And not a moment too soon if you ask me!
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My hacks for learning to love Yorgos Lanthimos' 'Kinds of Kindness' -- a quick review
Hint: it’s a film all about reinvention, rebirth but also the dynamics of control.
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Sophia Loren in a frame from the film ‘L’oro di Napoli’ by Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica's classic 'L'oro di Napoli' is pre-opening film of 81st Venice Film Fest
The Pre-opening film will screen on Tuesday August 27th of the 81st Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia, on the 50th anniversary of the death of Vittorio De Sica and the 70th anniversary of the film.
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'Being Maria' Cannes Review: A problematic woman or simply someone who dared to call it like it is?
Cinematic, albeit scandalous history was made in 1972 when Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘Last Tango in Paris’ was first screened. Now French filmmaker Jessica Palud, with the help of a book written by Maria Schneider’s cousin, retells the story to finally bring out the heroine in a woman who simply stood up for herself. And, as is often the case for strong women, lost.
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'The Glassworker' presentation in Cannes: Witnessing Pakistani cinema history unfold
Pakistan may not yet be known for great 2D hand-painted animation, but the Riaz cousins plan to change all that, come this year’s world premiere of ‘The Glassworker’ at the prestigious Annecy Festival in June.
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‘Megalopolis’photo courtesy of: American Zoetrope and Mihai Malaimare Jr.
First trailer: Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' looks sensational
The maestro of cinema reinvents something magical and draws us to his latest masterpiece like moths to a flame. Can’t wait to get burned!
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Re-evaluating the power of cinema: Amos Gitai's 'Shikun' at Berlinale
If you’d asked me a year ago did I believe cinema could change the world, I would have answered you with an enthusiastic “yes!” Now? Read on to find out…
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Yorgos Lanthimos’ next 'Kinds of Kindness' debuts teaser trailer
And there is buzz the film might world premiere in Cannes — fingers crossed!
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My issues with 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and what I liked about it
I have to say, for a film I immediately disliked, it has stayed with me for a looooong time.
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The Trieste Film Festival turns 30 this year and in this edition teaches us the trouble with walls
The Italian city of Trieste has always had its own particular history. From its Austro-Hungarian and Slovenian influences, to its proximity to the Croatian border, its people have enjoyed a special status. At the end of the 19th Century, Trieste had more Slovenian inhabitants than Slovenia's capital of Ljubljana and at the start of the 20th, great luminaries and intellectuals like James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Sigmund Freud, Zofka Kveder, Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar, Scipio Slataper, and Umberto Saba frequented the bustling cosmopolitan city.
To me, it has always been a city with a foot deeply planted in its Italian roots yet the other striding towards its Eastern European culture. A bridge city overlooking a port, filled with people of different ethnicities and speaking several languages and dialects. A utopia for the perfect world, a place where everyone truly, and mostly could get along. And have gotten along.
We have so much to learn from the city of Trieste these days.
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Behnaz Jafari and Jafar Panahi in a still from ‘3 Faces’
Three women on '3 Faces': Jafar Panahi's latest oeuvre at the inaugural Iranian Film Festival NY
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been banned by the Iranian government from making movies, for an unbelievably long while. Yet he continues undeterred in churning out one masterpiece after another. All shot in different locations, each time featuring a new cast of characters, Panahi’s films have continued undisturbed to be staples at international film festivals.
Those of us who know and love his distinct brand of filmmaking, where within his kind and well thought out delivery he still manages to packs a big punch, also follow him on social media. His Instagram alone is a pleasure for those who wish to witness a bit of his genius on a nearly daily basis. And in fact, it was his presence on social media that inspired his latest work — ‘3 Faces’. The film premiered in Cannes earlier this year and will be featured at the 1st Iranian Film Festival New York at the IFC Center in early January 2019.
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Marcello Fonte in Matteo Garrone’s ‘Dogman’, photo by Greta De Lazzaris
London Film Festival is all going to the Italians... Italian filmmakers that is!
Back in February during Berlinale, at the very start of this strange yet fateful year, I watched Laura Bispoli’s ‘Daughter of Mine’ and fell back in love with Italian cinema. I was then satisfied further in Cannes, where I got to watch three more fantastic Italian films — which included Matteo Garrone’s ‘Dogman’ and Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘Happy as Lazzaro’. Then Venice rolled around and there was ‘What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?’ by Roberto Minervini and my personal, patriotic soul burst with pride.
Well, London audiences will soon be able to experience all of these titles in one place along with a selection that will include Laura Luchetti’s ‘Twin Flower’, Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Suspiria’ and Eduardo De Angelis’ ‘The Vice of Hope’. They are all part of the BFI’s London Film Festival Italian selection of cinematic picks from our peninsula.
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'Searching for Saraswati': How to claim a river, or build a wall, to unite a country
A couple of days ago I woke up to a quote by beloved Mexican artist and all around cool woman Frida Kahlo on Twitter -- it was her birth day: "I do not think the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow.." It seemed significant in my life because it was the day I'd received from two wondrous filmmakers their latest work, 'Searching for Saraswati' -- a NY Times Op-Docs 20-minute documentary supported by the Sundance Institute and the MacArthur Foundation on the rediscovery of the mythical Saraswati river in Northern India.
Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya first appeared on my cinematic radar two years ago, when their feature 'The Cinema Travellers' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. When I was sent a screener of the film, I ended up watching it spellbound, for its duration, never stopping or even daring to look away. And more than two years later, the images from this masterpiece -- their first feature film, if you can believe it! -- still color my consciousness. I find myself, from time to time, yearning for that feeling of wonder I had watching it for the first time, and the second time and even a third, finally on the big screen in Dubai. Truly, 'The Cinema Travellers' is a masterpiece of sensitivity and a love song by two poets of our times to the Seventh Art.
So how would the duo ever outdo themselves, I wondered, and felt a bit of nervous apprehension as I prepared to watch 'Searching for Saraswati' -- which premieres on the 10th of July on the NY Times site.
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Julia Jedikowska in a still from 'Sicilian Ghost Story' by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia
Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia on 'Sicilian Ghost Story': "It’s only this idea about love defeating all that let us do the film."
There is nothing more savage in this world than violence perpetrated against a child. The inhumanity of striking a little girl, the cruelty of inflicting pain of any kind on a boy, those are undeniably the darkest moments for mankind.
It is within the realm of one such unbearable acts that ‘Sicilian Ghost Story’ takes place. Yet Antonio Piazza’s and Fabio Grassadonia’s follow up to their award winning, masterful ‘Salvo’ is a fantastical love story first, and a fact-inspired cautionary tale of violence second. And with those two impossible companions, love and violence, walking hand in hand, Piazza and Grassadonia have created a masterpiece.
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Nawazuddin Siddiqui as ‘Manto’
“Because We Live in Unbearable Times”: Nandita Das Unveils ‘Manto’ in Cannes
The wonder that is Indian filmmaker and actress Nandita Das first appeared on my radar through her performance in the film ‘Fire’ by Deepa Mehta. The story of two women trapped in respectively loveless marriages with brothers, who discover within each other the companion they crave, it was a film that created as much sizzle on as it did off the screen. It was passed uncut by India’s censor board which then gave into (sort of, then retracted it) religious zealots who started to burn down cinemas and attack audiences to protest its release.
Fast forward twenty years and Das once again flirted with controversy with her feature directorial debut ‘Firaaq’, an unsentimental account of the impact of the Gujarat riots on the Indian Muslim population. The film left such an impact on me, I could hardly think about anything else for weeks after viewing it. I remember researching articles about the riots and I craved to go back to Ahmedabad, which I’d visited the year before I watched the film, to revisit the city with Das’ haunting vision in mind.
These days, the beautiful, smart, and wonderfully strong Das is working on a film about Saadat Hasan Manto, an Indian-Pakistani writer and playwright who once wrote this hauntingly true phrase “If you cannot bear my stories, it is because we live in unbearable times.” Prophetic, wasn’t he.
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Mariam Al Ferjani in a still from Kaouther Ben Hania's 'Beauty and the Dogs'
Forget Wonder Woman - I Found My Heroine Within ‘Beauty and the Dogs’ in Cannes!
Films featuring strong women are what I crave. But I won’t buy that typical Hollywood fare, which sells the perfect package of a buff heroine dressed in a shiny costume doing stunts as the perfect woman’s film. Nope. I need a real-life wonder woman to fulfill my cravings.
In Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest ‘Beauty and the Dogs’, which world premiered at the Festival de Cannes in their Un Certain Regard section, I found her.
Within the role of Mariam (played to absolute perfection by first-time actress Mariam Al Ferjani), your typical run of the mill modern university girl wanting to have fun on a night out at a club event we learn she helped to organize, I discovered a heroine that transcends the Arab world — Mariam’s story takes place in Tunisia — and jumped off the screen straight into my subconscious. And remained there, juggling with my thoughts, until now.
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Agnès Varda and JR on the road
'Faces, Places' in Cannes: “It’s the Miracle of Cinema!” -- Agnès Varda and JR Bring Us ‘Visages, Villages’
“Did you like our little film?”
Agnès Varda grabs my hand and holds it between hers as I try to exit the room where I’ve just spent the last ten minutes interviewing her and artist JR about their cinematic collaboration ‘Visages, Villages’ (’Faces, Places’) which premiered “Out of Competition” in Cannes. We may have learned in the film that the filmmaker has cute little feet, but I now know she also has lovely, kind hands.
“Of course I did! Why would I have wanted to interview you otherwise?!” I hear myself say, but almost as soon as the words come out, I realize I’m telling a half truth. Yes, I loved this film, its simple premise and grand cinematography and I relished the mutual respect the legendary 88 year-old filmmaker and the anonymous 33 year-old photographer show for each other throughout their road movie around the French countryside. To me, they are the new Beatles, the rockstars of cinema’s here and now. But I also craved to be in the presence of Varda and JR and would have come to interview them even if I hadn’t enjoyed the film as much as I did. It’s Madame Varda, after all, and JR, the artist — wrap your head around this — with a million Instagram followers!
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Breaking the Rules in Iran: Ali Soozandeh Talks ‘Tehran Taboo’
‘Tehran Taboo’ is a spellbinding animated journey into the underbelly of Iranian society where nothing is what it seems from the outside. It would pay US media to watch films like Soozandeh’s once in a while. In fact, it would pay us all to do so, since we could walk away enriched by its wisdom. But the filmmaker’s genius here lies not in preaching, rather in thoroughly entertaining us, from the delicious rotoscope animation to the powerful use of characters that jump off the screen and into our conscience.
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