Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Foreign«

Cannes 2018, Netflix, Orson Welles, Nandita Das’s Manto and #MeToo

April 16, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/cannes-film-festival-2018-netflix-orson-welles-nandita-das-manto-and-metoo-4433459.html Does the distribution model determine what cinema is? The ongoing war between Netflix and the Cannes film festival – which recently announced its line-up for the coming edition (more on that later) – has brought this question to the forefront. Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said, “Any […]

Remembering Stéphane Audran’s La Femme Infidèle, and its tamer American counterpart, Unfaithful

April 9, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/remembering-stephane-audrans-la-femme-infidele-and-its-tamer-american-counterpart-unfaithful-4423949.html There’s always a general sadness when someone from the cinema passes away, but with the French actress, Stéphane Audran, it was a little personal. The VCR era had just given way to the DVD era. Libraries with extensive foreign-film collections began to sprout in Chennai, and whenever […]

Bergman’s ‘Hour of the Wolf,’ Darren Aronofsky’s ‘mother!,’ and the myth of the ‘tortured artist’

April 2, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bergmans-hour-of-the-wolf-darren-aronofskys-mother-and-the-legend-of-the-tortured-artist-4414959.html In a paper titled Bereavement and Creativity, published in October 2017 in Management Science, economists Kathryn Graddy (Brandeis University) and Carl Lieberman ( Princeton University) studied the effect of a loved one’s death on the creativity of 48 artists, ranging from Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Picasso […]

Gal Gadot’s Stephen Hawking tweet, and the unsentimental handling of disability in ‘Rust and Bone’

March 26, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/gal-gadots-stephen-hawking-tweet-and-the-unsentimental-handling-of-disability-in-rust-and-bone-4405561.html Ableist (i.e. someone who discriminates against people with disabilities). That’s a new word I learnt after the passing of Stephen Hawking, when Gal ‘Wonder Woman’ Gadot put out this tweet: “Rest in peace Dr. Hawking. Now you’re free of any physical constraints. Your brilliance and wisdom will […]

Remembering René Clément’s take on ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, and his documentarian eye for detail

March 19, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/remembering-rene-clements-take-on-the-talented-mr-ripley-and-his-documentarian-eye-for-detail-4396113.html You sometimes peg these columns on the day someone was born, or the day they died. With the French filmmaker René Clément, it’s both. He was born on March 18, 1913, and he died on March 17, 1996, three years before the release of Anthony Minghella’s The […]

Louis Malle’s incest-tinged ‘Murmur of the Heart’ is a gentle blow against political correctness

March 12, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/louis-malles-incest-tinged-film-murmur-of-the-heart-is-a-gentle-blow-against-political-correctness-4386111.html There’s nothing quite like the Oscars to put you off political correctness for a while. There’s definitely the need to say these things – about gender equality, about racial discrimination, and a huge shout-out to Frances McDormand for making us aware of what an “inclusion rider” is […]

Erik Poppe’s Berlin Competition entry, U – July 22, recreates a horrifying event with stunning exactitude, but also raises questions

March 6, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/erik-poppes-u-july-22-recreates-a-horrifying-event-with-stunning-exactitude-but-also-raises-questions-4378353.html Utøya 22.juli (U – July 22), directed by Erik Poppe, depicts a terrible chapter in Norway’s history. On the day the film is named after, a right-wing extremist named Anders Behring Breivik set off bombs in the government offices in Oslo, then travelled to Utøya island, the […]

The Prayer, Best Actor winner at Berlinale, is a worthy addition to the list of films about faith

February 26, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/berlinale-2018-cedric-kahns-the-prayer-which-bagged-best-actor-prize-is-a-worthy-addition-to-small-list-of-films-on-faith-4367375.html Winter Light (1963), directed by Ingmar Bergman, is one of the most wrenching depictions of faith on film — rather, the lack of faith, given that the person in crisis is a pastor named Tomas. Like Jesus, Tomas murmurs to himself: “God, why have you forsaken me?” […]

Berlin Diary 10: Dark lives. Low-key sci-fi. India of the 1920s.

February 25, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-diary-10-dark-lives-low-key-sci-fi-india-1920s/amp/ IIt’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie as still as Thomas Stuber’s In den Gängen (In the Aisles), which tells the affecting story of Christian (Franz Rogowski), the new employee in a wholesale supermarket someplace in contemporary East Germany. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, […]

Berlin Diary 9: Two women. More women. And life in the Arctic.

