: Shashank Walia
(Delhi, India)
EMAIL: shashankwalia [at] live [dot]com

Sergio Leone – Master of technique,treatment and style
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Well I still remember the day I saw The good,the bad and the ugly – fourth film of the great Sergio Leone. The film had a huge impact on me with its dynamic cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli ,crisp and fast editing by Eugenio Alabiso and Nino Baragli, reallife locales, quality character development, brilliant background scorecomposed by Ennio Morricone,spectacular direction and screenplay by Sergio Leone.

Sergio Leone is often misunderstood by various film critics and film students as a stylish filmmaker but in real sense his techniques and aesthetical sense were as brilliant as his style. His first two …

Big Corporations have sold out humanity for Guru Kant Desai’s pet word ‘Munafa’, profit.

Working class toils day and night, live honestly but dont get anywhere. Steel plant workers push hard, while the bosses pushed them out. You believe in American Dream, well it is exported now. Life is so hard, things are so costly that you dont have any hope left, and working hard to stay in status quo is worser than doing nothing and drift away. Your choices are prepaid and your role in your choices is definitely not making them. Law is theirs and order is to OBEY them and they have got life  - They Live.

Offcourse the previous paragraph is not the description of the high inflation, slipping into depression American society. This is the state of America in 1988 that John Carpenter who is know more for slasher flicks like Halloween, showed in the 1988 movie …

That urban Bengali cinema has been dead meat for the last couple of decades is as widespread a phenomenon as the very existence of Bengalis across the face of the earth. Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, yes folks you are very good film-makers and we critics love your work but sadly the people haven’t turned up to watch your stuff. A couple of non resident Bengalis in Houston may have your DVDs flown down but Calcuttans don’t queue up at the theatres for a Dosar or a Kaalpurush or a 15 Park Avenue.
But maybe someone out there has found the impossible formula of how to get Bengalis back to the cinemas. In Calcutta and elsewhere. Perhaps, fingers crossed and wood touched, it’s finally happening!
Dutt’s the man, Anjan Dutt. Mrinal Sen’s favourite actor, a musical phenomenon, a failed Bollywood film-maker, Dutt knows what he is saying when he says …

iView Author: Shashank Walia
(Delhi, India)
EMAIL: shashankwalia [at] live [dot]com

The 400 Blows
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Times have changed and changed by a great deal. Today, whatever you may want to do, either you need a backing or jack to be in any part of any organization, cinema is no different.

Yes, there are few cases where will-power exceeds all such evils of new times but in major parts various evils hail. Expecting to get into a production house or a film company easily if he/she has a jack or any kind of support or getting a job of an assistant director or editor or any other aspect of filmmaking after getting a graduate diploma or a degree from a film school is justified but needing a degree or a …

iView Author: SUDDHASATYA GHOSH
(Kolkata, India) EMAIL: withheld

Bernardo Bertolucci - A Quixote in modern cinema
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In his youth he wanted to create ‘Miuras’ or ‘Young Bulls’ as his films and in the end had made a film like ‘The last Emperor’. Bernardo Bertolucci had pompously failed himself in cinema. But was it an individual failure?

The other day I was commenting in ‘Passion for Cinema’ and had a good debate on Bertolucci’s ‘Last Tango in Paris’ or ‘Ultimo tango a Parigi’ (1972). It had started from a very harsh comment of mine to discard this as a trash film and a real pathetic show of Marlon Brandon (not as actor, but as artist who had chosen a bad film with all his conscience). As I got a …

iView Author:Santosh
(Mumbai, India )

Email:withheld

Indian Cinema is LHS +

…i.e. Lead Hero Syndrome. Kamal Hassan’s latest release, Dashavataram, once again brought the epidemic to fore.

The disease however is an age old one and heroes, more so superstars have an extremely high rate of susceptibility.

