FIN

STARTERS: Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee

2010-11-30T12:41:00.003+05:30

Today's screening:
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN by Ang Lee
Thank you Anoodha Kunnath, PG II yr, Film and Video Communication for the lovely posters! :)

On the Menu: Celebrating food in Cinema

2010-11-30T12:23:00.003+05:30

2010 Film Club Elections:RESULTS!

2010-10-05T22:38:00.003+05:30

The five are:

Sandhya R. FVC 3rd sem PG
Anirban G. AFD 3rd sem PG
Diwas B. AFD 1st sem PG
Ishanee S. FVC 3rd sem PG
Hariprasad FVC 3rd sem PG

Congrats,guys!

And the Winners are..

2009-10-16T12:42:00.002+05:30

Results of this years Film Club elections:

Anirban Ghosh
1st Yr Animation(PG)

Anish Dasgupta
2nd Yr Graphics(UG)

Boopathy Srinivasan
1st Yr Graphics(PG)

Post-script:
Myself(Kaveri, 3rd Yr Animation UG) will be continuing for this year.

Elections

2009-09-22T14:26:00.002+05:30

Octobe 1st
is the tentative date.

So far three nominees received and two coming up.

Here's to hoping for fresh blood and enthusiasm that works.

Poster/Handout:Singing in the Rain

2009-09-22T14:20:00.003+05:30

Cover (hand drawn)and inside leaf by Anish Dasgupta, 2nd Yr UG Graphic Design.

September Schedule

2009-09-10T23:12:00.002+05:30

03- Three minutes Older( shorts on concept of 'Time')

Week for the Women
08- Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou
10- Wayward Girls and Wicked Women Vol 3( Compilation of animation shorts,made by women)

Off-the-reel:Documentaries

14-Nightmail by John Grierson
and Manjuben Truck Driver by Sherna Dastur

17-In the name of God by Anand Patwardhan

Adapatations:
22-Four Nights of a Dreamer by Robert Bresson
23-Rajanigandha by Basu Chatterjee
24-Dr Zhivago by Robert Ford

Middle Eastern Cinema
29-Dayereh or The Circle by Jafar Panahi
01-Moolade by Ousmane Sembene

Poster:A short film about Love

2009-09-01T11:50:00.001+05:30

Digital poster in Colour+ B&W version.
Designed by Abhijit, 3rd year UG Graphic Design.

Once:Handout+Poster

2009-08-03T19:46:00.004+05:30

Illustration by Anish Dasgupta, 2nd year UG Graphic Design.The image was used for the handout exterior as well,folding across the center.

'Once' ,directed by John Carney,was screened on Thursday,30th July.

The Dublin-based musical won the Oscar for the best original soundtrack, besides numerous awards for its off-beat, simplistic tale of the chance meeting between a heartbroken street musician and an immigrant.

August:Monsoon Schedule

2009-07-30T22:49:00.004+05:30

The months screening schedule runs as follows-

4th August:Raining Cats and Frogs by Jacques-Rémy Girerd(French,Animation)
6: Talk To Her by Pedro Almodóvar(Spanish)

9,10:German double film package(with guest directors)

11,13:Directors' Special : Krzysztof Kieślowski(Polish)
A Short Story about Love
A Short Story about Killing

18: Sciuscià(Shoeshine) by Vittorio De Sica (Italian)
20: Ivan's Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky (Russian)

25: American Beauty by Sam Mendes (English)
27: Monsoon Wedding by Mira Nair (English,Hindi)

Contact any of us if you'd like to make a poster,design a handout or give an introduction to any of the films.

Thursday 2nd:Amores Perros

2009-07-02T15:07:00.002+05:30

Three interconnected stories, about the different strata of life in Mexico City all resolve with a fatal car accident.
Dog fights, newly-weds and a homeless voyeur of sorts find scope in this tale of loss, death, leading one to dive into the implications of the 'grinding out of life'.
Directed by none other than the man who brought us 21 grams and Babel, and this was only his film debut.

Director:Alejandro González Iñárritu
Realease in:2000
Language:Mexican
Duration:150 mins
Awards: Oscar nomination, 51 other award wins and 14 nominations (phew!)

Tuesday 30th: The White Balloon

2009-06-30T00:17:00.000+05:30

The Iranian New Year is coming up, and young Rafi has an unusual wish. She wants a goldfish that dances in the bowl, and the regular ones are too skinny for her liking.
Jafar Panahi's award-winning debut film also happens to be written by Abbas Kiarostami, the acclaimed Iranian director.

Name: Badkonake Sefid( or The White Balloon)
Language:Persian
Released in:1995
Runtime:85 mins

HandoutThe 7 Year Itch

2009-06-26T16:50:00.002+05:30

Film:The Seven Year Itch, starring the infamous Marilyn Monroe, directed by Billy Wilder.
The film was screened in March, our month of Comedy.
Handout designed by Anish Dasgupta of UG 3rd semester, Graphic Design.
Handmade front(as seen above),
Inside printed text.

Handout:History of the world Part 1

2009-06-26T16:39:00.003+05:30

Title:History of the World Part-1, directed by Mel Brooks.
Screened in March, our month of Comedy.
Handout designed by Anish Dasgupta, currently in 3rd semester Graphic Design. The front was printed out on A3 format and displayed as a poster,as well.

Poster/Handout FYI

2009-06-24T20:32:00.002+05:30

Here are the basic details that must be included when one is interested in making a poster/handout. These are necessary to give out the right amount of information to the community,and to prevent any confusions such as 'Oh I thought the film was last week?'

Poster MUSTS!
1.Film name
2.Director name
3.Filmclub Logo( on blog,RHS)
4.Time and location(Generally 6:15,Audi)
5.Date of screening

You must have seen the film before making a poster.(We will issue it previously for you,from the KMC).Please note that faff-making is visible,and direct copying of posters from online is a waste of time and paper/print facilities.

Hand-made posters,please collect your posters after the film,Filmclub is not responsible if other students love your artwork to the extent of neatly flicking it for their own walls. Also the size MUST be a double-imperial sheet.

Print posters, both Colour/B&W. Email the pdf to filmclub@nid.edu .Only A3.

Feast upon Delicatessen

2009-06-24T20:15:00.003+05:30

Imagine a post-apocalyptic society where food is so rare that it's invaluable, and is traded as currency.
So what's a delicatessen,or bakery,doing at the bottom floor of an apartment building? Ex-clowns lend their hearts to bakers' daughters, bargaining more than just a handyman's job in a deliciously black comedy directed by none other than the maker of the quirky french comedy, Amelie.

Name:Delicatessen
Director(s):Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
Released in:1991
Runtime:99 mins
Lang:French

Thursday 24th

615
Audi

Poster for City of God

2009-06-23T09:28:00.002+05:30

Sent in by Aditya Somway,
2nd Year PG,Furniture and Interior Design.

23rd Tuesday:City of God

2009-06-22T19:58:00.004+05:30

City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund.

It was adapted from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins which was based on a true story. It depicts the growth of organized crime in this Rio de Janeiro suburb, between the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '80s.

Youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during this era ,and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s.
Only a sucker wouldn't have turned to crime and this is exactly how naive teen Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) views himself. His attempts in illegal activity fail as he finds potential victims too friendly and he is equally unsuccessful in love.
Blood spills throughout the streets of the Ciudad de Deus as the 'infallible' gang leader Li'l Ze is challenged by local drug lords and a gang of pre-teens known as the Runts.
Rocket shoots all of this action with his weapon of choice, a camera.

Director Fernando Meirelles combines visual flashiness with dark history in telling the story of three decades of unrest in underground Rio de Janiero. Technically flawless, the Brazilian film uses a rapid-cutting style to flash back and forth in time

Special screening:Remembering the Maestro.

2009-06-22T19:48:00.002+05:30

Remembering the Maestro.
Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akhbar Khan passed away on Friday 19th 2009.

NID Film Club would like to pay a tribute the master, every one is requested to be at the AUDI, today, at 6:15 pm.

As per the programme we’ll like to start with listening to a rear recording of Ustad Ali Akhbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar rendering DHUN PALAAS KAFI
Followed by a movie Ustad composed music for : Devi, directed by Satyajit Ray.

Something about the Maestro.
Ustad Ali Akhbar Khan was born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of comilla district , now in Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of 3, learning vocal music from his father Ustad Alauddin Khan and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.
Khan gave his first performance in Allahabad at the age of 13 and made his first gramophone recording in Lacknow when he was in his 20s. He became the court musician of the Maharaja of Jodhpur and continued for seven years until his patrons passed away. The state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him the title of ‘Ustad’.
At the request of Menuhin, Khan visited U.S. in 1955 and performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.He was the first to cut a long play record of Indian classical music in US. and to give a sarod recital on American TV.
A recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, he was a colossus in the world of the Indian classical music for the last five decades. He was admired by both eastern as well as western musicians for his brilliant composition and his mastery of the 25-string instrument .
He founded the Ali Akhbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956. In 1956 he began teaching in the U.S. and opened a branch of his college there and in Switzerland. In 1997, the maestro performed at the United Nations to celebrate the 50th year of India’s Independence.

The Ustad also composed music for films. He scored music for Chetan Anand’s Aandhian(1953), Ivory-Merchant production House Holder, Tapan Sinha’s Khudita Pashan, Stayajit Ray’s Devi and U.S. director Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.

18th June:Opening Film

2009-06-22T19:42:00.002+05:30

It's that time of the year again, when one must choose the perfect 'opening show' for a brand new year.
Filmclub is proud to have presented Miyazaki's Oscar award-winning 'Spirited Away' ,on Thursday 18th June.

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the world's greatest animation directors. He was born in 1941,Tokyo.The magically constructed plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking animation in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
[When asked about his work's role in modern pop-culture] "The truth is I have watched almost none of it. The only images I watch regularly come from the weather report."

The film. In a universe comparable only to Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland', find jekyll-and-hyde witches, ancient japanese gods and symbols, unusual bathhouses and a myriad of mysterious and chillingly dream-like creatures that only Hayao Miyazaki could bring to life.
It all starts with a wrong turn down the road.

Spirited Away (or Sen To Chihiro no Kamikakushi)
Directed/Written by Hayao Miyazaki
Language:Japanese

Posters for M.A.S.H

2009-03-29T13:55:00.005+05:30

M.A.S.H,an unforgettable part of American popular culture set during the 70s cold war and directed by Robert Altman, was screened on the 24th of March.

A grand total of three,count 'em,Three, Posters were made for the screening-A4,Digital- by Tarun Padmakumar(http://gamerheads.blogspot.com), 3rd Year FVC.

March-Month of LAUGHS.

2009-03-08T23:23:00.002+05:30

As mentioned in the last email, this month we're focusing on films in
the genre of humour, in some cases redefining the classic concept of
Hollywood comedy.

SCHEDULE goes this way:

12-Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -Satyan Bose

17-Midsummer nights sex comedy-Woody Allen
18-Canterbury Tales-Paculini
19-Chasme Budoor-Sai Paranjpe

24-M.A.S.H- Robert Altman
25-History of the World Part 1-Mel Brooks (Yes,it is a comedy,the
title says it all)
26-Bawarchi- Hrishikesh Mukherjee

31-Buster Keaton-A hard act to follow (documentary)

1-(let's see what happens in the Audi at 615,Shall We?)
2-Short films of Jacques Tati

Contact one of the usuals for posters/handouts/if you'd like to
introduce a film..thats Kaveri Deepak(come by the animation studio) or Ahona/Rudro.

Foundation,please wake up!It's disappointing to see sooo little enthusiasm this year.Especially to those interested in taking up film/animation next year-Unsecure is not enough,sorry to say.

Have fun before the ascent of the Juries
and the heat wave in April!

And the Winners are..

2009-03-02T15:40:00.004+05:30

Results of the POSTER EXHIBITION held over a week ago.

The judges shortlisted a selection of posters from the display and here are the results:

1. and 2. go to Jasjyot Singh Hans, 2nd Yr Animation UG, for Harvey Krumpet and Ten.

Special Award to Anish Dasgupta, Foundation, for his handmade illustration used for unusual format of both bookmark/poster.

Handouts and promos were too few in number to be judged this time,hopefully by the next semester there will enough entries.

The VOUCHERS at leading bookstores will be awarded to the winners.

Thanks to everyone who participated,I hope we'll have a lot more posters and handouts coming up soon!

The Alter and The Ocean

2009-02-23T14:33:00.006+05:30

Tom Alter, well known actor, writer and sports journalist, is in NID for the next few days.He acts in 'Ocean of an Old Man',an extraordinary film, made in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami devastations that took and altered lives forever.
Tom Alters will also perform a play+ give a Baatein session over the next few days.

Stills from the film:

Tom Alter is the son of American missionaries, and has lived in India all his life.
He is best recalled for acting in the long running TV Serial 'Junoon', in Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Sardar(1993),and the Hollywood film 'One night with the King'.
Alters has also acted in a long list of Hindi films for the past two decades.
In theatre, he has contributed to William Dalrymple's 'City of Djinns' (2007) with Zohra Sehgal, and 'Maulana', based on the life of Maulana Azad.
He was recently awarded the Padmashree.

Ocean of an Old Man (2008)
100 Min
Directed by Rajesh Shera
Lead Actor: Tom Alters
A schoolteachers' life consists of meeting his young, angel-like students who travel every day to school from neighbouring islands.
His reality is wiped away, one day, when the Ocean takes away his loved ones. When the Government evacuates the islanders, he chooses to stay back in an old Japanese bunker on the devastated island.
This is his story.

Tuesday
24th February
6 15 Audi

He's also going to enact a play in the Amphi, and give a Baatein session through the duration of his stay.Contact KHEL and Baatein for those details.

Screening of tuesdays film 'Good morning Babylon',has hence been cancelled in place of OCEAN.

POSTER DISPLAY

2009-02-21T17:09:00.002+05:30

Finally!
A collection of posters from across the last 2 and a half semesters were finally collected,dusted,and put up for display in the foyer.
Display ran Thursday and Friday,print posters were also up.
Rather exciting prizes also due for the BEST POSTER and two runner-ups.
Results are out very,very soon.

Oliver Twist:Handouts

2009-02-18T16:07:00.001+05:30

The front cover of the handout.Again by Anish Dasgupta,who by now is building up a hefty jury portfolio in foundation.

Something new!Bookmarks for 'The Pianist'.

