Posts Tagged ‘World Cinema’

  • 21
    Avaze Gonjeshk-ha: a Face and a Camera
    There’s something batshit insane about Majid Majidi’s The Song of Sparrows (my first experience of Majidi). Don’t get me wrong; I love the movie. It is one of the most down-to-earth movies I’ve ever seen, but it has a sort of manic energy you don’t see in American, or Indian or British, cinema. Personally, I hadn’t seen anything like this before. While both...
    by Ronak M Soni at November 21st, 2009 at 03:11 am
  • 8
    Paragraph 175
    Probably history was after all, meant to be a study of human consciousness in guilt. Of course, there is always a need to realize something valuable out of the past, that a study about the past is after all a human being’s reverse-troubleshooting guide. Probably that’s the reason why there are beautiful pictures of stoic, stiff-lipped people in our high school...
    by Fazil at October 23rd, 2009 at 07:10 am
  • 13
    Come and See (1985)
    In times of adversity, stories of triumph, grief and inhumanity are not unusual. Humans are subjected to emotions which are extreme. “War” brings out the best and worst in humans. Come and See (1985) by Elem Klimov is one of the finest examples in world cinema which depicts war in its truest sense. It has no messages to offer to its audience. After watching Come and...
    by Sourav Bhuyan at October 20th, 2009 at 06:10 pm
  • 6
    Hey MAMI
    No cracks please. Just don’t say MAMA, or even think of your long-lost uncle, because this year’s MAMI promises to be a film gourmand’s banquet come true. That’s the Mumbai International Film Festival presented by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images, acronymed as MAMI. Daniel and Anna Funded by munifience of Anil Ambani, the eleventh version of MAMI  unspools ...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 19th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • 7
    The films of Andrei Zvyagintsev
    Intuitively, Russian filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev’s films are escapist. For one who has directed only two films till date, drawing such a conclusion is jumping the gun but then you watch both his movies and find yourself being introduced to a singular and staid cinematic language. One that defines its elements distinctly using them in recurrently in both the movies with...
    by Arthi V at September 29th, 2009 at 02:09 pm
  • 16
    Death of the Idealist
    — “Men don’t see things as they are, they see things as THEY are” What is the purpose of Cinema? Is it merely just another form of recreation or a reflection of something much deeper ? Over the last hundred years or so, cinema has come to mean much more than just another form of entertainment, it has in fact evolved into more than just an art form,...
    by Vineet at August 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
  • 36
    Emir Kusturica’s Underground: A nation that ceased to exist
    A quiet Balkan town wakes up to festive sound from a drunken stupor. The ominous brass composition is interspersed with gun shots and money is hurled in the air. The euphoria fades into the sound of war, bombs piercing the harmony of a nation. A man is seen to be having an insipid love making act in a whore house. The woman is hurriedly faking orgasm with moaning.  She...
    by Neeraj Ghaywan at August 5th, 2009 at 05:08 am
  • 0
    A woman desperate to retain a living sense of her dead son – ‘After Him’
    “A mother’s grief warps into a suffocating obsession in After Him, a sombre study of aching loss and broken hearts… an unsentimental drama that refuses to sweeten the story of a woman desperate to retain a living sense of her dead son.” – Allan Hunter, Screen Daily After Him revolves around a grieving mother, who develops an unhealthy interest in the man...
    by NDTV Lumiere at July 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 pm
  • 24
    Kieslwoski’s Three Colors trilogy: Blue
    A camera mounted behind the wheel captures the hues of a journey, adorned in asphalt blue and embellished with the sound of raw tires rubbing against the road.  A little girl flags a blue candy wrapper from the car, celebrating freedom, announcing the dawn of awakened consciousness and the wind claims the wrapper. The car stops for a comfort break. Camera behind the dripping...
    by Neeraj Ghaywan at July 20th, 2009 at 11:07 am
  • 13
    In Defence of Daniel Plainview
    Daniel Plainview This is not exactly a review of There Will Be Blood. This article is more in support of Daniel Plainview. There is almost a 5 minute sequence in There Will Be Blood, which captures the essence of the movie. The scene starts off with a fire in one of the oil wells owned and operated by Daniel Plainview. Without even blinking or gaping at the enormity of...
