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Miles from home, miles to go. Miles spent dozing in uncomfortable recline, in queues, eating out of sterile plastic containers, shuffling among strange faces in strange places, eyes open just till the laptop battery holds through. Continuous transit through a hyperreality where the sun never shines enough to out-bright the plastic white daze of the corridors of passage. Being awake or dreaming is a state of mind. Like jet lag. A strange world where rush hour follows rush hour and then yet another. Hurtled through the gray blur it is possible that one may lose oneself. Dissolve. Blend. Yet another plaster face starring at the signs. Follow the arrow. Up. Down. Left. Right. Newton’s Law number one. Miles to go and no time on hand. Walk forward-onward towards the light till the buzzing synthetic halo sucks you in.

And somewhere …

Seems times are changing at last - for the better, and fast. After all these years of scouring the film festivals and pirated DVD shops (unless we have deep pockets to splurge on the highly-priced original DVDs of foreign films), it seems 2008 is bringing some happy tidings for us, the lovers of world cinema (that is, anything that comes from outside the country minus Hollywood).

Suddenly, Indian companies have started taking marketing rights for a large number of world cinema and at least two dedicated channels to telecast cinema of that kind are readying for launch. And, trust the French to do it - more and more French films are being screened, at least in Delhi and Mumbai, screened mostly free of cost through tie ups with multiplex chains, to introduce the casual moviegoer to the variety that rides with their cinema (hope other countries would also have as …

First of all let me tell you I am not a film reviewer.. I don’t want to be one as I believe all the reviewers have their own biases and preferences like any other audience watching the film. I also believe most of the great films have boring reviews and sometimes the greatness of a film is beyond the reach for many of the reviewers.. of course all badly made films provide much better opportunity to have the most entertaining reviews on them..

On the following lines, you will not find a review but a reaction and its a reaction to a comment I read sometime back, by a person I admire to a great extent Javed Siddiqui saab. A comment that set me to a journey to find answers and made me to actually review a film.
It was about a film that is one of the …

The second Rome Film Fest, which runs Oct 18-27, has announced its full programme.

World premieres in the Cinema 2007 programme include:

* La Recta Provincia (Raul Ruiz)
* Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola)
* August Rush (Kirsten Sheridan)
* Hafez (Abolfazl Jalili)
* L’Abbuffata (Mimmo Calopresti)
* And The Spring Comes (Chang Wei Gu)
* The Three Robbers (Hayo Freitag)
* The Private Man (Emidio Greco)
* Let’s Say (Francoise Maire)
* Have Dreams, Will Travel, (Brad Isaacs)

The festival also announced that Oscar-winning No Man’s Land director Danis Tanovic from Bosnia will serve as head of the jury, which is comprised of 50 international cinema-goers.

FULL LINE-UP

Premiere section
Across The Universe by Julie Taymor (UK/US)
The Dukes by Robert Davi (US)
Elizabeth: The …

IFFLA 2008 Announces Call for Entries
The Sixth Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) seeks narrative, documentary, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format. IFFLA will run April 22-27, 2008 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of Los Angeles. Jury and Audience Choice Prizes will be awarded for Best Feature, Documentary and Short Film.
IFFLA 2007 had over 6,000 attendees and screened 36 films from 8 countries. In addition to the high-quality of presentation of their work, filmmakers in attendance gained access to an eclectic mix of professionals from the Los Angeles film industry.

Check out what our past filmmakers …

Recently I had interviewed Neville Tuli, the founder chairman of the Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, which organizes the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian (& Arab - from this year) Cinema, in New Delhi. While some parts of the interview have been carried in my paper Deccan Herald, I am reproducing the whole text of the interview for PFC readers, for I am sure Tuli’s comments would provoke interesting responses. For information, Aruna Vasudev, the lady who built the Cinefan festival, has parted ways from it recently. Unconfirmed reports say Mani Kaul, who was the Creative Director of the Film House of Osian’s, has also quit. It remains to be seen how Tuli steers the festival without Vasudev, who built the festival brick by brick using her wide contacts in the film festival circuit and her reputation as a film critic / historian. So here it goes:

Arab Cinema have already been …

I enjoy slow movies on lazy Sunday afternoons. It’s that time of the weekend when the partying or other tiring activities of Friday evening and Saturday have just left you craving for some quiet, slow time. You wake up late, shower, eat a full lunch, and stretch out on the couch around 2:30 pm, and turn on the TV, and turn the volume down to a calm level. Next Sunday, when you find yourself like that on your couch, try popping in a Japanese film called “The Taste of Tea” - A charming, strange, funny, slow, and long film that completely soaks you in its outlandish, yet simplistically real characters.

Perhaps it was a nostalgic experience for me, as I recounted my life in Japan through my teenage years, but even for a person completely alien to that culture, “The Taste of Tea” would quite convenienty be an enchanting gateway into …

I recently had a great opportunity to view a three episode BBC series by eminent journalist Jonathan Ross on the Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong cinema. The episode on the Japanese cinema started with “how it has started losing its sheen in the recent years,” which got me thinking and is the reason of this article. Now, I know there are a lot of people here who are huge fan of the world cinema. I have come across people who swear their allegiance to French new wave, Italian neo-realism, Iranian movies and all the so called ‘new waves’. For me however, Japan has always been the mystic land. I love its culture, its people, all the ‘made in Japan’ gizmos… but more than anything else I love its cinema. Like most others my initiation into the Japanese cinema was through Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. Though my diet also included arthouse …

I am at the Hole in the Head Film Festival, the horror offshoot of the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. I am here because a movie I worked on is premiering here tomorrow night (tonight), but I made my friends drive up a day earlier than expected so I can see some movies, and one film in particular – Hazard. The newest film by Sion Sono, the genius behind Jisatsu saakuru (Suicide Club), one of the most fascinating, if gory J-horror films I have ever loved. But, after seeing the Hazard trailer, I was left wondering why it is playing at this festival. It didn’t look like a horror film. There were no suicides, no children joining cults, none of the trademarks of what I expect of Sonu’s films. I think that the festival organizers invited the film to play because of Sono’s previous work, without realizing that he has …

Received from Worldwide Film Distribution yahoogroup… Please spread the word!