2009-02-18T16:02:00.002+05:30

I decided to go about the screening of The Pianist,by Roman Polanski,in a big way.Filmclub actually got a lot of email requests(in one case,a PD chap one exchange voiced his enthusiasm over the selection.) and hence a lot of publicity biz was done.
Anish Dasgupta(foundation) wanted to try making bookmarks rather than handouts,an installation was also set up outside the Audi.
Glad it all worked out.:)

December Posters

2009-02-18T15:54:00.002+05:30

Posters made by Anish Dasgupta, an enthusiastic elf from Foundation. This was during the December Classics month.

'Dweepa'

2009-02-05T12:10:00.005+05:30

Dweepa(kannada),directed by Girish Kasaravalli and a National award winner,marked the start of the Pongal Film Festival in January.
The much-appreciated(therefore flicked,repeatedly,hours before screening began)poster was worked on by Arunprakash, a PG 2nd semester Animation student.

For the New Yr,FINs spreading out, renovating, updating itself..

2008-12-24T00:37:00.004+05:30

What happens to most well-recieved innovations? They spread out, reinvent themselves, get 'branded',numbers increase...heck, CCD,RelianceFresh,even RK egg eatery bear testament to that.

Its about time G-NID(Gandhinagar NID,to you) got kick-started.
And thanks to intervention from Sekhar Mukherjee and Kanika( TAD,1st yr)
Their Audi will soon be graced with regular film screenings and audience of the like; making this a landmark for Film Club.Both of them.:)
Personally, I'm glad Gandhinagar and Paldi have this common link, and lets hope for many more in the future.

Next Update.
Film CluB Poster Exhibition scheduled this month. Posters being uprooted from across the last two semesters, and the best one of course will receive a substantial goody-bag type prize from Crosswords.
Similar plans for FIN Promos;regarding which many enthusiasts have promised new promos this semester.

Keep Posted.
Merry XMas and peace to All.

Signing off.

A Classic December.

2008-12-24T00:28:00.002+05:30

To those who take a peek at this lonely blogspot- it aint resting in peace yet.

First things first:Current SCREENINGS.
'December Classics' was the theme,continueing into Jan.We're moving across the continent,starting with the epic 'Gone with the Wind' and entering UK,Europe,India(local classics),the Orient, and so on.

Dec
23 8 1/2 (Fredrico Felinni,Italy)
27 Blow up (Antonioni,Italy)

30 Metropolis( Fritz Lang,Germany)
31 New Years Eve Special: Oliver Twist (David Lean,Great Britain)

Jan
1 New Years Day: Triplets of Belleville(animation,France)
6 Rules of the game( Renoir,France)
8 Macbeth (Orson Welles)

Million Dollar Hotel poster

2008-11-03T23:25:00.002+05:30

Will wonders never cease?An overseas poster flew into our inbox,in an unusual format a day before Million Dollar Hotel was screened during the last week of the semester.And its never to late to archive.
And from an Ex-FIn member too.Much obliged to (and inspired/impressed by!) Shreyas Krishnan 7th Sem Graphic Design for this one.
:)

Afterthought on notebooks

2008-10-23T11:14:00.003+05:30

(Handout by Pragya Mishra,7th semester Graphic Design)
Tuesdays screening was 'Notebook on cities and clothes'.
Wim Wenders and Yohji Yamamoto chat about cities and clothes,with Yamamotos unimitatable,refreshingly blasphemous takes on his city(Tokyo),the conflict of identity and affirmations that 'Im a dressmaker,not a fashion designer'.

A documentary,or perhaps going beyond the definition of one?

True this may be,despite that thou might disagree!

Once in a while,people take the initiative to holler back a response after yet another cycle of screenings.As the semester comes to a close,Manish Desai from TAD,3rd semester PG sent in an email on tuesdays' film:
" A designer could connect very well to it. It also examined the nature of documentary and somehow it was about inner conversations between two people brought out in movie."

Take a peek at his blog http://ekantik.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/in-my-mirror/ and see for yourself.
More words like this,if not a review or 'critical cinematographic analysis' will cause the FIN blog to do a hearty (yet dignified,mind) jig on the NID server.

Oct 22nd-Buena Vista Social club

2008-10-21T14:20:00.002+05:30

The Buena Vista Social club was born in 1949 in a neighbourhood in Havana,capital of Cuba.The members only club was a place for musicians to meet,play their music together and smoke a cigar or two.
They sang of the ancient deities of fire and water, gave birth to the New World Afro Caribbean religion of Santería, the spiritual heart of Cuban music. A smooth blend of African percussion,European bass and loose American influences was played.

Pianist Rubén González, who played piano on the 1990s recordings, described the 1940s as "an era of real musical life in Cuba, where there was very little money to earn, but everyone played because they really wanted to". The era saw the birth of the jazz influenced mambo, the charanga, and dance forms such as the pachanga and the cha-cha-cha, as well as the continued development of traditional Afro-Cuban musical styles such as rumba and son.

From the 1960s,the cuban governement began a program of shutting down all nighttime entertainment centers-namely gambling outlets,nightclubs and other places associated with Havana's hedonistic,or pleasure-pursueing reputation. A rapid shift to Communism to build a 'classless and colourless society' meant a redefining of forms of expression in the black community. social and cultural centers were abolished and funds stopped,and with that, a whole generation of music and musicans burnt out.

Cold war politics,namely America's suspicious attitude toward Castro's regime,further discouraged revolutionary ideals and the passage of cuban music into america,such as the beginnings of the latino craze in the early 20th century in Europe and America.
By the late 60s, the distinctness of the myriad sub-genres of Cuban tropical music began to blur, diluting into the generic "salsa" that we have today.

The closure of the buena vista social club was inevitable.

In 1996, American guitarist Ry Cooder was invited to Havana by British world music producer Nick Gold of World Circuit Records to record a session where two African High-life musicians from Mali were to collaborate with Cuban musicians.On Cooder's arrival (via Mexico to avoid the ongoing U.S. trade and travel embargo against Cuba).Plans changed and Cooder and Gold decided to record an album of Cuban son music with local musicians.A total of 20 musicans contributed,finally.
Communication between the Spanish and English speakers at the studio was conducted via an interpreter, although Cooder reflected that "musicians understand each other through means other than speaking"
Upon release on 17 September 1997, the CD became a huge "word of mouth hit".It sold more than 5 million copies and won a Grammy award in 1998.In 2003 it was listed by the New York based Rolling Stone magazine as #260 in The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Ry Cooder inspired New German Cinema director wim wenders to film the new beginnings of the buena vista social club album.The performers had concerts in New York and Amsterdam.Footage of the recording sessions,interviews with the musical veterans and final shots of the rural islanders in the Big Apple(some had never stepped beyond their island) were what make some of the most moving scenes in the documentary.No wonder Wenders quoted "..didnt feel like a documentary anymore,feels like a character piece."
The international success of the Buena Vista Social Club generated a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole,and they continued to tour the world,remarkably...something of a music anamoly!

refer to http://wim-wenders.com
http://pbs.org/buena vista
for more information and extraordinary photography taken by Wenders and his wife.

Oct 14th-23:Sax and violins:The Wim Wender Film Fest

2008-10-13T14:26:00.003+05:30

"Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more
into sax and violins."

Who is Wim Wenders?

Ernst Wilhelm ("Wim") Wenders (born August 14, 1945) is a German film
director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.

After dabbling in medicine,philosophy,painting and finally as an
engraver,Wenders decided to follow his obsession after watching upto 5
movies every day at the local theatre.He joined the University of Film
& Television Munich in 1967 that fall,subsequently as a film critic.

He debuted in the 1960s as part of the New German Cinema with 'Summer
in the City' and earned further honours between 1982-87 at the Venice
Film Festival,Cannes Film Festival,Bavarian Film Awards and Locarno
International Film Festival.

AND this fortnight is the Wim Wenders Film Festival- 6 films across 2
weeks; every tuesday to thursday.

14th- The American Friend(1977)
15th- Tokyoga(1985)
16th- Wings of Desire(1987)

21st- Notebook on Cities and Clothes(1989)
22nd- Buena Vista Social Club(1999)
23rd- Million Dollar Hotel(2000)

Do contact one of us if you'd like to do an introduction or make a poster!

Filmclub '08-'09

2008-09-16T20:34:00.004+05:30

The end of yet another term of another committee of Filmclub.

The elections for 3 posts of the Filmclub managing committee just concluded and the three who will be taking over are as follows:

RUDRO.B
sem 3,gdpd
Film & Video Communication

KAVERI.G
sem 3, gdpd
Animation Film Design

AHONA DUTTA GUPTA
sem 1, pgdpd
Film & Video Communication

Congratulations and best of luck guys!

:D

The old team
(Shreyas, Sarah, Amarantha, Deepak)

Sept 16, TEKKON KINKREET

2008-09-16T19:11:00.002+05:30

Today we have a special screening to go with the election for the new Filmclub managing committe (2008-2009). (Results to be posted soon).

From the Animation studio that brought you Animatrix comes this visually stunnig new anime film based on the popular Japanese manga written by Taiyo Matsumoto. In Treasure Town, life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White, two street urchins who watch over the city, doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis.

For more: Visit the official website

Sept 11, SHOLAY

2008-09-16T19:02:00.003+05:30

Cut to India.

The most popular western ever made here.

SHOLAY

Ramesh Sippy

Sholay can be said to have inaugurated the modern period of commercial Hindi cinema. Often described as India's best-known "curry" western, Sholay was 'patterned' on American spaghetti westerns, though as with any other good Hindi film, the presumed 'copy' is at least as interesting as the 'original'. The addition of romance, comedy, and songs gave it the ambiance that one expects of a Hindi film. The film narrates the story of an ex-cop Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) who hires two jail birds (Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra) to eradicate a town and neighbouring villages of the menace of Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and his band of dreaded dacoits.

The film made use of several interesting innovations. This included its spectacular cinematography, with shots panning over rocky heights and barren canyons, often under menacing clouds. This lends the movie much of its eerie tension. One of the long opening scenes, which shows a train being defended by Baldev Singh against an attack by bandits, is quite spectacular in its effects, and is reminiscent of similar scenes in westerns, most notably John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939). Sholay, likewise, plays upon themes of nature versus culture, the encroachment of nature upon culture, and the meaning of civilization in wilderness.

“Kitne aadmi the?”

But Sholay will also be remembered for the heights it took villainy to in Indian films. Unlike earlier villains who were content to bring about a misunderstanding between the lovers' families, Amjad Khan's Gabbar seems to pursue evil as an end in itself.

Sholay presents interesting parallels with its predecessor by nearly two decades, Mehboob Khan's Mother India, notably in the enduring trope of the daku (Indian English "dacoit") or highwayman—an outlaw whose popular representations span the gamut from freedom-loving Robin Hood to rapacious sociopath. Unlike in the former, the dakus of Sholay—from their first appearance in the flashback of the train-shootout—are unambiguously evil and bent on carnage, yet they are apparently ensconced in the very heart of the nation (the film's visual setting is the plateau country of the northern Deccan, India's midsection), and the forces of social order (here focused in the brooding patriarch, Thakur Baldev Singh) are powerless to defeat them. Indeed, the sadistic Gabbar Singh has brutally murdered this "Father India's" two sons and has literally cut off his law-administering arms (cf. the comparable though "accidental" mutilation of the father in Mother India). To strike back, Singh must (as he puts it) "use iron to cut iron," replacing his slain offspring and severed arms with two "adopted" criminal “hands,” who alone possess the requisite bravery (and moral ambivalence) to track down the monster in his lair.

Significantly, a mere six weeks before the premiere of Sholay, on June 26 1975, another self-styled "Mother India," Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, claiming that anti-social forces imperiled the nation and that draconian measures were required to prevent chaos, imposed a "State of Emergency," suspending constitutional rights and jailing thousands of political opponents. In retrospect, Sippy’s cinematic epic appears as a surprisingly dark and prescient parable of the erosion of traditional order and the brutalization of politics in the once-happy village of Ramgarh—the Nation writ cinemascope.

One of the biggest hits in history of Bollywood, Sholay (in English as Embers, Flames, Flames of the Sun), was recognized as the Best Film of 50 years at the 50th Filmfare awards. It was India's first 70 mm, stereophonic sound film and was released on Friday, August 15, 1975, with as many as 250 prints, including at the Minerva Theatre in Bombay (now Mumbai). This was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theatres across India. To date, more than 1,100 prints of Sholay are in circulation-the highest number for any Hindi film.

Although initially declared a commercial disaster, Sholay went on to become the most successful film in Indian film history. It is the highest grossing movie of all time in India with collections of Rs. 2,134,500,000/- or US $ 50 million. Even today, it remains the box office gold, a reference point for both the Indian film-going audience & the film industry.

The large cast of super-stars contributed to that, as did the memorable dialogues between Gabbar and Baldev Singh, and between Gabbar and his henchmen. Amjad Khan played the role with perfection, and not without sardonic humor. His lines became so popular that cassettes of Gabbar's dialogues were being sold separately, to be learnt by rote by millions of movie goers.

It is widely acknowledged by movie critics to be one of the best movies ever created by Bollywood and to be the most watched and popular. It was declared "Film of the Millenium" by BBC India and internet polls in 1999.

Sept 09, STAGECOACH

2008-09-16T18:35:00.005+05:30

This week we return to Westerns, not Spaghetti Westerns though. We start with

STAGECOACH
John Ford

Although there were Westerns before it, Stagecoach quickly became a template for all movie Westerns to come. Director John Ford combined action, drama, humor, and a set of well-drawn characters in the story of a stagecoach set to leave Tonto, New Mexico for a distant settlement in Lordsburg, with a diverse set of passengers on board.

Dallas a woman with a scandalous past who has been driven out of town by the high-minded ladies of the community. Lucy Mallory is the wife of a cavalry officer stationed in Lordsburg, and she's determined to be with him. Hatfield is a smooth-talking cardsharp who claims to be along to "protect" Lucy, although he seems to have romantic intentions. Dr. Boone is a self-styled philosopher, a drunkard, and a physician who's been stripped of his license. Mr. Peacock is a slightly nervous whiskey salesman (and, not surprisingly, Dr. Boone's new best friend). Gatewood a crooked banker who needs to get out of town. Buck is the hayseed stage driver, and Sheriff Wilcox is along to offer protection and keep an eye peeled for the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), a well-known outlaw who has just broken out of jail.

While Wilcox does find Ringo, a principled man who gives himself up without a fight, the real danger lies farther down the trail, where a band of Apaches, led by Geronimo, could attack at any time.

