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Browsing All Posts filed under »Film Festivals«
The only major award Bibi Andersson won for her indelible work with Ingmar Bergman was at Cannes
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bibi-anderssons-only-major-award-for-her-indelible-work-with-ingmar-bergman-was-at-cannes-for-brink-of-life-6472111.html When news came of Bibi Andersson’s passing, I Googled up the celebrated actress to see how many acting awards she’d won in her career. I expected to find a host of nominations and wins for her collaborations with Ingmar Bergman alone (Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The […]
‘Capharnaüm’, directed by Un Certain Regard jury president Nadine Labaki, questions the ethics of having children
April 11, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/capharnaum-directed-by-un-certain-regard-jury-president-nadine-labaki-questions-the-ethics-of-having-babies-6430631.html The Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, second in importance only to the Competition, was created in 1978 by Gilles Jacob, former (and long-time) President of the festival. The aim was to showcase and reward more offbeat fare, or as the festival puts it: […]
Discovering the Israeli filmmaker whose ‘Synonyms’ won the Golden Bear at Berlinale
February 28, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/discovering-the-israeli-filmmaker-whose-synonyms-won-the-golden-bear-at-berlinale-6164361.html// Nadav Lapid announced himself on the world stage with Policeman (2011). This was his first feature, and the plot suggests a genre piece. Yaron (Yiftach Klein) is part of an anti-terrorism commando unit. There’s a cocky macho-ness about him. His wife is about to deliver their first […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 10 – A superb melodrama woven around China’s one-child policy
February 18, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-review-so-long-my-son-baradwaj-rangan Plus loneliness in Brazil, angst in Russia, dreams in China, zombies in Austria. Wang Xiaoshuai’s So Long, My Son is a masterclass on how a melodramatic story need not necessarily make for a melodramatic film. Consider the hyper-hysterical building blocks of this sweeping narrative: the death […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 9 – The provocative, thrilling ‘Synonyms’
February 16, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-review-baradwaj-rangan-synonyms/ Plus, games with death, Catherine Deneuve’s latest, and cult films by Bette Gordon and Derek Jarman. Yoav (Tom Mercier) moves from Israel to France, finds a place to stay, and when he steps out after a bath, he finds his clothes have been stolen. After a […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 8 – A devastating “pray the gay away” drama
February 15, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-review-jayro-bustamante-temblores-ruchir-joshi-baradwaj-rangan/ Plus, Kolkata tales, movie-watching in Sudan, and eroto-religious sci-fi. The festival brochure has this to say about Jayro Bustamante’s Temblores: “Pablo falls in love with Francisco and leaves his devout evangelical family in Guatemala City.” That’s not quite true. We don’t see where and when and […]
“Photograph”… A romance that’s a little too low-key, but with winsome little touches
February 14, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-ritesh-batra-photograph-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Hindi film music plays a supporting character in Ritesh Batra’s Photograph, which is a tentative love story (if it can be called that). This music fills the air around Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui; the character’s name, of course, is no accident). He’s a photographer. He […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 7 – A powerful drama about a man who mistakenly says “talaq, talaq, talaq”
February 13, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-Mehmet-Akif-Buyukatalay-Oray-Mr-Jones-review/ Plus, Denis Côté’s ‘Ghost Town Anthology’, and walking out of ‘Mr. Jones’. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Oray opens with a long monologue from a man (Zejhun Demirov) who says he was a captive until he found Islam. Whom is he talking to? We don’t see. The camera […]
Gully Boy At Berlin: An Oral History
February 12, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-gully-boy-an-oral-history-baradwaj-rangan/ The premiere was near. Everyone was in a rush: producer Ritesh Sidhwani, director Zoya Akhtar, and stars Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. Here’s an attempt to capture the stream-of-consciousness of the interview sessions. ZOYA: The films I’ve done so far, I know those worlds. When I […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 6 – The art and life of Pauline Kael
February 12, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-the-art-and-life-of-pauline-kael-review-udita-bhargava-dust-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Plus, Udita Bhargava’s ‘Dust’, an abstract movie-painting about the Maoist struggle. One of the films I was looking forward to the most was Rob Garver’s What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael. The documentary features names like Sarah Jessica Parker, Quentin Tarantino and David O. […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 5 – “For non-mainstream films, it’s essential to think about international distribution and exhibition”
