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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 …

“In the dark depths of the nether world, for wanderers searching for the ultimate prize clues are everything”.

Oh well!! that was as cheesy as it can get..
:-)
but couldn’t resist.

Cheesiness apart, it is so subliminally true!

for all those geeks with cool names stalking the net for music, movie and the like…
(porn? Nah… porn is passé..)
everything you get is from that passing comment at a forum..
a chance chat remark…
a ‘recommended site’ link on a website purporting to have it all!!!….
all of which eggs you to the darkest part of the net in search of that treasure trove.
(see the treasure is guarded so well that it keeps changing location every week or so- think saddam being whisked away for fear of an american attack).

Its therefore supremely important to rummage around every nook and corner as you wander about..
you just might hit a trail. thats what happened here.

so there i …

La Zona is Rodrigo Plá’s feature debut based on a novel written by his wife, Laura Santullo.
It was shown during the Seminci film festival although unfortunately, it was out of competition. Had it been competing in the Official section, I am sure it would have been really successful, as Rodrigo’s done an amazing job. Nevertheless, it won this year’s International Critics’ Award at Toronto Film Festival and Best Feature Debut Award at Venice Film Festival.

The film is a breathtaking thriller that will keep you engrossed from beginning to end. La Zona is the name of a well-off residential area in Mexico DF that is cut off from its adjoining slums by a wall. …

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 …

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 …

I’m ready to bear with the most tedious film if it gives me a close up fo an actress I like. :Jean Renoir

Renoir’s words never sounded so true ever before as last night when I watched Bandidas. Frankly, a poster was enough to make me want to see this film and the beautiful ladies of cinema made it worth it.

Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek are such a delight to watch on screen that after a while one tended to forget if it’s actually a film or a circus full with pretty gymnasts and jokers.

I hardly followed the plot or story or anything of that sort hence no point commenting on them. Yeah, the ladies were good. Liked them all the more in their bandit dress performing daredevilry.

I don’t know whether I like Penelope Cruz better or Salma Hayek. Penelope as a …

Silverstein: I can’t believe it! I’ve just figured out the thing about the egg and the chicken. How didn’t I see it before?!
Díaz: So which one was first?
Silverstein: The egg!
Díaz: And where does the egg come from?
Silverstein: I don’t know, but it’s an egg! From anywhere, from under a rock… from the sea… from another egg… It doesn’t really matter! You can have an egg appearing just like that, but not a fully grown chicken from nowhere! Who could even think about something like that happening? Don’t you get it?
Díaz: It’s possible.
Silverstein: Possible??? It’s obvious, Díaz!

***

I have lost count of the times I have seen Tiempo de valientes since it released. It is the kind of movie I can watch again and again and never get tired of, despite knowing …

Latin America is riding a cinematic high, what with the Mexican triumvirate, Del Toro, Innarittu, Cuaron capturing the imagination of the world, helping each other, working on one another’s films , producing for the other etc while Argentina continues its saga of dancing the pictoral Tango but what is really worth looking into is the Brazilian resurgence.

We have seen Walter Salles’s Motorcycle Diaries,Fernando Meirelles’s City of God,Hector Babenco’s Carandiru and now we see Andrucha Waddington’s THE HOUSE OF SAND, he is also connected in that strange triangular way to SALLES and BABENCO,having assisted them.

CASA DE AREIA won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Andrucha Waddington started out serving coffee for Brazilian auteur Carlos Diegues (”Orfeu”). He soon graduated to work on films with Walter Salles and Hector Babenco, moved up the ladder to assistant directing, and by his early 20s, began …

When I was watching Bluffmaster the other day (yes, I am always behind regarding Indian cinema, but what to do?) the lift scene suddenly reminded me of one of my favourite Argentinian films Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas). They are both con movies and probably that is the only thing they have in common (apart from the mentioned scene and an unexpected end). I liked the idea of writing about Nueve Reinas because of Bluffmaster despite the fact that it is not a very recent film. So here we go.

Nine Queens is an engrossing thriller with a few touches of humour that will have you stuck to your seat like glue. A must-watch movie, I dare say. The plot is flawless, regardless its complexity. I have seen it at least four times and I am not sure I could tell which time I enjoyed the most- the first time, …

I see that oz beat me to the punch with his review! But, this is a movie that needs multiple reviews as I think it will speak to all who see it in some way…

I come from a rich story-telling tradition. My Native American grandmother and aunts used to spend long nights telling stories – creation myths, stories about the animals of the forests and plains, about the sun and the moon, about our family history. My German grandmother would tell fairy tales – not watered-down Disney tales, but the harsh German ones, where bad things happen to children and forests are dangerous places for the curious. Growing up with these traditions, I gravitated to reading mythology in elementary school, Greek, Roman, Norse, Native American, anything I could lay my hands on.

In high school, I discovered Gabriel García Márquez and a remarkable book that ends with an entire city …

Lagging quite behind on my movies seen over the last few weeks… I’m still having trouble assorting my iTalkies queue which doesn’t have the movies I wanna see and instead I’m filling it up with movies “I think are good” and in turn end up being crap… for one I’m highly disappointed with Shankar’s “Boys” that I had heard a lot about…

Shift focus to my Netflix queue… listing a few of the “many” I have been watching over the 2 week sick time… some interesting, some experimental… left out the ones I didn’t connect to…

Pirates… Dead Man’s Chest

Umm… not big on the Pirates series… but have to admit it’s fun. Plus seeing Johnny Depp do something which isn’t dark and brooding is a welcome change. Orlando Bloom is just about ok while Keira Knightley jumps, hops, hits, fights, kicks, leaps, swims and all that.

Great fun with kids on …

Along with Indian movies, Argentinian ones are my favourite at the moment. Completely different from each other, I know, but maybe that is what makes it more attractive and balanced, watching such different kind of cinema.

What I like about Argentinian films is their simplicity, the natural way in which the actors perform and the mixture of moving and emotive scenes with funny ones. Everything seems just like real life - there’s no happiness without pain and vice versa. Great sense of humour, Argentinians have. Another thing I admire them for is their ability to make a great piece of work on a small budget.

Derecho de familia (Family Law) is one of those simple stories that will touch your heart and at the same time will make you laugh. Awarded several prizes during last edition of Mar del Plata Film Festival, Derecho de …