Stagecoach offers plenty of cowboys, Indians, shootouts, and chases, aided by Yakima Canutt's remarkable stunt work and Bert Glennon's majestic photography of Ford's beloved Monument Valley. It also offers a strong screenplay by Dudley Nichols with plenty of room for the cast to show its stuff. John Wayne's performance made him a star after years as a B-Western leading man, and Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar for what could have been just another comic relief role. Thousands of films have followed Stagecoach's path, but no has ever improved on its formula.

For TRIVIA

poster: Shreyas R Krishnan

Sept o4, SATYA

2008-09-16T18:24:00.002+05:30

An Indian Noir today,

SATYA
Ram Gopal Varma

RGV’s most notable film to date and one that has set standards in its genre is Satya. Satya is the story of an impoverished man who is so dehumanized by society that the only way he can regain some of his humanity is by becoming a cold-blooded killer. It is said that the first thirty minutes of Satya are one of the best thirty minutes of Hindi cinema. It is an entirely different type of gangster film, in that there is no stylish portrayal of gangster life, nor is it a typical cat and mouse game between the police and thugs or between rival gangsters.

Sept 02, PSYCHO

2008-09-16T16:09:00.004+05:30

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

The term film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the era. Cinema historians and critics defined the canon of film noir in retrospect; many of those involved in the making of the classic noirs later professed to be unaware of having created a distinctive type of film.

What better way to start off a week of Noir films, than with the Master of Suspense himself. Alfred Hitchcock.

"There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it."

One of the most famous-- and possibly apocryphal-- Hitchcock anecdotes concerns a five-year-old Alfred Hitchcock, sent to the local police station with a note from his father after some mischief-making.After reading the note, a sergeant put young Alfred in a cell, and left him there for a few agonizing moments.The policeman returned and let Alfred go, only to tell him, "This is what we do to naughty boys." True or not, this story and Hitchcock's Roman Catholic background encompass all the themes Hitchcock would later put in his work-- terror inflicted upon the unknowing, and sometimes innocent victim; guilt (both real guilt and the appearance of it); fear, and redemption.

PSYCHO
1960

This is the film that best epitomises how Hitchcock could mis-direct audiences and play games with them.Psycho (1960) is the "mother" of all modern horror suspense films - it single-handedly ushered in an era of inferior screen 'slashers' with blood-letting and graphic, shocking killings (e.g., Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Motel Hell (1980), and DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980) - with another transvestite killer and shower scene).

It is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein. The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who is in hiding at a motel after embezzling from her employer, and the motel's owner, the lonely Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).

SAUL BASS (1920-1996) was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design thanks to his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. He is known for reinventing the movie title as an art form.

Haunting is the word to describe the vertical bars sweeping across the screen in a manic, mirrored helter-skelter motif at the beginning of Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho. This staccato sequence is an inspired symbol of Norman Bates’ fractured psyche. Hitchcock also allowed Bass to work on the film itself, notably on its dramatic highpoint, the famous shower –murder scene with Janet Leigh.

TRIVIA

The film only cost $800,000 to make yet has earned more than $40,000,000. Hitchcock used the crew from his TV series to save time and money. In 1962 exchanged the rights to the film and his TV-series for a huge block of MCA's stock (he became their third largest stockholder).

Robert Bloch's original novel was inspired by the notorious serial killer Ed Gein who was also one of the inspirations for the character of Hannibal Lector (The Silence of the Lambs/Manhunter).

Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for just $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret.

The blood in the shower scene is actually chocolate sauce.

The shot of Janet Leigh flushing the toilet is believed to be the first such shot in American cinema history.

The MPAA refused to pass this film because they claimed to be able to see Janet Leigh's nipple during the shower scene. Hitchcock didn't edit it out, but merely sent it back, (correctly, it seems) assuming that they either wouldn't bother to watch it, or miss it the second time.

Hitchcock insisted that audiences should only be allowed to see the film from the start so as not to ruin the surprise. This was unheard of back then as people were used to just coming in at any point during a movie.

After the film's release Hitchcock received an angry letter from the father of a girl who refused to have a bath after seeing Diabolique and now refused to shower after seeing Psycho. Hitch sent a note back simply saying "Send her to the dry cleaners".

extra: How to turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller

Aug 26,28, STUDENT FILMS

2008-09-16T15:50:00.003+05:30

This week, Filmclub brings to you student films from
the following schools. These were received as entries
for the Chitrakatha film festival held at NID

Aug 26th
ANAOLU UNIVERSITY, Turkey
USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS

Aug 28th
NANYANG POLYTECHNIC, Singapore
BEZALEL ACADEMY OF ART AND DESIGN, Jerusalem
UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA, Spain

Aug 21, CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE

2008-09-16T15:42:00.002+05:30

The next in our week of Surreal films is:

CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE
{SPIKLENCI SLASTI}
Jan Svankmajer
1996
Revered Czech animator Svankmajer's 1993 film is a virtually dialogue-free exploration of the strange intimate workings of the lives of six common people. Through a disturbing mix of live action and the wondrous stop-motion animation that the director is famous for, the humdrum lives of a postwoman, shopkeeper, television presenter, detective, and two apartment dwellers are examined and intertwined while we see the elaborate processes these people go through to satisfy strange fetishes which involve food, animals, and everything in between in a way which is not all sexual to the observer.

About the director:
After studying at the Institute of Industrial Arts and the Marionette Faculty of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, Jan Svankmajer started working as a theatre director, chiefly in association with the Theatre of Masks and the Black Theatre. He first experimented with film-making after becoming involved with the mixed-media productions of Prague's Lanterna Magika Theatre. He began making short films in 1964, and continued working in the same medium for over twenty years, when he finally achieved his long-held ambition to make a feature film based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (Neco z Alenky (1988)). He has also exhibited his drawings, collages and 'tactile sculptures', many of which were produced in the mid-1970s, when he was temporarily banned from film-making by the Czech authorities. He has been a card-carrying member of the Prague Surrealist Group since 1969.

Aug 19, LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE

2008-09-16T15:22:00.003+05:30

This week, we move on to Surreal films.

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sequitur; however many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader Andre Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, and philosophy and social theory

{ For the Surrealist Manifesto }

Filmref.com defines Surrealism as " Subjective depiction of emotive themes through unnatural, incongruous and fantastic imagery".

"The real purpose of Surrealism", as Luis Bunuel said, was "to explode the social order, to transform life itself."

LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE
{THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISE}
Luis Bunuel
1972

"The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie" was (and still is often considered) the most popular work of filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

Minor social embarrassment—people start showing up for a dinner party its hosts are unaware they are throwing—turns into a genial exercise in surrealism. Six middle-class friends keep trying to have a nice meal together, but something—love-making, military exercises, criminal activities, even a sequence where they find themselves on stage in a play, playing themselves—keeps preventing them from breaking bread.

Luis Buñuel creates an absurdly comic and wickedly incisive portrait of the meaningless social rituals and polite hypocrisy of the upper middle class in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. By interweaving exaggerated reality with lucid dream sequences, Buñuel blurs the distinction between civilized behavior and social indictment. He was 72 when he made this film.

Aug 16, WOODSTOCK

2008-09-16T15:06:00.005+05:30

Woodstock was a profit-making venture, aptly titled
"Woodstock Ventures". Around 186,000 tickets were
sold beforehand and organizers anticipated approximately
200,000 festival-goers would turn up. Tickets for the event
cost US$18 in advance and $24 at the gate for all three days.
Ticket saleswere limited to record stores in the greater New
York City area, or by mail via a Post Office Box at the Radio
City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan. As
the day of the festival neared, almost double the number of
expected people turned up and demanded that the concert be
made a free one.

The festival came amidst military conflict abroad and racial
discord at home. It was the biggest bash for the counterculture
and is a reminder of the youthful hedonism and excess of the 60s.
It was a culmination of what the counterculture meant—
the bands appealed to the generation that was questioning the
direction of American society. Many of the biggest artists
of the 60s performed at the Festival, and it was their influence on
the youth that brought them together to a farm in Bethel to
struggle against bad weather, food shortages and poor sanitation.
The site of Woodstock became, for four days, a countercultural
mini-nation. Minds were open, drugs were available and "love"
was "free". It was a festival where nearly 400,000 "hippies"
came together to celebrate under the slogan of "three days
of peace and music"

Woodstock- 3 days of peace and music, is a 1970 documentary
on the Woodstock Festival. The film was directed by Micha l
Wadleigh and was edited by (amongst others) Martin Scorsese
 and Thelma Schoonmaker. It received the Academy Award
for Documentary Feature, as well as a nomination for Best Sound.

TRIVIA
•  The documentary was reportedly edited from 120 miles of
 footage shot at the three-day concert.
•  While they don't appear in the film, or on the soundtrack,
a number of other artists played at Woodstock, such as The
Grateful Dead, Incredible String Band, Creedence Clearwater
Revival, Johnny Winter and Ravi Shankar played through the rain.
•  There is a small portion of footage of Jerry Garcia in the film
holding a joint, and also of him discussing the traffic problems
while tuning his guitar.
•  Though the Doors did not play at Woodstock, drummer
John Densmore can be seen briefly watching Joe Cocker from
the side of the stage.

For more on Woodstock the festival

Aug 14, THE GREAT DICTATOR

2008-08-14T13:03:00.002+05:30

We conclude this weeks war films with a film that could easily also fall
into the genre of comedy. This film takes place during the Second World
War and infact the film was released in America in 1940, i.e. 5 years
before the end of the war.

THE GREAT DICTATOR
Charles Chaplin

Chaplin got the idea when a friend, Alexander Korda, noted that
his screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later
learned they were both born within a week of each other, were roughly the
same height and weight and both struggled in poverty until they reached
great success in their respective fields.

When Chaplin learned of Hitler's policies of racial oppression and nationalist
 aggression, he used their similarities as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film.

When he  first announced that he was going to make this film, the British
government - whose policy at the time was one of appeasement towards Nazi
Germany - announced that they would ban it. By the time of the film's
release, though, Britain was at war with Germany and in the midst of the
blitz, so the government's attitude towards the film had completely
changed.

When this film was released, Adolf Hitler banned it in Germany and in all
countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity eventually got the best of him
and he had a print brought in through Portugal. He screened it not once
but twice. Unfortunately, history did not record his reaction to the film.
When told of this, Charles Chaplin said, "I'd give anything to know what
he thought of it."

Released 13 years after the end of the silent era, this was Chaplin's first all-talking,
all-sound film.

Ooops

2008-08-14T13:01:00.003+05:30

Hello,

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog. As of today, information about all the screenings have been posted.

Happy reading/watching!

Film Club

Aug 12, BATTLE OF ALGIERS

2008-08-14T12:58:00.003+05:30

This week, it's War.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
Gillo Pontecorvo

This film was commissioned by the Algerian government. It is based on the 1962 memoire novel
Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger, written by Saadi Yacef, one of the military chiefs of Algeria's
National Liberation Front The film shows the Algerian revolution from both sides. The French
Foreign L has left Vietnam in defeat and has to prove something. The Algerians are seeking
independence. The two clash. The torture used by the French is contrasted with the Algerian's
use of bombs in soda shops. A look at war as a nasty thing that harms and sullies everyone who
participates in it.

In 2003, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon screened this film for officers and civilian
experts who were discussing the challenges faced by the US military forces in Iraq. The flier inviting
guests to the screening read: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas".

This is the  only film in Oscar history to be a nominee in two separate non-consecutive years. It was
a foreign film nominee for 1966, and then a nominee for screenplay and direction for 1968.

Aug 7, UMBERTO D

2008-08-14T12:54:00.002+05:30

This Italian film which was directed in 1952 by Vittorio De Sica is part of the Itallian Neo Realist
film movement. Italian Neo Realism is a  kind of film making that came up after World War II as studios
were unable to afford large production. Films directors used unprofessional actor and shot
people in real location to cut cost. They also dealt with stories about the difficult economical
and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy.


UMBERTO D
Vittorio De Sica

Umberto D is a beautiful yet sad film that follows an old  retired civil servant who is desperately
trying to maintain a decent standard of living on a rapidly dwindling state pension. But he's up
against his tyrannical landlady, who keeps demanding rent that he can't pay (while renting his
room out to prostitutes during the day), and his only friends are the pregnant housemaid and his
 little dog Flike.  It is interesting to know that the director chose to name the leadcharacter of this
film after his own father. 

"The high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a
country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity."

Aug 6, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

2008-08-14T12:49:00.002+05:30

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks at the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and 9, 1945. After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.

The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945, roughly half on the days of the bombings. Since then, thousands more have died from injuries or illness attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians.

Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II. (Germany had signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe.) The bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding that nation from nuclear armament.

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
Isao Takahata

In the waning days of World War II, American bombers drop napalm canisters on Japanese cities, creating fire storms. These bombs, longer than a tin can but about as big around, fall to earth trailing cloth tails that flutter behind them; they are almost a beautiful sight. After they hit, there is a moment's silence, and then they detonate, spraying their surroundings with flames. In a Japanese residential neighborhood, made of flimsy wood and paper houses, there is no way to fight the fires.

"Grave of the Fireflies" (1988) is an animated film telling the story of two children from the port city of Kobe. With the fall of the fire bombs, they become orphans and homeless. This film, based on ‘Hotaru no Haka’, the semi-autobiography by Akiyuki Nosaka, relates the tragedies of war as Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive with only each other to hold onto.

ISAO TAKAHATA

Isao Takahata is a long-time colleague of Miyazaki and a co-head of Studio Ghibli. Unlike Miyazaki, Takahata started his career as a director from the beginning. Born in 1935, he graduated from the most prestigious university in Japan, Tokyo University, and joined the newly founded animation studio Toei Doga in 1959.

He and Miyazaki became friends through the animators' union at Toei Doga, which he vice-chaired and Miyazaki chaired. His first movie, Horus: The Prince of the Sun (1968) is still considered one of the greatest examples of Japanese animation. Miyazaki worked as an animator for this movie, providing numerous ideas. Takahata and Miyazaki continued working as a director-animator team for many great animated masterpieces, including Lupin III, Heidi, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, and Anne of Green Gables

Aug 5, KAAGAZ KE PHOOL

2008-08-14T12:33:00.002+05:30

KAGAZ KE PHOOL
Guru Dutt

Kaagaz ke Phool has been considered Guru Dutt's finest film by many. A
cinematic masterpiece that went over the audience's heads and sank like
the Titanic so to say.

