Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: English«

Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson in a lackluster adaptation of JM Coetzee’s ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’

September 8, 2019

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Plus, three Afghan women dealing with pregnancy, into a killer’s mind, and the super-entertaining closing film of the festival. Spoilers ahead… You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/waiting-for-the-barbarians-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-venice-film-festival-2019/ Ciro Guerra’s Waiting for the Barbarians (English, Mongolian), based on JM Coetzee’s novel (he wrote the screenplay, too), is a prime slab of […]

Meryl Streep stars in Steven Soderbergh’s slight, but very entertaining ‘The Laundromat’

September 7, 2019

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Plus, two gay-themed stories, an animated erotic drama, and a Portuguese intergenerational saga that wants to be ‘Giant’. Spoilers ahead… You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-meryl-streep-steven-soderberghs-the-laundromat-move-review-baradwaj-rangan/ There were two films whose subject matter looked intimidating, especially a few days (and several films) into the festival. Adults in the Room, by […]

Martin Scorsese’s underappreciated ‘New York, New York’ is back in a gorgeous big-screen restoration

September 5, 2019

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Plus, wartime atrocities in ‘The Painted Bird’. And ‘Babyteeth’, a cancer dramedy. Spoilers ahead… You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-martin-scorsese-new-york-new-york-baradwaj-rangan/ Among the secret pleasures of a film festival is the opportunity to catch a restored version of a famous film, maybe even a classic, you’ve never seen on the big […]

Restored films by Luis Buñuel, Dennis Hopper and Jacques Tourneur in Venice Classics

September 5, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/venice-2019-thoughts-on-restored-classics-by-luis-bunuel-dennis-hopper-and-jacques-tourneur-7289201.html/ The Classics section at the Venice Film Festival aims to present “a selection of the finest recent restorations of classic films, and documentaries about cinema or individual authors of yesteryear or today.” One of the first films I caught in this section was a restored version of […]

“Joker”… A superb Joaquin Phoenix anchors an okayish origin story of Batman’s nemesis

September 3, 2019

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If Jack Nicholson went after campy flamboyance and Heath Ledger reached for mythical resonance, Phoenix’s interpretation of the character is attuned to psychological realism. Spoilers ahead… You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/joker-movie-review-venice-international-film-festival-2019-joaquin-phoenix-baradwaj-rangan By now, we know that no comic-book figure can be allowed to just be. The pop two-dimensionality of […]

“Ad Astra”… Brad Pitt is terrific in a space saga with less-than-terrific writing

September 3, 2019

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The film harks back to a more solemn tradition of space cinema. It’s what space sounded like before George Lucas invented the lightsabre and the Stormtrooper. Spoilers ahead… You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-ad-astra-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ The Venice Film Festival seems to have a thing for brooding space melodramas where blasting off […]

FC @ Venice 2019 – Full coverage

August 29, 2019

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Read the coverage at Film Companion (links below)… 1: BOMBAY ROSE https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-fim-festival-2019-bombay-rose-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ 2: AD ASTRA https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-ad-astra-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ 3: JOKER https://www.filmcompanion.in/joker-movie-review-venice-international-film-festival-2019-joaquin-phoenix-baradwaj-rangan/ 4: Roman Polanski’s J’ACCUSE, plus VERDICT https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-roman-polanksi-jaccuse-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ 5: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s CHOLA https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-chola-shape-of-water-movie-review-sanal-kumar-sasidharan-baradwaj-rangan 6. EMA / MADRE / SOLE https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-international-film-festival-2019-sole-movie-review-madre-baradwaj-rangan 7. Interview with GITANJALI RAO and DEBORAH SATHE https://www.filmcompanion.in/gitanjali-rao-interview-bombay-rose-venice-international-film-festival-2019-baradwaj-rangan 8. Martin Scorsese’s NEW YORK, NEW YORK, […]

Tsai Ming-Liang’s enigmatic ‘Vive L’Amour’, which won the Golden Lion at the 1994 Venice Film Festival, turns 25

August 29, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/venice-film-festival-tsai-ming-liangs-enigmatic-vive-lamour-which-won-the-golden-lion-in-1994-turns-25-7240691.html/ Tsai Ming-Liang likes watermelons. In The Wayward Cloud (2005), which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the fruit is used in a sex scene. In Vive L’Amour (1994), its appearance is far more benign, at least at first. A young salesman named Hsiao-kang buys […]

#AskBR – Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

August 27, 2019

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In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.

