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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: English«
The letter in ‘Casablanca’ versus the ones in Chantal Akerman’s ‘News from Home’
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/a-cinematic-reading-of-the-letter-in-casablanca-versus-the-ones-in-chantal-akermans-news-from-home-5553291.html BBC Culture’s poll of the 100 best foreign films has given us fodder for many, many columns – so this week, let’s look at one of the female filmmakers on the list. Not that there’s much choice. There are only four women – three-and-a-half, in a sense, […]
Readers Write In #59: Is the film playing Kill-Marry-Hook Up with its female characters?
November 11, 2018
‘Kill-Marry-Hook Up’, for the uninitiated, is a conversation game where participants are presented with three names. They are then forced to map each name with exactly one option from ‘Kill’, ‘Marry’ or ‘Hook Up’. ‘Hook Up’ is usually replaced with a “profane” synonym, but let’s stick to the Koffee With Karan version of the title. […]
‘Seven Samurai’ is certainly a great film, but is it the best foreign film of all time?
November 8, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/seven-samurai-is-certainly-a-great-film-but-is-it-the-best-foreign-film-of-all-time-5517931.html Polls are fun. They’re imperfect. They’re maddening when they don’t match your tastes. But they get people talking about the subject, which is the whole point of the poll. For a while now, BBC Culture has been running polls on cinema. In 2015, the web site asked […]
The long gaps between the films of David Lean, Terrence Malick and Ildikó Enyedi, whose ‘On Body and Soul’ is on Netflix
October 25, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/david-lean-terrence-malick-ildiko-enyedi-and-the-long-gaps-between-their-films-5443691.html The Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi is part of a unique trivia list of filmmakers: the release dates of at least two of their films were separated by more than a decade. Stanley Kubrick belongs in this list, with a 12-year gap between Full Metal Jacket (1987) and […]
‘The Godfather’, ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Son of Saul’, and the philosophy behind cinematography
October 18, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/the-godfather-citizen-kane-son-of-saul-and-the-philosophy-behind-cinematography-5400201.html One of my favourite anecdotes about cinematography comes from Francis Ford Coppola’s DVD commentary track of The Godfather. He says that they decided to be very “classical” about how the film was going to be shot, the camera always about four-and-a-half feet off the ground. “It never […]
Detective Dee and the Strange Case of the Non-Hollywood Franchise Film
October 11, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/detective-dee-and-non-hollywood-franchises-if-youre-game-for-subtitles-its-a-blast-5359121.html On July 27, this year, Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings was released. It’s the third instalment in a supernaturally flavoured action franchise, which is a blockbuster everywhere except in the US. The first film (Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, 2011) made under […]
‘My Life with James Dean’, ‘gay cinema’, and whether cinema should be classified as ‘gay’
September 20, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/my-life-with-james-dean-queer-gaze-and-whether-cinema-should-be-categorised-into-inclusive-labels-5216091.html/ In the June 25 column, written on the occasion of Pride month, I wrote, “There are, of course, many filmmakers who are homosexual, but it’s interesting to explore whether this ‘gayness’ manifests itself in the films they make, and what really makes for a ‘gay film’. Is […]
Interview: Aishwarya Rajesh
September 14, 2018
Aishwarya Rajesh talks about TV serials and her entry into cinema with films like Pa Ranjith’s Attakathi. She talks about casting couch, about North Indian heroines and the opportunities they get. Despite performance-oriented roles like the ones in Dharma Durai (with Vijay Sethupathi) or Kaaka Muttai, she emphasises the need for glamorous roles opposite big stars […]
Running between films at Venice, Cannes, Berlin… Why put yourself through the festival grind?
