My dear friends,
You are aware that Mr. Klaus Eder in his recent circular invited members from National Sections to participate in an Extraordinary Assembly of FIPRESCI International to be held on 23 and 24, Oct, 2010 at Tunis. This General Assembly is of special significance for the simple reason that it has an important agenda seriously concerned with us: Profession of Film Critic, The changes it underwent, The Challenges it is facing and its effect on our organization (FIPRESCI). We from the Fipresci India tried to send one of our members to participate in this important event as our official delegate. Many of the members who showed interest backed out because of the huge travel expenses involved in making the trip. However we wish the Assembly a grand success and we will be very much obliged if we are able to get the summary of the views expressed by our fellow film critics from various countries around the world.

We furnish below a note prepared by Mr. Klaus Eder giving us a preamble on the issues on which the assembly is expected have a serious discussion.

Film Criticism Today
What is film criticism today? Where does it take place? Who is writing it? And: What do we need FIPRESCI for? Wasn’t it a surprise that Honey (Bal) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Berlin and Cannes competitions, and isn’t it an even bigger surprise that both films arrived (in a few countries) at the regular theatres? There, they are judged by critics who aren’t too familiar with Turkish or Thai cinema and who do normally not get, from their editors, the space to write about such ‘difficult’ films. And they are seen by a public which is not much used to this kind of art cinema and is better trained for all sort of cinema–entertainment.

Over the last decades our profession changed a lot. Cinema changed a lot. The role of cinema, of the arts, of entertainment in society changed a lot. National cinemas lost importance (with the exception, maybe, of the own country), mainstream films won. While at the times of an “authors’ cinema”, the critic and his writings were essential and created a public, the critic seems nowadays to be superfluous, even undesirable.

Don’t critics get less and less space, aren’t they the first to be fired when a newspaper runs into a financial crisis, isn’t criticism, in the eyes of publishers, unnecessary and without any drawback to be given up? Aren’t entertainment news better suited to please the interest of readers than a mo matter how intelligent and brilliant analysis of a piece of art?

Yes, there are specialist magazines. Don’t they have problems to survive? Yes, there’s the Internet, with quite some sites highly worth reading. Can they help more than a handful of colleagues to make their living? If at all? Generally asked, how many professional film critics, members of our Federation, can live from writing on cinema, and how many do need another job, even another profession? What (and who) is a film critic, today, in face of a situation where everybody can write and publish everything, even the biggest nonsense? Where a special knowledge of cinema and its history seems not to be asked or necessary anymore? The situation is not new. There’s not much reason to complaining. It doesn’t make much sense to fight a battle which we’ve already lost.We do better discuss and redefine the role of cinema in society, the role and function and place of criticism, the future work of a professional film critic.

A few questions:
Films are leaving the classical cinema and festival circuit and are shown on television or available on the Internet and on DVD. Does this change the films, for example their classical dramaturgy of 90 minutes? Does this change the way we see them? Isn’t Youtube more powerful than all film museums of the world together? So, what films does the critic write about?

These questions have an influence on our own organization. Are there borderlines between amateurism and professionalism? Whom should we accept as member? Isn’t it absurd that one of our main activities concerns the establishment of juries at international festivals, while most publications do not wish anymore to publish festival reports? How can we get out of this trap? Should the education of young colleagues be taken as more important? What should be the main objects of our Federation?

What is needed to run FIPRESCI in an effective and modern way?
We will discuss this on two mornings, in the framework of the Carthage Film Festival (Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage) in Tunis.

The outcome of this assembly proceedings is eagerly awaited.
H.N.Narahari Rao
Editor.

(Zhang Yimou’s films are always a treat to watch. When his film Red Sorghum (1987) won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival in 1987, it heralded a new era of Chinese films from the Fifth Generation Filmmakers that made a big impression on the western critics’ world. His subsequent films have always won wide acclaim and are well received by the film society members in India as well. In this article H.N.Narahari Rao makes an introductory study of his films. Mr. Rao is a well known veteran film society activist. He is the vice President of FFSI (SR) and also the secretary of Fipresci, India.)

Zhang Yimou is undisputedly one of the universally acclaimed filmmakers who is able to deservedly enter the field to occupy the void created by the end of the celebrities of the erstwhile era, of the 1950s and 60s like Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Ray and the other masters. He is identified as one of the prominent representative of what is generally known as the Chinese Fifth Generation Film directors. If one has to make an in-depth study of the works of Zhang Yimou it is quite essential to know something, at least briefly about his early life which plays a significant role in all his films that made a big impact at the international level.

Zhang’s early life was quite a tough one. His father served under the rule of Nationalist party of Chiang Kai-Shek, and for this reason the family was not treated well by the subsequent regime, particularly during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 which had a tremendous effect on the lives of the entire Chinese society. Zhang, who was in his early years, was no exception and he came under its influence and had to suffer heavily. He was forced to abandon his education and take up jobs as a laborer in farm land and textile mill to earn his bread. Zhang had a penchant for painting and still photography. He had to sell his blood for several months to own a camera. It was only when he was 27 that he got a seat in Beijing Film Academy for studying Cinematography. His application was initially rejected as he was overage for the admission. However it was only after the concerned minister intervened that he was admitted for the course. It was here in this institute that Zhang had a glimpse of the classics of the world cinema from Europe, Japan and America. He also had close association with his colleagues Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang who are collectively termed as the main group of Chinese Fifth Generation Film directors.