The 50th anniversary of Z, by Costa-Gavras, who receives the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award at Venice

August 22, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/50th-anniversary-of-z-by-costa-gavras-who-receives-the-jaeger-lecoultre-glory-to-the-filmmaker-award-at-venice-7204751.html Z, directed by Costa-Gavras, is a French procedural-thriller based on Greek events – but let’s first look at the American connection. When the film was released in 1969, President Nixon’s resignation was still a few years away – but what Federal Times Editor Jill Aitoro wrote, after […]

The reverse chronology in Gaspar Noé’s ‘Irreversible’, which gets an Out of Competition screening at Venice 2019

August 16, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/venice-film-festival-2019-the-reverse-chronology-in-gaspar-noes-irreversible-which-gets-an-out-of-competition-screening-7172071.html Talking about Memento (2000) in a Creative Screenwriting interview, Christopher Nolan said that he and his brother Jonathan (who came up with the story) felt that the most interesting approach was to tell the story from the first person point of view, putting the audience right in […]

Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘The Spider’s Stratagem’ will be screened as part of Venice Classics

August 8, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/revisiting-bernardo-bertoluccis-the-spiders-stratagem-which-will-be-screened-as-part-of-venice-classics-7132711.html In 1944, the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges published a short story titled Theme of the Traitor and the Hero (original Spanish title: Tema del traidor y del héroe). The protagonist, Ryan, sets out to write a biography about his great-grandfather, a nationalist hero who was killed […]

Greater transparency in the process may help address the gender parity issue at Venice and other film festivals

August 1, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/venice-2019-greater-transparency-in-selection-process-may-help-address-gender-parity-at-film-festivals-7095451.html The issue of gender parity has come up again after the Venice Film Festival announced its line-up, with only two Competition titles from women filmmakers: Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Candidate and Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth. (If you want to make a grim joke, you could say it’s a full […]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ‘Micmacs’ and the problems when a director has too distinct a signature

July 25, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/amelie-director-jean-pierre-jeunets-micmacs-shows-us-that-a-very-distinct-style-can-sometimes-be-a-problem-7056821.html Micmacs (2009) is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director best known for Delicatessen and Amélie – and if you didn’t know, going in, that this was his work, you’d know in the first five minutes. Look at the shot where a woman receives news that her husband […]

Readers Write In #88: Science Fiction: A Genre Whose Time Has Come

July 23, 2019

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(by Vineet Jacob Kuruvilla) It was while watching the Arrival (2016) I realised that things have changed. Of late, there has been a deluge of content in pop culture, especially in the visual medium, around science and technology and its impact on society. The technology itself may not be the crux in all the story […]

Luchino Visconti’s ‘Senso’, which heralded the slow opening-up of Italian neorealism

July 4, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/how-luchino-viscontis-senso-heralded-the-slow-opening-up-of-italian-neorealism-6935251.html When we think of Italian neorealism, the films that spring to mind are all of a certain kind. We think of films about the poor or the working class. We think of non-professional actors and shooting on location. The movement shot to fame when Rome, Open City […]

On Carlos Reygadas’s ‘Japón’, and unilateral vs. bilateral cinema

June 27, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/on-carlos-reygadas-japon-and-the-concept-of-unilateral-vs-bilateral-cinema-6890371.html This June, Film Comment published an interview with Carlos Reygadas, the Mexican filmmaker widely regarded as one of the leading proponents of Slow Cinema. (The term means exactly what you think it does. Think, for instance, of the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Albert Serra, Lav Diaz and […]

“The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir”… A sincere Dhanush is let down by this bland fantasy-drama

June 21, 2019

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/the-extraordinary-journey-of-the-fakir-movie-review-dhanush-baradwaj-rangan How many Indian stars have gone on to play the lead in a non-Indian film? This isn’t about Indian-origin actors like Dev Patel. This isn’t about actors like Shabana Azmi, primarily identified with art-house cinema and invited to play character roles in dramas like […]

On World Music Day, a salute to Jacques Demy, who made two of the greatest musicals outside the Hollywood system

June 20, 2019

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/on-world-music-day-a-salute-to-jacques-demy-who-made-two-of-the-greatest-musicals-outside-hollywood-6852881.html In 1964, the French filmmaker Jacques Demy (aka Agnès Varda’s husband) made one of the most original musicals of all time: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The film was top-lined by Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo, who — along with the other characters — sang not just the […]

FC @ Cannes 2019 – Two best friends grapple with desire in Xavier Dolan’s halfway interesting ‘Matthias & Maxime’

May 25, 2019

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/cannes-2019-matthias-and-maxime-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Plus Marco Bellocchio’s ‘The Traitor’. And Abdellatif Kechiche’s ‘Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo’. In Xavier Dolan’s Matthias & Maxime, the director — playing the latter half of the title — sports a wine-red birthmark that pools over the right side of his face. From the outside, this […]

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