February 24, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-diary-two-women-women-life-arctic/amp/ Ramón Salazar’s La enfermedad del domingo (Sunday’s Illness) is the story of two women, one absurdly privileged, the other a sort of castaway. Their introduction scenes are telling. Chiara (Bárbara Lennie) is seen in a forest, making her way to a strangely shaped tree, right out […]

Berlin Diary 8: A focus on the refugee crisis. Searching for intimacy. Gael García Bernal’s heist-and-aftermath drama.

February 23, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-a-focus-on-the-refugee-crisis-searching-for-intimacy-gael-garcia-bernals-heist-and-aftermath-drama/amp/ Two years ago, Gianfranco Rosi’s refugee documentary, Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare), won the Golden Bear. This year, Swiss director Markus Imhoof premiered his refugee documentary, Eldorado, in the Competition section. In terms of the bigger picture, I must say I preferred Fire at Sea, but there’s […]

Berlin Diary 7: Teen trauma. Steven Soderbergh’s stalker thriller. And time passages.

February 22, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-teen-trauma-steven-soderberghs-stalker-thriller-time-passages/amp/ The French drama, Prénom: Mathieu (First Name: Mathieu), lasts just 63 minutes, and it packs an awful lot in. Awful being the key word. Maxime Gorbatchevsky plays 17-year-old Mathieu, who, at the beginning of the film, is raped by a serial offender. The resulting story could be […]

Berlin Diary 6: Gus Van Sant’s latest. Serial killings in Teheran. A super-sweet superhero story.

February 21, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-gus-van-sant-baradwaj-rangan/amp/ In Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Gus Van Sant tells one of his patented stories about a troubled soul who finds a mentor and sorts his shit out: call this Good Wheel Hunting. Joaquin Phoenix plays (the real-life) John Callahan, an alcoholic who […]

Berlin Diary 5: The end of a romance. The beginnings of a transformation.

February 20, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-baradwaj-rangan-2/amp/ The most remarkable aspect of Avel Petersén and Måns Månsson’s  The Real Estate (discussed in yesterday’s diary) is the heroine. Léonore Ekstrand plays a 68-year-old, which is the actress’s age in real life. It isn’t just that she is unafraid to play her age. She’s unafraid to […]

Berlin Diary 4: Motherhood. Swedish real estate. And a thriller on a computer screen.

February 19, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-baradwaj-rangan/amp/ Inspired by AM Homes’s memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter, the Italian director Laura Bispuri has come up with Figlia mia (Daughter of Mine). It’s the story of a 10-year-old girl named Vittoria (Sara Casu), who strikes a rapport with her biological mother (Angelica, played by Alba Rohrwacher), […]

‘A Fantastic Woman’, and a fantastic close-up of the trans experience

February 19, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/oscar-2018-nominee-a-fantastic-woman-una-mujer-fantastica-is-a-riveting-close-up-of-the-trans-experience-4357511.html The Berlin Film Festival is underway and the Academy Awards are on March 4, so it’s a good time to talk about Una Mujer Fantástica (A Fantastic Woman), which won Best Screenplay at last year’s Berlinale and has been nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The […]

Berlin Diary 3: Love on the rocks. A French non-thriller. And Kim Ki-duk’s new movie.

February 18, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-baradwaj-rangan-kim-ki-duk/amp/ The German woman ahead of me in the line (it was a public screening) said she liked to watch films that gave her a glimpse of other cultures. I don’t know if Henrika Kull’s Jibril qualifies exactly, given that it’s about Arabs settled in Germany, but then, one could […]

Berlin Diary 2: Heiresses. An undistressed damsel. And family life.

February 17, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-baradwaj-rangan-report-2/amp/ The irony of a film’s title rarely hits as hard as it does in Marcelo Martinessi’s Las herederas (The Heiresses). In the opening scene, two women amble through a mansion, examining items for sale. (“These chairs…. Louis XV or XVI?”) Chela and her partner, Chiquita, are in debt, […]

Berlin Diary 1: A miss. And a Shankar movie set in Ireland

February 16, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2018-baradwaj-rangan-report/amp/ Every year, I tell myself to land up at the Berlin International Film Festival a day before the official opening day, because the press screenings of the opening film (Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, this year) happen in the morning, and the later screenings get sold out very quickly. The Berlinale […]

A hat-tip to love that cuts deeper than a Valentine’s Day card

February 14, 2018

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Read the full article on Firstpost, here: http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/blue-is-the-warmest-colour-talk-to-her-a-hat-tip-to-love-that-cuts-deeper-than-a-valentines-day-card-4350735.html Every year, on February 14, we get lists. Ten Most Romantic Films of All Time. And so forth. But love isn’t always roses. In many films, affairs of the heart are closer to cacti, and the people aren’t always destined for a happily-ever-after. I’m thinking of François […]

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