Technically the film is perhaps his best film. The camerawork with
its use of light and shadows is magical. The frames have been
beautifully composed keeping in mind the cinemascope format. ( It is
India's first ever film in cinemascope and got cinematographer V.K.
Murthy the Filmfare award ) The relationship between the director and
his protégé is delicately handled on a very human plane. The film
making scenes are shot with meticulous attention to detail. The
ambiance of the film studios is most effectively created. (Although
audiences could not digest this breaking down of the myth surrounding
the film world, its aura and glamour ) And song picturisations, as
mentioned already a strong point of Guru Dutt, are taken to new heights
particularly Dekhi Zamaane ki Yaari and Waqt ne Kiya Kya Haseen Situm
the latter perhaps the best ever song sung by Geeta Dutt.

Today, Kaagaz ke Phool enjoys a cult following and goes house full whenever re-released.

July 31, SANKARABHARANAM

2008-08-14T12:27:00.002+05:30

More than anything the phenomenon of song and dance gives Indian Cinema its unique identity. Unlike Hollywood, where the 'Musical' was a separate genre by itself, song and dance has been an integral part of the narrative in Indian Cinema be it in any language or genre.

SANKARABHARANAM
Vishwanath

Shankarabharanam deals with the character, of Sankara Sastry, who devotes his heart and soul to Sangeetham. At the height of popularity, he meets Tulasi -a prostitute, who is also very interested in classical arts. Being impressed by Sankara Sastry's mastery over Carnatic music, she tries to devote her entire life to learn and practice under his guidance. She murders a man who tries to misbehave with her, and is sent to jail. Sastry fights for her and gets her out. But as the caste-ridden society does not accept the Guru-sishya relationship that they share, she leaves Sastry's home.

Several years later, Pop music is the ‘in-thing’ and Indian classical music takes a back seat with classical musicians finding it hard to earn their daily bread. At this point, Tulasi enters the story again, with her son…

Vishwanath's musical hit, Shankarabharanam, is often presented as the film that transformed the Telugu film industry in 1980s. It borrows extensively from the classical Carnatic music to tell the story of a relationship between a Carnatic guru and a prostitute. It led to the revival of Indian classical music in Andhra Pradesh. The movie deals with 2 relevant topics-

Decline in popularity of Carnatic music and the Guru-sishya relationship.

The film released in only one theatre and opened to empty hall. But it later turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 1979. The success of this film triggered a sequence of other art movies in Telugu, including Thyagayya, Meghasandesam (by Dasari N. Rao), and Viswanath's own follow-ups to Sankaraabharanam: Saagara Sangamam, Sruthi Layalu, Swarna Kamalam, Sirivennela, and Swathi Kiranam^.

The film was remade in Hindi as Sur Sangam (1985) with Girish Karnad and Jaya Prada.

AWARDS

National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment (1980)
National Film Award for Best Music Direction (1980) - K. V. Mahadevan
National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer (1980) - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer (1980) - Vani Jayaram

July 29, MARY POPPINS

2008-08-14T12:19:00.002+05:30

It's time to celebrate the Musical.

MARY POPPINS
Robert Stevenson

This film is a heart warming comedy that tells the tale of Mary Poppins
who  is a kind of Super-nanny who flies in with her umbrella in response
to the request of the Banks children and proceeds to put things right with
the aid of her rather extraordinary magical powers before flying off
again.

The movie combines a diverting story, songs, color and sequences of live
action blended with the movements of animated figures.

for more

July 24, PLAYTIME

2008-08-14T12:18:00.002+05:30

Next in line in this week,

PLAYTIME
Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed; nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its super wide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. This was also the only film that Tati shot on 70mm.

Paris’s treasured monuments are but a fading memory, seemingly incongruous with the new ethos of cold conformity. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe and numerous other icons of antiquated French culture are spotted in reflections as people pass through the clear glass doors, as constant reminder of what has passed. In order to facilitate his vision for Playtime, Tati had an entire scale-city built on the outskirts of Paris. Dubbed “Tativille” it featured moveable, cut-down models of skyscrapers that could be positioned accordingly and large ground-level street sets custom-made to suit the directors’ pre-planned intentions.

THE CHARACTER OF MONSIEUR HULOT

Tati introduced his most enduring character, the near-silent and bumbling Monsieur Hulot in 1953 with Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. Tati’s unfussy plot decisions simply constructed the necessary unfamiliar environment within which Hulot could be best placed to act as the comedy stooge in relation to the strangeness that surrounded him.

In Playtime, Hulot is a passenger ambling through a fully modernised Paris of sleek glass and steel office towers, now transformed to resemble every other major city in the world, as depicted in numerous tourism posters.

JACQUES TATI

Jacques Tati was born in Le Pecq in 1907 as Jacques Tatischeff, the son of a Russian father and a Dutch mother. He once said famously that he endeavoured to produce films that would make people smile. On reflection, his body of work proves that he went much further; subtly encouraging people to observe more intently and to think more astutely about social concerns through a gentle form of humour. As a filmmaker, Tati has recurring themes (the leisure class, modernisation, children at play, mass entertainment), and his compositions seem mathematically calculated yet spontaneous and vibrant.

July 22, PUSHPAK

2008-08-14T12:08:00.002+05:30

Laughter is the best medicine, it is said. This week Film Club presents comedy films.
First up,

PUSHPAK
Singeetham Srinivasa Rao

...Kamal Hassan is an updated little tramp for 1980s India, a young unemployed man who searches for a job in a desultory and hopeless manner, and is a bit of a pushover. After a chance encounter with a millionaire who is a drunkard, Hassan kidnaps the man and replaces him at Pushpak, a swank five star hotel that he is booked into...

Pushpak is a black comedy Indian film released in 1988. Set in an large unnamed Indian city (shot in Bangalore), the film is based on the king-for-a-day story.

At a time when only very self consciously art house films eschewed songs, Pushpak went a step further and did away with dialogue as well, creating one of the most sincere silent films ever made. There are very few scenes of characters in conversation and no cue cards — a staple of even Silent Movie, Mel Brook’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to the era.

And yet there was a lot more to Pushpak than just a gimmick. It may have done away with some of the trappings of commercial cinema but had all the elements that make a great mainstream entertainer — a love story, a crime caper, a thriller and a comedy — with plotlines blending together seamlessly. The primary narrative pays tribute to Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights.

July 17, ABHAYAM

2008-08-14T12:04:00.001+05:30

The next film in the Childhood package is,

ABHAYAM

Sivan

Eight-year-old Vinu is an imaginative child, who is locked within the pressures of the urban education system by his ambitious parents. Tied to his daily routine, Vinu keeps seeing his small table clock in a nightmare, where he is little and the clock is colossal, where he is eternally trying to hold back the hands from sticking 6 in the morning and always failing.

Tried of battling with the daily routine, Vinu runs away from home one day. He roams the city in the hope of reaching the bus stop where he can find a bus to take him to his village. He encounters many adventures and finally reaches his village as a stowaway in a boat. The he finds that his anxious parents have reached before him, having suspected his destination from what his closest friend told them.

About the director

Sivan began his career as a photo journalist and won several awards for his photographs. In 1959 he set up his own film studio, and soon after that an art gallery for new artists and photographers. Through the years, Sivan has produced over twenty documentaries and short films for the Films Division and other institutions. Swapnam (1972) was the first feature film to be produced by him, which won four state awards. Yagam (1980) and Abhayam (1991) too won him several awards.

July 15, 400 BLOWS

2008-08-14T11:56:00.003+05:30

From today, we get back to our weekly themed screenings. This week's theme is childhood.

THE 400 BLOWS
Francoise Truffaut

tories of childhood have often been tempered with the melancholic yearning of lost innocence (as in Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants) or the profound weight of human misery (as in Robert Bresson's Mouchette). In The 400 Blows, François Truffaut introduces his alterego, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud), a young man attempting to break from the confines of his unremarkable life through escapism and mischief. Antoine's vacuous, neglected life unfolds before us with dispassionate objectivity: a misunderstood, underachieving student invariably caught red-handed with the pinup centerfold or scribbling on the classroom wall; a selfish, adulterous mother attempting to reach her son through bribery; a crude, distant father flaunting his generosity in giving the illegitimate son a name. But the pensive Antoine is hardly the incorrigible delinquent that everyone has destined for him, and his fascination for cinema and literature provide a fleeting distraction from his ennui. Attempting to conceal a failing grade on a Blazac-inspired essay (which the teacher is convinced he has plagiarized), he runs away from home, an act which exacerbates to theft, and inevitably, sends him to a camp for juvenile delinquents.

Truffaut's assured camerawork never wavers in this highly influential and relevant film of adolescence. Successive, montage shots of children watching a puppet show emphasize their innocence, and sharply contrast with the disillusioned Antoine in jail, seemingly detaching himself from his inextricable situation by pulling his turtleneck over his nose. Fluid camera tracking pervade the film's exterior shots, reflecting the humor and vitality of youth. Note the lightly paced, overhead shot of the outdoor exercise scene, as the boys slowly splinter off in different directions until no one is left. In contrast, Antoine's flight from the reform school is slow and labored, reaching an uncertain conclusion. Ending with the infamous stop motion zoom of Antoine at the shoreline, he is at a proverbial crossroads: unable to keep running away, looking back at a familiar, hopeless fate.

source: Filmreference.com

July 11, A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE

2008-08-14T11:52:00.001+05:30

A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE

“I used to believe in many things, all of it! Now, I believe only in dynamite.”

The last in our Spaghetti Western package, this film, despite its name, is not a spaghetti western. It is what is called a "Zapata Western", after the famous Mexican revolutionary. These films are characterized by the simultaneously friendly and antagonistic relationship between a local bandit, and a foreigner who is an expert at revolution.

In A Fistful of Dynamite , Juan Miranda (Ron Steiger) is a Mexican bandit who runs across Sean Mallory (James Coburn), who is an IRA terrorist on the run. After some initial hostility and a few explosions, Juan convinces Sean to rob the Bank of Mesa Verde. Sean, however, arranges things so that Juan frees hundreds of political prisoners while looking for the safe in the bank. After that, Juan slowly turns into a full- fledged revolutionary, while Sean loses his revolutionary fervor.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY, July 10

2008-07-10T10:49:00.002+05:30

On day 3 of our Spaghetti westerns festival, we bring to you...

...The mother of all Westerns...

“When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.”

The last movie of the ‘Dollars trilogy’ is a bit different then the previous ones. For starters, the title doesn't mention anything about dollars. Yet it is still considered part of the series due to the appearance of Clint Eastwood, and the similar storyline (all three concern the acquisition of large amounts of gold by The Man With No Name playing two sides against each other). The film’s working title was The Two Magnificent Tramps and was changed just before shooting began when Vincenzoni, the scriptwriter, thought up The Good, The Bad & The Ugly which Leone loved. It was part of Time's "100 Greatest movies of the last century".

For a Few Dollars More, July 9

2008-07-09T22:04:00.002+05:30

“I didn't hear what the bet was.”

“Your life.”

This sequel to A Fistful of Dollars continues what is called the ‘Dollars trilogy’.

In this movie, the Man With No Name is back, and this time he's a bounty hunter. So is the Colonel (Lee Van Cleef). They both set their sights on a recently escaped bandit, Indio, who plans to rob the Bank of El Paso. The Man with No Name and the Colonel conspire to turn in Indio and his men for a huge reward, but with such a huge reward, the two bounty hunters must watch each other as closely as they watch Indio.

For a Few Dollars More is the first film that contains what is to become a Leone trademark, the musical theme embodied within the movie itself, where the music is often both diagetic and non-diagetic (within and separate from the action).

Poster by Vidit Narang

A Fistful of Dollars, June 8

2008-07-08T23:45:00.004+05:30

“When a man's got money in his pocket he begins to appreciate peace.”

An obscure director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a load of leftover film stock and told to make a Western. With a script based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo and an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood, Leone made what was essentially supposed to be a throw-away film; Per un Pugno di Dollari - A Fistful of Dollars. This violent, cynical and visually stunning film introduced ‘The Man With No Name’, the anti-heroic gunslinger for whom money is the only motivation and the villains are merely obstacles to be removed. Many later films followed this formula of the lone gunman in pursuit of money to the exclusion of all else. Leone's unique style, artistic camera angles, extension of time and raw, explosive violence presented a skewed view of the West, making his film different from any Western that had come before. Critics panned it for its brutal depiction of an unromantic West, but audiences loved it.

Poster by Vidit Narang

Spaghetti Westerns

2008-07-08T23:16:00.004+05:30

This week's screenings are a package of four Spaghetti Westerns, directed by Sergio Leone, that Filmclub has received from the Italian Cultural Institute:

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE

What are Spaghetti Westerns?

Between 1960 and 1975, European film production companies made nearly 600 Westerns. Critics either blasted or ignored these films, and because most of them were financed by Italian companies, they called them Spaghetti Westerns.

Originally these films had in common the Italian language, low budgets, and a recognizable highly fluid, violent, and minimalist cinematography that broke many of the conventions of earlier Westerns — partly intentionally, partly as a result of the work being done in a different cultural background and with limited funds. The term was originally used disparagingly, but by the 1980s many of these films came to be held in high regard, particularly because it was hard to ignore the influence they had in redefining the entire idea of a western. Most traditional Westerns have clearly defined lines separating heroes from villains; only in Spaghetti Westerns do both sides begin to stray into the gray areas in between.

Sergio Leone
Leone came from a family with roots deep in the Italian film industry. His mother, Edvige Valcarenghi (stage name Bice Walerian), was a silent movie actress who gave up her profession when she married Vincenzo Leone in 1916. Vincenzo (stage name Roberto Roberti) directed and acted in films during the silent era, but for reasons that are not entirely clear he was prevented from working during the 1930s by Italy's Fascist regime. Vincenzo tried to discourage his son from entering the world of cinema, and Sergio briefly studied law before working as an unpaid fifth assistant on Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief in 1948.

Leone's first directorial effort came in 1959, when he stepped in to finish The Last Days of Pompeii for his aging mentor Mario Bonnard. He directed only seven films, his most famous being the three of the "Dollars trilogy".

Filmography

The Colossus of Rhodes (1960)

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

For a Few Dollars More (1965)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Duck, You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite) (1971)

Once Upon a Time in

America

(1984)

THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES, July 3

2008-07-03T09:54:00.005+05:30

In tuesday's film Charulata, what begins as a seemingly straightforward character study quickly develops into a scathing critique of the social hypocrisies of the Bengali Renaissance. Charu becomes representative of a generation of women, encouraged to experience a sense of liberty and independence, but only within the andarmahal (inner sanctum of the house).

Today's film is different from Charulata, read on.

THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES
Abbas Kiarostami

1994

103 mins.

The film tells a story of Hossein, a poor man who acts in a film as  the husband of Tahereh,
a woman who in real life he has been pursuing without success.