After graduation from the Academy, Zhang Yimou worked with Chen Kaige, who studied Direction in the Academy with him. He assisted him as his cameraman for his first film Yellow Earth (1984) which created a big awakening by breaking the established convention of making only propaganda films that faithfully toed the line of the Cultural Revolution. It was a new beginning and this bold venture meted out a rude shock to the establishment. For Zhang it was an experience that shook his mind to cut out a well structured plan for his career. His next assignment was as an actor and cameraman for another film Old Well (1986) directed by VVu Tianming. Incidentally it fetched him the best actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Zhang’s first breakthrough as an independent filmmaker came in 1987 when he made his first film Red Sorghum. By introducing Gong Li for the first time into films, and in the main role that provided abundant scope for exposition of her beauty and talent as an actress, Zhang formed a formidable combination with her for many of his later films which won him international recognition. He had a clearly defined vision for his films. He made it an avowed objective to showcase the Chinese history, its culture, and also the sufferings that was heaped on the society by the Cultural Revolution.

Red sorghum
The film deals with the story of a young bride who is married to a 50 year old leper for a mule, but the bride does not accept it meekly. She has her own designs and schemes to achieve her ambition of enjoying a marital life with a person of her choice.

In Red Sorghum, Zhang establishes a style which is unique. He fully utilizes his knowledge of cinematography to portray the film in its true rustic depiction. The basic instincts of human beings like emotion, passion, desire, love and pleasure, violence and revenge all appear in their original form. The story of the film is of 1930’s but his treatment appears timeless as everything that happens takes place in vast canvas of landscapes directly under the sun, amidst natural surroundings. The script which maintains a firm grip over its visuals slightly drifts in the concluding stages with the arrival of Japanese invaders on the Scene. The film is studded with well composed images that are strikingly impressive with vivid colours and forms. He shot into fame when this film won the Best film Award, Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlin Film Festival.

Ju Duo
Zhang Yimou’s next important film is Ju Duo (1990), which again scored high points for the photography that sumptuously provided images skillfully blended with colours. The Story is again similar to the one as in Red Sorghum; here it is an old, wealthy textile factory owner who by using his clout marries a young girl, again played by Gong Li. The old man is unable to satisfy her passion and she develops an affair with his nephew who works in the factory as a slave. The story takes place in a factory where cloths are dyed in bright colours and these lengthy pieces of dyed cloth are hung for drying and this provides Zhang to use them as colors of passion and the images are brilliant. The film won high critical acclaim at various international film festivals, won awards at Cannes and Chicago, and won Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign film with official objection from Chinese authorities. The film did not go well with the Chinese Government as they felt it was a satire on the Maoism represented by the Old factory owner.

Raise the Red Lantern
Zhang did not stop at this, he continued his work with a similar subject again, and captured classic images for his next film Raise the Red Lantern (1991), considered as the third part of his much acclaimed trilogy. Gong Li again plays the role of an young 19 year old girl who is forced to discontinue her studies after her father’s death and married to a relatively old man to become his fourth wife. The sufferings of this young girl who is imprisoned in a castle with no escape root forms the crux of the film. The film in its entirety is shot inside the spacious rooms of a tiled castle. The four mistresses live in different rooms and the arrival of the latest causes enough disruption in the already disturbed atmosphere. The wives who are called as mistresses Vie with each other jealously to get the attention from the master. Every activity that takes place in the film is at the command of the master, but interestingly he is never shown in the film at all except in some long shots that too not focusing his face. The film concludes with a grim ending, the old master getting married to his fifth wife who is in her teens, and this conclusion adequately describes the gloomy situation that enslaved women for economic consideration. This film also won international recognition for Zhang by winning an award at Venice. In the limited space available in the castle, Zhang’s innovative camera mirrors some of the outstanding images that make the film memorable.

Immediately after the completion of the trilogy, Zhan Yimou again teamed with his favorite heroine Gong Li for his next film The Story of Qui Ju (1992). The film distinctly deviates from the style he so far followed in his earlier films with subjects that created enough consternationboth at the national and international level. Surprisingly, for this film he opted for a story which appears to be little amusing and lighter. However, Zhang continues with his artistry of providing us with some of his magical touches in creating images that linger long in our memory. Qui ju the main protagonist, played by Gong Li, is a very ordinary village woman, a pregnant, who is determined to get justice from the establishment. Her husband had an unsavory argument with the village head, a local political figure, and is kicked in his abdomen. While her husband relents to take it in his stride, Qui Ju does not take it lightly. She embarks on a mission to get justice, she does not want to take any revenge, but she wants to prove that what the village head has done is wrong and he should apologies. The Village head is also adamant, and does not oblige. Her fight continues, moves from one level to the other till she steps in to the court. That is the climax. Her journey from place to place, in her advanced pregnancy, village to the city, then from one office to the other, and her entire crusade is filmed beautifully. One special feature of the film is the hidden camera that Zhang uses to capture images, without focusing the main characters, this gives us an authentic documentation of the streets in the cities, market place, and many other locations of that period in China. The film was awarded at Venice, and by this time Zhang established himself with the western critics as the one whose works are eagerly awaited.

Zhang Yimou returns to his elements with his next film To Live (1994). Unlike in his earlier films where he left it to the audience to link it with the political situation that prevailed, he now makes a direct reference to the political upheavals that took place during the turbulent period of three decades that made common man to struggle for survival. It is the story of a wealthy family, with Fugui, his wife Jiazhen, played by Gong Li, and the two children, they lose all the wealth because of Fugui’s addiction to gambling. Jiazhen’s patience, perseverance and resilience keeps them together and ultimately they survive the onslaught of the political turmoil created by the communist Cultural Revolution that plays havoc with the people. It is evident in this film that Zhang Yimou is more concerned with the narration of the story. Probably he knew well that it may not go well with the ruling establishment. He could not escape from indictment, the film was banned in main China and the two, Zhang and Gong Li were banned for two years from further productions. Zhang won a number of international awards for To Live including a prestigious one at Cannes.