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you about me and social activities of our organization. …

I am working with a government organization, one of the most important & entertainment department called “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” is given to me and I am looking for your help to expand the membership.

What is “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” ?

The National Film Development Corporation Limited (NFDC) is a Government of India Enterprise set up with the objective of fostering excellence in Indian Cinema. It provides film enthusiasts in Mumbai an opportunity to see good meaningful World-Class Films throughout the year through the “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE”.

For the past twenty-five years, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has produced/co- produced more than 200 films in 15 languages, including English. Amongst these all several internationally acclaimed films like Gandhi, The Making of Mahatma, Mirch-Masala, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sardar, Parinda and …

For those of you who attended the screening of Pan Nalin’s Valley Of Flowers, we apologize for the cancellation which took place due to an unforseen projector malfunction. Please note that the screening has been rescheduled now, in the same large theater #10 (no glitches this time!) as follows:

Saturday, April 21 - 3:30 p.m.

Please make sure you bring your ticket stub from last night. You do not have to buy a new ticket. They will let you in with the same one. Most of the attendees who caught a sneak peak at the opening were quite awed by the visuals. It is a terrific, visually mesmerizing effort by one of India’s most successful directors of crossover cinema. We look forward to having you all back there. Please help spread the word!

Saturday, April 21 - 3:30 p.m. …

In celebration of its fifth anniversary, IFFLA has added a day making it a 6-day long event that runs April 17-22, 2007 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of Hollywood.
Tickets are now on sale online at www.arclightcinemas.com or at the ArcLight Hollywood box office. For more information on how to attend the festival, please visit www.indianfilmfestival.org.
Check out this year’s Film Program and our new Bollywood By Night series, late night 21+ screenings of extravagant, exuberant and energetic Bollywood blockbusters. Chill out, have a drink and enter a world that’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced!
We are proud to introduce IFFLA EcoVision, a program that aims to spread ecological awareness by showcasing films on sustainability, utilizing eco-friendly products and processes, working with eco-conscious non-profit organizations and celebrating Earth Day on Sunday April 22.
If you …

Saw Seven Samurai Last Night, It was one hell of piece of art. After watching it I realized why people call Akira Kurasowa as one of the best in cinema history. Ok all praises apart after 30 minutes into the movie I couldn’t resist my self comparing with our own Sholay. When ever a new character was introduced I compared it with sholay’s character. Here is short synopsis:

The story is set in 16th century. There is a village and they don’t have any food to eat, it’s about harvest season and there is fear of group of bandits attacking the village again and take all rice as they did last year. So people of village consult granddad of village and decide they should hire Samurai’s and fight against bandits. Finally they hire 7 samurai and fight against bandits that is the basic plot. But in seven samurai …

There are few things I hate worse than being patronized. I am smart. I am educated. I can understand nuance and gray areas. And, there are few things that bother me more than wasting 90+ minutes of my life watching a movie that patronizes me, that doesn’t think I am intelligent enough or knowledgeable enough to understand basic human emotion or not-so basic human motivations, that I don’t know about history or about the workings of society. I don’t like being preached to, I don’t like when plots are dumbed down at the expense of story in order to drive home a message, and I don’t like when characters are moralistic – working in black and white – when their motivations should be as complex as our daily lives.

Akira Kurosawa was a fan of American film noir movies, and adapted High and Low from an American pulp fiction novel, …

Akira kurosawa’s RAN : Waah-miyan- shake-sphere – his best

Warning: This is a looong review … Spoilers and dialogues galore!!!

There’s something about Shakespeare’s plays… his tragedies in particular which rivet you and grab your attention. Be it the two adaptations by Vishal bhardwaj (Omkara- Othello, Maqbool- Macbeth) or kurosawa’s Ran (King Lear) and Throne of Blood (adaptation of Macbeth).

For all the pain staking ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ and more talk/less action, Shakespeare’s tragic characters are driven by loyalty, ambition, trust/distrust and love/hatred. The most basic human emotions … which is why the screen is literally set on fire with drama (mostly) when his plays are adapted….

And when a Japanese film maker of international repute such as Kurosawa (this being my first tryst with Kurosawa) makes a film on Shakespeare famous tragedy King Lear it becomes a must see !!!

For …

I never really thought I would utter these two words in the same breath. This is something I have been thinking about for a while and discussing with friends, so just thought I’d put it out there for you guys to weigh in on as well.

Chandra Barot & Salim-Javed’s “Don” and Akira Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece “Kagemusha” (The Shadow Warrior) share similar plots, albeit housed in completely different settings. Both films are about a powerful man who dies, and a good-for-nothing look-alike is sent in his place to keep his death a secret. In “Kagemusha”, the replacement strategy is planned well in advance, and when the warlord dies, his generals send in his double, a petty theif, and train him to act like his deceased “predecessor”, so enemies do not learn of the death, and attack the leaderless clan.

When my friend and I watched “Kagemusha” together, he immediately jumped to the …