    by AzadK at July 18th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
  • 11
    Why did the Brake Fail…
    I am going a bit regional here… I think this post will only interest people who have interest in Bengali cinema. And since not much of Tollywood is represented in PFC anyway, this may not be that bad an idea… This is mainly about this guy called Kaushik Ganguly whose fourth film Brake Fail released today in Bengal. The film premiered last night at a city multiplex...
    by Pratim D. Gupta at July 10th, 2009 at 10:07 am
  • 0
    Boarding Gate – Releasing in India
    Comments from Olivier Assayas – Director of Boarding Gate ‘Boarding Gate’ releases at PVR Cinemas in Bangalore and Delhi on 17th July ASIA: ALL INSTINCT Asia is one of few actresses completely at home on a film set with no regard to stature. She has been on film sets since she was very young so she’s more at ease with technicians on a chaotic set than...
    by NDTV Lumiere at July 10th, 2009 at 12:07 am
  • 1
    Divided We Fall: Stands Tall
    The celluloid has never been devoid of war films. Time and again there has been one or more of those, generously dipped into the period of the Holocaust and discovering stories hence. I have never had a natural pull towards these epics but have not been completely alienated either. The intention is quite there, to give me, a slice of the past, more oft focusing distinctively...
    by Arthi V at July 8th, 2009 at 06:07 pm
  • 16
    Caught in Prosopamnesia
    Having a good memory is a pain This is not a review. This is a post about few movies I have seen long time ago and for some reasons could not forget. May be because I was premature ten years ago and the movies were complex for me to decipher, these movies had an unforgettable impact on me. Presently, I can only recollect the basic storyline and remember few isolated...
    by ~uh~™ at June 29th, 2009 at 11:06 am
  • 1
    Interview With Filmmaker Eric Rohmer
    Acclaimed French director Éric Rohmer once again explores the notion of love and fidelity in his epic romantic drama, The Romance Of Astrea And Celadon. Catch the movie that was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, on NDTV Lumiere TV Channel on 28th June at 10.00 pm Below is an interview with the director, Eric Rohmer Adapting...
    by NDTV Lumiere at June 26th, 2009 at 12:06 am
  • 13
    Iran, Contradiction and The Taste of Cherry
    It didn’t surprise me when I read that Neda Agha-Soltan, the woman shot dead in the protests on the streets of Tehran last week, was dressed in a pair of jeans and sneakers under the black cloak. It summed up the contradiction that is Iran. A contradiction that flummoxes the most astute observers of the Persian state. And, maybe, a contradiction that helps explain that...
    by Subrat at June 24th, 2009 at 12:06 am
  • 8
    Some thoughts on recent films watched
    I haven’t had the time these days to watch much films. Got caught up in work and liquor. Didn’t even see 99 or the toast of the season – Sankat City. May be will watch them soon. Just a couple of movie updates that I managed to see in the past few days The killing – Quite possibly one of the inspirations for reservoir dogs. Multiple characters, multiple...
    by kartik krishnan at June 22nd, 2009 at 03:06 am
  • 12
    Critics’ fight and fury
    [Thoughts, thoughts and thoughts on film criticism in India and elsewhere.] One of the first generation of American film critics, James Agee said, “There are a good many people who honestly enjoy movies, know the difference between good work and bad, and care a great deal about the difference.” But how many people, who are writing about films today, really understand...
    by Salik Shah at June 18th, 2009 at 01:06 am
  • 2
    Goodwill Hunting
    Inspirational,  entertaining,  feel  good,  and  one  of   the  best  scripts   written.  Take a bow Matt and Ben. IMDB
    by Ratnakar Sadasyula at June 16th, 2009 at 08:06 am
  • 1
    Playing in the Company of Men
    ‘Playing in the Company of Men’ which premiered at the 2003 Festival de Cannes is a highly political fable of power, corruption, vengeance and renunciation. Set in the violent world of business and high finance, the story is about an adopted son of a wealthy arms dealer caught in a web of lies and brutality. The film will be aired on the NDTV Lumiere TV channel on...
    by NDTV Lumiere at June 11th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
  • 6
    Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
    In the classic serial killer book, Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal Lector intones that a serial killer starts his killings essentially to get that thing which he covets the most. This simple and flawless logic is seen in the movie Perfume: A Story of a Murderer where we are witness to the genesis of a serial killer. One difference here is being that since we know his...
    by Sudhir Nair at May 31st, 2009 at 09:05 am
  • 13
    The Requiem Or the Dream ?
