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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 …

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 …

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 …

“Tae Guk Gi” (2004) is a sweeping war epic, impressively written, devastatingly photographed and designed, and captivatingly told. It’s old-fashioned mainstream filmmaking, overtly melodramatic and sappy, but deeply moving, disturbing, and breathtaking at the same time.

Set in 1950 Korea, it tells the story of two brothers who are forcefully drafted to fight in the Korean war. When Lee jin-Seouk is taken by South Korean forces to serve, the protective elder brother Lee jin-Tae follows an unsuccessful attempt to bring him back by asking to serve alongside his inexperienced sibling, all in an effort to sheild him. As war thickens and blood and guts spill from all directions, jin-Tae realizes that he needs to find a way to get his brother out of the battlefield, and back home to their mother. He risks his life, volunteering for the riskiest of missions, in an effort to impress …

One of the best parts about living in Los Angeles for a movie lover is the numerous avenues available for experiencing films from all over the world. Today at the AFI (American Film Institute) Fest, I watched a mainstream South Korean blockbuster called “The Host”. In this 2-week long festival, I will of course be watching a lot more movies that are yet unreleased in the US, and I’ll keep you updated as best as I can on the movies I like. There are some phenomenal ones in the line-up. But more on that later.
“The Host” is essentially a monster film like “Godzilla”, “Alien” and various other names that Hollywood continues to endlessly recycle every summer. According to its director Joon Ho Bong, it is South Korea’s first all out monster spectacle. So what is so special about this movie you say? Heck I had a great time watching it. …

The dozen odd men and women sit on the bench in the lonely hall of the house hidden far away in the hills. They all are wearing transparent raincoats, each going through a range of deep intense emotions. They all have small pieces of paper with a number on it.

Lady Vengeance walks in the hall and hands the weapon to the person who holds the paper with the least digit on it. As both walk into the hall next door, the person wearing the transparent raincoat and holding the weapon comes face to face with the murderer. The murderer is motionless, but his eyes scream fear. He’s tied to a chair and his mouth is tightly shut by tape.

Fear, anger, nervousness, revenge, sorrow flow through the person’s face, as Lady Vengeance motions to strike using the weapon in hand.

Gut wrenching, mesmerizing scene. The thing about Chan-woo Park …

It looks great as always, the man knows his cinematography. This is his latest film called, “I’m a cyborg, but that’s ok.”
DL the trailer from here

Rumor is that his next film will be a vampire film. Perhaps a supernatural trilogy then?
Let’s see Sanjay Gupta copy his way into this one
Actually, he probably won’t.
Source: Twitchfilm.