By defining the role of cinema as a chronicle of real life, Kiarostami takes on the role of documenter rather than director. In depicting the everyday lives of ordinary people through mundane conversations and unremarkable actions, he attempts to capture the essence of the human soul in a way that is honest and contemplative. But in the process of conveying life in real-time, his films can also test one's patience. In Through the Olive Trees, the director shuts off the camera, only to find that the lives of his actors are far more fascinating off-camera than the characters that they portray on camera. To accelerate this revelation, that is, to cull out the personal observations of the director for the sake of brevity, is to deny human experience. To trivialize its message is to comment on our own insignificance. Should the camera only be used as an instrument of entertainment? Is the wonder of life only worth capturing when there is an audience?

The final scene of Through the Olive Trees is a hypnotic reflection of the passage of real time, and we are reminded that we have witnessed one mere episode, one fleeting glimpse, of a wondrous phenomenon called life.

About the Director

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career as a filmmaker at the age of 30.

He is the most influential and controversial post-revolutionary Iranian filmmaker and one of the most highly celebrated directors in the international film community of the last decade. Kiarostami's films contain a notable degree of ambiguity, an unusual mixture of simplicity and complexity, and often a mix of fictional and documentary elements. He has consistently attempted to by lowering its full definition and forcing the increased involvement of the audience. This he normally achieves with his style which is notable for the use of panoramic long shots where the audience is intentionally distanced physically from the characters in order to make them reflect on their fate.

poster--> Vidit Narang

CHARULATA, July 1

2008-07-01T22:39:00.004+05:30

This time round, we've planned themed weeks. Each week will bring with it films of a certain genre. This week, we start of on a nice note, with Romantic films.

CHARULATA
Satyajit Ray

117 mins, b/w

1964

Charulata, one of Ray's undoubted masterpieces, is adapted from Nastanirh,a story by Rabindranath Tagore.

It is an exquisitely shot, sublimely haunting, and emotionally complex film on the nature of human relationships.

At the heart of the conflict are three well-intentioned, sympathetic protagonists - Bhupati, Charulata, and Amal - who clearly love and respect each other, but realize that their individual actions have led to an unforeseeable, yet inevitable emotional betrayal. Satyajit Ray does not dilute the gravity of the situation with an act of adultery or violence, but with the subtle gaze of crushing realization and the heartbreaking weight of consequence.

Set in the Calcutta of 1879, the period of the Bengal Renaissance, the period is meticulously created - the costumes, the heavy Victorian furniture, the wallpaper, the typography of Charu's husband's journal.

The film boasts of some of Ray's most cinematic sequences and the music sets the tone of the film with remarkable use of musical motifs. Amal serenades Charu with the famous Tagore song Ami Chini-Go-Chini. Two other popular Tagore songs, Momo Chittye and Phule Phule are evocative of the restless yearning of a free spirit aroused by the resonant beat in another, and Ray has Charu sing them at key junctures of progress in her relationship with Amal.

For more on Ray visit: www.satyajitray.org

Another year :)

2008-06-25T09:55:00.005+05:30

June 25, Wednesday, 2008

Hello NID ,

Welcome back!

Another year had begun and we hope that you have all had a nice
vacation and have had some time to settle down. If you haven’t
caught up with everyone yet,then today at 6pm outside the Audi
would be a nice time for you to catch each other over a cup
of chai or coffee.

After which you can indulge your selves in some cinema from
our very own film and animation students. There is a
two-hour compilation of some of the best student films.

This is the opening screening for this year, don't miss it!

As ever,(for the benefit of the uninitiated),
Filmclub screenings are at the audi, and begin at 6.15pm.
Do try to catch your seats before that!


See you there!

eric rohmer festival> MY NUIT CHEZ MAUD, avril 1

2008-04-01T11:05:00.003+05:30

Avril 1 | Audi | 7pm

MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD/My Night at Maud's
Year: 1969
Run Time: 110 mins

After spending several years abroad, Jean-Louis, an engineer, longs for some
peace and quiet. Every sunday at church, he notices a young blonde woman he
fancies and decides that she will become his wife. Then, while at a local restaurant,
he meets Vidal, an old school friend, now a philosophy professor at Clermont-Ferrand University. Vidal invites him to spend Christmas Eve a Maud's house. A doctor and
divorcee, the dark-haired Maud, a beautiful, fascinating and single woman, is not
impervious to Jean-Louis' charms.

ERIC ROHMER films, Avril1- Avril6

2008-04-01T10:53:00.009+05:30

This week's scheduled screening(Meghe Dhakha Tara and Kaagaz ke Phool)
stand cancelled. We'll try and screen them next semester! sorry!
........................................................
Réveillez-vous!!!!! That's 'wake-up' in French!

Wakey-wakey  to the "ERIC ROHMER film festival" !!!
The NID Filmclub and Alliance Francaise d'Ahmedabad bring to you a
festival of the french director ERIC ROHMER's films starting on
1st April  uptill the  6th of April!

Screenings begin at 7pm  chaque jour/ Each day!
Be There!


click on schedule for bigger view.
.........................................
THE SCHEDULE OF THE 'ERIC ROHMER' FESTIVAL
April 1 - My Night at Maud's
April 2 - The Good Marriage
April 3 - Suzanne's Career
April 4 - The Girl at the Monceau Bakery + Nadja in Paris
April 5 - The Making of a Summer's Tale
April 6 - Eric Rohmer Preuves A L'appui( interview with ERIC ROHMER)
.............................................................

ERIC ROHMER
Rohmer came to filmmaking relatively late. He was a teacher, journalist and writer
(of fiction as well as cinema theory and criticism) before making his first short in
1950, and commercial success came 17 yrs later.

It is hard to separate the word, spoken and written, from Rohmer's work. If he is
known for one thing, it is the fact that in his films, people talk.
Personal information about Rohmer is hard to find.He is notoriously private.His
reason for not giving interviews or attending festivals is that he values the
anonymity that allows him to shoot quickly and cheaply on the streets.
Hallmarks of a ROHMER work: the contemporary setting, the philosophical discussions,
the intimate nature of the crisis of well off, self-absorbed characters.

at the audi then!
Merci Beaucoup/ Thank you very much!

poster-- Shreyas

The Life of Oharu, March 27

2008-03-31T22:13:00.002+05:30

THE LIFE OF OHARU
Kenzi Mizoguchi

Based upon the novel "The Woman who Loved Love", by Saikaku Ihara, The Life of Oharu is a beautiful but deeply depressing experience. Hugely engrossing, Mizoguchi's film is a sophisticated tale of female oppression set in the 17th Century attacking the divide of sexes and class prevelant at the time yet also directing a subversive glance at the inequalities of 1950's Japan. This epic drama charts the extraordinarily unfortunate fate bestowed upon the daughter of an esteemed Lord. Falling in love with a lower ranking servant, Oharu finds both herself and her parents banished from the city by the courts. Forced to make a meagre living by any means possible and with the love of her life executed for his actions, Oharu finds herself drifting inexorably down a path of heartbreak and prostitution.

poster--> Shreyas R Krishnan

Woman of the Dunes, march 25

2008-03-31T22:08:00.002+05:30

WOMAN OF THE DUNES

Hiroshi Teshigahara



Today we screen WOMAN OF THE DUNES , a 1964 japanese film based on writer
KOBO ABE's masterpiece.

A Japanese entomologist finds himself held prisoner in a sand pit with an
alluring woman who expects him to work at her side. To his surprise, the
scientist develops an intense bond with his female companion and resigns
himself to an eternity of hypnotic routine. A surreal allegory reflecting
man's grim fate...

"The story of a journey of inner discovery during which the protagonist
remembers what it means to be human in a modern society that sometimes
seems to have forgotten."

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Hiroshi Teshigahara was an avant-garde Japanese filmmaker. He was only
incidentally a filmmaker.  Son of the founder and grand master (Iemoto) of
the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (more moribundly known as flower-arranging),
he turned to film as an extension of his aesthetic explorations in other
media.
A graduate of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, he was
a painter and sculptor, designed gardens and tea rooms, directed operas
and Noh plays for the stage. And he made 21 films, most of them short
documentaries on subjects as varied as Hokusai and Hispanic boxers.


posters--> Anisha Thampy

AI NO CORRIDA, march 20

2008-03-24T20:46:00.004+05:30

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES
(AI NO CORRIDA)

Nagisa Oshima




This is a film based on a true story of fatal sexual obsession in
1930s Japan.The film is an exploration of how eroticism in Japanese
culture is often morbid or death-obsessed.

The Japanese title of the film speaks neither of empires nor senses.
It speaks of love and death, Eros and Thanatos. Ai no corrida - the
Corrida of Love - links love to the bullfight, the ritualised fight
to the death between the matador and the bull.

The film's full frontal nudity and graphic depiction of pubic hair
were designed to provoke and affront the Japanese censors. Japanese
censorship laws, which allowed graphic representations of violence,
including rape, forbad the explicit display of sexual organs and
pubic hair. This taboo originated in the Meiji era and was connected
to the campaign of the Japanese state to be accepted by the Western
powers as a modern civilized state. Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the
pornography industry flourished both in literature and art.So Japanese
social critics, artists and intellectuals, regarded flouting the censorship
laws as an attack on the state, a radical political act.

In general the film does celebrate the pleasures and varieties of sexual
intercourse. It does so by drawing on the artistic heritage of the
pornographic Japanese wood-block print of the Edo era (17th - 19th
century), known as shunga.

illustration: Shreyas

TEN, march 18

2008-03-18T11:03:00.003+05:30

After the Makhmalbafs, we now bring to you another key figure in Iranian

Cinema- Abbas Kiarostami, also the last film in our Iraninan package.

TEN
Abbas Kiarostami



Abbas Kiarostami casts his masterful cinematic gaze upon the modern
sociopolitical landscape of his homeland—this time as seen through the
eyes of one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a
period of several days. Her journey is comprised of ten conversations with
various
female passengers—including her sister, a hitchhiking prostitute
and a jilted bride—as well as her imperious young son. As Kiarostami’s
“dashboard cam” eavesdrops on these lively, yet heart-wrenching road
trips, a complex portrait of contemporary Iran comes sharply into focus.

The Director
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from
university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic
designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of
Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this
started his career as a filmmaker at the age of 30. Since then he has made
many movies and has become one of the most important figures in
contemporary Iranian film. He is also a major figure in the arts world,
and has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his photography, short films
and poetry. He is an iconic figure for what he has done, and he has
achieved it all by believing in the arts and the creativity of his mind.

poster by--> Ipsa Mehta

THE APPLE, march 13

2008-03-13T13:39:00.004+05:30

THE APPLE
Samira Makhmalbaf

(the last film we screened was her father's 'Gabbeh')


-----------------------------------------------------------------

There is no family in the film world these days more fascinating than the
Iranian Makhmalbafs. They've been known to sell their house and car to
finance a film, buy them back when they sell the film, and start all over
again the moment the next project comes up.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FILM
~88 minutes semi-documentary~

Richly allusive and beautifully photographed, "THE APPLE" follows the
aftermath of a real-life situation, in Tehran, in which a father had kept
his two daughters confined to their home since birth. Their mother is
blind and their father is a strict religious man who is concerned about
their honour should they be left on their own or subjected to the sinful
influences of the outside world while he is out of the house.

When neighbors reported the situation to the welfare authorities in
Teheran, the daughters, who are slightly retarded, were removed from the
home and returned to their parents only on the condition that the father
allow the two to leave home and explore the outside world.


--------------------------------------------------------------------


THE FILM MAKER

Being the daughter of famous Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Samira’s
upbringing was both privileged and liberal, and in most respects very
different from the experience her two subjects in the film 'The Apple'
shared.

Samira saw the story on television and wanted to film their story using
the real people as themselves. She heard about the story on a Wednesday
and began filming on the Sunday 4 days later.

Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to New wave movement of Iranian cinema. he left
high school when she was 14, to learn cinema in the Makhmalbaf Film House
for 5 years. At the age of 17, after directing two video productions, she
went on to direct the movie The Apple. One year later, the 18 year old
director went on to become the youngest director in the world
participating in the official section of the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

-------------------------------------------------------------------


QUOTES

"The apple like the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible, represents life
and knowledge in Iranian poetry. We have a similar story in the Qur’an.
But I actually found this element in the children’s life. Because while
everyone was worried about the fate of these two girls, they were eating
an apple, and truly enjoying it. So I decided to keep the symbol of the
apple throughout the film".

"The best thing I've learned from my father is not to judge but to love
humanity."

**********************************************************
'THE APPLE' has been invited to more than 100 international film festivals
in a period of 2 years, while going to the screen in more than 30
countries.

poster- Merryn John Tharakan

GABBEH, march 11

2008-03-11T15:49:00.005+05:30

Our flight around the world stops in Iran this week. We start with


GABBEH
Mohsen Makhmalbaf



The directors life story is film worthy. The director was a poor
boy from the city of Tehran he began working to support his family
 at the tender age of 8. By 15 he had formed an under-ground Islamic
 militia group. At 17 he was shot when trying to disarm a police
officer he was thrown into jail. He spent his four years there,
educating himself. After he was out he decided to write and make films.

Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf are considered to be responsible
for the worlds recognition of Iranian cinema.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf also started a film school in Iran his children and
family being its star pupils his daughter Samira made APPLE at the tender
age of 18. It won the Cannes special jury award. We are screening that
next on Thursday do come.

GABBEH is a film popular amongst NID faculty to introduce the colour
course. A gabbeh carpet is a triple hand-knotted carpet crafted almost
exclusively by women from Qashqai tribes in southwestern Iran.
The film follows the story of tribal girl the carpet she weaves and the
love she waits for.



They say that Iranian  new wave borrows it style from the
Italian neo realisim and the art films from their European
counter parts But many people argue that the Iranian film making
style is purely theirs. Their films drift in and out of reality
effortlessly. They bridge the gap between documentary and fiction.
The frames are picturesque and the stories quaint and lovely.
There is something so humanistic about their films  that  they
appeal to everyone.

We will be beginning today’s screening with an animation package
from R.C.A.

poster--> Shreyas R Krishnan

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, march 7

2008-03-11T15:37:00.007+05:30

As an exta special treat for you, we take you through a thousand nights in beautiful arabia following
the adventures of a prince on his magical journey

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
LOTTE REINIGER
1926





The film is animated in a style in which the character are always seen in
silhouette almost like a chinese puppet show.  The story is based on the
elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, prince Achmed with
the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic
horse, battles the evil African sorcerer to win the hand of Princess Peri
Banu.