September 13, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/running-between-films-at-venice-cannes-berlin-why-put-yourself-through-the-festival-grind-5175061.html At the Venice Film Festival, this year, I ran into Peter Bradshaw, chief film critic at The Guardian. We were in line for a press screening, and we were generally chatting about the films we liked and disliked. The topic shifted to the nature of film festivals, […]
FC @ Venice 11: New films from Zhang Yimou and ‘The Babadook’ director, plus ‘Soni’, a terrific Indian drama
September 8, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-zhang-yimou-ying-jennifer-kent-the-nightingale-ivan-ayr-soni/ Zhang Yimou’s Ying (Shadow; Chinese) plays like an all-action, zero-psychology take on Kurosawa’s Kagemusha (which shared the Palme d’Or with Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival). The latter film was about a shadow warrior, a lookalike used as a body double […]
On the 20th death anniversary of Kurosawa, remembering his Golden Lion winner ‘Rashōmon’, and his only female-centric film
September 6, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/on-kurosawas-20th-death-anniversary-remembering-rashomon-and-his-only-female-centric-film-5128341.html/ You’re lucky if you get one solid peg for an article. This one, about Akira Kurosawa, has two. First, it’s the 20th death anniversary of the great filmmaker – he died on September 6, 1998. Second, the Venice film festival is underway, and it’s a good time […]
FC @ Venice 9: Willem Dafoe as van Gogh, Natalie Portman in ‘Vox Lux’, plus ‘Acusada’
September 6, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-willem-dafoe-as-van-gogh-natalie-portman-in-vox-lux-plus-acusada/ How many versions of the same story do we need? I saw Utøya 22.juli (U – July 22) at the Berlin Film Festival. The nerve-shredding thriller, directed by Erik Poppe, depicts a terrible chapter in Norway’s history, when a right-wing extremist set off bombs in the […]
Readers Write In #48: Clive’s Angels: Whitney and Phyllis, united in tragedy
September 5, 2018
I usually do not find biographical documentaries about celebrities very interesting to watch. I mean fairly contemporary figures here as opposed to long dead legends who offer fertile ground for historians. They have a tendency to tell us what we already know or, at least, can find out with not much effort and veer to […]
FC @ Venice 8: Joaquin Phoenix in ‘The Sisters Brothers’, ‘Charlie Says’, ‘La Quietud’
September 5, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-joaquin-phoenix-in-the-sisters-brothers-charlie-says-la-quietud/ Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is reportedly centered on the Manson Family murders. Mary Harron’s Charlie Says is less about the murders, more about Manson’s family, especially the women. The film’s title is a manifestation of how brainwashed this bunch was, how absurdly […]
FC @ Venice 7: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in ‘A Star is Born’, plus ‘Close Enemies’
September 4, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-bradley-cooper-and-lady-gaga-in-a-star-is-born-plus-close-enemies/ Forget the original, the 1937 A Star is Born, and consider only the remakes, all of them musicals. The 1954 version starred Judy Garland. The 1976 remake had Barbra Streisand. And this latest reincarnation, tenderly directed by Bradley Cooper, is toplined by Lady Gaga. The similarities […]
Recalling ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ by Zhang Yimou, this year’s recipient of the Jaeger-LeCoultre award at Venice
September 3, 2018
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/recalling-raise-the-red-lantern-by-zhang-yimou-this-years-recipient-of-jaeger-lecoultre-award-at-venice-5103761.html This year, Chinese director Zhang Yimou will receive the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award of the Venice Film Festival. This is the recognition (dedicated to personalities who have made a significant contribution to contemporary cinema) that went to Mani Ratnam in 2010, and other recipients include […]
FC @ Venice 6: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Suspiria’ and Mike Leigh’s ‘Peterloo’
September 3, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-luca-guadagninos-suspiria-and-mike-leighs-peterloo/ Luca Guadagnino’s reworking of Dario Argento’s most famous giallo work, Suspiria, is similarly set in West Germany, in the late 1970s. But unlike the earlier film, which blew off this time- and place-setting information with a bit of on-screen text, this version takes pains to situate […]
FC @ Venice 5: Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘The Favourite’, plus Orson Welles’s last work
September 2, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-yorgos-lanthimoss-the-favourite-plus-orson-welless-last-work/ Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving.” If you guessed these opening lines from the press notes are about the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie, it’s a testament to how bizarre, how surreal, how unique and […]
FC @ Venice 4: Alfonso Cuarón’s magnificent ‘Roma,’ plus the other awards at the festival
September 1, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-at-venice-2018-alfonso-cuarons-magnificent-roma-plus-the-other-awards-at-the-festival/” With the premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s Netflix-acquired Roma, the Venice film festival effectively told Cannes: “Stop fussing about the format. Focus on the film.” For if this isn’t CINEMA, then what is? The press booklet called Roma “[Cuarón’s] most personal project to date.” I don’t know […]
FC @ Venice 3: Virtual Reality experiences of war and the cosmos, plus sci-fi based on Philip K Dick
August 30, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/venice-film-festival-2018-virtual-reality-first-man-ryan-gosling/ Okay, I most certainly did not expect to be reminded of Subhash Ghai while watching a VR film at the 75th Venice Film Festival. Eliza McNitt’s Spheres: Chorus of the Cosmos describes the birth (and possible death) of earth, starting from the Big Bang, and when […]
November 15, 2018
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