To Live
To Live, along with other Chinese films of this period like Farewell My Concubine (1993), Yellow Earth (1984) and Blue Kite (1993) give us a brief but definitive introduction to the nation’s history that is more than the routine information that we are normally exposed to. With the release of To Live, Zhang’s first phase of his filmmaking career comes to an endand in this period his films have given us something to churn about seriously, as he himself expressed: (quote): “The Cultural Revolution was a very special period of Chinese history, unique in the world. It was part of my youth. It happened between when I was 16 and when I was 26. During those 10 years, I witnessed so many terrible and tragic things. For many years, I have wanted to make movies about that period - to discuss the suffering and to talk about fate and human relationships in a world which people couldn't control and which was very hostile. I would like to make not just one but many movies, both autobiographical and drawing on other people's stories. I'll just have to wait.”

The Road Home
Zhang now enters a period when he takes up films like The Road Home (1999) which does not symbolize the usual statements of political undercurrent that he is normally associated with. It is also Zhang’s first film that does not have his favorite actress Gong Li’s presence. It is the story of romance of his parents told as a flash back by the son. The son who is a successful business man in a city has returned to his village to be with his mother for the cremation of his father who has met with sudden death. While the actual current events, in the beginning and end are filmed in black and white the flash back portion is filmed in color to give special effect. It is true that this film lacks the real punch that was experienced in his earlier films, but it is not disappointing in any manner as for as the quality is concerned. It stands out as an outstanding film that depicts some of the wonderful landscape images of the sparsely inhabited village that narrate the touching story of romance and a melodrama. Nevertheless Zhang’s talents are abundantly visible in all the images that he has imaginatively captured. The film won awards at Berlin and other festivals.

Zhang’s next film, Not One Less (1999), is a simple story of a 13 year old girl who temporarily takes up the job as a teacher in a village school where the regular teacher is away on leave. Her job is not limited to merely teaching, she is assigned with the responsibility of keeping all the students intact in the class (Not One Less), without letting anyone to drop out. This becomes a daunting task when one of the students escapes to the city to look out for a job. The struggle that she puts up to go to the city and locate the student in that vast jungle of humanity is the main content of the film. With this film, Zhang has now come to live with the main stream cinema that shows the daily life of China, its rural poverty, its bureaucracy and the film goes well with all. The film won him the best film award at Venice. His next film Happy Times (2000) is a very light comedy entertainer nurturing hopes for happiness.

Hero
House of the Flying Daggers.
In his two subsequent films Hero(2002) and the House of Flying Daggers(2004), Zhang totally changes his style and makes Block-Buster commercials, concentrating on martial arts of the Chinese tradition. His experiment was a big success at the box office. Interestingly they won critical acclaim also by winning a number of awards. In his own words quoted below he makes his intentions clear:

“When I look back at the times I shot artistic movies, I found I learned quite a lot from them. So in the future, I hope to do both - make more personal films which I prefer; and in certain circumstances, I will shoot some other commercial movies like these two [Hero and House of Flying Daggers.”)


Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) is another sentimental portrayal of a coproduction with Japan. It is the story of an aged father in Japan who has a rift with his son suffering from cancer and is under treatment in the hospital. As a gesture of reconciliation the father decides to complete his unfinished job of recording the live performance of a master singer in China. Through this road movie Zhang captures some of the stunning images of the interiors of rural China. It is a highly enjoyable film.





Curse of the Golden Flower
Gong Li returns to Zhang’s film Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), an action and adventure drama, a spectacle made on the lines of Hero and House of the Flying Daggers. It is a period drama with a contrived story that is written to provide entertainment and it is again the rich beauty of the images pleasingly captured that makes the film highly enjoyable. It is rarest of the rare instances in world cinema that we come across a filmmaker of such versatility whose creations have encompassed a wide range of genres.

Recently Zhang Yimou had the privilege of functioning as the Chief Director of opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

H.N.Narahari Rao
(This article is published through kind courtesy FFSI- first published in Indian Film Culture, FFSI, and 15th Issue)

Peepli Live is set in a small village named Peepli in central India and when the film begins two poor farmers Natha (Omkar Das) and his brother Budhia (Raghubir Yadav) are in danger of losing their land because of unpaid loans. The two are desperate but a local politician mentions casually that the government has announced compensation of one lakh rupees for every indebted farmer who kills himself. This has the brothers thinking and it is finally agreed that Natha will sacrifice himself. The film successfully turns the choice of Natha as an unwilling ‘martyr’ into black comedy of a kind not often seen in Hindi cinema. As chance will have it, however, Natha voices his decision to kill himself inside a public space and this is overheard by a media person. Peepli is located at a political fulcrum because it is the constituency of the Chief Minister of the state and local elections are imminent. Trying to manipulate political forces and ensure his defeat is the central government. The political conflict around Peepli means that Natha’s proposed suicide is especially newsworthy. Hordes of television personnel therefore descend upon Peepli to catch his demise on camera. Natha is the first ‘live suicide’ they have known because every other farmer’s suicide came to attention known only after the person’s death.

Peepli Live is rich in satirical detail. Apart from the television crews preoccupied with ‘eyeballs’ and ratings, there is the local Thakurs who insist that Natha should kill himself when he begins to have second thoughts. The off-camera bonhomie between the minister for agriculture (Naseeruddin Shah) and the television show hosts is caught well as is the glibness of the minister who casually devises new ‘yojnas’ which cannot be implemented. The secretary for agriculture is a different kind of person who would prefer to wait until the High Court has taken a view on Nath’s declared intent. Also caught intelligently are the rumblings in Natha and Budhia’s family – especially the shrewish, screaming women. Rather touching is the impoverished farmer digging for mud to sell and dying from exhaustion, quite unnoticed. Perhaps excessive is the episode in which Natha needs to relieve himself but cannot escape the cameras and the television crews – who scrutinize even the excrement he has left behind a rock, while sheltering from the camera, and speculate about it. In any case, Natha cannot take any more of all this, but by some quirk of fate, his death is announced when someone else is killed in an accidental fire. The Chief Minister has announced an inducement of one lakh rupees to prevent Natha from killing himself but his death by accident means that his family will get no relief. Natha, however, is now far away, working on a construction site in the city and the film ends with an announcement of the millions of Indian farmers who have thus migrated in the past decade.