February 12, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-dar-gai-interview-non-mainstream-films-international-distribution-exhibition/ Filmmaker and Whistling Woods teacher Dar Gai, who’s at the Berlinale Co-production market, talks about co-productions. From February 9-13, 600 international producers and financiers will explore new partnerships at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. This year, Megha Ramaswamy’s Reshma Shera is at the Official Project Selection (which […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 4 – Francois Ozon shines a ‘spotlight’ on the Church and paedophilia
February 11, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-review-francois-ozon-baradwaj-rangan/ Plus, a defiantly anti-narrative Mongolian drama that harks back to the heady days of “art cinema”. It’s June 2014. We are in the very classy home of Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), a devout man, a caring husband, and a loving father of five. When the family goes […]
“Gully Boy”… A softer than expected, but hugely entertaining and beautifully made street-rapper story
February 10, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/gully-boy-movie-review-berlin-film-festival-2019-ranveer-singh-zoya-akhtar-baradwaj-rangan/ Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy acknowledges its inspirations right on top: “This film is a shout-out to the original gully boys, Naezy and DIVINE.” Naezy’s life was briefly chronicled in Disha Noyonika Rindani’s documentary Bombay 70, where the rapper explains that his given name, Naved, […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 3 – “These primitive tales are often progressive in nature”
February 9, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-only-indian-director-rang-mahal-short-film-competition-section-interview/ A conversation with Prantik Basu, whose ‘Rang Mahal’, based on Santhali folklore, is the only Indian film in competition at the Berlinale. The only Indian film in competition at the Berlinale is Rang Mahal (Palace of Colour), directed by Prantik Basu. It’s part of the Berlinale […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 2 – The ‘Gully Boy’ press screening, plus 40 years of Panorama
February 8, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-gully-boy-press-screening-40-years-of-panorama-baradwaj-rangan/ No, not the review. But it was very different to watch a very musical movie with a very sedate festival audience. While waiting for the press screening of Gully Boy, I glanced at the press notes: “Bollywood meets hip-hop in Zoya Akhtar’s colourful but socially critical […]
FC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 1 – Before Zoya Akhtar and Rima Das, these Indians were at the Berlinale (yup, Ram Gopal Varma’s in the list)
February 7, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-indians-at-berlinale-before-zoya-akhtar-rima-das/ Mainstream ventures like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Paruthiveeran, Dil Se. Art-house classics by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen. And Shah Rukh Khan seems really popular. In a review dated May 15, 1977, India Today characterised Shyam Benegal’s Manthan as “a valid contribution in sociological terms”. True […]
Bergman’s movie-watching, François Ozon, and Charlotte Rampling, recipient of the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlinale
February 7, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/berlinale-2019-the-important-collaboration-of-francois-ozon-and-charlotte-rampling-recipient-of-golden-bear-6041891.html How did Ingmar Bergman watch movies? In the theatres, like everyone else? Apparently not, according to one of the chapters in Ingmar Bergman: Interviews, by the Swedish film critic Jan Aghed. He writes that the governing board of the Swedish Film Institute, the equivalent of the French […]
Celebrating Berlinale Jury President Juliette Binoche, and ‘The Widow of Saint-Pierre’, one of her more mainstream movies
January 31, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/celebrating-berlinale-jury-president-juliette-binoche-and-the-widow-of-saint-pierre-one-of-her-more-mainstream-films-5999081.html After Cate Blanchett was named President of the Jury at Cannes last year, another acclaimed actress, Juliette Binoche, is the President of the Jury at this year’s Berlinale. There are many reasons these picks make sense. These are extraordinarily talented actresses. Given the range of filmmakers they […]
The Classics section of the Berlinale finds a place for James Cameron as well as Carl Dreyer
January 24, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/berlinale-2019-the-classics-section-finds-a-place-for-james-cameron-as-well-as-carl-dreyer-5952021.html Many of us consider Terminator 2: Judgement Day a classic, but it’s heartening to know the Berlin Film Festival thinks so, too. The digitally restored 2K DCP version (in 3D) of the James Cameron blockbuster was world-premiered at the 2017 edition of the festival, whose film-history programme […]
As ‘Dogtooth’ turns ten, a look at Yorgos Lanthimos, who’s now an awards-season ‘Favourite’
January 17, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/as-dogtooth-turns-ten-a-look-at-the-greek-filmmaker-yorgos-lanthimos-an-awards-season-favourite-5912721.html For a while now, I’ve been meaning to write about Yorgos Lanthimos — and the time is right now, what with Dogtooth turning ten and The Favourite becoming an awards-season favourite. In an Indiewire piece, Eric Kohn summed up the Lanthimos phenomenon thus: “Not since the emergence […]
April 18, 2019
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