About the director: LOTTE REINIGER

Born June 2, 1899, Berlin; Died June 19, 1989
She spent much of her life creating unique and often amazing silhouette
animation. After a short period of at Max Rienhardt's studio, Reiniger
began began working on intertitle design for Paul Wegener's films at
the age of sixteen. Her titles were made of hand-cut silhouettes, and
in 1919 she developed this technique to create a complete animated
silhouette film. In 1921, Reiniger married Carl Koch, who served as her
producer and camera operator for the next 40 years.

Between 1923 and 1926, Rieniger and Koch, with assistance from animators Walter Rutmann, Bertolt Bartosch, and Alex Kardan, created The Adventures of Prince Achmed. One of the world's first feature-length animated films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed displayed Reiniger's ability to create captivating characters through intricate design and an amazingly graceful sense of movement. The film remains unsurpassed as a demonstration of animated art.

With the advent of sound, Reiniger made a series of short films set to the music of Mozart. Through the 1930's, with the rise of Disney, Fleischer, and Warner Bros., character-based cel animation became the dominant animation form. As animated cartoons, with their costly and labor-intensive production requirements, became the standard, the works of filmmakers like Reiniger became less marketable. But because silhouette animation requires considerable patience and individual skill, but not necessarily the the production costs of cel animation, Reiniger was able to continue creating her unique animation until the 1970s.

Modern audiences seem to have an aversion to viewing silhouette animation, until they've seen the films of Lotte Reiniger. Even her later films, produced for television in the 1950s and noticably less sophisticated than her early work, possess a pure cinematic magic that is present in the work of very few animators. In all likelihood, there will never be a silhouette animator who will match Reiniger's skill, vision, and patience, and her films may well remain a unique testament to the potential achievements of the artform. Her films may easily hold their magic for audiences of the future, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years from now. If this is true, by patiently creating beautiful silhouette animation based on fable and myth, Lotte Reiniger may have created a legacy of filmwork which will offer entertainment and amazement for the ages.

Rohit Iyer made a poster for the film, clumsy me cant seem to find it, will post it once i get my hands on it again..

Here's a clip from the film!

A TASTE OF HONEY, march 6

2008-03-05T21:41:00.003+05:30

In Britain of the 1950s divisions of class were far more rigid than they are today.
The 'new wave' films and the sources that inspired them gave a voice to a
working-class that was for the first time gaining some economic power.

Tony Richardson belongs to that generation of British film directors which includes
Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz, all of them university-trained middle-class
artists who were sympathetic to the conditions of the working classes and
determined to use cinema as a means of personal expression, in line with the goals
of the Free Cinema movement.

Taking audiences out of the studio and into the streets, where the real stories
were, Richardson and his partners favored realism above all: young, fresh actors,
location shooting, and narratives featuring controversial subjects such as
interracial dating and sex, homosexuality and class.

This 1961 film is based on an avant-garde play of the 1950s Britain. It talked
frankly about the taboo subjects of pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, abortion,
and adoption from the woman's point-of-view .

"If audiences throughout Britain were stunned by the in-your-face attitude of
'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', they were left somewhere between tears and a
sense of hope with 'A Taste of Honey',an important film in the history of British
Cinema."

PLOT IN SHORT
Jo is a seventeen-year-old and appears to be a loner. She lives with her mother
Helen who is constantly involved in affairs with men much younger in age. Jo
develops a rather positive take on everything unfavourable that is happening in her
life. She keeps herself busy mostly by sketching and drawing.
She meets Jimmy who she falls in love with, just before he is to go away on a long
voyage. Jo’s mother abandons her after finding Peter, a rich and much younger lover.
It is here that Jo meets Geoffrey, a kind-hearted gay man. Geoffrey and Jo get along
well and share a very similar optimistic take on life despite all its hardships. Jo
eventually discovers that she is pregnant, a shocking result of the last night she
spent with Jimmy. Though scared at first, Jo decides to keep the baby...

more about British New Wave

SATURDAY NIGHT & SUNDAY MORNING, march 4

2008-03-05T11:15:00.002+05:30

It was not until the release of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in 1960 that the true effect of the ‘Wave’ was felt. Directed by Free Cinema veteran Karel Reisz and produced by another Free Cinema pioneer Tony Richardson, the film took over audiences in Britain like an avalanche over a small village in some god forsaken valley. It had all the ingredients for a controversial film: an anti-social protagonist, morally questionable behaviour and portrayal of taboo topics like unwanted pregnancy and extra-marital affairs. Albert Finney brings out the performance of his lifetime in his portrayal of the hot tempered tough guy Arthur Seaton, a role which was considered Britain’s reply to Marlon Brando.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was the first film to have all its exterior shots to be filmed on location. This was a major move which would influence the following films in the New Wave to be gradually filmed entirely on location. The film was also well known for its clash with the censor board. A significant amount of dialogue in the film had to be replaced owing to the extensive use of swear words in the script. Another major problem was the depiction of Albert Finney’s character Arthur waking up on Sunday morning in bed with his colleague’s wife, a scene directly implying extra-marital affair which was not seen before in British cinema.

For more on this film and the British New Wave--> http://www.brokenprojector.com/wordpress/?p=33

Schedule >> MARCH+APRIL

2008-03-03T22:29:00.005+05:30

This month is the last month for Filmclub (this semester). So dont miss any of the screenings! I assure you, holidays result in sorely missing the films in the audi!!

We continue with our New Wave journey. After seeing films from France, Germany and Czechosolovakia, we move on to Britain (and another film from Germany), Iran, Japan and finally to India. It is interesting to see how the "New Wave" does not happen simultaneously and has a variety of causes, each different in every country.

M4- SATURDAY NIGHT & SUNDAY MORNING, Reisz Karel
M6- A TASTE OF HONEY, Tony Richardson
M7- THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, Lotte Reiniger
M11-GABBEH, Mohsen Makmalbaf
M13-APPLE, Samira makmalbaf
M18-TEN, Abbas Kiarostami
M20-IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES, Nagisa Oshima
M25-WOMAN OF THE DUNES, Hiroshi Teshigahara
M27-THE LIFE OF OHARU, Kenji Mizoguchi

A1- MEGHE DAKHA TARA, Ritwik Ghatak
A3- KAAGAZ KE PHOOL, Guru Dutt

CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, feb 28

2008-03-03T22:25:00.001+05:30

Film club transports you to Czechoslovakia in and around the Bohemian
train station of Lodenice. Set near the end of the second world war the
film is about Milos who works at the railway station, he is oblivious to
the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a
journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of
frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot. .

CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS
Jiri Menzel


JIRI MENZEL  won an academy award in the category of best foreign film for
this film it was his first feature length film . The film is an adaptation
of a novel by Bohumil Hrabal . The director also acts in the film as
doctor brabec.

SEDMIKRASKY, feb 26

2008-03-03T22:22:00.002+05:30

Today’s film 'Sedmikrasky'/'Daisies' is directed by a gutsy Czech woman!

This freewheeling 1966 gem of the Czech New Wave is an attack on
consumerism and materialism and many other aspects of the male dominated
society of the time!
{This film was, like our previous screening, banned by the communist
government.}

SEDMIKRASKY/DAISIES
by
VERA CHYTILOVA

A witty surrealist comedy about two uninhibited young women Marie and
Marie who work together to create mischief and turn against the numbing
state of society in a madcap flurry of pranks and material destruction
that seem to be harmless but each of the moves is loaded with consequences
that soon snowball into serious trouble.. Seeing the world ruined and
values worthless, they decide to "go bad."
74 MINS | COLOUR | CZECH with ENGLISH subtitles | AUDI 6:15pm |

Part of the Czech New Wave of the early 1960s, Vera Chytilova made films
that were acclaimed for their visual experimentation and formal
innovation. While this reputation gained her international respect, it
also resulted in criticism by officials in her own country, which
disapproved of avant-garde styles and themes.


catch a scene from the film at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md-LwM0s9fY
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzaiBZ4V-Qw&feature=related


<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~<*>~*>~<*>


MORE YUMMY STUFF FOR THE HUNGRY/TIME RICH:


Everyone does what they can to avoid thinking. Laziness is the most basic
human trait. People don't want to think—they can't make the connection
between entertainment and thought. They want immediate kicks. People will
not be human until they get pleasure from thought—only a thinking person
can be a full person."
                                                 —Vera Chytilova, 1978

"One should try everything" insists one of the two heroines of Daisies
(1966). Heedless of clichÈ and formula, Chytilova explodes narrative and
bends the frame: her films donít stop until they've filled every crevice
with invention. Daisies attacks any pretense that human society is more
than a mechanism for organizing the consumption of food.

Romantic love is but one of the bourgeois ideals sacrificed over the
course of the film: the women also smash the cinematic illusion of
three-dimensional space, as they scissor up their own film images into a
jigsaw of body parts.

DAISIES was banned by the government until 1967 but when it was released
it won the Grand Prix at the film festival in Bergamo, Italy.
The films preferred by the Soviet-dominated Czech government included
straightforward stories of industrial heroes, films based on classic
literature and fairy stories,and domestic and detective comedies.
There was a profound dislike and distrust of allegorical content and
avant-garde experimentation, which was associated with intellectualism and
elitism by the bureaucrats and politicians who controlled the film
industry.Officially they complained that the imagery of the film revealed
a wastage of food, referring to the scenes in which the main characters
destroy a banquet setting.

HORI MA PANENKO, feb 21

2008-03-03T22:20:00.001+05:30

After giving you the best of the German and French new wave we now move

to the Czechoslovak new wave . Trademarks of the movement contain long
unscripted dialogues, dark and absurd humour, and the casting of
inexperienced actors. The films often treated themes that were uncommon
in communist countries, such as the love-confusion of young people or the
absence of morality in Czechoslovak society.The movement came to an
abrupt end following the 1968 Soviet clampdown on the liberalization of
the Prague spring Milos Forman and Passer fled the country, while those
who remained faced heavy censorship of their work.

THE FIREMENS BALL
Milos Forman

This film was Milos Formans was the last film Forman would make in his
native Czechoslovakia. It is also the first film he shot in color, and a
milestone of the Czech New Wave. It is considered a cult film.  He
continued to make  films in hollywood which include One flew over the
cuckoos nest and Amadeus among others.

this film is set in a fire department in a small town which is having a
big party when the ex-boss of the department celebrates his 86th birthday.
The whole town is invited but things don't go as planned. Someone is
stealing the prizes to the lottery and the candidates for the Miss
Fire-Department beauty contest are neither willing or particularly
beautiful.

DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN, feb 19

2008-03-03T22:18:00.001+05:30

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

The story acts as an allegory for Germany after the war, using the  story
of a young German woman Maria Braun  the innocent who becomes a
cold-hearted cynic in the post-war industrial economic rebuilding. Her
free-spirited and slightly amoral character only works for total
financial success. She rebuilds in a cold and calculating method. In the
film's ending, Braun is the victim of her own inability to have emotion.



Fassbinder died at the age of 37 four years after making this film. His
death is often considered to mark the end of the New German Cinema.

PARIS, TEXAS, feb18

2008-03-03T22:16:00.001+05:30

PARIS, TEXAS
Wim Wenders

Paris, Texas is probably Wim Wenders' most well known, critically
acclaimed, and successful movie, winning a number of international prizes
including the Cannes Palme D'Or for Best Film in 1984.

This unusual road movie, with screenplay by acclaimed playwright Sam
Shepard, tells the tale of Travis, a man lost in his own private hell.
Presumed dead for four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico
border, world-weary and an amnesiac.
He traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter, his seven-year-old
son, his ex-wife Jane having abandoned him at Walt's door several years
before.

As virtual strangers, Hunter and Travis begin to build a wary friendship
and conspire to find Jane and bring her back to be a real family.

NEW GERMAN CINEMA
Written and signed by two dozen German filmmakers pledging themselves to
"the new German feature film," the 1962 Oberhausen Manifesto boldly
announced the arrival of New German Cinema, with young, innovative, and
politically radical directors taking up arms against the propriety of West
German society and its failing film industry. In the late sixties and
early seventies, filmmakers such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe
von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, Alexander
Kluge, and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg set out to create smaller, more
independent and artistically challenging films to investigate the state of
contemporary Germany (Schlöndorff and von Trotta’s The Lost Honor of
Katherine Blum), as well as to grapple with the ghosts of the past, from
the Weimar era (Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz) and the Nazis
(Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum) to their aftermath (Fassbinder’s “BRD
Trilogy”). Like other countries’ new waves, New German Cinema, which ended
in the mid-eighties, embraced politically akin but artistically disparate
directors with diverse interests, working methods, and spheres of
influence, from the avant-garde (Kluge’s Artists Under the Big Top:
Perplexed) to major international productions (Fassbinder’s Querelle).

do check out--> www.wim-wenders.com

ANTOINE ET COLETTE + BAISERS VOLES, feb 14

2008-03-03T22:14:00.001+05:30

The next screening falls on Feb 14. Whether this day concerns you or not it's worth
watching these 2 Truffault films...
The 1st is "ANTOINE AND COLETTE" made for the 1962 anthology collection "Love at
Twenty" and the 2nd is his whimsical, nostalgic and romantic film "STOLEN KISSES".

These 2 films are a part of Truffault's sort of autobiographical series about
Antoine Doinel, the character he follows from boyhood to adulthood through 5 films.
ANTOINE AND COLETTE is the 2nd film and the 3rd is STOLEN KISSES.

SYNOPSES
========
1.
Title: ANTOINE AND COLETTE/Antoine et Colette
Director: FRANCOIS TRUFFAULT
Runtime: 47 min
ANTOINE AND COLETTE catches up with Antoine Doinel as a solitary 17-year-old who
works at Phillips manufacturing LPs to support himself. He meets Colette, a
high-school student, at a concert and falls in love for the first time. The film
traces his awkward courtship of the icy Colette, who never reciprocates.

2.
Title: STOLEN KISSES/baisers voles
Director: FRANCOIS TRUFFAULT
Runtime: 90 min
A perfect Valentines'Day film, but not mere fluff, either, this 1968 film is
Truffaut's happiest and most commercially successful film.  
Antoine Doinel is given a dishonorable discharge from the Army. Although he yearns
to pick up where he left off with his girlfriend Christine, she is somewhat chilly
toward his affections.He is a hapless young adult with a chaotic love life and a
string of absurd dead-end jobs, from hotel clerk to private detective to TV
repairman.