The economic conditions of farmers is not a subject that Hindi cinema has concerned itself with in the recent past. Agrarian issues, to the best of my knowledge, were last dealt with as long ago as the late 1960s although the ‘daku’ genre still thrived in the 1980s. Where earlier agrarian films like Mother India (1957) and Ganga Jumna (1961) dealt with rural poverty and the exploitative zamindar/ moneylender, Upkaar (1967) explored the manipulation of the peasant by the trader.

Peepli Live is directed by Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui but it bears the hallmark of the ‘cinema of concern’ heralded by Aamir Khan within mainstream Bollywood. For a mainstream film Peepli Live appears to give us a view of rural India that is without precedent in its authenticity. But if it weeps at a desperate condition that needs a remedy, it refrains from naming either causes or remedies, which was not the way of the earlier cinema dealing with agrarian issues. The reason, I propose, is that the corporatization of the economy has lent versatility to capital that it did not possess in the 1950s and 1960s. To elaborate, it might have been possible for film production to be more independent earlier because it was not reliant on other sections of the economy – moneylenders, landowners and traders, for instance, who are attacked in the above three films of the 1950s and 1960s. Now, on the other hand, corporate entities and groups have a wide range of economic interests and most of them are also increasingly involved in the media. This means that capital presents a united front against social and economic criticism, as it were. It is not only in its approach to rural indebtedness that Peepli Live is non-committal and deceptive because it is so in its treatment of the media as well. Like a large number of other recent Hindi films, Peepli Live is co-produced by a television channel. This shows in some of the insights into the methods of television, which could only come from an insider. Yet, in its insistence that television is ‘mindlessly’ besotted with glamour and ratings, Peepli Live is being insincere and deliberately superficial. The approach of the film suggests that television has become what it is because of the demands of the market. But even a perfunctory look at television shows informs us differently. If one were to consider the ‘debates’ aired on television, one would see that the questions raised are deliberately without a punch. If rural indebtedness is discussed, the question put would perhaps revolve around whether the government is ‘doing enough’ rather than around what is causing the misery. It can be argued that this is because television channels depend hugely on advertising and their revenues would be imperiled if they worded the questions in a way that might elicit correct answers.

by M.K.Raghavendra

Bitopan Borborah
Great stories must be dead or rather the dead must be making stories.
The man with white beard pasted all over his face and in Russian attire of the yesteryears looked prophetic; his eyes reflect both experience and wisdom. I could guess his age by the husky, cracked voice and the wrinkles around his eyes, he certainly was over sixty. The fifth day in the 32nd Moscow International film Festival, I have already seen quite a lot of films screened under the competition section and phew, none of them could quench my thirst for good movies. As I was taking a stroll in the Red square area in the evening and entered a cafeteria just opposite to Bolshoi Theater to have a cup of cappuccino, the man just joined me across a table. We said hello to each other and as I explained my intent, he opened up.

'Oh, well, we are enacting Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Bolshoi, his 150th birthday falls this year you know. I have just finished my make-up and as usual the girls are taking their time. So I am here to sip some coffee, moreover I always like talking to strangers, they are sometime immensely enlightening. You know, I am from the country, we like chatting for hours.”

Then after a pause he asked me- “How was your experience, I mean the films you have seen till now.”
“Well, mostly the stories are seemed to be half baked, like pieces of things collated unevenly and they are portrayed with pretty predictably; no new approach, no new cinematic style and treatment, nothing notable in particular; no fulfilling experience as of now. I guess there seems to be dearth of interesting stories, interesting filmmakers. We had already celebrated fiftieth year of French new wave and this year Breathless also completes its fiftieth year, I think craving for films which can offer something new in terms of content, style and technique is just fair.”

“Oh, don't tell me that, do not tell me that- the man literally screamed at me. You are now in the land of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, Sholokhov- all great storytellers you know. And we have great filmmakers like Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Kuleshov, Chukrai, Tarkovsky, Klimov and all of them enriched cinema with new idiom, style and expressions.”

“And I have noticed places like Turgenevskaya, Puskinskaya, Chekhovskaya, Mayakovskaya here, the wind of Moscow seems to be carrying the fragrance of its rich artistic heritage. However, I guess something has been missing in the films I have seen these days. Say for instance the Turkish film Brought by the Sea by Nesli Colgecen, Canadian film Carl Bessai's Cole, and Spanish film Ventura Pons' Drifting are based on insignificant, common place stories complete with kind of formulaic film making style. The first one tries its level best to prove its protagonist as humane as possible in his desperate bid to rescue and relocate an immigrant child to wash off the guilt of causing death to an African immigrant. The second one deals with an inter-class and inter-racial love story which unfolds in a soap-opera style, the third explores the pervert sexual advance of its female protagonist and alas, the images concerning her experience with charity work in Africa haunt her only when they are having coitus. The South Korean film Park Dong Hoon's Enlightment Film had a big canvass with the story revolves around three generations of a family and time spanning Japanese colonial period to the present, however the story unfolds in a disoriented manner right from the beginning and it could not maintain its rhythm till the end. And about French film Michael Cohen's It Begins with the End, the title or rather its synopsis summarize the film better-this is 'just another story

about a man and a woman, another story of love' to which one can only add 'in which sleaze reins over substance'.”
“Oh my god, now I can get you right, the stories are of same old stuff, nothing interesting.” - The man nodded in agreement with a chuckle.
“Well there are other kinds of movies as well. The history of war, aggression, occupation is its leit-motif; you will always find two or more films in every film festival, mainly from the European countries. Digging out new graves, exhuming new stories out of it has become a kind of obsession, favourite past time for many of these directors. One can indeed make great films using these issues, However I think the contemporary life, the trial and tribulations of people in the fast changing world with worst ever recession around you and the cascading effect of economy getting topsy-turvy now and then, also deserve some kind of space on the sacred 'golden section' of cinema. Don't you think so?”