    “What man of you, having an hundred sheep if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Luke 15:4 Whether it’s Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” or “The Zahir“, the recurrent dream, the pursuit of a goal has been a winner’s...
    by Subhasish Chakraborty at May 27th, 2009 at 02:05 pm
  • 2
    Cannes: Cinema Paradiso
    Exhausted! That is what I am. I have been to film festivals and film festivals, and when I got the opportunity to come for the first time to Cannes, I knew it was the biggest one, but had never imagined it would be so big. May be, that’s what everyone finds out the first time here. And if you are a journalist who also has to write for his newspaper (because the newspaper...
    by Runumi G at May 22nd, 2009 at 06:05 am
  • 2
    Asif Kapadia speaks about making ‘Far North’
    My co- writer Tim and I had discussed many projects to follow up The Warrior, it took us a long time to find the right idea, but once I read the short story ‘True North’ by Sara Maitland, I felt a tingle of excitement I had not felt since Tim first mentioned the tale of the Samurai Boy being shown a severed head which eventually developed into The Warrior. There was...
    by NDTV Lumiere at May 20th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
  • 23
    Cannes: ‘Basterd’ Tarantino!
    Tarantino is back, and how! Inglourious Basterds created all the anticipated storm here at Cannes. Quite surely, the presence of Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt played a major role in that. But that was outside the theatres – the Grand Lumiere Red Carpet screening will be in the evening, but the early morning media screening saw a packed house, followed by a mad scramble...
    by Runumi G at May 20th, 2009 at 04:05 am
  • 4
    Cannes: Almodovar, Loach, Resnais
    Is it the effect of the recession gloom I don’t know, but the peddlers of heavy stuff have all come with feel good films this time to Cannes. If Ang Lee’s ‘return-to-innocence’ ode to Woodstock, not surprisingly called Taking Woodstock, lightened the Cannes delegates’ mood left shocked and awed by Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and some gory stuff in a few other...
    by Runumi G at May 20th, 2009 at 04:05 am
  • 9
    Cannes: Antichrist
    Speechless. That was what most of the critics who came out last night from the media screening of Danish master Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. What a shocker of a film this is. Forget Jane Campion’s Bright Star, Jacques Audiard’s Un Prophete, Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric – all quite good films – and get...
    by Runumi G at May 18th, 2009 at 11:05 am
  • 4
    Cannes: Vengeance’s secret formula to success
    Dear filmmaker (and film lover) friends in India. I have just discovered the secret formula through which you can get your film into Cannes, possibly even the competition section. Get some French investment in the project, sign a big French name (such as music icon Johnny Hallyday) and develop a story which has a French connection – even a remote one will do. That’s...
    by Runumi G at May 17th, 2009 at 05:05 am
  • 4
    Cannes: Taking Woodstock, Un Prophete
    Ang Lee means tragic stories. At least that has been the case in recent years. Watch Taking Woodstock, and you will be astounded his this man changes genres like we change shirts. How many directors in contemporary world cinema can we think of who has such versatility in terms of theme, treatment and making as Lee? From Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Lust, Caution,...
    by Runumi G at May 16th, 2009 at 06:05 am
  • 8
    Cannes: Kya Karein Ki Naa Karein…..
    This morning, I suddenly recalled the song “Kya Karein Ki Naa Karein Ye Kaisi Mushkil Bhai” from Rangeela. Man, this song could be the anthem of anyone visiting Cannes Film Fest, that too for the first time. What to take, and what to leave? – completely confusing. As a journalist, I am supposed to cover any possible India-angle stories apart from the main festival...
    by Runumi G at May 15th, 2009 at 07:05 am
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