So what’s Dashavataram about? If you think it’s about some undercover agent, some temple priest or even the costliest epic ever produced in India, you are still way off the mark. It is simply this – Kamal Hassan’s acute denial of ageing. He contracted the virus a while back; it’s just that the effects are more visible and pronounced today. There are many expressions of this syndrome, Kamal Hassan’s illness took the ego-trip route. Even in the near past, in films like Hey Ram, one could see the actor’s overwhelming urge to hog each and every frame …

iView Author:Aniruddha Chatterjee
(Dallas, Texas, USA )

Email:chatterjeeaniruddha[at]gmail[dot]com

Independent films in India and their release strategy

Watching Aamir with Om and Kat in Dallas was wonderful. But seeing that we were the only one watching the movie in the entire theater was disheartening and frightening.

Had we not come to see the movie, the theater would have been empty. When all of us should be embracing independent cinema, it seems its going in the other direction.

Most independent movies are released only in big cities. So, it only caters to a niche audience. Which I think also results in collections of the movie. The first week of Aamir (according to boxofficeindia.com) netted 1.25 crores. Most movies drop around 30-40% in the second week. So, if that is the case with Aamir, the total nett collection of the movie will be around 3 crores. I hope and …

iView Author: DT (Mumbai, India)
EMAIL:
withheld
10th Osian’s Cinefan Mumbai film festival……

The next edition of Osian’s 10 day Delhi-based Cinefan festival, begins with its 2 day Mumbai edition at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai.

The event will be held on the 13th and 14th of June, with a felicitation of Shammi Kapoor as its centrepiece. The helmer shall be honoured at the Grand Finale after a screening of Shakti Samantha ’s Kashmir Ki Kali.

The 2 day preview shall also witness the screening of some of the highlights of the upcoming 10 day Cinefan in Delhi, to be held between the 10th and 20th of July. Selections include new works by Hou Hsiao Hsien, …

iView Author:
SUDDHASATYA GHOSH
(Kolkata, India)
EMAIL:
withheld

A few thoughts on Bengali cinema……

Passion for cinema has produced a few pages of Sudhir Mishra’s diary for readers and expectantly brilliances of Sudhir came out in open in that space.

Sudhir is a name in ‘so-called’ parallel cinema or in good cinema, if I am allowed to use Satyajit Ray’s coinage for it. As I went on reading it I faced a few questions and am trying to present those in my write.

Let me start with a cinema by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, ‘Ali-Fear Eats the Soul’. It starts with an apparently incorrect title in original German. Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem was cast respectively as an old German woman …

Sort of in between a rant and musings…

Was at the Sarkar Raj press show at Famous yesterday. Well, as expected was house full. The sixty-seater was exploding with around hundred people from the press (we have SO many reviewers amongst us and not ONE to be proud of???) with so many sitting on the floor, including yours truly.

Well, this is not the first time this has happened. I remember once last year some movie evoked a similar response. And it is when the preview halls are jam-packed that they become the best opportunity to learn something about the cult of our hallowed film journalists/reviewers. That, I felt the same vibes I felt the last time I was among the ‘intellectual elite’ of Bbay’s film-dom and media, I felt an urge to share thoughts on it.

Everyone from Taran Adarsh to Khalid Mohammed to Mayank Shekhar to, I assume, Raja Sen (I …

If there is a trilogy that I have tirelessly watched again and again till my eyes turned all red, it is “Aliens”.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Lieutenant Ripley and her AFB (Acid For Blood) adversaries lock themselves in conflict one more time and like any other great story, found little surprises and newer messages from their epic conflict. This is a non-technical recollection of the glorious Aliens.

Commonly occurring themes in the Alien trilogy (My sensibilities wont allow me to add the ‘Resurrection’ and the recent shams as a part of this glorious franchise) as I inferred are:

1. Feminism: Not just the fact that the chief protagonist is a woman, even the adversary is the most deadly “Queen”. Only difference being that the aliens for their boiling acid temper and “nastiness” acknowledge the power in the hands of the female, while their human adversaries stumble and die before …