“You know, I think it is because every war leaves behind immeasurable catastrophe, unfathomable nightmares and what not. Indeed these continue to haunt the future generations, the stories of the past influence the artist to create things out of it. However it cannot be a recurrent motif unless you have something really astonishing or rather worth filming. I think the reason is somewhere else, because the urban life takes away from us many good things, the valued experience of the streets and the countries, interactions with commoners, it has almost blocked the outward journey of the soul to the vastness of the society and people around you, to the nature where the chirping of the birds and wind-caressed trees create the earth-song. Our whole existence has become very limited and kind of boxed existence devoid of much experience and exposure, where seclusion often leads us to aberrations of all variety. Here you would not get all the prerequisite a great artist should have in abundance.”

“Yeah, it's true. All the films having strains of the past are however well made, the Czechoslovakian An Earthly Paradise for the Eyes by Irena Pavlaskova has the impeccable fluidity of narrative, its about the Protagonist Marta, her two daughters and her ex and present husbands' gradual involvement in the dissident movement, the time being the Soviet invasion of 1968 and its aftermath. I think the film deserves more kudos for the immaculate acting by Vilma Cibulkova in the lead role.

Little Rose
In the Polish film Little Rose the time was again 1967, it's about a Security Service agent's ploy of engaging his beautiful lover Kamilla to track the activities of Jew writer Adam Warczewski, but then the plan went haywire as Kamilla develops intense relationship with Warczewski instead. All cliché-ridden stories, you know? However the Story of Besa, a Serbian movie by Srdan Karanovic sounds little more interesting. It's about Filip, principal of Gymnasium takes the call of the first world war, leaving behind his young wife Lea to be looked after by an Albanian Azem, the custodian of the school. The Albanian gives Filip his solemn oath 'Besa', that he would protect her from all adversities at any cost. Vulnerable for her beauty and vivacity, Filip's compatriots make advance to exploit her, but Azem stood there like a stone wall, so much so he did not bother to thrash a military officer thereby inviting serious trouble for him in the process. Humane as they are, their relationship from paranoia to proximity grew to some extent but remained short of breaking the Besa. Do not you think it is fairly a good story of conflict of cultures, their values and mores and though there was nothing special about the cinematic style? The slow paced narrative had some kind of melancholia in it which beautifully epitomizes the pain and agony of the characters as well as the uncertainty the raging war spreads all over. The only thing that rids the film of overall beauty was the unconvincing portrayal of lea by Iva Krajnc, she remains vivacious throughout as if she is oblivious about the time and more so about imminent danger her husband must have gone through.”

“Indeed, this is a good story albeit with a predictable end. You know the best of the values still can be found intact amongst those, where the sweeping influence of modernity yet to take place. Though it is not necessarily always true, sometime the situation, the reality or rather compulsion takes a toll on all these.”

“I guess you would have loved another film which echoes what you have said sometime back, it is about man's relations with the wild, the nature and the animals. This was a Russian movie Sparrow by Yuri Shiller and as the legend goes, a huge heard of horse appeared many years back in Vasilievka village and since the villager passionately develops an inseparable bond with them. However failed crop of the season and the resulting economic compulsion forced the villagers to give reluctantly away the horses for the slaughter house only to be resisted by a little boy Mitya, the son of the shepherd. Unfolded in a verdant green country landscape, the film suffers from structural loose ends from the start and when it attains its composure it once again slips into melodrama, enough to ruin a film with such refreshing and heartrending subject.”

“I think this was a challenging story for any film maker and, unless you are able to bequeath it with right rhythm, lyricism and finesse, the beauty will be lost.”

“Yeah I think you are right. Well, these are the films I have seen till now and you could see now none of them are really fully satisfying. It seems the great stories must be dead…”

“…Or rather the dead must be making stories” - he quipped with an earsplitting giggle and without more ado jumping out from his seat to say goodbye- “My time has come my dear friend; we had really an interesting meeting. I hope we will meet soon. Bye”

Out from the cafeteria I went down to the Kitay Gorod metro station to go back to my hotel at the Kievskya. The next few days had been hectic as we had to catch as many as three films at a stretch and, than occasionally we freaked out to see important landmarks around Moscow. We enjoyed everything but not the films, we awaited for something outstanding till the end, however things did not show up expectedly.

Just after our launch in a restaurant at the Oktyabr cinema complex I came down to the festival office to discuss something. Out from the office after a while; I came to know my colleagues have already left for the hotel. Loitering around Oktyabr for a while, I once again saw the man in slightly different traditional attire and the Santa Claus like beard approaching me like an old acquaintance, with a friendly smile in his face. “Oh my dear friend, today we have another show just nearby. As usual I have finished my make-up in advance and thought why not some espresso at Oktyabr and maybe I could have a chance meeting with you and here you are.”

“May be it is my good fortune, now we can have another round of discussion on cinema, is not it?” “Oh sure, it's my good fortune as well” - He nodded. We then went upstairs to sit across a table, ordered two cups of espresso and once again I began my story.