TRUFFAULT TRUFFLE
=================
François Truffaut (1932–1984) was one of the founders of the French New Wave in
filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film industry. In a film career
lasting just over a quarter of a century, he was screenwriter, director, producer or
actor in over twenty-five films.
In addition to being an autobiographical extension of Truffaut, Antoine Doine

l is also a classic picaresque underdog skittering along the fringes of society,
mocking its conventions and living by his wits. 
Stolen Kisses provides ample evidence of Francois Truffaut's belief that men know
nothing about love: "They are always beginners. The heroine is always the stronger."

VIVRE SA VIE, feb 12

2008-02-12T02:41:00.000+05:30

VIVRE SA VIE
Jean-Luc Godard



This is Godard's third film. Anna Karina  Godard’s then wife starred as
Nana, a mother and aspiring actress whose poor circumstances lead her to
prostitution. Nana believes she makes this choice of her own free will,
but the film emphasises the social structure that forces the poor into
such situations, and builds to a tragic conclusion.  The film's style,
much like that of "Breathless", boasted the type of experimentation that
made the French New Wave so influential.

Poster by Merryn John Tharakan

Le Rayon Vert, feb 7

2008-02-07T20:44:00.000+05:30

LE RAYON VERT
Eric Rohmer

Jules Verne, the early science fiction writer, wrote a book named Le Rayon Vert(the Green Ray, 1882) whose heroine Helena Campbell, is chasing this elusive phenomenon. The heroes are trying to observe the green ray in Scotland. After numerous unsuccessful tries caused by clouds or distant boat sails hiding the sun, the phenomenon is eventually visible, but the heroes, finding love in each other's eyes, don't pay attention to the horizon. According to legend those who see the ray will not choose wrong love.

As her traveling companion cancels two weeks before her holiday, Delphine, a Parisian secretary, is at loose ends. She doesn't want to travel by herself, but has no boyfriend and seems unable to meet new people. A friend takes her to Cherbourg; after a few days there, the weepy and self-pitying Delphine goes back to Paris. She tries the Alps, but returns the same day. Next, it's the beach: once there, she chats with an outgoing Swede, a party girl, and a friendship seems to bud; then, suddenly, Delphine bolts, heading back to Paris. As she waits at the Biarritz train station, a young man catches her eye; perhaps a sunset and the sun's green ray await

For more about the director-->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Rohmer
and http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/rohmer.html

An interview with Rohmer--> http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/16/rohmer.html

poster by Medha Malhotra

NOSFERATU, feb 5

2008-02-07T17:54:00.000+05:30

NOSFERATU
Werner Herzog
1979

"The Nosferatu do not die like the bee when he stings once. He is only stronger... This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, ...he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, ... and the wolf, ..., and he can at times vanish and come unknown."

-Bram Stoker, 1897

Although the production is technically an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1987 novel Dracula, the film was actually conceived as a stylistic remake of the 1922 German Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens.

Nosferatu the Vampyre was co-produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, Gaumont and ZDF. As was common for German films during the 1970s, Nosferatu the Vampyre was filmed on a minimal budget, and with a crew of just 16 people. Herzog could not film in Bremen, where the original Murnau film was shot, so he relocated production to Delft, the Netherlands. Parts of the film were shot in nearby Schiedam, after Delft authorities refused to allow Herzog to release 11,000 rats for a scene in the film. Dracula's home is represented by locations in the Czech Republic.

At the request of distributor 20th Century Fox, Herzog produced two versions of the movie simultaneously, to appeal to western audiences. Scenes with dialogue were filmed twice, in German and in English, meaning that the actor's own voices (as opposed to dubbed dialogue by voice actors) could be included in the English version of the film. However, many consider the performances in the German language version to be superior, as Kinski and Ganz could act more confidently in their native language.

Music for the film was performed by the German group Popol Vuh, who have collaborated with Herzog on numerous projects.

About the Director:

Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetić on September 5, 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, actor and opera director of Croatian descent.

He is often associated with the German New Wave movement (also called New German Cinema), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlondorff, Wim Wenders and others. His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams or people with unique talents in obscure fields.

Herzog's films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the art house circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character was mirrored by the director during the making of the film. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera, or operatic themes. He is proud of never using storyboards and often improvising large parts of the script, as he explains on the commentary track to Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Herzog directed five films starring Klaus Kinski, Aguirre: The Wrath of God,Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde. In 1999 he directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Friend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski.

The official Werner Herzog website: www.wernerherzog.com

poster by Merryn John Tharakan

More about New Wave

2008-02-05T00:40:00.000+05:30

Extracts from

791.4303 Hayward, Susan

HAY KEY CONCEPTS IN CINEMA STUDIES

41841

NOUVELLE VAGUE: the French New Wave

1958-1962

New Wave film film makers rejected the cinema of the ‘50s and focussed their attention on the auteur and mise-en-scene. They were not a politicised group.

Their cinema marked a complete rupture with the 1950’s cinematic codes and conventions on both the narrative and visual level.

In terms of narrative there was often no completed or necessarily realistic stories as such, there was no beginning, middle and end- more often it was a slice of lif. There were no “stars”. The time was the ‘now ever-present’ of the ‘60s. Discourses were contemporary and about the people. Taboos around sexuality were destroyed and ‘the couple’ was presented as a complex entity with issues cenering on power relations, lack of communication and questions of identity. This representation of women was more positive, women became more central to the narrative.

Visually, the institutional iconography was deconstructed. The establishing shots which safely orient the spectator in terms of space and time, were excised. A fast editing style, achieved by jump cuts and unmatched shots, replaced the seamless editing style that had prevailed before. The newly lightweight camera abandoned the studios and went out into the streets and suburbs of Paris(the only icon not to disappear). Film stock was fast and cheap. These factors gave this cinema a sense of spontaneity..

1966-1968

The Second Wave was generally more politicised. Bourgeoise myths were denormalised. The consumer boom, nuclear war, Vietnam, student politics, adolescence—all were subjects for treatment. By now, the consumer boom was not about comfort/ a better way of life, but about prostituting the self in order to be better able to consume.

Both New Waves put in place a counter cinema to the standardisation effects of American technology—hand-held camera, no studio, editing practises that drew attention to themselves, no star system.

Although this cinema was criticised for its focus on the individual, it left one very important legacy. Thanks to the huge influx of filmmakers into the industry, production practices had to be reconsidered. For money to be spread around, films had to be low budget. Given the number of filmmakers, the cheaper lightweight camera came into its own. As a result there was a democratisation of the camera. This pioneering effect was to make the camera more accessible to forces formerly marginalised and by 1970s to 1980s women, Blacks and Beurs (an Arab community in France) were entering into filmmaking.

Major figures

Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol,

Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Jacques Demy

NEW GERMAN CINEMA

This was a movement that came into forceful being by the early 1970s although its roots go back to the early 1960s when inspired by the Nouvelle Vague, 26 young filmmakers and film critics signed the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962. The manifesto declared its intention to create the new German feature film and promised the birth of a new cinema that would be international. This movement was directly politically motivated.

It must be remembered that the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, effecting the division of Germany into two distinct parts—the capitalist West Germany and the communist East Germany.

New German cinema emanated from West Germany. Unlike films from East Germany, it was a cinema which attempted to come to terms with the nation’s recent past, namely the Nazi era. The motivation of the New German cinema was to give a renewed credibility to the cinematic apparatus and industry after the abuse it had received under the Nazi rule as a propaganda tool.

The new cinema strove for authentic documentary and its style was one of grainy realism.

In economic terms, this new and resisting cinema emerged at the very moment when the industry itself was in decline due to a major drop in audience numbers, thanks to the increased consumption of television sets. German audiences showed very little interest in this new indigenous product. It was left to the French and American audiences to appreciate this new and strongly politicised cinema.

Major figures

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders,

CZECH NEW WAVE

Educated at FAMU, the Czech state film school, previously unknown filmmakers such as Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova, Jiri Menzel, Evald Schorm, and Jan Nemec began to dominate the festival circuit, creating an incredible concentration of films that ran from the politically oppositional to the lyrical to the realist to the surreal. The Czechoslovak filmmakers of the ’60s rejected the official state socialist-realist aesthetic and produced eclectic, technically skillful, and highly assured features that captured the world’s attention and resulted in two Hollywood Oscars for Best Foreign Film (The Shop on Main Street in 1965 and Closely Watched Trains in 1967). The vibrancy and experimentation of the “Czech Film Miracle,” as it is often called, reached something of a peak in the Prague Spring of 1968, when Alexander Dubcek became first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and instituted his policy of “socialism with a human face.” Prague Spring represented the culmination of a period of social and cultural democratization in Czechoslovakia (provoked in no small part by the ingenious and iconoclastic filmmaking of the period) and the liberal policies of the Dubcek regime afforded filmmakers unprecedented artistic freedom. Sadly, Prague Spring and the creativity it fostered came to an abrupt halt in August 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague and began the process of “normalization.” The Soviet invasion spelled the end of the Czechoslovak New Wave and the end, or temporary halt, to the careers of many of its finest directors. However, before its premature conclusion in the summer of 1968, the Czechoslovak New Wave produced a throng of daring and enduring films and remains one of the most fertile and original “new waves” in the history of film.

for more on czech new wave

Also found this nice link-->http://www.criterion.com/asp/explore.asp?id=78

February 2008

2008-02-05T00:31:00.000+05:30

This month FIN presents New Wave films from France, Germany and Czechoslovakia.
More on New Wave in the next post.

 5  NOSFERATU-Werner Herzog
7  LE RAYON VERTE-Eric Rohmer
12  VIVRE SA VIE-Jean Luc Godard
14  ANTOINE ET COLETTE + BAISERS VOLES-Francois Truffaut
19  THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN-Rainer Werner Fassbinder
20  PARIS,TEXAS-Wim Wenders
21  THE FIREMEN'S BALL-Milos Forman
26  DAISIES-Vera Chytilova
28  CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS-Jiri Menzel

ELEPHANT, jan 31

2008-01-31T11:38:00.000+05:30

Before Elephant, we will be screening 'SNIP' a film by
Aditya Vikram Sengupta(Graphic Design, Sem8).
This was his 2nd project.
It is a mix of animation and live-action.
........................................................................
ELEPHANT
Gus Van Sant

A cinematic response to the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, in which
12 students were shot down by 2 of their peers.

ABOUT THE FILM:

Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film
Festival, 'Elephant' takes audiences inside an American high school on
what appears to be an ordinary day. Most of the film takes place about 5
minutes before the shooting occurs, following several characters as they
live out their school lives, unaware of what is about to unfold.

Van Sant’s loose script is enacted by mostly non-professional actors and
high-school students who kept their names and chose their own clothes for
the film.'Elephant' refuses to conform to conventional notions of cause
and effect, and instead weaves an inexorable spell on the viewer with its
strangely meandering long takes, striking visual harmony and looping
narrative structure.


ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

He is an American Academy Award nominated film director, photographer,
musician, and author.

With films like My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, To Die
For, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Forrester, writer/director Gus Van
Sant has explored what it is to be young and searching for an identity.
Openly gay, he has dealt unflinchingly with homosexual and other
marginalized subcultures without being particularly concerned about
providing positive role models.

WHY 'ELEPHANT':

We can understand the title 'Elephant' to refer to the parable of several
blind men describing an elephant by each touching a different part;
extending the meaning to refer to the infinite perspectives each of us can
bring to the one thing.

PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT:

In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark)
touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different
part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare
notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement.
The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently
depending upon one's perspective, suggesting that what seems an absolute
truth may be relative due to the deceptive nature of half-truths.


TRAILER

http://www.elephantmovie.com/trailer/md.html

STAY, jan 29

2008-01-29T16:57:00.000+05:30

STAY
Mark Forester

"Between the world of the LIVING and the DEAD there's a place you're not
suposed to STAY..."

A mind-bending thriller with an experimental but moving and mesmerizing
double narrative that plunges below the surface of ordinary experience to
take a man on a spiraling descent through the mysteries of identity,
dreams and the very fabric of existence.

A distraught young man announces to his psychiatrist that he plans to
commit suicide in 3 days. The psychiatrist's desperate attempt to help his
new patient leads him through the city on an incredible, nightmarish
journey that bends reality.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Born in Germany and raised in Switzerland Marc Forster was a student of
NYU's film school.

He declined a 500,000 Dollars offer to direct a film despite having no
income at the time and living from money borrowed from friends. He didn't
believe the script was good and was afraid his reputation as a director
would suffer.

He says about STAY
"I think it's too much to say it's dark and complicated. It's a little
more out there. In a sense it's sort of like 'Fight Club'. It's darker
definitely. It goes back to Monster's ball roots but it definitely has
hope as well. You have to engage in the film. You can't just relax and
enjoy."

PRAISE:
"Stay is a film that revels in breaking the rules- those of both story
telling and film making techniques. So often I have seen films like this
that try to walk the line between creativity and confusion. The director
manages to do that with precision." Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures.

ALSO:
Stay did not do so well at the box office, or as well as the Academy Award
winning film 'Finding Neverland' did!

TRAILER 1 —http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9A3x3K_6Fw

TRAILER 2—
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stay/trailers_player.php?IGNMediaID=1282172&playerType=playlist

INTERVIEW —
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stay/trailers_player.php?IGNMediaID=1282172&playerType=playlist

poster by Girish Sheetal

HARVIE KRUMPET, jan 24

2008-01-24T14:43:00.001+05:30

HARVEY KRUMPET
Adam Elliot

The story revolves around the life of Harvek Milos Krumpetzki, born in Poland in 1922. At the outbreak of World War 2he comes to Australia as a refugee, and changes his name to Harvie Krumpet. Despite a life filled with bad luck - such as having Tourette's Syndrome, being struck by lightning, and losing one of his testicles - Harvie remains ever optimistic, living out his own eccentric way of life, marrying a nurse he meets in hospital and raising an adoptive daughter, who is a Thalidomide baby. Throughout his disaster-ridden life, people around him come and go, but right to the end Harvie delights in the simple pleasure of life. In one of the pivotal episodes of his life Harvie sits in the park next to a statue of Horace while he hears the instructional Carpe Diem that inspires him to many changes in life including embracing the naturist ways and embarking on daring rescue missions for animal rights.

The film won Best Animated Short Film in the 2004 Academy Awards.
Harvie Krumpet is a claymation film.

Adam Elliot's website : http://www.adamelliot.com.au/
Harvie Krumpet's site : http://www.harviekrumpet.com/#

SUDDHA, jan 23

2008-01-23T10:18:00.000+05:30

We had invited today's guest at the suggestion of one of the students, and
luckily for us, he said he'd come!

