Indian Auteur: Issue no-3
Issue Focus: Film Noir in India and Vijay Anand
Auteur in Focus: Vijay Anand
Feature
World Cinema
Film Education
Issue Focus: Film Noir in India and Vijay Anand
Satyajit Ray, 'What's wrong with Indian Films?
2008 The year is drawing to a close and top-ten lists have already started hitting the Internet. While going through several list of the, ‘Best movies of the year- distributed and non-distributed,’ it’s sad and remarkable to see the omission of Indian films. Over the years, there seems to be either ignorance on part of film festivals, critics, organizers about our cinema or in a country of over billion people,we are not able to make one worthwhile film that could transcend boundaries and cultural space- irrespective of being Indian. Beside let’s make this clear- Slumdog Millionaire is not an Indian film as the media seemed to project, rather it’s a British film with an Indian context. And so instead of proclaiming this as our conquest on the global stage, we should lament why anyone from our own industry couldn’t achieve this feat. While it's high time we should move on from talking about our scripts reaching the Oscar library or the growth of Bollywood in the US and UK box-offic...
Comments
Well today the Cine Experience by our sister body Cine Darbaar ran to a kinda packed house. Which was really overwhelming.
I mean with no money, and just word of mouth and some ground promotion. To get people participate and even discussion.
Man, nothing can get better than this. Getting close to 60 people in a hall on your own and than sitting for two hours discussing films is well really, amazing.
It's only the beginning... ;)
Which was the film that attracted so many people?
1) Peter FM- Total no of people 60, and the discussion that followed was our opinion why we did not like the film and the audience reacting to it.
2) The Island- Attendance- 80 people, around 20-30 stayed back to discuss
The discussion went against us since people said they were not really interested in knowing how film form influneces whatt they see, but just interested in interpreating films. So for hours we went on a debate.
The interesting facts we learnt: That in the crowd it was easier for people from West to accept or debate on point of view of cinematic form than Indians.
Secondly, for most form and the only understanding of that is that technology.
Third even our generation people were that cinema is just storytelling narrative. So in short we offeneded a lot of people.
But it was good.
3) Ivan's Childhood, today..Attendene close to- 80-90 people
Dissuson around- 20-30
Tody the discussion was not an argument. Although when I confronted a person regarding Spielberg he got offended and walked out. Although I did not say anything bad about him. Nonetheless.
-People brought forth some interesting aspects on the films. Regarding the characters and the scenario in Russia.
- There were people from different countries and all walks of life during the screening so everyone had an interesting dimension toward the film
- We expressed regarding Tarkvosky mise-en-scene and how it slowly grew from here and things like that.
Overall a good experience till now. A great learning experience. I dont know how much everyone is taking form it. But from the feedback form. Some dont like us, some are enjoying it, while some are happy that they are discovering.
Which is good, now tomorrow we have Stalker lets see what teh discusson leds to:-
Although the general audience comes in to experience a film, appropriates it, give personal interpretations, and maybe ask questions to clarify some points. They don't watch it in order to write about it later, or to learn how to become a filmmaker. So we can't expect the same level of discussion/argument than we have with other critics.
The key is to listen to what they have to say, mainly, and slowly direct them towards deeper aspects of the film. Test the ground to see if they are responsive to (simple) formal analysis, and larger questions of history/aesthetics.
Screening: Stalker
Auditorium capacity- 120
Turnout: 70-80 people
walkout-10-15 people
Discussion- 20 people
The best part of today's discussion was that people were finally picking few of the terms we had been using- long take, montage etc. And since from our first discussion we had pressed people to look at film carefully as it will grow from director to director. So some of the comment from the audience were really interesting and good.
Like a lady who taught in a primary school told, " That from Ivan's Childhood to this film she can see a certain growth in style of Tarkvosky more long takes"
Second during the discussion we also talked about the color in the film and what people felt could be the different objective of its usage.
Than people had opinion on the central idea and context of the film. The discussion went on for over an hour, but we had to cut it short as it was getting late for the auditorium authorities.
And while we were collecting the feedback form and email address of people. A person from the crowd introduced himself as a Film Teacher( He was teaching cinema at one of the prestigious mass comm college in India). And he expressed his delight and was personally was happy to see such a discussion happening.
At the end, we were happy each day we gaining, learning something.
Now tomorrow, Nostalghia. Let's see what is in store for us.
What I love about Stalker is the absence of special FX. All the "paranormal" happens in the head of characters, and in the heads of the audience. It's a film that requires a lot of faith from the audience. The use of colour/B&W is also an interesting trick, very basic, very simple.
Nostalghia is a tough nut to crack, but there shouldn't be more walkouts than Stalker.
That is quite a story... But I bet there will be more walkouts for Nostalghia than Stalker (though the former is a good 30 minutes shorter and the better fo the two IMO). But people who do stay till the candle-walk sequence won't regret... truly a revelation.
Great to hear about such enthusiasm from people. Just goes to show that the audience is always ready, its the other end that has to change. Looks like you are organising in a splendid fashion (i mean the handouts and all)... Great going...
Keep us informed...