“There was a good suspense thriller from Germany the Cameramurderer by Robert Adrian Pejo, however this is another average film. Bulgarian film Footsteps in the Sand by Ivailo Hristov has an interesting story as well, which in a messy way portrays a man's tryst with destiny after a failed love affair makes him morbid and desperate and leading him on a journey across frontiers to see light at the end of the tunnel. Sweden's Othman Karim's Dear Alice was even much better in parts, as it deals with issues of racial discrimination very emotively but then it juxtaposes other plots along its narrative to weaken the stronger part to blur the whole thing and to finish the film with a quick fix solution. In The Last report by Anna by legendary Hungarian filmmaker Marta Meszaros, she portrays the life of exiled leader Anna Kethly with great finesse which turns out to be stern critique of present maladies of governance and in particular its scorn and disregard for the memory of the revolution of 1956.

The Last Report by Anna
Apparently it resonates Meszaros's own grouse and concern for her beloved country; the film was well made and indeed laced with poetic flair so typical of her body of work, however it is not necessarily her best work, nor it is her worst.”

“Well, I see nothing much interesting in these films as well.”-The man stated, his eyes curiously fixed on me. “Two films, one Dear Albanian from Albania by Johannes Naber and another Brother from Venezuela by Marcel Rasquin had quite different stories. The Albanian one unfolds with a promise, with vast lush green landscape endows it with different freshness and lyricism, the love story fits perfectly in this milieu. However the moment Arben, the protagonist leaves for Germany to earn his dowry-money, its scheme of things got changed to take a clichéd route and the hope fades away. The Brother is on the other hand is about two gifted soccer players Daniel and Julio, the former an exceptional striker and latter the captain of the neighborhood club La Ceniza; both were raised as brothers in a Venezuelan slum. When Daniel dreams to play professional football, Julio feeds the family through his nexus with the Mafiosi. And suddenly out of the blue tragedy strikes them; their mother was accidentally shot dead by a friend of Julio. Daniel had a tough time in deciding his future course; revenge is inevitable, however not before his dream fulfilled. The film too progressed well to a certain point and then took a corny route to wind up in a predictable ending, to make it a poor saga of revenge than triumph of the will and magnanimity.”

“What do you think my dear friend, the reason for such a poor fair of films in such a significant festival like Moscow? The film must be overlooking the good stories around as we all know it is now more market driven than ever or may be the filmmakers must be surrendering to the dictates of the producer to opt for an assembly line production rather than something more creative, innovative and experimental to avoid the risk of a failure.” He stood up at once, the wrist watch in his hand reminded him of the time, the show must be few minutes away.

I felt short of words to appreciate the veteran artist's apt observation. As we all set to leave the cafeteria, I murmured to him-“May be you guessed right, your analysis is wonderful.”

“Do you know what role I am enacting in the play; it is Mikhail Astrov, the alter ego of Chekhov. Keen observer of the society with a philosophical bent of mind; he is a critic of his own insignificance or worth as well as his surroundings. Since I am in the same show business, amongst the dissimilarity I could easily distinguish the similarity and the associated problems as well. I wish you great time for rest of days you are here. Goodbye.”

“But before we part ways I wish to tell you about my discovery of this festival. It is the illustrious French director Claude Lelouch's film Ces Amours-La, in English, A Woman and Men; which in parts traces his own past. The film depicts a multilayered story line of Iiva, apparently his own mother and all the men she has ever loved in her life with such astonishing ease and flair, shifts between time and space with so splendid transitions that not only the complex, many-hued story well portrayed, it reflects the mature craftsmanship of the director as well. On the other hand the pioneering work of now famous Romanian new wave Cristie Puiiu's Marfa Si Bani was quite fascinating for its Cinema Verite style of filming in which a hand-held camera so wonderfully unfolds a spine-tingling suspense road-story without any trace of music and sound re-recording that I believe this film alone would have been the fitting tribute to the fifty years of French new wave.” “Oh I am happy now that you soul is at least half filled. You know Claude Lelouch had started his career with reportage and one of his first assignments was to film the daily life in the USSR. He arrived with the camera hidden under his coat risking his life and went back to France with the canes to become such a phenomenal director”- He apprised me as we were approaching the underway.

We shook our hand, exchanged smile and then he hurriedly walked down to the underway to cross the neon lit road. Next day as I was about to bid adieu to my hotel Radisson Slavyanskya, I noticed across the road the river Moskova flowed quietly and some 230 kilometers ahead, quite flowed the Don.

Cinema, going beyond its popular image of a vehicle for mass entertainment, also often plays a cathartic role for its makers and viewers like all other art forms. This aspect of the modern world’s most-powerful audio-visual medium was on ample display at the 34th Montreal World Film Festival (August 26-Sept 6, 2010) one of the most-respected cine-festivals in the globe.

The Competition Section of the festival, judged by a jury headed by twice Cannes Palm d’Or and once Oscar winner Bille August of the “Pelle The Conquerer” fame, was, in fact, a testimony to this aspect of cinema as film after film looked into crisis after societal or personal crisis to create some powerful if not always entertaining-in-the-popular-sense drama.

Perhaps one of the most-powerful exhibition of this came in debutant director Hans Van Nuffel’s Belgium-Netherlands co-production “Adem” (Oxygen), which walked away with the top Grand Prix de Americas prize.

Adem
For Nuffel, the film has surely been a way to deal with personal demons, with its protagonist, suffering from the incurable genetic disease cystic fibrosis, moving from hope to despair back to hope in a dramatically-surged atmosphere. – the director too has been a patient of the same disease, though a milder version of it, since his childhood.