Today we will be having with us Mr.P.N.Ramachandra. He is an FTII graduate
and is presently based in Mumbai making documentaries, short films and TV
shows under the banner of Sonk Films.  SUDDHA is his first feature length
film. It was adjudged Best Indian Film at the Osian Cinefan Festival of
Asian Films in New Delhi 2006


SUDDHA
(The Cleansing Rites)
105 mins
digital format, Language: TULU

The film is about a family in a remote village in South India which
realizes that it is in its last leg of feudal existence when it cannot
perform a last rites in a scale in which it was once used to.

The film depicts the impact the Land Ceiling Act, ushered a few decades
back in the country, has had on its social structure. It is the story of
modern India – of changing caste equations and a realisation of the
reality among the land owning class, albeit a bit late. Though the film
is set in a remote village near Mangalore, it could well have happened
in any other village elsewhere in India.





Here are a few links that ought to be checked out before watching the film

THE WEBSITE: www.suddhathecleansingrites.blogspot.com
HIS BLOG:    www.ramachandrapn.blogspot.com

6.15pm!!

BLIND CHANCE, jan 22

2008-01-22T22:31:00.000+05:30

BLIND CHANCE
Krzysztof Kieslowski

Fill in the blanks

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how
such a seemingly
banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

One: he catches the train and.................

Two: while running for the train he bumps into
a railway guard and.........

Three: he simply misses the train and ....................



Here's a nice review-> http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/b/blindchance.htm

Virumaandi: a review by Ayswarya

2008-01-18T21:30:00.000+05:30

In over 60 years, mainstream Indian cinema has evolved from the times of phalke through various phases, evolving a unique prototype for itself. The very language is heavily based on theatre and other performing arts, replete with songs and costumes. Simultaneously, it has also tried to imitate the trends of Hollywood, but the internalization of western material culture has happened within Indian fantasies. So, even if the lifestyle and material aspirations maybe western, the outlook and spirit have retained and reflected something uniquely Indian. From the moral journey of the hero to the archaic archetypes of women and honour and sexuality, the desires and dire circumstances of the mass drove the industry.

There were no protagonists but only heroes, who became moral icons. Archetypes and formulae had always laid the unshakeable foundation of mainstream cinema. If a film slightly comments on the system rather than judges, if the fantasies are brought down to realities, if icons are made human, the films have been pushed to the margins of parallel cinema.

This had been unfortunate for the parallel movement, for its standards have been conveniently slackened by popular notions and the whole need for cinema in India still remains undefined. Now, we don’t really know what is meaningful cinema in the Indian context.

While the west has been going through phases of formal experimentations as well as thematic shifts according to changing social situations, we have stayed back in some basic notions of social realism. Even while dealing with social realism, we couldn’t deal properly with our innate melodrama thematically and haven’t dealt with the materiality of the medium formally. Especially in the area of art production, we have remained as minimally representational as affordable.

When it comes to constructing spaces for cinema, we have always been content with the barest theatrical representations. Even when money is thrown into big sets, they are only fantasy contraptions which titillate; Plain show off of money than a meaningful part of the movie. We couldn’t incorporate grandeur as an essential part of our movies. Affluence was always related with unattainable fantasy.

But of late, the boundaries are thinning. The material culture of the west is shaping the aspirations of a new India and the new cinema. The urban romantic comedy and the over simplified formulas executed in fast cuts and slick storytelling is the thing that people seem to have patience for. With the internet generation’s dominance, we have impatient audience who also want to be entertained without reminders of regular life or any remote baggage for thought. Or it is the super-hero with his ready-made judgments and panacea for all social ills.

In this situation, people like kamal hasan who have a come a long way, through decades of toil in such a rigid industry still wanting to give some class and substance to popular cinema have to be lauded, atleast for their spirit. And that’s why virumaandi is an important step in tamil cinema.

Being an iconic super star, funded by worried producers, he is the only one with a personal journey in the industry. Considering the complicated state of our simplemindedness, humanism is one major area for meaning making in our society, which hasn’t been approached without prejudiced moralising or ready-made solutions. In this scenario, to subvert a system as rigid as popular cinema, is quite a confrontation.

Because even the boldest of our social realist films don’t ever touch upon delicate areas like caste or sexuality at their primal ugly real roots. In virumaandi, the basic issue is caste-based violence in our villages. But the protagonist, a vain, naïve village hero, a foreign-return, who is ultimately made the scape goat of the village politics, who is heroic by default due to his simplicity and youth, has to be more glorified for popular satiation and has to be kamal haasan himself, beefy pink and middle-aged as he is. This is quite a tragedy for the film naturally, but maybe unavoidable due to financial reasons maybe.

Because, otherwise, the casting is flawless and brings the soil alive in the human flesh, from the sweat to the blood to the talcum powder. Considering most of them are professional actors, also great picks from the theatre, they have internalized every gesture and spirit of the environment. The characterizations have been done with meticulous, amusing detail. The documentary style, cinema verite approach suits the film well, as it is highly provincial and rich with anthropological detailing and also a murder mystery. It is more of an insider’s film rather than the surface issue of death sentence, as proposed. For the caste based hierarchies steeped in the psyche of tamil villages dictates all nuances of their daily life including the very body language of the people; it has become such a subliminal value system of its own, that only a person who lives in proximity to such a system can understand the spontaneity and trigger points of the violence.

But the woman reporter, championing for the cause against death penalty adds another interesting dimension to it, from the way she is treated inside the jail to how she carries herself, is in itself a statement of a side-story. She is a parallel hero from the nooks to the city, also belonging to the second sex. The mock over-courteousness of the assistant jailor, the prejudiced attacks of virumaandi, the protectiveness of her colleague are also part of this social reality, documented well.

The parallel narrative trick worked well, especially because it accentuated the well-crafted characterization of pasupathi and kamal and made them the story-tellers. The folk quality of the story-teller intercepting the story with his witticisms and projections is appealing.

The sound overlaps and transitions have also been well-thought and witty. Especially since in such a split narrative style, it is important to tie the ends in an interesting way. The dialogues are also loaded with allusions and hints.

I have always found kamal hasan’s projections of sexuality on screen uncomfortable for very basic aesthetic reasons. I sincerely believe he should learn the art of suggestion; it would increase his romantic appeal if that’s the aspiration as well as save the audience from unrelated awkwardness. But maybe that’s part of the financial indispensability as with the stunt and heroism.

But the way the sound design has been used to create ambience, add detailing to a situation, for transitions, and how music is cleverly intertwined so as not to disturb the flow of the narration is really well-handled.

As for the multifarious issues from land disputes to agriculture to women’s issues, its an open trip for any alert audience.

To quote from kamal swaroop, film-maker: “shoot a movie like a documentary; shoot a documentary like a movie.”

Amen.

VIRUMAANDI, jan 17

2008-01-16T23:31:00.000+05:30

VIRUMAANDI
Kamal Hassan

If Maniratnam's Aayidha Ezhuthu was about youngsters getting into politics
to make a change, this film, by Kamal Hassan shows us the ACTUAL politics
that goes on in villages.

A reporter researching the death penalty in India is recounted the story
of a farm owner Virumaandi whose role in a clan feud between Naicker and
Kothalla Devar leads him to death row.

A village, where women and land are the main reasons for mindless mayhem,
is the scene of action. Swayed by avarice or anger these are people who
never think twice before they take away a life. They are reckless and
romantic — repercussions rarely come to their mind.

As the story unfolds, there is a riot in the jail, and the only one who
can get the reporter safely out of the prison is Virumaandi.


The film ran into controversy much before its release, because of its
earlier title- "Sandiyar", which is a caste.

Heres a really good review of the film-->
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2004/01/23/stories/2004012301530300.htm

AAYITHA EZHUTHU. jan 15

2008-01-16T14:01:00.000+05:30

AAYITHA EZHUTHU
Mani Ratnam

One fateful incident on Napier Bridge in Chennai changes three men's lives forever. Inbashekar is a hitman who has no qualms about doing dirty dealings for money. He is assigned a job to shoot youth leader and student activist Michael, and succeeds on Napier Bridge, while Michael rides by on his motorbike. As Michael falls into the river, Arjun , a young student standing nearby is the sole witness of the incident.

After the attack is shown at the beginning of the film, the plot moves to tell each of the individuals' stories separately, and where the lives of each overlap. The three characters struggle with their own aspirations whilst trying to maintain a balance in their respective love lives. Inbashekar struggles to let go of his lifestyle, encouraged by his brother, despite pleas for change from his wife Sasi . Michael, a passionate student activist works to rally students to participate in fighting corruption in politics, and tries to balance this with a relationship with his playful, gutsy neighbour Geetha. Arjun must decide between studying abroad and shaping a career in America, or forming a long-term relationship with Meera. The structure of the film is loosely based on Amores Perros.

Director's note (from the Madras Talkies website)
Aayitha Ezhuthu - the title of the film came about the last. The character came several years back, based on the life of a student of Osmania University. The research was done, but the structure for the script was not worked out at that point. The germ, however, remained with me for years.
Six weeks into the shoot, the title Aayitha Ezhuthu was finalized.
When something happens around us, be it good or bad, everyone has a way of reacting to it. Some of us see how it can be useful to us. And if we can, we make the best of it and get on.
Some others think that they can step in and help, chip in, contribute, be proactive. They believe in the power of ONE. That each and every individual can make a difference if one puts one?s mind to it.
There are certain others, probably the majority of us, especially in this time and age, that believe that if we take care of ourselves the world will take care of itself.

These three views form Aayitha Ezhuthu.

RASHOMON, jan 10

2008-01-10T22:02:00.000+05:30

For those of you who are still reeling from the aftr-effects of a
psycho-froggy-delic trip(read Om Darbadar), here's an even more
confounding film.


RASHOMON
Akira Kurosawa

In 12th century Japan, a samurai and his wife are attacked by the
notorious bandit Tajomaru, and the samurai ends up dead. Tajomaru is
captured shortly afterward and is put on trial, but his story and the
wife's are so completely different that a psychic is brought in to allow
the murdered man to give his own testimony. He tells yet another
completely different story. Finally, a woodcutter who found the body
reveals that he saw the whole thing, and his version is again completely
different from the others.

Who is telling the truth? What is the truth?

Poster by Shreyas R Krishnan

OMDARBADAR, jan 9

2008-01-09T15:18:00.000+05:30

OM DARBADAR
Kamal Swaroop
101 mins


Om-Dar-Ba-Dar is a fantastical portrait of life in a mythical small town.
The film tells the story of a young boy called Om in the period of his
carefree adolescence and its harsh disillusionments. Om has a rather
strange family. His father quits his government job to dedicate himself to
astrology, and his older sister is dating a good-for-nothing. Om is
involved in science, but is also attracted to magic and religion. Above
all it seems as if his only outstanding skill is his ability to hold his
breath underwater for a long time.

'Om-Dar-Ba-Dar' has been referred to as an anomaly or accident by the few
who have seen it from within the mainstream Indian film history because of
its progressive cinematic nature.

Kamal Swaroop will be in NID on Friday(Jan 11) for Baatein.
AND, Aditya, the actor who plays the lead role in the film, will be introducing the film.
What fun :D

poster by Arpit Bhargava

INTOLERANCE, jan 8

2008-01-08T11:08:00.000+05:30

INTOLERANCE
D.W.Griffith
177mins

Intolerance is a  silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It is considered one of the
great masterpieces of the silent era. It was made in response to critics who
protested against Griffith's previous film, The birth of a nation for
its overt racist content, characterizing racism as people's "intolerance" of
other people's views.

Intolerance was a colossal undertaking filled with monumental sets, lavish
period costumes, and more than 3,000 extras. The film consisted of four
distinct but parallel stories that demonstrated mankind's intolerance
during four different ages in world history. The timeline covered
approximately 2,500 years, beginning with:

The Babylonian period depicts the fall of Babylon as a result of
intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of different
Babylonian gods.

The Judean era recounts how intolerance led to the crucifixtion of Jesus.

The French Renaissance tells of the failure of the edict of toleration
that led to the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

Modern America demonstrates how crime, and conflicts between ruthless
capitalists and striking workers helped ruin the lives of Americans.

Each era was shot in a different colour tint.

Actual costs to produce Intolerance are unknown, but best estimates are
close to $2 million (around $33 million in today's dollars), an
astronomical sum in 1916. The movie was by far the most expensive made at
that point.

Poster by Shreyas R Krishnan

BISHAR BLUES jan3

2008-01-03T15:46:00.000+05:30

BISHAR BLUES
Amitabh Chakraborty
80mins



Bishar Blues travels across the West Bengal countryside on the trail of
the Islamic fakir who walks the path of Marfat. In Islam the Shariat laws
organize the physical world, ethics…The Marfat is the hidden knowledge,
the goal is to free oneself from the physical, the ascetic way.

The fakirs all agree on Allah, Mohammed, the Prophet and the Koran. But
then they go on to freely interpret Allah, Mohammed and the Koran, also
the relationship between these three, creating a multi-textured mythology
of Islam without the official sanction of any centralized authority. Every
individual fakir gives his own twist to the tale. The variations are
endless yielding to the notion that Man himself is the ultimate mythology.
Knowing oneself is knowing god.

"Today as I look around at my global environment, I feel suffocated  by
the images of Islam that bombard me – the 9/11 New York Twin Tower
bombings, the Afganisthan bombings, the Iraq bombings, the 7/7 London
bombings, the bombings in Mumbai, Osama Bin Laden, undemocratic rigid
theologians….. Where was the human individual who practiced simple faith?

I bumped into the Bengali fakir in his own land and he made me think.

In the fakirs I recognized the human individual as the supreme arbitrator
of his own destiny. The system bends and veers along. Separate individuals
create numerous variables and keep the system open ended. The fakirs keep
Islam open ended. I threw in my lot with them. I made my film."

-Amitabh Chakraborty


About the director:

Amitabh Chakraborty has a Post Graduate Diploma in Film Editing from
FTII, Pune.

\ In 1990  he produced and directed a feature film ‘KAAL ABHIRATI’ it was
awarded the Special Jury Award at the National Film Festival, New
Dehli.
\ In 1995 he directed a video documentary four part series on the folk art
forms of West Bengal . 
\ In 1996 he directed the documentary ‘KITSCH-MITSCH’ on the painter Hiran Mitra
which was screened at MIFF.
\ In 2006 he directed and Produced ‘BISHAR BLUES’ a feature length
documentary on the Islamic Fakirs of Bengal, India.
\ 2007 Work in Progress – Directing and coproducing ‘COSMIC SEX –A DIALOGUE
WITH GANDHI’ a documentary feature for Steps India International.

poster- Shreyas R Krishnan(www.sayerhs.deviantart.com)