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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Foreign«
On the parents and children in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Like Father, Like Son’
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/hirokazu-kore-edas-like-father-like-son-and-its-nature-vs-nurture-examination-7370971.html This week, we’re going to discuss a film about fathers and sons, but what birthed it was director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s relationship with his daughter. He said, in a Screen Anarchy interview, that he actually didn’t have very much time to spend with her, probably due to the […]
The sexually explicit ‘Extase’, starring Hedy Lamarr, and its continuing connection with the Venice Film Festival
September 12, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/why-czech-film-extase-by-gustav-machaty-is-important-for-the-history-of-the-venice-film-festival-7328681.html Extase (Ecstasy), the 1933 Czech film by Gustav Machatý, made news at the Venice Film Festival for many reasons. One, the film was the pre-opening night event of the festival. It was part of the Classics section, and was screened a day before the festival officially began, […]
Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson in a lackluster adaptation of JM Coetzee’s ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’
September 8, 2019
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
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
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
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 […]
FC @ Venice 2019 – Full coverage
August 29, 2019
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
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 […]
The 50th anniversary of Z, by Costa-Gavras, who receives the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award at Venice
August 22, 2019
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
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
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
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
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 […]
FC Recco: ‘Talk To Her’
July 25, 2019
A weekly series where I recommend a film-based book, a foreign film or an Indian movie. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘Salaam Cinema’ is not just an ode to the medium but also a reflection of it
July 18, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/mohsen-makhmalbafs-salaam-cinema-is-not-just-an-ode-to-the-medium-but-also-a-reflection-of-it-7015861.html In 1895, the Lumière brothers, in Paris, held the first paid public screening of 10 short films, including the now-famous Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory. A hundred years later, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf dreamed up a novel way to celebrate the centenary of this new medium. Salaam […]
Forty years on, Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ remains a great example of movie-poetry, easier to experience than explain
July 11, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/forty-years-on-tarkovskys-stalker-remains-a-great-example-of-movie-poetry-easier-to-experience-than-explain-6973641.html In 1972, the brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky published a Russian sci-fi novel titled Roadside Picnic, which centres on an extraterrestrial event called Visitation. This event results in “Zones”, mysterious (possibly supernatural) areas that have been cordoned off by the respective Governments. Instead of a single exposition […]
Luchino Visconti’s ‘Senso’, which heralded the slow opening-up of Italian neorealism
July 4, 2019
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
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 […]
On World Music Day, a salute to Jacques Demy, who made two of the greatest musicals outside the Hollywood system
June 20, 2019
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 […]
In Pride Month, a look at ‘Kanarie’, a South African coming-of-age (and coming-out) drama
June 13, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/in-pride-month-a-look-at-kanarie-a-south-african-coming-of-age-and-coming-out-drama-6805701.html Among other things, Christiaan Olwagen’s South African drama Kanarie is about the importance of role models. The people around us — family, friends, teachers — they’re all good. But it’s something else when a public figure, especially one you adore, legitimises what you are. Johan adores Boy […]
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September 19, 2019
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