In the film, youngster Tom seems to rebel against fate as he befriends a bunch of unruly youths almost as if in a challenge to his predicted short life because of the disease. His problems are compounded by the fact that his elder brother, the calmer Lucas, succumbs to the same disease. But his outlook towards life changes when he meets Xavier, another young man with the same affliction but with an amazing zest for life, and Eline, a quarantined patient suffering from a rare infection.

Nuffel shows rare maturity for a young director in bringing out the angst of the protagonist, whose despair finds its outer form in sometimes stupid and sometimes violent acts. The inner turmoil of Tom finds manifestation in the outer, visible acts, which at the same time hides his mental state in front of his family members.

Another film that left the viewers shaken and walked away with the FIPRESCI prize given by the International Film Critics Federation jury (of which this author was a member) was German film “Das Lied in Mir” (The Day I was Not Born)” by another debutant director, Florian Cossen.

Das Lied in Mir.
The Israel-born director takes a politically-potent subject of children who had been adopted after their parents had ‘disappeared’ during the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s, and many of whom in recent years have sought out their real relatives in emotionally-churning circumstances.

But he successfully gives the subject a touch of sublimity by letting the political aspect be on the background and focusing on a very personal story of a young woman who accidentally finds out that she had been adopted by a German couple after her parents had gone missing. With a powerful performance by Jessica Schwartz in the main role, the film expertly uses the camera to capture the nuances of the characters as well as of Buenos Aires, where the film is set in.

If performances by its actors set this film apart, another film that matched in theme and performances was Spain’s “Pajaros de Papel” (Paper Birds), by director Emilio Aragon.

It shared the audience award with Cossen’s film, and touched viewers by its emotionally-powerful storytelling style. Again, it is set in the politically-turbulent time – in Spain during the Francoist era after the Civil War. Aragon’s characterizations bear resemblance to that of Spain’s best known living auteur-director Pedro Almodovar in that he too pitches them at varied emotional levels. At the same time, his exploration of the relationship between a man whose world crashes after his wife and young son dies in an explosion, and a kid orphaned in the war, is almost as powerful and heart-touching as that of the father-son relationship in Roberto Benigni’s celebrated “Life is Beautiful”.

The World Competition and the First Film World Competition – the two most prestigious sections of the festival – in fact, had quite a few films that had powerful subjects, some told on a grand scale and some in an intimate manner. French filmmaker duo Sophie de Daruvar and Yves Thomas, for example, came up with “Rendez-Vous Avec Un Ange” (Meeting With an Angel), which, through its seemingly lighthearted story on the relationship between two disparate souls, simultaneously puts to the spotlight on the highly-debated subject of euthanasia. Another French director, Pascal Elbe, who is also a popular actor, on the other hand, took a powerful look at the relationship between communities in an increasingly multicultural France in his “Tete de Turc” (The Turk’s Head).

Japanese Hideyuki Hirayama’s “Hisshiken Torisashi” (Sword of Desperation) was another film that impressed viewers through its immaculate execution of a story of a noble man who is an expert swordsman too. Though set in times past, the story, even while highlighting the popular sword fighting genre of Japanese movies, has strong resonances for the present times as it puts the spotlight on how political power can get misused if it falls on the hands of the undeserving.

The world looked through the child’s eyes often looks different, and that is what at least two films tried to emulate in the competition section – “Wenecja” (Venice) from Poland and “De La Infancia” (From Childhood) from Mexico. The former is a touching film about a kid in a Polish village whose dreams of visiting his dream city of Venice go topsy turvy as the Second World War breaks out, and the latter is a gritty tale of a young boy growing up within a desperately poor family with his father falling prey to criminal ways. The sensitive performances by the child actors in both the films make them memorable viewing experiences.

Disappointingly, there were only two Indian films in what is one of the world’s premiere film festivals. One was Pinaki Chowdhury’s Bengali film “Aarohan” (Ascension).

Aarohan
Starring thespian Soumitra Chatterjee and award-winning actress Rituparna Sengupta, the film dissects the Indian philosophy of the cycle of life and death and touches upon the caste prejudices that pervade the society. But the film’s technical parameters, seen against the cutting-edge technology of films from other parts of the world, left a sour taste among the viewers. There were, however, more than one documentary with Indian themes, made by production houses from other countries. The other was the Vijay Singh’s India-France co-production “India by Song”, a documentary that confusingly seeks to see India’s socio-political scenario through a few selected songs from Hindi films over the years without really explaining why those songs were selected or – except for a couple - how they reflect India at that particular juncture of time. However, there were a couple of documentaries produced by foreign production companies but with Indian subjects. They were Italian director Michela Occhipinti’s “Lettere Dal Deserto” (Letters from the Desert) that presents an intimate portrayal of postmen who deliver letters in villages of Rajasthan’s desert areas, and how their relationship with people has got affected after the mobile phone revolution in India; and French Sophie Azemar’s “The Last Among the Men” that presents a critical study of the caste system in India through the eyes of Dalits in Tamil Nadu
Utpal Borpujari

Established in 1983, ‘Filmfest München’ is Germany's largest film festival next to Berlin. This international film festival in Munich, which begins on 25 June, is presenting a special section on Indian cinema. The festival's director Andreas Ströhl speaks with Romain Maitra on the special features of the festival and the way Indian cinema is received in Germany.

Andreas Strohl
Question 1. If it is not “just another German film festival”, what is so special about this film festival?
A. The ‘Filmfest München’ (Munich Filmfest) is the biggest non-competitive film festival in Germany. We focus on film as an art form, and not on stars. More than anything we try to initiate a dialogue between filmmakers and their audiences and foster a substantial exchange between them. During the last few years it has been our endeavour to give the FILMFEST MÜNCHEN a character to distinguish it from just another European or German Festival through some thematic thrusts. The interest of political filmmakers has shifted from terrorist violence to unbridled state violence. Carlos in the film, which bears the same title, by Olivier Assayas is rather the exception. Kim Jong-il, Nicolae Ceausescu, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin form the dramatis personae of some of the powerful films at the Festival – like “Red Chapel”, “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu”, “Videocracy” and “Russian Lessons”. Music continues to be a focal theme with the sensational Rolling Stones film “Stones in Exile” and some other films. Some of the other highlights include a special focus on India cinema, Latin American Visions, a retrospective of Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl and of course six films of Abbas Kiarostami who will also receive the CineMerit Award.

Question 2. What have been the criteria for choosing the Indian films for your film festival?
A. Indian mainstream films cannot be imagined without music, just as regional auteur-films from India cannot be imagined without political consciousness. Our selection for the India Focus this year, comprising a dozen features films including Bimal Roy's “Devdas” (1955) alongside the contemporary interpretation of “Dev. D” as well as five short films, lies in between these two streams. Recipients in Europe have for the longest time decided to either look at Hindi mainstream and Bollywood productions only – or on films by followers of Western type of art house films. So far, entertaining Multiplex-house films produced for an intelligent Indian middle-class audience have been widely ignored in Europe. I believe that our selection, as arbitrary as it may seem, may be able to create an awareness here that things are drastically changing in India. There will also be a delegation of about twenty directors, producers, actors from India who will, apart from presenting their selected films, also take part in a couple of panel discussions.

Question 3. How are Indian films -- and other films from Asia (like Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Iranian, and Arabic films…) received in Germany? What sort of audience does the Indian cinema have in Germany?
A. Indian films are watched in Germany mainly by young women who love the exotic superficiality of Bollywood and then exchange nitty-gritty details about the stars and their lives among themselves. If you asked them for names of directors, they would not be able to name one. But they do know a lot of star gossip. The other kind of Indian cinema remains largely unknown to the general public, except when showcased in a festival like ours, or circulate within limited circles through isolated individual initiatives. If you asked for names within those circles, people would most likely still mention Satyajit Ray more often than any other name. Apart from Japanese and to a lesser extent Iranian films, films from Asia hardly find their way to commercial cinema halls or the odd telecast. Romain Mitra

INTERVIEW
(On the occasion of 40th Anniversary of Suchitra film society, Bangalore, Mr. Prakash Belwadi Trustee of Suchitra interviewed Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao, the founder secretary of Suchitra Film Society, now the President of FFSI and Secretary of FIPRESCI)
H.N. Narahari Rao

“A film society is not just another fan club...”

This September began with a note of celebration. Our own H.N. Narahari Rao was elected president of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), an office once held by the great Satyajit Ray himself. Rao took over from filmmaker Shyam Benegal.

The season also gave us another occasion to pause to remember and be proud: Suchitra turned 40 on August 28, 2010 and Rao, who was its founder-secretary and the main architect was felicitated at a special function at the Suchitra Auditorium on Sept 15 in the presence of a few other founder members and many stalwarts who have worked tirelessly to add spectrum and dimension to the organization. The mood of the senior members and their families was nostalgic, affectionate and hopeful.

Rao, at the inauguration of Suchitra film society 28 Aug 1971

Narahari Rao, who spoke with feeling about the past of Suchitra was equally upbeat about its future. In a brief conversation after the function, Rao talked about the possibilities for Suchitra and the film society movement itself. Here are some excerpts:

His vision for FFSI:
Young people today are more interested in the visual media. It’s not just about feature films. We cannot run film societies as fans’ associations of any international director for that matter.... we must show an independent nature, establish ourselves critically. We must move beyond the feature film and look at visual media itself. That is our main concern. Today the visual media has become a necessary part of expression... even in making PowerPoint presentations.

The great opportunity now is that making films is no longer an indulgence of luxury. The tools are accessible, affordable... anybody can make a film. We must use the opportunity to penetrate universities, colleges, schools to enable artistic and critical filmic expression...

I’m very optimistic about FFSI. We must revamp film societies. We must take these activities (of screenings, discussions, workshops) to non-metro places. We should incubate smaller, satellite film societies... this is what Suchitra must do too. Now that the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy has been formed, it should write to the vice-chancellors of universities to start film studies... studies in visual media. This has been an option available to students abroad for a long time... principals of colleges and boards of studies should care about visual media. It’s time...

His thoughts on the global film culture
Criticism of cinema is in a bad state... everywhere in the world. You know, Klaus Eder (General Secretary, FIPRESCI) poses this question: “Is film criticism an art?”

We need to conduct workshops and seminar for young critics – to screen, watch and analyze films. Otherwise, they will continue to write the way they do. They must learn to watch expression through visual media without prejudice, without pre-conceived notions of ideology or film grammar. I never walk out of a film... I love cinema. It is like religion... almost like a religion to me. You cannot impose rules... you can’t put restrictions on the creativity of a human being. You can say it’s not ‘grammar’, but if something manages to stir your imagination, then it is successful... you cannot build walls around the creative process...

His vision for Suchitra:
Suchitra begins with a great advantage – it has a tradition, a reputation... we should use it to transform a bunch of youngsters to take the institution and movement forward. They must form the nucleus to build infrastructure to run training and academic programmes. Not everyone has the time or the luxury of joining a film institute for 2-year or 3-year courses. We must develop short courses and workshops for appreciation and training in the visual media.

The point is that we should actively pursue these goals. There is little justification otherwise in taking public land if it is not utilized to the maximum extent. Merely screening films is not enough... if you want my help, I’m at your service... anytime, always.

It is reported that Shri H.N.Narahari Rao will be presented with Satyajit Ray memorial Award for promotion of Film Art by 9th Asian Film Festival,Third Eye, Mumbai. Wishing him all the best.
Prakash Belawadi